To pull a sicky to go to an interview for a better job...

[falulahthecat]

That's it, really.
I 'job share' with a girl, who does NO work (seriously, in 2 weeks she has answered 6 emails, I stopped counting after 150 of mine, basically she's not very good with pcs and didn't realise there was a sent folder!) and when I brought it up the manager said she understood why I'd not been able to do any of the other stuff I'm supposed to dop now (she'd thought I was taking all day to answer 5 emails) but then made excuses for this girl, saying she'd been 'busy' counting car park money. Well, that means she took 2 days to count £3,000. The other week I did £2,600 in 2 hours.
I know she can't help but work at a different speed, but she also gets paid more than me, and keeps assuming I've made mistakes because "I'm new" the 'rectifying' them, then it turns out there never was a mistake, she's fucked it all up and then calls it a 'miscommunication' between us. Err... right.
If it was just her I could probably sort it out, but I also have to work Bank holidays on 20p above minimum wage (they do love to harp on about the 20p) and the way they do holiday means if you take a week off you basically get NO pay at the end of the month.

Anyways, I've been asked to go in for an interview during the week on a day I work. I know she won't swap the day with me because the last time she said she'd look at her rota when she got home, ignored 3 emails from me then when we next worked together in the other side of our job acted like it'd never happened. What's weirder is we seem to get on but when I know she's being so two faced it's very difficult to be rational, especially when she keeps saying MY desk, MY folder, MY phone, she can't see me as an 'ally' and it's really frustrating. The manager, even knowing what she's been doing, hasn't said a word because we're a 'small team' and she doesn't want to rock the boat, which is fair enough but doesn't justify me doing 5 times as much work for less pay and being stressed by being accused of making mistake I haven't, on what is actually a very mundane, easy job.

So, can I pull a sicky to go to this interview if she won't swap the day and the new place, a great job with a charity, can't change the interview day?
I don't want to miss out :/

Sorry for the long ranty post!

I work for the Nhs and we are allowed paid time off for interviews and tick a box to say whether it's ok for referees to be contacted prior to any job offer

Op, this is crap and you need to find a better job by hook or by crook

I have never gone to an interview without telling my current employers first.

However I've usually worked in the kind of roles where a) it's considered discourteous to do otherwise and b) where references are taken up prior to interview.

I don't think the latter applies to the OP and in her position I doubt I'd worry too much about the former. What would worry me is the likelihood of getting caught and a job offer being withdrawn which could well happen.

Just saw you were on a zero hours contract; I thought overpaying to include holiday pay was now illegal where zero hours are concerned. In my contract, we accrue time off at the rate of 12.5 % of hours worked and the amount we get paid is based on a daily rate based on the average over the previous 8 weeks. If you aren't getting paid the equivalent of 5.6 weeks per annum, they are breaking the law.

With regard to the hours you work, I'm on zero hours, and afaik, zero hours means your employer doesn't have to offer you work, but equally you don't have to accept work if you don't want it. So, you can just tell them that you aren't available to work that day and there is sod all they can do about it (apart from make your life difficult by not giving you any hours the next week like my employer has allegedly done, but not to me).

The govt should just make zero hours illegal; employers are taking the piss and taking advantage, and it was on the news earlier that from 2017 it will no longer be the right of someone on JSA to refuse a zero hours contract based on childcare difficulties or any other valid reason; after then if you refuse a job with zero hours contract, your JSA will be stopped. Bastards

So an update....
Another girl cancelled on them for the Friday date (today) which I wasn't working so I went in... went on a walk with my mum (no signal in the woods) and when I got home I get two messages saying they've called me - check my email and I've been offered the job despite them having another interview date next Weds!
Never thought I'd here back so quick, thought I'd have some breathing space to see if crap girl carried on being crap, but now I have to decide this weekend, soooo stressed!
Had a really nice chat with my manager yesterday though and I really do like her and the property manager, also crap girl called in sick today and I know I'm leaving them with someone who can't do the job, but I have to be selfish right? :/

LackaDAISYcal
I can't believe that, I thought they were going the other way and banning 0 hours, now it seems like it's just getting worse :/

Well done! Yes, take the job! They have no right to expect loyalty in your situation.

TAKE THE JOB!!!

Crap Jobshare Girl will only continue to drag you down.

The job they are offering you is paid, right? The hours are as good as, or more flexible than your current job? It isn't something where they employ a few people on a probationary rate and then just keep one as permanent? Have you received a written contract and checked it all over?

I was going to say take annual leave and yabu to pull a sicky. Hmmmm I think it's your only choice. Can you ask the interview company first if they cando a different day?

Long term it sounds like it would be very difficult to continue jobsharing with someone who doesn't pull their weight.
I guess all you can do is weigh up the new job, how it compares, salary, hours, annual leave, location, flexibility, etc with the existing job.

All the best with your decision.

Well done, and take the job!

Please, please, please take the job OP! I job shared once in a lovely organisation with lovely people but my job share partner was a complete nightmare of the laziest, most useless type. It got me down so much that I had to leave a year before our funding ran out. I felt bad about letting down the organisation but she was making me ill so I had no real regrets. Good luck!

Congratulations. Feel no guilt at all. A manager's job includes (surprise, surprise) managing their staff. They haven't been doing their their job.

I know I'm leaving them with someone who can't do the job, but I have to be selfish right?

Nothing remotely selfish about it. It's their responsibility to employ staff who can do the job, and to train them if they can't, or move them to a job they can actually do. You've been selflessly picking up the slack all the time you've been working with this crap girl. You saying it's your fault is the work equivalent of being gas lighted. Take the job and let your managers do theirs for once by sorting out this crap waste of space.

Congratulations

OP why are you wavering? Any reason other than feeling you're leaving them with someone incapable? All you have to do is think why you applied for another job. Unless you have misgivings about the new job, then go for it. Good luck.