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.

I've only skim read all the replies to this thread, but am shocked at how many people think this is none of your business.

Being the coward I am and valuing a harmonious working environment I would probably quietly mention that a few questions have been asked about what hours she has been doing, so probably worth her toeing the line. Hopefully she'll start doing her contracted hours and no one else needs to be aware!

She could remain in her job for TEN YEARS! Why does everyone think she's on the verge of retirement when she's 55? It's no excuse to slack off because 'you're owed it' - if she felt she was overworked she should have flagged it at the time and dealt with it accordingly.
Wrt your situation,OP, I'd tell her that I'm not going to help her with IT in core hours any more and I'd have a quiet word with my mgr to suggest that he/she makes themselves visible in person or on email at the times that your colleague is disappearing. Your mgr can't take your word for it and needs to monitor the situation before dealing with it anyway.
I'm flabbergasted at all the posters who think this woman deserves extra holiday for no apparent reason!!

I also can't believe some of these responses! Abuse of flexi time is fraud and that us made clear in public sector contracts.
I would tell her that you are both bring monitored and that she should do the proper hours. Hopefully then she will stop abusing the system.

I some times can't believe the responses you get from MN sometimes. If we all did this then the public sector would meltdown.

Actually, not only does this impact on you, you are actually enabling her:

"One of the reasons we are allowed to do the same hours was so that we we would have some peace and quiet for me to go through things with her without distraction and help her get things organised - because that isn't happening she is taking up a lot of my time at other parts of the day instead. I don't mind helping her and she is always lovely to me and grateful for the help."

And you also say how poor her IT skills are (how hard can it be to create a new folder?!) and you are spending a lot of time helping and covering this problem up

When she asks for help next, you need to tell her that you can't help her because you are doing your own work. You don't need to point out that she is supposed to be coming in early/staying late for you to help her, simply say "I can't do it now, but how about we do this at 5.30 tonight/8.30 tomorrow, when I will be free?"

Then it's up to her. She can either get on with her job and reveal that she doesn't have the skills everyone else seems to think she has, or she can stay late/come in early to learn it from you.

And keep on doing this.

No need to be unpleasant. No need to report her or get her into trouble.

Just deal with her professionally and stop enabling this behaviour.

Tell her that you had heard that HR are building a case against someone for abusing the flexitime system and that you are worried and scrupulously recording your time as the management would like to get rid of headcount without having to pay out for redundancies and early retirement due to budget cuts. It is very possibly true in fact.

She could remain in her job for TEN YEARS!
This.
She is taking the piss. Do you want to keep carrying her for this long? She is using you. I agree with others' suggestions re helping her out in the quiet times - after all, you say this was part of the original plan (is this in writing anywhere?)
I would be massively hacked off in your position and would want to do something to try to sort it out although I appreciate that going to the management might have repercussions re your own flexi arrangement or staff morale etc. Youve got to do something though otherwise you are just going to seethe...TEN YEARS remember!?

And what BIWI said.
If she really needs help EVERY TIME to save work or create a folder and you really can't leave her to it, then write a how-to guide and give her it. Then refer her to it when she asks for that help AGAIN.

As a manager, I currently have one direct report on a warning for abuse of flexi time. Carding in and out times are being monitored on a monthly basis.

Perviously a collegue has been put on fixed hrs for abuse of flexi, and one shift worker has been dismissed for sleeping through half a night shift regularly.

It would be taken seriously here. Not sure how I'd respond to someone telling me directly what was going on - but then I knew the reputation of warning worker from office gossip, before they reported to me....

I am a manager. This would be my reaction:

I would be pissed at you for bringing this up, because it would mean I have to act on it, when I don't have time. You mentioned it has no impact on customer service or any output metrics, so essentially it is just a petty complaint. It also would reflect badly on me as a manager for not having noticed, and I would not like you for that.

Finally, nobody likes a snitch. This is not an Enron or price rigging situation. So let's not pretend that you would be doing anything useful. i would not like or trust you after this...

OP, you wrote there is no monitoring/ clocking in system

You do realise that the computer usage is logged,as is the email system. A pattern will be obvious from looking at the logs.

YANBU and thank god there have been some sensible replies to this since last night.

And I for one am unhappy that public money is funding her 24 extra days off! This sort of shit is why councils etc haemorrhage money.

I totally understand how frustrating this is for you OP. Cant believe people are saying its none of your business and you are being petty. Why should you be working your arse off when she just continues as she was and still reaps the benefits?

I used to work (in local government) with a guy just like this. He would blatantly lie on his flexi time sheet and then take the flexi days, did absolutely fuck all work, was always out 'on site', used to spend all his days on the internet and would make me do loads of his work (I was quite young and naive at the time). I didnt get any flexi time because I was just a temp. It was extra annoying because actually he was a very likeable guy and we got on really well, he was just sooooo frustrating!

His behaviour was widely known, but everytime someone (including the woefully weak management) brought it up, he would starting making loud noises about the fact that he was Asian and bringing up words like 'discrimination' and things would quieten down again.

However, he got his comeuppance in the end - not long after I left I heard that he was moved into another section of the department and quite swiftly got suspended and then sacked for gross misuse of the internet and his work phone!

Thank fuck I work for myself these days.

What BIWI said.

I'd be surprised if others hadn't noticed and weren't quietly seething about it.

Can I just reiterate for those who think you should mind your own business that SHE IS GETTING PAID FOR HOURS SHE'S NOT WORKING OUT OF PUBLIC FUNDS! Ahem! This is what gives us in the public sector a bad name and it pisses me off!

What also pisses me off is that my organisation (public sector) no longer accepts requests for condensed hours and has come down like a sledgehammer on flexible working because of a few abusers of the system. This means people who stuck to the rules have bern penalised and those that have to work extra hours at times to provide public services often lose hours.

We have lots of near retirement people who were turned down for VR - they don't act like this!

Apart from that its fraud.

I would try BIWI's approach and if that doesn't work have a quiet word with your manager.

Flatbread, and that in a nutshell is why the management in the public sector is so, so shite.

I seriously hope flatbread doesn't work in the public sector..

Can't believe some of the comments here - you sound 12 years old with all this "you're mean", "dibber dobber" stuff

I manage about 350 people (across multiple countries) - I have no idea if staff are clocking in on time. If someone was taking the piss & another staff member let me know, I'd have a quiet word to the piss-taker - not launch some kind of formal process. And, unless you have a particularly incompetent boss, I'd think most managers would do the same.

Incidentally, how long has your de facto IT trainer role been going on? It's a really bad use of your time. If this woman is really that hopeless (and they want to keep her) then your organisation should be sending her on some sort of formal training. I'd never put a staff member of mine in that kind of position long term - that strikes me as the most "unfair" part of this arrangement.

She think they owe her, and she is almost certainly right.

Cognitive Dissonance - the feeling of discomfort associated with holding two conflicting cognitions - 'I am a decent, honest, hard working person' but 'I am ripping my employers off by having every 10th day off despite not working the additional hours to accommodate it.' Therefore in order to reduce the negative feelings this creates in me = "well I've worked loads of overtime throughout the years, they owe me." She then convinces herself that this is right, she is owed this time which justifies in herself what she knows is wrong.

Your colleague is taking the piss! If it was a one off where she hadn't quite worked enough hours over the fortnight because something had cropped up in her personal life then I would certainly say let it go but she is consistently and deliberately abusing the flexible working scheme and in effect having an extra 26 days holiday a year. Why shouldn't the OP be seriously annoyed at this colleague for getting every 10th day off for nothing when she, the OP, is having to work additional hours to achieve that.

Those of you saying that it is none of the OP's business, most crimes which are committed, in which you are not the victim, are none of our business but I bet you would still report a person who had committed a burglary or assaulted someone even though it hasn't affected us, or anyone we care about, directly.

this type of situation is exactly why I will never agree to compressed hours arrangements. Even where people are scrupulous about their time and not abusing the system there is enormous potential for resentment - because in any organisation where overtime is unpaid people with compressed hours do have an advantage as they, in practice, and in my experience, do not necessarily work longer hours when everyone is working more than contractual hours.

If I were the manager and this was reported to me I would stop allowing it. That might not affect the OP or her colleague since they might by now have the contractual right to their new working hours - depending on the exact detail of the arrangements made. But I wouldn't allow any more compressed hours arrangements. So whilst I have every sympathy with the OP, and share her views on the unfairness of it all, her own best interests both directly for her own work pattern and with other colleagues who might want flexible working, would be to keep quiet unless she can find a way to raise it as a legitimate problem for her. So the suggestion to withdraw IT support outside the designated quiet times is an excellent one - that might highlight the issue without being a direct complaint about the hours and reduce the risk of the flexible working arrangement being seen as the cause of the problem.

If you have noticed this I am sure your manager has too. Perhaps they think it's not worth raising due to her circumstances and forthcoming retirement. YANBU to be irked but I think you would be totally unreasonable to raise it. For me loyalty to someone I like would outweigh a petty annoyance.

Wow Flatbread fantastic management strategy you use there

I am amazed that hatgirl is being told by some she's being petty It wouldn't half irk me too. Saying it's ok is like saying you wouldn't mind somone paying less for their shopping than you have to when you stand behind them in the supermarket.

I would say more to the colleague and I'd be quite blunt about it. But I know I'd stop short of shopping her to the manager. She deserves it but I couldn't do it.

She is systematically and quite deliberately defrauding your employer.

If everyone decided to do this, simply because she is doing it and getting away with it, presumably it would impact massively on the company's efficiency.

On a personal level, I would be extremely concerned about losing my manager's trust as, if she gets caught out, it will be completely obvious that you must have known what was going on and chosen to say nothing. At the very least, your standing in the company might slip a little, and at worst, the scheme may be scrapped for both of you as the manager may lose faith in its workability.

I would be inclined to speak to her one more time about two key issues:

1. She is taking up your core work-time by not being available, as agreed, for the IT assistance during the "extra" time.

2. She is putting you at risk of being found complicit in her misconduct and of losing your flexible working.

I would be clear that neither of these things are acceptable, and ask her if she intends to stop what she is doing or if you are going to have to speak to the manager about better monitoring of the working hours.

The firm may already have picked up on this through computer activity and may well be building a case against her and/or re-considering the arrangement. You need to put yourself before this dishonest woman.