Is this fair or are they taking the mick a bit?

[Melonrunner]

This is about my husband's work. I'm not going to say exactly what he does as I don't want to put him or myself. The usual set up at work is as follows. He is office based and works in a team of around 8. They have three types of shifts, early, lates and days. On the early and late shift they are responsible for picking up cases as they come in and have to deal with them immediately. At the start of the shifts there are cases waiting to be taken. If they have spare time in those shifts they manage their other cases which are ongoing. Day shifts are for managing the other cases too.

In an ideal world you each have around 10 cases and if you have less than 10 your work load is significantly easier and less stressful. Usually my husband has 10-15.

Now, husband is working with 4 of his teammates who are fasting and who have changed their shifts slightly to make sure they are home during the hours they are allowed to eat and to make sure they are not overtired. As such all their hours fall between 8-8. They start early shift later than everyone else who miss they handing out of cases. They start late shift earlier than everyone else so the thinking was they take some of the cases then to make the case load fairer across the team. However they find other office space to their usual office when they first come in (another team is in that space) and don't move down when the official shift starts! The therefore have been taking no extra cases this week and only dealing with their long term ones.

So now my husbands cases are exceeding 15 and theirs are less than 10. Plus he is helping out one of his colleges as she has gone home 3 times in the last fortnight with migraine (unusual for her).

So my husband is coming home very stressed, doing work at home (unpaid) and it's impacting on our family time when usually all his work is completed in the office. My husband won't say anything as his manager has been great at authorising annual leave at short notice when our son has been ill, lets him swap shifts when their is a school play etc. But he always takes on his fair share of cases.

Are they taking the mick or do you think this is ok as its only for a month and maybe they will help out more afterwards?

It sounds like they are trying to make a reasonable accommodation and haven't thought through the ramifications.

I wonder, does the management monitor how many cases each person completes? I would expect them to as a matter of course. So, assuming this, the team leaders will see that he has been more productive than his teammates and should take this into account.

I think it is right to try to assist Muslims in observing their fast. Ramadan does last for 29/30 days though, so it isn't possible to stop normal operations for such a long period. The Jewish and Christian festivals tend to be only 1 or 2 days, so they are easier to work around.

I agree that 'jokes' is not the way to go, if he wants any respect from his bosses and colleagues in the future.

Rather than him moaning to you and you both bitching about fasting, he needs to behave like a grown-up professional person and talk to his manager. It's not difficult to sort out.

One of my colleagues who is observing Ramadan also likes to smoke weed, so also has the munchies to contend with. Whether he sees it as adding another layer to the challenge or whether it just initially curbs the hunger I don't know. But he seems to stockpile food ready for sundown, like a hamster.

I know that. I just meant if they can stop fasting before the shift ends they could smack?
Lots of Drs I work with are also fasting and still do their shifts.
It's good that the manager is so respectful though.

The whole Ramadam thing is a complete red herring.

This is a management issue pure and simple. Your husband needs to stop being a martyr and speak to management like an adult.

We had a very similar situation at work but the person missing the 7am morning allocation of work was female and was coming in at 8 or later for childcare reasons. Yes initially her colleagues seethed and sulked instead of actually saying something but once I became aware and spoke to their manager it was easily sorted.

She was allocated work at 7am but it was handed to her when she came in at 8am. Simple and everyone was happy!

Napqueen

This sounds most unlikely - smoking weed would be against Islam and not acceptable in Ramadan.

And the "stockpiling" of food for the end of the fast would be totally normal - there is a ritual for breaking the fast and then most people would eat fairly substantially. No need for any comparisons with a hamster.

I think I'll encourage my husband to talk to his boss then. No good resentment building especially as they usually all get on so well. Hopefully he'll stop bringing work home then too.

I don't think anyone is taking the mick. I think this is a simple logistical issue which can be sorted swiftly by management.

Sounds like a good plan Melon.

I would be very careful how you approach this. Absolutely do not approach it from a 'dissing religion' pov or they'll have his head. He just needs to talk to his manager and say his case load is over what it should be - his case load is too high to manage effectively which risks X and y bring missed. Management need to perhaps suspend the casual allocation of cases so that they are actively allocating to preserve fairness.
Fwiw I have two people fasting on my team - both are accommodated because they're great, very dedicated workers who go above and beyond at other times to help out the rest of the team. I usually divert them to working more with the USA or Japan/Asia Pacific so it can even end up being beneficial.
Try to approach it logistically rather than with any religious aspect!

That sounds like very good advice to me Zaurak.

No don't worry he will 100% not come at it from a dissing religion point of view. He has the utmost respect for them and their dedication to fasting this month. He was even happy to take the extra morning cases, the only thing he thought was unfair was that they weren't taking any afternoon cases. I will suggest he asks from his own view that his case load is becoming unmanageable.

It sounds like very slack management.

Practical suggestion for your husband to take as a solution to the manager- a simple spreadsheet with the name of everyone of his shift team, a list of their caseloads, and perhaps an estimate of the number of hours required per case. Manager uses the spreadsheet to see who has the smallest load and allocates cases accordingly, regardless of who is actually in the room.

The current system seems to rely on a) workers actually being in the room and b)management by guilt -tripping.

I'm going against the grain and saying it takes the absolute piss. If we are forced to work Christmas (in our own bloody country, where it is actually a bank holiday!) then they shouldn't have allowances made either.

Why should others who are not of that belief have to pick up the slack for them? Your DH should not be having to work at home unpaid and frankly I would refuse to. If they want to know why things are slipping he can just tell them straight out that he is overworked due to unfair distribution of cases.

Is he likely to get all 3 days off at Christmas? I doubt it. How about Easter? Lent? Maundy Thursday? Pentecost? Of course he may not be Christian but I'm just using that as an example. Ramadan lasts a month for god's sake, they can't expect everyone else to work around their eating times for that long. Bring food with you like any other reasonable person.

Either you make allowances for religion or you don't. My thoughts are that you should but since most employers do not then this should be consistent. Their religion should not affect their working hours. If it does, tough shit. If I moved to another country where my religion was the minority, I wouldn't expect my boss to bend over backwards to accommodate me while basically saying tough to the rest of the staff.

Perhaps I just don't understand because I personally have no religion and hate it all. I celebrate Christmas but as a family holiday, not for all the birth of Christ stuff. So perhaps I am over simplifying it but I just think that everyone should be treated equally and if one group doesn't get allowances made then none should.

Surely this should be simple to work out, as many PP have said? Management clearly try to accommodate everyone's different needs, which is good, but that should be possible with different start times.

No jokes, no passive aggression, just a quick chat about how it's not working and suggesting a slightly different way or organising things?

Management are taking the piss
His case load is clearly too high and he needs to talk to them but it's a pity they thought this was okay in the first place

I also think there's a problem here in terms of allowances. If this flex is allowed for other reasons then fine but otherwise not fine. Employees should be treated equally.

Ledeluge I know with complete certainty he smokes weed. Whether it goes against his religion or not he does do it. And on those particular days he does squirrel away food. He almost makes a game of it, we all (him included) find it highly entertaining.

Starry, if you're going to be annoyed about religion then you need to be annoyed about other potential inequalities too – allowances made forpeople with children versus those without, for one example.

Starry your post comes across as quite confrontational. The people fasting through Ramadan have not asked for less workload. The management have simply not thought about the remifications of making allowances for 3 team members' temporary change in shift patterns.

Your comparison to people having to work on Christmas Day doesn't really make sense. Of course people need to work on 25 Dec - nurses, docs, power station employees, car home workers, etc etc. B's k Holiday or not, there are professions where 24/7 365/year are necessary.

there's more that I'd like to say, but I won't

So who picks up your husbands cases when he has "annual leave at short notice when our son has been ill...swap(s) shifts when their is a school play etc."?

Presumably the same people he's complaining about now?

It is not fair on your husband at all.

These sorts of complaints are the same as started to get bandied about, when ML (and PL) became standard.

It most definitely a Managemant issue and they've had long enough to have this up and running without it impacting, on other workers, to this extent.

The all women gym that I go to, has Muslim Women, who are fasting, yet come from work and still do the circuit, because they find it easier to stay out of the house and fast. We all stop drinking, in front of them (and thankfully everyone shuts up about food), out of respect.

I've worked and mixed, in different capacities, with practising Muslims and never had these sorts of issues, because people thought ahead and problems were discussed and rectified.

OP, your DHs workplace sounds as though it tries to be as accommodating as possible, there's just this small issue to get past and it will be a great place to work.

Oh that pisses me off too Sapphire but it's not relevant here and realistically what are people going to do? Leave their baby to fend for itself? A religious...what do we call it? A ritual? I'll say ritual for want of a better word, is hardly the same as an actual, physical baby or children who cannot be left alone because they can't look after themselves. It is still unfair and annoying but there isn't actually any way around it. (much like having to work in the first place!)

Perhaps it is confrontational but I really feel like religion has so much to answer for and seeing another example of how it makes people unequal or makes things unfair just really boils my piss.

Yes they haven't asked for less workload but they aren't exactly putting themselves forward to help their struggling colleagues, are they?

Of course there are professions like that but people choose to do them. I think they are irrelevant except to further illustrate the point. Many doctors/nurses etc are Muslim. I doubt any of them are working particular hours with no overtime due to Ramadan. They chose that profession and like the rest of us, fit their beliefs around their work, not the other way around.

This is a bit like when a woman goes on maternity leave and management makes other colleagues pick up the slack rather than paying for maternity cover… and then the workers blame the woman on mat leave!

or when a PTer is hired instead of the required FTer, and the colleagues get pissed at the PTer rather than the management when they are having to cover the other half of the workload where there should be another PTer

The people whose shifts have been adjusted have done nothing wrong.

Your OH should do what he can do.. his usual 10ish case loads, and then pass any extra back to the management for the management to deal with/redistribute appropriately.