to be pissed off with this work situation and how unfair it is?

[attilathenun]

Am probably bu but as i just got in from work am bit in the best mood!

I work in a small team. One is more junior, leaves bang on time every day due to a long commute and health 'issues' or makes a big fuss about it and ensures any extra time is got back.

There is one other person who is male. This is relevant.

He has little DC so insists on being home to do bedtime, comes in later because he needs to take them to school etc. Except he doesn't need to do it, he has a wife who could do it. He chooses to. Anyway, he gets to do this because he has a networked laptop and gets to say he's working from home. So when its sports day he wfh in morning,and goes to sports day in the pm. Same for nativity plays, carol concerts etc.

I don't have a laptop (well I do but its so old it's practically steam powered. And not networked). So I get no choice but to work at the office until 8pm. To stay late every time I'm in late, though not just then. I always have to account for my time.

The joke of it is I'm a lone parent. But I don't expect or ask for concessions, never have, but the rest of my team get them even though in my view they don't even need them. And all the fawning over male colleague for being such a great dad...my DC have never been anything other than an inconvenience to employers. Such bloody double standards!

Stop op with your colleague wife comments its making you sound bitter. You know nothing about her. She might be working till 8 pm and he does the evening runs. Its their family arrangements. Leave it. Sort out your hours etc. Others on here have offered excellent advice. (Kelp)

Why does anyone need a letter to leave on time? You start at 9, good practice to be a bit early so you are ready to start at 9. Then 5 comes, save your work or whatever, get your stuff and leave. You don't have to request to work your contracted hours.
If you are working more hours, going through breaks etc, then why?

I can understand a freeze of buying a laptop but the not hooking one up. That makes no sense. What is IT doing for their paychecks if not something so basic as this?? That task takes about 20 minutes if they leave to get a cuppa in the middle, and costs them no more than than his time, which they are presumably paying for.

I despair of the work culture we have in this country where 'leaving on time' is considered 'flexi-working' or laziness or a potentially sackable issue. I used to work for a company like that. I left. I suggest you do the same.

I had to stay til 8 to complete a 30 page report which I was asked to have ready for 9am tomorrow.

Colleague had a similar task, but was able to finish his at home.

If I didn't get the report done there would be a disciplinary as it is needed for a directors meeting tomorrow. I can leave at 5 but if there's work to be done by a deadline it has to be completed.

Colleagues laptop is a company one, he brought it with him from another area of the business. It was already networked. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Have you actually mentioned the working from nome possibility to your manager? Ok there is an IT freeze now but surely that won't be forever it's not practical. You could ask for this to be prioritised for you when the freeze is over.

Regards your colleagues, they are not doing anything wrong.

If you are going to discuss this, rather than Complain about 2 colleagues who aren't doing anything wrong, just out your own case forward.

Just mention that you find it difficult to do extra hours in the office, and would be more efficient working at home.

Your main issue is that you haven't got thr equipment, and it does sound like you are taking this out on colleagues who are not actually doing anything wrong at all.

Maybe you just need to be a bit more assertive, as clearly lesving on time and working flexibly are not harming your colleagues positions, so why would they harm yours?

If the work isn't done in normal time tough, leave on time and metion you would have no issue doing extra bits at home, if you had the equipment.

Why don't you put forward them supplying a team laptop for you all to share for times when you can't get in, need to work from home or have a project to finish off?

Might work, for the price of a laptop they would probably get their pounds of flesh worth.

I've been looking for another job for a while. I used to work independently in my current firm/role and rarely left late. Now I'm saddled in a team with one person who comes in at 9.30 most days and passes it off as wfh etc. And another who can't do a full days work for medical reasons.

Id just like some parity. I cant wield a Drs note to say I can't stay late ir be given too much work. I cant use the wfh excuse if I'm ever late, I have to specify when I'm making up my time. I cant just say at home.

The IT situation is as it is. There are directors who don't have working laptops, so if they can't get round the freeze, I can't imagine I can.

I had to stay til 8 to complete a 30 page report which I was asked to have ready for 9am tomorrow.

No, I'm sorry, but I can't get it all done before tomorrow morning. I could finish it at home this evening, but I don't have a networked laptop.

The problem is yours, not the fault of your colleagues.
Start working your set hours.

Some fabulously unsupportive posts here

OP I can imagine the pressure of being sole earner has backed you into a mindset of making yourself secure and indispensable. But maybe it's time to review that and start sewing the seeds of change.

I understand the IT issue as I have experienced it. The only answer is to discuss it informally and then raise it formally if you get nowhere. Explain how different your experiences are to a male colleague and how you would like to be treated the same.

No, I'm sorry, but I can't get it all done before tomorrow morning. I could finish it at home this evening, but I don't have a networked laptop

I completely agree with this.

It's not your colleagues fault though.

I don't get why your in danger if a disciplinary without working all the extra hours yet they do less and are not.

Are you picking up slack? In which case they can hardly disclipline you for not doing more work than one person can reasonably get through.

Ring ACAS if you feel in danger of unfair disciplinary attention and get some advice.

My laptop can be used by anyone- it doesn't belong to an individual although it is only me who uses it. . The whole point of network for me is I work from the network and not the machine. Can you drop the request to use it on one night a week (or more) as a solution?

Ignore him. He isnt the closest comparison to your situation, he has a networked laptop.

Focus on the other colleague, who is simply leaving, not working unpaid in, or out, of the office. Neither you nor she can wfh as neither of you have a networked laptop. Is she leaving work undone? Having to renegotiate deadlines? Missing them with no noticeable penalty? Then you can.

If the truth of the matter is that the workload has become unbalanced because you can be relied upon to carry the heavier load with unpaid hours, that needs to stop. Either she needs a more stressful day due to a heavier workload (and perhaps he does too) or you need a laptop to continue carrying the load you have been. Or, you need overtime pay.

If you have that many years experience, and are carrying the bulk of the work (can you actually research this?) then they are unlikely to sack you on a whim. There certainly is no one to do the work you have been doing if you go. A time of work going undone, and the hiring and training process, is more expensive than resolving the laptop issue. And that CAN be resolved if it must. They have an IT contract, and even if there are costs related to making use of it, has to happen from time to time, else why have the contract?

You should only get a laptop, if you use it to work flexibly.

Otherwise it might become a poisoned chalice of you being expected to work every evening.

Saying I cant do a report in the allotted time would be professional suicide.

I am in a relatively well paid role on a niche sector where well paid jobs are limited. My mortgage is 2/3 of my salary. So doing anything to in any way risk my job worries me. Because if I lost it, I'd struggle to get another. In a year of looking, I've found 1 job I could apply for. Everything else was not in my field or I was overqualified /the pay was too low.

Reading what came in while I was writing, it sounds like your company is a sinking ship. Cash flow sucks so much they cant supply the needed equipment, overlook employees working unpaid OT, negotiate contracts they cant afford to make use of (due to lack of clout or inability to buy a better contract) meaning paying the contract is money for nothing.

Re: unpaid overtime
i dont know about the UK, but in the US, allowing/requiring you to work working than 40 hours is against the law, unless you are salaried. And they can't just put you on salary to get round this, salaried positions must have certain levels of responsibility. So, in addition to the potential gender discrimination, you would have a case about that.

OP I feel for you. It sounds like you need some support there. I would go to hR be matter of fact and explain that you need your laptop networked as can't work late. I really can't see why they wouldn't help push that forward especially when others in your team have it. Don't escalate toa union, just be practical and matter of fact.

Those posters saying 'TELL YOUR BOSS yOULL ONLY DO CONTRACTED HOURS!!!!' may be very principled and perhaps a bit rigid but that's not how life is, is it? You've shown you're committed so now get some commitment back. You just need a bit of chutzpah to push it forward!

I don't think you've said, are you in a union?
If you are expected to make up and time you miss, are you also given TOIL time when you've worked till 8? What would someone who couldn't stay do - I couldn't as the childminder finishes at half five, so I would be gone by then. Nothing I could do.

William, I disagree that speaking to a union is escalating matters. The union would attempt to de-escalate matters, by trying to come to a solution.

Can you borrow the colleague's laptop? Ask for it when you know he hasn't got anything he needs to do at home, in front of people, when it would be odd for him to decline, maybe?

So does the colleague who has a doctor's note just not do any reports? Is it just you and this bloke? Is her job title very different to yours?

I know some advice has been harshly phrased, but the thing is, you are clearly very unhappy about this. You are looking for another job but there is not a lot of work around, I get that. But that means that your only choice is to address this or to accept that you are doomed to this forever, and you can't, for your own health and your child's, accept that option.

Momagain1 above is right - if you don't do this stuff, it will make life very hard for them - look at it that way round. No-one else in the team will be able to pick it up quickly, and even if they made moves to get rid of you they'd have to take their time with that, and wait till they could get a replacement. I can't see how they could sack you outright for not doing a report, you could be off to a tribunal like a shot for that. You are far more valuable to them than they realise. I would start working to your contracted hours and say you can't keep working like this unpaid every night and to continue to do even some of it you would need a networked laptop. And look for a union who cover your field that you can join.

To be honest, it sounds like this is more about the general office politics than just the WFH/virtual connection thing. I've been a manager and had people in this situation working for me. I do think women tend to deliver the news that they need to go early etc in a very different, apologetic, mummy way than men who are just very direct in a businesslike way with it and tell me without guilt.

This isn't easy, but you really need to let go of the anger. Truly, no one is out to discriminate against you here, and every time you stay late and act the martyr, it is probably harming your career in your behaviour more than it is helping in your good work. Doing extra is great, but only if you can do it with good grace as if you bloody well loved every minute. If that's not possible for you, you'd do better for your career to start improving telling your manager when deadlines aren't realistic within the time frame.

Now this is true office politics, but if you think something is going to start pushing you over your contracted hours, you need to start making that clear, almost hamming it up days or even weeks in advance to your manager, clearing the decks of any non important work etc to allow you to focus on that big project. That should let you get it done neatly within the time frame. And it will also give your manager good visibility of your work and how you pulled something big out of the bag.

Once you are standing up for yourself, making sure your critical work fits into your contracted hours, THEN the trick is to leave on time, and let everyone know you do this not because you have kids to get to, but because you are highly disciplined in all walks of life. Say you're going to the gym/meeting ex colleague for a catch up/charity committee (high flying man excuses). Back this up with being early to meetings and you just look like you are very efficient (which you probably are as a single mum!)

But if you do nothing else, drop the anger and resentment to other colleagues. To your boss, this will come across as nothing but telling tales. And the laptop situation sounds irresolvable. My laptop would definitely be having a little accident though if it was an age thing and an upgrade would solve the issue.

Good luck.

There is no union in my organisation so no, I'm not a member.

It's a very big, very successful private company.

There is no TOIL. My contract says I'm required to work the hours demanded by the business, which may exceed 9-5. Or may require me to travel to other offices, be away overnight etc.

Re workload, wfh colleague does same as me in total or more, but a lot of it fh. Other colleague is on restricted workload so cant be given more to do