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.

The company will find out in the end, maybe they'll get suspicious and double check time sheets, finding out that they've been double charged for the same piece of work.

If the company finds out for themselves, they will lose confidence in every one of you, because no one took responsibility for reporting the issue but you all must have known about it.

This is your main risk regarding reasons why you might lose the perk. Put your hand up and you have a chance of saving the situation. Keep quiet and you are very likely to lose out.

I couldn't have put it better myself, var123

By keeping quiet you're colluding with her and therefore equally guilty.
Management could well decide that by supporting her deceit, you're culpable.

Best of luck, I wouldn't want to try and argue your case 😕

By keeping quiet you're colluding with her and therefore equally guilty.

That is rubbish. The slacker is not a health care worker or anyone in a position to do harm. Company deadlines are not being missed thanks to the OP and her other colleagues. The only person at fault in my opinion are the slacker and the manager.
I'm not suggesting OP does nothing but rushing to the manager and potentially losing the perk would certainly not be my first strategy for sorting the problem. It would the last resort.

Right. So today I got the four of us on a conference call to talk. We all agree that something needs to be done but we don't agree on exactly how it should be done.

I also set up a group chat for all 5 of us including the managers - we all checked 'in' to the conversation. I set up another planning review - final one before Christmas and sent out invites. So far all have accepted the invite except shirker colleague.

We all think the same but I'm worried should push come to shove and shirker reports bullying then I could very well find myself in the firing line if I seem to be urging the others to push shirker colleague out.

Var 123 has summed up the issue very succinctly. Your problem is that the colleague isn't available and the rest of you are having to do her work.

Your concern is also that by abusing the wfh privilege, that she might jeopardise it for everyone.

I would be wary of being seen as a bully - You have already raised it with her informally, and now I think you need to raise it with your manager rather than trying to sort it amongst yourselves - that's not your role to do, so you are over-stepping the mark and therefore leaving yourself open to criticism and allegations of B&H.

Right. So today I got the four of us on a conference call to talk

A colleague of mine improved meeting efficiency by insisting on video conferencing.

1. it requires people make themselves present
2. (biggest point) it stops people having the meeting "on mute" whilst doing something else.

Average meeting time fell quite considerably !

We tend to video conference (GotoMeeting) to screen share anyway.

I'm worried should push come to shove and shirker reports bullying then I could very well find myself in the firing line if I seem to be urging the others to push shirker colleague out

So don't take it upon yourself to do it ... simply hand the whole thing over to management, whose job it is anyway. Explain truthfully that you all appreciate WFH and work very hard to justify their confidence in you, but it's being badly compromised by this person's pisstaking; you've done your best to cover in the interests of company success, but you simply can't do it any more

I guess we're all inclined to tie ourselves in knots over this sort of thing, but sometimes the simple, honest solution is the best and only sensible one

Stick to the facts and challenge yourself to say as few words as possible. Do not speculate or try to encourage the company to act.

Just say that the new system is working well in your opinion, yo are very grateful that the company has allowed you to participate in it. However, there is one thing that you'd like your manager's advice on. You are finding that its difficult to get in touch with x and sometimes you are doing parts of her job in order to meet the deadline. You've spoken to her once about it, but you saw no lasting improvement. You like her personally, but you are having difficulty coordinating with her on a professional level. Could your manager advise you on how to handle the situation?

Then make it your mission to say nothing else. Least said, soonest mended and all that.

You're doing your manager's job. Where the fuck is s/he in all this and why isn't s/he dealing with it???? Seriously, you need to hand over this management issue to the person who is being paid to deal with it. Stop trying to handle it among yourselves. Quite apart from anything else you're facilitating shirker colleague's shirking and your manager may well take that POV when you eventually get around to telling him/her.

I would also point out that you do not need a consensus to approach management about it. In fact, if anything, quite the opposite as that could be misconstrued as ganging up.

Yup. Tell management and let them manage the issue.

If my team had been working their assess off to cover for someone I'd be pissed off it wasn't raised with me.

Perhaps the manager is ineffectual and/or doesn't know how to manage properly and we've all been there wth those managers haven't we?

Have you tried to check if she's not where she says she is maybe by Facebook, Instagram posts? Any googling to see if she's set up a company....? Does she have clients only she dealt with? Worth considering. It sounds like she's checking out if her job to me.

Posting again. This is insane! If your manager doesn't know what's going on THEN TELL THEM!!!! Just have a quiet word yourself, you don't need to go as a group (and in fact going as a group might look like you are ganging up, so I'd suggest not doing that). They should have enough brains to know this is about an individual's competency not their WFH policy. Your apparent strategy of keeping it quiet will almost certainly backfire as at some point management will find out about the incompetence and then yes, they might put their own interpretation on it and stop the policy. But if you're proactive you get to tell the story.

People have so much faith in management doing the right thing. An ineffectual manager would be more than likely to stop the wfh arrangement as it the easiest thing to do. In my experience it is what usually happens especially if they weren't that keen on wfh in the first place.

Marynary - but the WFH policy has already gone beyond the manager's pay level. Its about to be rolled out across the business, which would be a boardroom decision.
If the manager is useless at her/ his job, then he/she will not want to go to the board and admit that the previous positive reports she must have given were ill-informed because the team hadn't been managed properly.

A very good point there, Var123 - I confess I hadn't thought of that

The angst about possible loss of the WFH is understandable but surely hardly the point now, and anyway, doing nothing constructive about the situation would surely make it even more likely, not less. I do hope OP is able to move this forward ...

Marynary - but the WFH policy has already gone beyond the manager's pay level. Its about to be rolled out across the business, which would be a boardroom decision.

You don't know the process var123 unless you work for the same company as OP. If the line manager reports that there have been problems with flixable working they might not roll it out.

flixable flexible

The board probably aren't that interested in the lack of performance of one person.

They'll be interested in delivery and results which OP and the rest of the team have clearly kept up with to a high standard, despite the lack of input of one team member.

The fact that it's due to be rolled out across the business means it's probably more likely that if any of OP and her colleagues ever get round to raising their colleagues lack of perforance rather than just wringing their hands and sighing about it then it will be treated as the performance issue it clearly is rather than drawbacks with WFH in general.

Var123 has it. Manger is a he (thought I'd mentioned that upthread but anyway).

rookiemere You are right in so far as the board wouldn't give a shiny shit over one person. In fact I think they'd be hard pressed to remember even two of our names.

We shut up shop on the 24th so I intend to go to manager then. Let him fester over it over Xmas. Simple/basic message. Then I'll see what comes in the new year.

I would briefly stress that the rest of you are able to be more productive than ever (you're covering a whole other person's work, after all), WFH.

Good luck. [fsmike]