The working world has become ridiculous

[Rothschild]

Recently a manager at my company attended an online meeting in tears because of a minor issue regarding her child's school. She excused herself from the meeting and took a mental health day.

I can barely get hold of anyone at 3pm in my (large) organisation because everyone is doing school pick up. I don't believe they're getting much work done once they've picked up because they become hard to contact, don't respond to messages and won't attend meetings, despite it being their normal working hours.

It's ridiculous. When our children were small we paid for wrap around childcare or for someone to collect. We were available to work between 3 and 4pm and afterwards.

I'm not talking about anyone who has negotiated flexibility or finishes at 3pm, I'm talking about others who are, frankly, taking the piss.

And if I had taken a mental health day every time I'd had some difficulty in my life I'd have hardly worked.

I find some of these apocryphal stories just that. Are there so many big organisations where people are idle slackers who don't do their job?

Every organisation I've ever worked for over 40+ years has always had metrics or some variety of expectation that work be completed by a given date. Its academic where people are physically, as they're capable of skiving whether it's at home and walking the dog or hanging out at desks in the office.

OP needs to realise that most people work to live not the other way round.

NHS

You have my sympathies never happen in my day. I am appalled at the lack of responsibility these days. Can you not have a meeting with the boss, I am and never would be a snitch but its putting the onus on you. Have heard this complaint so many times. Good luck

The job is not for her she needs to find another job that won't challenge her or her resilience. I wonder how most people get their jobs. The productivity is shocking and they don't last long.

Think it’s a bit hypocritical to be complaining about people not doing much work in the afternoons when you’re posting on mumsnet at 4pm on a Thursday.

As a female CEO of a charity, I find some of the responses on here disheartening. Women have worked very hard to be recognised for their contribution in the workplace. We require fair, flexible working policies to enable us to work, around also having a family in the same way that fathers also need that support. There should be no difference at all. This should be formally built into our contracts and if necessary flexibility to accommodate out needs should be made, if they can. But, equally, we cannot expect to be given unfair working practices compared to others, we cannot expect to be paid if we are not working, we cannot just clock off early. And, in doing so, you are negatively impacting the profitability and productivity of your company and you are letting your colleagues down. Op, this is without doubt a management failure and is unfair to those employees not taking the piss. It needs to be reported to a senior level.

I agree with you. This de-prioritisation of dedication to work has got completely out of hand and must be impacting GDP very negatively. Forty years ago everyone in my workplace went in every day with the intention of being excellent. Nowadays people openly doss around, prioritise mental health, don't think they need to honour the hours they signed up to, pass the buck, wriggle out of taking decisions for fear of being found out that they are lacking. How can the country recover from Covid with a workforce like that?

I don't disagree. I'll do all that is in my hand as you did.
I have mine in early breakfast so I can start an hour early. I don't have any family/friends to rely on but she is in any wraparound available and when there is none I use the hour I've already done early to pick her. I'm bless I can do it, I can't drop hours at work as single mother, I wish I could. I count the days and weeks until she is in junior school, they have wraparound Mon to Fri.
There is not even childminders, I've even though about an au pair but I have two bedrooms house.
Some people take the piss, correct. Some not.

Totally agree. Covid exacerbated workplace absenteeism and combined with weak or scared managers with no inclination to take action (unless their job is at threat) then you have yourself a problem nobody publicly wants to talk about or do anything about. But because of AI, times are changing as we head into uncharted waters and the slackers may find they’ll be first in line for redundancies. Hold on tight, folks.

Can I agree with you in general on people using MH as an excuse a lot? But disagree with you on 3 pm issues- provided they've negotiated the flexibility with the employer.

You’re not wrong OP and as you say borne out by all the skivers popping up on this thread to make up excuses for the piss taking.

My recent favourite is “rejection sensitivity” no one likes getting a telling off but these people need a boot up the arse and a serious dose of grow the fuck up.

He doesn't do gaming or go on social media much. He's on teams meeting most of the day with clients. Working hard. Like I said.

How do you know she is supposed to be at work on a Thursday? Many people work weekends and have weekdays free. Or work nights, or work 6am-2pm etc.

The "gotcha" falls rather flat.

But common conditions such as depression, anxiety, etc. are things that don't preclude having to earn a living. Continuing to accept a full paycheque while constantly away from work due to personal/MH matters is just not acceptable.

Only read OP's posts.

Sounds like you work for a shit company if staff are getting away with not meeting the requirements of their contract.

I have never experienced this myself. I have worked remotely for 14 years. International workforce so flexibility was allowed and expected.

I had my years of paying for childcare, many of those as a lone parent.

I don’t challenge anyone’s mental health, but I can action how it affects their ability to work and the wider business.

I would never “challenge” someone on whether their depression meant they needed extended period of absence, that’s up to them - not my brain. But I would consider if their absence meant they were unsuitable for the work place.

I’ve got a team member at the moment who has horrendous health anxiety with her children. I haven’t asked her to fix that, change that, do anything - but I have told her that her attendance needs to improve, and asked what we and her need to do to enable that to happen.

My job isn’t to tell her that her anxiety is nonsense. It’s to tell her how it does affect work, and whether that needs improvement or not. I’m paid to be impartial on matters that aren’t my place. Like other peoples minds.

She's still available if a colleague calls her.

People are entitled to a lunch break. I take mine at 2:45 to do school pick up, but I start early so by then I've done my contracted hours for the day anyway. And my kids are old enough to amuse themselves at home so I do another hour at last after I get back. I have meetings from 3:30 onwards though, so I'm not unavailable from pick up onwards if there's an emergency that cant wait til 9am the next day. If it's a genuine problem then raise it with evidence of how it's caused you an issue.

I have a Mr. Stakhanov on the phone

Rejection sensitivity disorder is a real disorder and usually caused by being parented badly. It's common in people with NDs.

I agree with you. This is getting ridiculous, I was in the office today, and a colleague said that she'll be working through the lunch break because she wanted to go home earlier. Fair enough. Only she spent the lunch break chatting to another colleague about her kid's piano lessons, and then left (very quietly) right after. Hasn't responded to any messages since. But HR won't do anything, they're too scared that we'll get sued. She also can't hold meetings before 9 am because she has a "focus time" slot in her calendar. Every day, she needs an hour to "organise herself and get into the right mindset"... This is so ridiculous I could cry. Of course, she will be the first the make a huge scene when she's denied promotion.

Luckily, people like her are the exception. I think that now, as the job market is turning, they will be forced to stop taking the piss. A few years ago we all had to literally fight off recruiters, now it seems like no one is hiring. So they'll have to learn and adapt.

Are you for real? So i shouldnt take a job just because i have no other care for my children on christmas day and boxing day? There would not be a single setting doing childcare on those two days. I have no family. So you would expect my children to go to one of their friends houses on christmas day and boxing day??? Wow.

My husband works from home 2 days a week and juggles the school run and looking after the kids when they get home with working. We’re lucky his manager is understanding but he also works late these days to catch up when I get home from work. Wrap around care isn’t an option for us. I think many workplaces have adapted well to WFH but I agree that many people take the piss.

Did you read my post? It doesn't say anywhere that I think that you need meetings to be productive.

What I said was: you should be able to have meetings on Fridays. It's a normal working day for most of the population. And some people work part-time and have other days off so they need to be able to talk to people on Fridays if they are working too.

If there are too many meetings you address that, you don't ban meetings on one day a week.

A lot of MNers think that when you have kids you need guaranteed emergency care for the 18 years of their lives. Never mind that your parents might have died in that time, or you don't have siblings, or you're not in a position to make lots of friends because of the job you do or the place you live or a multitude of other reasons.