to speak to my boss about colleague abusing flexible working

[hatgirl]

argh... let me say first of all I am not a clock watcher, I work in a stressful job and people frequently work over their hours and there is a general agreement that a few minutes here or there or a slightly longer lunch occasionally is more than deserved pay back. We are a good, supportive team and there is pretty much no bad feeling other than the occasional niggle which is always resolved openly and professionally (yey for us!)

Essentially we are very much trusted by our manger who knows how hard we all work and various members of staff have different flexible working patterns in place which works well.

Myself and another colleague have recently started working 'compressed hours' essentially we work 10 days worth of hours over 9 days and have the 10th day off. For this to work we take shorter lunches, and work an extra bit at the start and end of each day... or at least I do, my colleague is working normal hours but still taking the 10th day off. At first I thought she didn't understand the system (I requested it first and she piggybacked her own request on the back of mine) so had a chat with her about it explaining the system again.

A few months down the line and she is still basically taking the piss. She is close to retirement and was recently refused voluntary redundancy - she is annoyed with the organisation and when I have reiterated to her the importance of us doing 10 days over 9 (again this is not done in a horrible way just in a general discussion way)she basically laughs at me and says that the organisation owes her after years of service (which is probably a fair point but doesn't change the fact that she is getting a paid day off every 2 weeks).

I'm now in two minds whether or not to now go to my manager as I am getting nowhere discussing with her directly, or if I should just wind my neck in and let her get on with it after all it doesn't exactly directly impact on me.

My boss will come down on her like a ton of bricks as him trusting us not to abuse flexible working is a big thing when he could be a complete arse about it if he wanted to be and he will be really disappointed that she is doing this. I actually really like my colleague and don't want her to get into trouble but a) her wages come out of public money

and

b) I am absolutely shattered doing the longer days (a lot of this is also because I have a longish commute - she lives 10 mins away from work) but value the day off in return and don't feel it fair she is getting the same benefit without putting in the work - also other colleagues not formally doing compressed hours are working the same hours if not more than her and are not getting a day off at all!

As much as I like her I just think her attitude on this issue stinks.

Would I be unreasonable in having a word with my boss and creating bad feeling in the team?

Or am I being petty and it is my bosses job to notice this and sort it out? Its literally as little as coming in 10 mins late, taking an extra 30 mins for lunch and leaving 10 mins early but it all adds up to the extra 50 minutes we work extra each day to get the 10th day off.

[Bogeyface]

Havent read the thread but my first instinct was "shop her the freeloading bitch!" and then I thought.....hang on.......if you do then the trust is gone and the next person who wants flexible working may not get it because of her.

If it was impacting on you and the rest of the team then I would say do it, dob her in, but it isnt. So actually I would be inclined to let it go with the manager but make it clear to her that you are pissed off with her taking the piss. The next person that requests flexible working may need it far more than her and may impact them more if it is turned down.

I think in this case, for the greater good, you should let it go. It would piss me off massively though.

[Bogeyface]

However....now I have read about the person who knew being disciplined alongside the pisstaker I have changed my mind. But I would try and make sure I dobbed her in in a way that didnt bugger it up for anyone else. Perhaps in a "I dont think she is coping with compressed hours" kind of way rather than "she is skiving and taking the piss"

[thefirstmrsrochester]

🔼🔼
As bogey says. Exactly.

[TheSkiingGardener]

I think you need to act like a responsible adult here. She is abusing her managers trust, putting you in a difficult position and risking the loss of the compressed hours privilege for both of you if she is found out. She has no regard for you or the rest of the team, given the way she is choosing to behave.

I would put this to her very bluntly, even more than you have done already, and tell her I wasn't prepared to collude with her in this anymore.

For those of you telling the OP to stay quiet, this is not the primary school playground, or a communist "them vs us" state. Adults in the workplace have a responsibility to those around them and the OP's workmate is abusing that.

[VestaCurry]

Stop helping her if she is useless at the basics on a computer. IMO that is where she is dumping on you and it should stop. You need to say 'no I am busy', 'no I don't have the time as I have to get my work done in a certain amount of hours'.
Stop carrying her. As for the rest, just ignore and if it happens to come up you didn't notice because you're so bloody busy (unlike her).

[MummytoKatie]

So she is supposed to do 10 mins at the start and end of the day and 30 mins less at lunch?

Doesn't everyone else notice the lunch thing?

Also I'm surprised people aren't noticing the 10 mins thing. If someone is due to start 10 mins before you then I would expect them to always be in the office when I arrived. If they started at the same time as me then I'd expect it to be roughly 50:50.

I work in an office that has completely flexible working but I'd say if I had to I could probably pull together a spreadsheet of who works when as I know who is there when I arrive at various times, who leaves before me and who sends me an email at 8:34pm to say that they've just finished XYZ and what do I think.

Not saying that you should or shouldn't whistleblower - just that I'm surprised it is only you who knows this.

[Chottie]

I don't think this is petty too. She maybe lovely, near retirement etc. etc. but the bottom line is that she is being paid for 10 days work, but only doing 9. That's approx. 2 days a month or 24 days a year.

I would not be happy either. I would be open with her too, she is obviously doing it as she can get away with it. Flexi working is very much built on trust. Fast forward and she will be retired and you maybe reaping the results of her slackness i.e. less flexible working in the future.

I don't understand all the comments about 'public money' either. That is money that is provided by us all from various taxes we pay.

[retrocutie]

She is jeopardising the arrangement for everybody. If she gets caught, they could scrap it. She is being very selfish, IMO. For that reason, I would have a quiet word with your manager and explain that she doesn't really seem to understand the arrangement, and perhaps needs it explaining to her.

[MortaIWombat]

It's fraud. It's taking the piss. It's not on.

Some of my staff work flexibly and if I found one of them was doing this I'd make damn sure it didn't continue. If that resulted in someone losing their job, so be it. I put a lot of emphasis on trusting my team and not checking up on their every move. This would seriously piss me off if it came to light and would probably result in other people's privileges being lost too. How can a manager trust a team who cover up something like this?

And no, you can't hold the manager solely responsible for the piss-taking; if you want to go down that road (as I notice a lot of MNers do - it's either the bosses fault, or the government's fault for every issue in their lives) then you have to accept being baby-sat rather than managed.

There's nothing like this sort of scenario to utterly demoralise a team.

To the poster who said to OP "don't mess up her life by going to a manager with this", that's about the most pathetic thing I've read in this thread. There's ONE person who would be responsible for messing up a life and it's not the fucking OP.

^
This.
What a fascinating insight into people's varying levels of professionalism this has been.

[TheArbiter]

Realistically, OP, I would keep schtum, as it may put paid to your own flexible working arrangement. Your colleague will be gone soon enough anyway.

[KhallDrogo]

Oh please......its lovelly that everyone has such loyalty to their employers. It's like Stockholm Syndrome. She think they owe her, and she is almost certainly right.

There is only one reason you want to tell, and that's because she is getting something you arent.

[KhallDrogo]

If you are going to do it, don't do it anonymously. She will know its you anyway

[Inertia]

Of course she is in the wrong. But it's possible that your flexi arrangement will also be cancelled if you make a complaint, so it's a tough call.

I think I would be inclined to tell her that you are only able to help her with IT stuff at the designated quiet times, because you don't want to get into trouble if management are tracking work patterns and you are doing that work in the time allocated to other tasks.

[LessMissAbs]

It sounds like she has lost interest in her job. It is your manager's job to be aware of such things, otherwise how does he manage?

I think id have to say something about it, as its demoralising to work with a shirked. But im not sure it will do you any good. I've been in public sector jobs where worse is tolerated, in one job (ironically a department set up to investigate fraudulent claims for public money), one employee who'd been there for years used to just not come in perhaps 10% of the time, but got neither marked off sick or had to take it as holiday. His manager knew, in fact he was a manager himself...

Anyway, it is your managers job to know, and to manage. Its such a basic duty of managing that saying he is too busy isn't good enough. The trouble is, it probably won't impact on you well. Your morality is being affected by poor management. This is how workplaces lose good members of staff...

[janey68]

She's obviously taking the piss as you have tried to raise this several times and she's just carrying on.

Why not approach your boss, and suggest that as the flexible working is a new system, you feel it would be useful to have a monitoring and review system implemented so that it's effectiveness can be measured. (I'm surprised this isn't standard procedure tbh- your manager sounds very slack). This way you aren't making it a personal issue about the other woman, you are simply asking for a system to be implemented for any flexible workers, which includes you. You can say that as it was you who specifically asked for FW first, it's important that anyone else in the workfforce can see how it works and know that it's a fair and transparent system.

The other thing i would do, given that the arrangment was made partly so you can provide tech support for this woman, is to arrange a set of specific times when you will run through stuff with her. Memo her suggesting 7am or whatever time she should start, or during one of the shortened lunch breaks, saying you will run through X Y Z with her. If she then fails to show up, you have clearer evidence of how the arrangment isn't working.

At the end of the day, if everyone in the workforce did what she's doing there would be uproar. She is basically reducing to a 9 day fortnight while remaining on full time pay and privileges. If she wants to work reduced hours she should be honest and ask for it- not pretend she's working full time hours still.

[Flisspaps]

YY to only offering your IT assistance at the agreed times - before and after the standard hours, and after the shortened lunch break.

Make it clear that you are unavailable to help at any other time. She had been given these hours to enable you to do this, and you don't have time to be stopping and starting all day to play at being Bill Gates.

You can mention that it is possible for your hours to be monitored via the log-in system. You don't need to say that it is actually happening. If she's not IT-savvy, she may not have realised that, but it may put the wind up her enough to get her in - and out - on time.

[maddening]

Well guys - there's a recession on - so if everyone slacks off and steals hours surely you are weakening your company in a time where businesses are failing - grow up - you get paid to do a job and if everyone took that attitude the company fails and hey presto you're all unemployed because some twat likes a free extra month off each year.

I like the idea of asking for a monitoring system.

I also think that your help should only be available during the agreed times.

[Gigondas]

I agree with awesome wellies and shellyboobs - say something. Us I would be direct as custardo suggests.

We had a situation like this with someone who was "working at home " a lot (except she clearly wasn't as it monitoring showed). She wasn't disciplined (mores the pity as had a long history of piss taking of one kind or another but boss was weak which is a side issue). But 1. She upset team morale with people picking up her work - one person left as direct result of working with her 2. Although didn't discipline her, boss was wary enough of flexible working to refuse next request to do it. Ok- this may have happened anyway but the pisstakers behaviour had got in the way of flexible working request for others. That has real consequences for those who appreciate it and need it to fit round family life Etc.

Yes maybe the op does have an element of being narked (she is human) but it does affect her and others indirectly.

[pingu2209]

This has nothing to do with you. Unless it directly impacts your job then I would leave it alone. Your lovely work place could be put out of balance by your conversation with your boss. Your colleague would know exactly where it has come from if he starts to watch her and other colleagues may not take the same view as you.

[Morloth]

If it is your problem, then it is your business.

If it is NOT your proble, then it isn't your business.

So if it is having an actual effect on your workload then you need to say something. If it just pisses you off then you should not.

If she isn't pulling her weight, surely it will start to show?

[ENormaSnob]

I would tell.

[TheFallenNinja]

You seem mean, what's really bothering you?

[hermioneweasley]

I am shocked at the people saying that the colleagues behaviour is ok, none of OP's business etc. I suddenly feel hugely lucky to have hard working colleagues and team - I didn't realise so many people have an 'us and them' mentality. And the suggestion that you would be messing up her life or pension when she is in total control of this?! I wonder what people would say if you found out she was stealing £100 a week from the organisation - would everyone still say it's none of your business?

And I think it is extra bad that she is wasting public funds.

OP I agree with the suggestions from others that you speak to her one last time about your concerns about how this might impact on you and other flexi workers, as well as not being fair on the team who have more workload to manage. If she says she's owed (not sure how she works that one out - presumably she has been paid a salary all these years!) state you disagree and you are going to raise it.

[Morloth]

Is she getting the work done?

As a manager that is pretty much my main concern. If the work is getting done, I don't mind if my people clock off early or wander in a bit late.

[biff23]

Don't want to go in to detail but we had similar in our workplace. We were pissed off but sucked it up basically because we didn't think management would do anything about it and we would be left looking like bitches. Sometimes it's just not worth the hassle. I know it's different in your case as your the one most affected, there were a few of us in the same boat.

Personally I'd keep quiet cos in most likelihood you'd end up the baddie.