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.

She knows that we'll all pick up the slack

Glad to hear the WFH is working well for most, but the above is exactly the point, isn't it? As long as everyone else covers she's now assumed she can do as she likes, and while the excuses will no doubt be many and inventive, she's very unlikely to change unless forced

I agree with others that you've really got no option but to raise this at a higher level; the alternative may well be that you all lose the concession. She'll probably whine, but surely that's hardly your problem?

What were the conditions around WFH ?

I WFH by default - going into (whichever) office as needs be. For my team (we're a looser collective) the rules are centred around being available for conference calls or calls with external parties. And (obviously) putting the hours a week in. None of us are operational in any sense, so no one would try to contact us with an issue needing immediate attention (we're a big enough outfit to be able to have 24/7 support where needed).

So within that, we are "allowed" (that is "able to") schedule work around other events. In my case, despite taking MrsLH to medical apps (plus my own) and occasionally popping out during the week, I have lost far fewer hours than if I had been asking for time off (unpaid) from an office. Plus I'm at work 8:00 most mornings (really at work, having had a coffee, checked news etc).

It seems somewhat odd to allow homeworking and then insist it shadows office hours all the time.

When I started permanent homeworking (5 years ago) I had a colleague who simply didn't get it. Despite my not having any operational duties, he would log every time I was "away" on our instant messenger tool, and grumble if a call went to voicemail. Eventually a director (himself a homeworker) had to explain that as long as the work was done, it was immaterial if I did it at midnight, or midday.

The flipside is I probably overwork. Also, I never treat travelling time as "work time". Given I have spent 10 hours on the road this week (busy week) it's quite a chunk. But my employer is very fair with me, so I like to be able to demonstrate a reciprocity.

In our case, the driver behind homeworking (I have 60+ colleagues, all of which homework) is the ability to hire the best brains - irrespective of geography (sticks tongue out at the South East). Also the sheer cost of physically locating employees. If all my companies homeworkers were told they were being office based, we'd need a few million quid to make it happen - all our current locations are at capacity, and that's that. If nothing else, the internal plumbing would need upgrading to handle the toilet needs of X hundred more people.

Surely your manager can also see she's off-line all day? What if anything is your manager doing to ensure that you are all working effectively?

On the occasions that I have had a colleague who has made my work more difficult by being useless or lazy, then I simply start tactically cc-ing (or very occasionally bc-ing) emails to people further up the food chain. I currently have some US colleagues in another business unit who are useless at replying to emails (or claim spurious confidentiality issues to avoid responding), so now my correspondence with them gets copied to my boss, who as it happens used to be a manager in their business unit ;)

Once we've raised this officially we don't know how it will play out

I take your point, but it's a question of balancing probabilities, isn't it? If you report there's a possibility management may end the arrangement for all, but if you don't and they consider you all implicit in her behaviour, my own experience suggests it could well be a certainty

so how come your management don't know? Is your manager also sitting flicking hair? Not a matter of monitoring, does the manager have no team interaction? (In which case what are they for?)

stop covering for the space-waster. The idea of 'the snitch' is playground thinking, although MN doesn't see it that way. I see that you are doing two people's work for one salary. Happy with that?

I'm really surprised at the number of people who think telling the management is a good idea. I would say that should be the last resort, after all attempts to make the colleague pull her weight have failed. I think that it is quite likely that the management will stop the flexible working if they think it is being abused by anyone because that will be the easiest way for them to solve the problem.

If you started to copy in your manager to emails containing a timely response, and to a prompt for a reply when it's not been forthcoming- would that make them buck up their ideas?

Surely if anyone's right to work from home is revoked it would just be hers. Hugely stupid and unfair to punish all for the actions of one

Surely if anyone's right to work from home is revoked it would just be hers. Hugely stupid and unfair to punish all for the actions of one

In my experience that is what happens though. Unless there are good business reasons for the homeworking the management will probably just decide that it doesn't work.

I have the flexibility to wfh as much ad I want, and at the moment that flexibility is going to other way as I have a load of work that requires access to internal systems, so am in every day I can. But I only focus on what I do, nt colleagues . I suppose the issue is how much work inter relates, plus seniority.

I wfh by default - have been into the office once this year plus some client visits, and my boss visiting me half a dozen times.

We manage our extremely convenient arrangement by diligently recording our time (law firm) so you can see there was half an hour on such and such and six minutes on that.

DH used to have some home workers, a legacy from closing a branch office where at risk employees could choose between wfh, relocation or redundancy. Over a period he got suspicious about one of them, which came to a head when he was asked to go to an internal meeting at short notice, at a location around fifty miles from his house, expenses paid. He refused even though it was a contractual obligation.

It turned out that he hadn't been wfh for some time. He had been living overseas instead ...

I think you should keep your cards close to your chest regarding your suspicions, and only act on or report what actually affects you, eg the times you couldn't contact her or she didn't complete her workload and it ended up on your desk.

Could you perhaps raise management awareness of the issue by asking them if she's off sick /been off sick for a while?

At least then the manager may ask her if everything is okay, and she'll hopefully realise she needs to pull her socks up.

AyeAmorak - I think that is a very good idea. I hinted at it in my previous post. The danger here is the OP does not know the co-worker is missing for a very good reason which might only be known to management for confidential reasons.

On the other hand asking where she is and saying she has not been online and is missing deadlines and inquiring if she is ill provides enough leeway to introduce the topic informally as a 'concern' without marching in with a handful of screen shots and a ream of accusations to her boss.

Do you have a good relationship with your manager? If so I'd ask informally, 'is Jane OK, I've been finding it hard to get hold of her recently?' If she does have personal issues your manager can then indicate that, otherwise hopefully they will pick up the hint and pursue.

Agree re tactical ccing too.

X post!

Can't believe how many people are saying don't tell the manager. If you don't tell the manager then the flexible working will definitely be stopped because your team can't be trusted to self police. If you do talk to the manager then a decent manager will deal with the offender and not punish everyone. If you have a bad manager that punishes everyone when you have self policed you have bigger problems than a co-worker who skives.

Do you all have the same manager?

Like some PPS I don't really understand how your mutual manager has not realised for him or herself that a member of the team is not doing any work. Doesn't management involve monitoring this is some way? Even with the rest of you taking up the slack there must be some scrutiny of what she is doing- how is the company supposed to appraise her if it has no info about what she is doing?

I suppose if your manager has been crap at his/ her job then reporting Slacker Colleague will just put the manager on the defensive, which may not pan out well for you.

Mistigri My direct (line) manager doesn't know because the work is always done and the deadlines are always met so he'd have no reason to think anything is amiss. If he were to check her records he'd see that she's not pulling her weight but so far he has no reason to as we are all doing well and exceeding targets.

cc'ing on e-mails is an idea but I wonder if thats quite passive aggressive. I actually have considered it and have done so but manager just checks monthly reports on our team so unless we all went to him to state our case then he'd not know as we cover for her (and we also cover for eachother). But she just takes the piss.

StealthPolarBear 3 of us same manager, other two different manager.

Was it you saying you'd spoken to her before and she'd bucked her ideas up for a short time or was that someone else?
If that is the case, report her. She doesn't give a stuff about you quite happy for you all to collectively cover for hwr

The other option is toraise it with your own manager as something that's affecting your productivity r your work life balance.

JessieMcJessie This has only been implemented this year but considering that projects and targets have so far been met and exceeded as a team then there's no reason for management to single out one person as we all do it.

StealthPolarBear Yes. It was me that said she'd bucked up her ideas for a while before regressing.

Then report. As someone else said I'd you continue to cover for her they'll assume you're all at it and have a little scam going on. Your only option is to report and you owe her nothing. Id still make it personal to you - how her (lack of) actions impact on you and the problems you have.