To think my colleague is BU r.e. 'working from home'?

[TheOtherSideOfNo]

I really need some sort of perspective with this.

This past year my workplace has introduced very flexible working for my particular team. In that we can work remotely or from home or basically wherever there is an internet connection.

This means that sometimes a couple of colleagues will set of to a coffee shop to work or stay at home, indeed, it means some colleagues arrive around 10ish but will leave later etc. This move was not easily given to us, we had to state our case for this sort of arrangement and indeed it has proven to be very effective so much so that management are considering applying the same to another team.

Now my AIBU. In my team there are 5 of us. All the same level and grade and do similar things that are complementary to each other's work. One of the team will e-mail in the morning saying she's "working from home" this is fine but she's never there if you call her on her work phone or e-mail her in business hours. I don't expect a response to an e-mail immediately but she really is taking the piss. She hasn't updated accounts or done her role at all. We're all picking up the slack. She will respond to an e-mail very late in the day and considering our work is very deadline focused we can't afford to have her 'chillaxing' on the job.

As I said, I'm the same level as her so can't really pull her up on this and I don't want to go running to management as the snitch iyswim but she's jeopardising certain projects and targets.

I meant to say "If they feel that one of you isn't working they are likely to stop flexible home working altogether.

I think if you don't go to management and it goes on undetected for too long they will then decide that flexible working isn't working as it cant be monitored. If there is clear evidence that someone is or isn't working there is no reason to think the privilege will be stopped for everyone - but they need to manage her appropriately.

Of course there is reason to think that management will stop flexible working for everyone.

They may take the line that as you are upfront about a slacker that it is effectively self reporting... and let it continue.

Either way, suffering in silence can only backfire on you.

I think you have to raise it. It's going to come out sooner or later and if manager finds out by themselves then they're more likely to assume that all home workers are doing this.

Of course you could be like myself who raised this problem about my sort of dotted line boss to big boss as he never turned up to meetings, didn't appear to be logged in to his computer for much of the time etc. etc. I was told to talk to him about it myself - so I set up a session to do so because clearly me telling him that was going to have a hugely beneficial effect, which he then cancelled anyway due to some el crappo reason as per usual .

Hopefully your management will be more useful.

what about telling her directly "we're worried we'll lose our work at home arrangement because of you"?

she probably fears a return to office 9-5 much more. I work at home a lot, had this problem once - we oculdn't see where our missing colleague was but she never replied to emails or answered her phone without a 2 hour gap - and we told her. We had to cover for her a few times, so we told her. She stood to lose as much as we did.

mumofsnotbags that's a bit harsh, I mean you could have been in the toilet and missed a call.

OP I do think you need to say something, she wouldn't get away with it in the office so why should she get away with it at home?

Is it not tracked in some way? DH works from home once a week (sometimes more) and to work remotely with his work desktop he has to log in through various different portals to be able to access his station (finance though so maybe different set up). He has to start and stop a timer on each thing that he does and if he becomes inactive for more than five minutes the system shuts him out and requires he log back in, all of which is recorded.

this woman is committing fraud. she is getting paid her wages and then not doing the work. you know that she is taking the piss out of you and the rest of your colleagues. and, she is doing this because she can, because no one has stopped her.

you have the evidence, the screen shots. you have given her a warning - very reasonable in my opinion and more than is deserved.

this is only going to go one way. the teams work will falter and the team will be punished and fundamentally you know and everyone else on here will tell you that is not fair.

sorry but there is now only one way to deal with this. go in on Monday to your boss with the screen shots that show that she is not working from home but actually slacking. let them deal with it.

I think you and the rest of the team have been incredibly fair and tolerant but if you don't act you will all suffer the consequences in the long run. good luck OP.

When I work from home I usually work about 10-12 hours, with maybe a half an hour break all day. It is so much easier to get stuff done, and the fear of being found out lazing makes you stay glued to your laptop, rather than sauntering to the kitchen like you might do at work. So I certainly work more intensely and productively at home.

I have to trust my team that they are all wfh effectively. I have suspicions as to who is working well and who is semi-skiving, but I have no proof. You do have proof OP. Report report report. It's not on.

You need to raise this to your manager. We have had our work from home privileges suspended because some tit did something similar to your colleague. It is the biggest pain in the ass ever and now we are all suffering because of some twunt, so please do escalate OP.

We have a lot of wfh on our team and you can always get hold of them on their work phone (smart number diverted to mobile) or by email.

If she is not available and clearly not working then you need to say something. Can you put her on the spot during a team meeting about not meeting these deadlines or not being able to get hold of her?

Depending on your systems that you use it shouldn't be too hard for you manager to see who logs in when etc. They will also be able to access her emails so will be able to tell if she is sending and receiving emails within certain times etc.
I've just started working from home in a new job and hours can be flexible. It's worth it weight in gold to me and when I had to pick ds1 up from school poorly the other week I could carry on working while he laid on the sofa (tummy where he ha his operation hurting so didn't need any attention other than a drink etc, might be different if throwing up every 2 minutes) but I was able to get on with work and so didn't either have to call in sick to work or take holiday or find someone to do childcare. This is why o won't take the piss, of course there will be times I will take a personal call or browse the Internet for 5 minutes or chick a load of washing in machine etc but at the end of the day working from home is for my benefit so I need to make it work and do my job well in order not to lose the privelidge.

Should I offer up the screenshots to management? It was said upthread that this could work against me. Not sure how but I don't want to put myself on the firing line if so.

I honestly have no idea what she is doing in working hours but she certainly isn't working!

Hmmm well lets think about that for a moment shall we? What would you be doing in December if you weren't working? Christmas shopping, meeting a mate for a boozy lunch, going to the gym, getting your hair and nails done, going to your child's nativity (afternoon performance for SAHPs) ... anything I've missed?

OP not only is this 'colleague' of yours not doing her job, but she's making you and all your other colleagues complicit in her deception of your company. She's not doing the work she's being paid for - you're all doing it and covering for her! Come on, grow a spine the lot of you. How long do you plan on continuing with this charade? Tell your line manager - preferably all of you together - or at least one of you with the explicit blessing of the entire team. She's making complete mugs out of the lot of you AND she's being paid for it.

BrieAndChilli True. But this will only become a case if I raise it higher up. Then indeed all of us will be scrutinised. I don't mind this as I have nothing to hide but I fear that this will then give management a reason to scrap this super flexibility. My team are mostly women who do drop school offs or stay at home with dcs so I don't want to drop them in the shit just because I reported one slacker. Once the ball is set in motion I can't tell what the consequences will be.

Is she actually doing another job where she goes to an office elsewhere for another employer and hence collecting two wages? Seems odd she is out literally all day every day.

The other thing is that she may be off sick but you don't know. Is that possible?

juneau Certainly she's got it quite good! All of us running around after her like headless chickens doing her bit just to meet a deadline. Off the record we have spoken about it and we all think the same. We're just worried about rocking the boat because like I just said in my other post once we've raised this officially we don't know how it will play out.

FreeWorker1 She's not off sick.We'd have been informed if that was the case. I can't say whether or not she does have another employer. I'd like to think not as our job is pretty demanding and very full time but of course I don't know her personal circumstances. What I do know is that she's not pulling her weight at all and has even given up pretending like she is.

We all work from home and use instant messenger to stay in contact with each other, can you ask her to do the same?

Someone needs to really take her aside and tell her that her behaviour is being noticed by her peers.

Speak to higher ups, as you do reiterate the business case for working from home explain that your department are self policing. Provide proof of unanswered calls etc.

Good luck.

No, you don't know how it will play out, but I think you should be prepared that this woman's abuse of the work-from-home privilege might lead to it being withdrawn from everyone. However, that's not your fault (even if you are the one reporting it), its her fault for abusing the situation. The longer you let this ride the worse it will be. Your loyalty is to the company that pays your salary, not a colleague who is seeking to take advantage of it. If you cover for her you're, in effect, taking her side in this. You're supporting her abuse of the company. If I was your manager I would take an extremely dim view of that indeed. Remember who pays your salary and act accordingly.

We have the flexibility to WFH, and when I joined my current firm I realised that my team were self-policing. They were quite open with new colleagues - anyone jeopardising the WFH policy would be grassed-up to management pronto. Also, the systems we had such as instant messaging were expected to be active and people to be on-line. If someone had an appointment or wanted to go play a game of tennis at lunch-time, no worries, just let us know. The team work some odd hours, so I don't have a problem with people taking time out for the gym etc, but no piss-takers.

I would escalate this - your colleague has already been given the chance to sort herself out. You can't wait for her to really cock-up or one of your projects to fall over because you are essentially short one person's work.

Report, and then provide the screenshots later if requested by management.

I work from home about 40-50% of my working week.

Whilst it's undoubtedly more flexible, I always respond promptly to emails and answer phone calls, regardless of what I'm doing.

It's a difficult situation. I have colleagues that use home working as an excuse to skive or look after pre school children. But if I complained (& I don't as I don't care), it would impact on us all.

I wfh 3 days a week and wouldn't dream of not being fully available online, phone etc. I probably work longer days and more effectively than driving an hour to the office every day.
Your colleague is taking the piss, report her.