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?

I genuinely thought the OP's DH was a part-time baggage handler

Starry, I'm an agnostic and I have a healthy disrespect for organised religions, of all stripes. I don't though feel the need to post so confrontationally.

Someone else has asked this, but I'll reiterate it: how do you feel about (probably these same)colleagues covering for the OP's DH when he's swapped shifts for non-essential family reasons like a school play?

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.

I have a family member who is NHS frontline staff. The muslim colleagus volunteer for christmas day and christmas eve, and over ramadam they often volunteer for the night shifts (isn't that cheating somewhat? [can] - seriously light hearted question for any muslims reading - does working nights during ramadam really "count" if you can then eat throughout your working "day"?)

So how would you husband feel about jokes about him and his habit of taking time off when his child is sick ? How would you feel about it if it happened at your workplace OP ? Most people wouldn't want either their child's illness or their religion to be the butt of the office idiot's jokes. In some businesses either would be considered harassment and lead to disciplinary action.

If he has concerns that the work load is too much for him he should be speaking to his line manager not moaning about his workmates who are simply following previously arranged work practices.

The hypocrisy of expecting special arrangements for himself yet complaining about other people's doesn't put him in a good light. I work with a lot of Muslims and have done for years -most of them tend to work over Christmas but even if they didn't I don't have any issues with modified hours as most are the better workers and not the endless sickie takers who cause problems year round. Personally I'd far rather cover or pick up work for someone genuinely following their religion (of whatever creed) than have to cover for someone with no religious beliefs but insists on getting so drunk they can't work the next day just because it's Christmas.

I didn't get the impression he was going to joke about Ramadan - just the unequal distribution of cases. Still not a good idea, but not the same as them laughing about his sick child.

If his caseload is too much, he should go to his manager about his own working conditions

Which I get the impression is not the point of the OP, the point of the OP is that "it's not fair that my DH is working extra when people observing ramadam aren't"

IMO that sentance should end at: "it's not fair that my DH is working extra". That's enough. He shouldn't be working extra, he should go to management about his excessive caseload. He doesn't need to point fingers at who isn't working over their usual caseloads or why. If he does, then that kinda is slagging off their reasons for working altered shifts, and he doesn'tt need to to that in order to get his own working loads/patterns adjusted in his own right for his own reasons (i.e. it's too much)

Yes no reason not to speak to hos manager to nudge him that the work isn't being shared out fairly.

It might simply be an out of sight, out of mind thing.

We actually have this going on at my work at the mo, and it's nothing to do with religion.

A was head hunted, interviewed and was far and above best candidate, A turned it down because the communte didn't match up with earliest possible childcare start. Manager really wanted A. A was the best person for the job. Manager verbally agreed a later start for A and A took the job.

A has turned out to be one of the best people on the team.

B hates their shift pattern. B never asked for an adjustment to their shift pattern at interview. B has never had the guts to approach management in their own right and ask for an adjustment. Instead B has submitted a complaint that A has a later start, stating that it is unfair, and everyone should have to to the early start. B complained to the big manager - over the manager who hired A.

A is now in a shit position because the agreement was not in writing. If the Big manager doesn't believe that it was formally aggreed, A will have to be redeployed or quit. We'll all lose out if A quits over this

B is no better off, B isn't going to get a later start at this point, B now just wants A to start earlier, because it's "not fair" and if B has to have a miserable early commute, so should A, they do the same job! but A does it better

Op's husband: don't be a B!

This is a management problem, not a religion problem (I'm a staunch atheist do its not often I say that...)

It's the same as them expecting to have someone off on mat leave and the rest of the team pick up the load instead of increasing headcount. Because there's always something- illness, mat leave, sick kids etc. A good manager manages these. They don't dump it on the rest of the team.
Unfortunately (and this is now very true in my job) some upper management are dedicated to keeping costs and headcount as low as possible, leading to is all being stretched IF everyone is in, no one is on vacation or sick. As soon as we are covering for vacation etc we are instantly over allocated. And because there's always someone on vacation we are always over allocated. It's crap management not to account for expected absences and staff accordingly

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.

It is their country too. Your racism isn't very thinly veiled, is it?

Why does he not just say to his colleagues that he is a bit snowed under with new cases, can anyone help?

Is he usually such a wuss?

StarryIllusion, how do you know these people aren't in their own country?

Your blatherings make you sound like one of those gullible fools who thinks that Muslims have banned Christmas.

It never ceases to amuse me how racists shoot themselves in the foot with comments that show how much they've missed the point

When they're handing out cases why doesn't somebody just say "oh hand on, we need to call tom, dick and Harry down from the other office to get their cases".
Or if it's a hierarchical place then ops Dh can say to manager "shall I go and get tom dick and Harry?"

The way it works with annual leave is that you don't get cases allocated to you when you are off but you still have your other cases to deal with when you get back. He has taken his time off with sick leave as annual leave (it's a favour because it's such short notice, not because it's extra). Everyone else gets annual leave too so he hasn't left his colleges with extra work when it spread out through the year. With long term leave such as maternity leave other staff are brought in. He's not the one who wants to say anything, it's me wanting him to as the work is now impacting on our family time.

Dat you Nigel?

" light hearted question for any muslims reading - does working nights during ramadam really "count" if you can then eat throughout your working "day"?) "

Actually night shifts are usually the worst if you are fasting.
Most people will have started their shift by sunset (9pm ish) so would have to wait for a meal break to eat - which for most night workers means a pack up not a proper meal and as dawn is about 5ish they are going to bed very hungry as by the time they get home fast has started.. Most Muslims I know try NOT to work the night shift for a summer Ramadan as it's twice as difficult as sleeping when starving is almost impossible.

So, essentially, your DH is smiling and nodding when he's handed case no 11, 12, 13, 14 & 15… then coming come and collapsing saying "Its hard to do more than 10" to you, and you want him to go and complain about the muslims at his work who have the balls to go and ask their manager for what they need and state what they can reasonably do?

maybe he should be more like his colleagues and go and speak to management about what he feels he can reasonably do, rather than complaining about them to you.

It's not their fault he's too much of a "yes man" for his own good.. and I would wonder if the quality of his work is being affected because he can't speak up

Most night shift jobs aren't the sort of jobs where you can graze like a lot of office jobs.

Actually night shifts are usually the worst if you are fasting.
Most people will have started their shift by sunset (9pm ish) so would have to wait for a meal break to eat - which for most night workers means a pack up not a proper meal and as dawn is about 5ish they are going to bed very hungry as by the time they get home fast has started.. Most Muslims I know try NOT to work the night shift for a summer Ramadan as it's twice as difficult as sleeping when starving is almost impossible.

Aren't night shifts a bit quieter in a lot of places, so more opportunity for snacking and tea breaks on top of formal breaks? There are probably exceptions which are just the same 24hours a day of course, but most places will have natural "lulls" usually where you could grab a cuppa and some snacks on top of normal breaks wouldn't they?

Interesting you say it's not the case though, I assumed night work would be much easier if it allowed you to eat when active. Thanks for your reply

It's a management responsibility to make sure workloads are balanced.

Yup.

Don't talk about fasting, just say that the current shift set up means that [x] is happenieng (case alocaiton not working out) and can they suggest a solution?

Thank you for your comments. I can see now that it is not the fault of his colleges and that it is a management problem. I'll talk to my husband tonight if it hasn't already been sorted as the last thing I want is him stressed with the extra work.

Nobility. I find your post very offensive. Myself and my husband have the utmost respect for his colleagues who are doing something very challenging, and in no way are we being insulting to them, their race or their religious beliefs.

Defo Nige.

I'm beginning to think you can't post so much as a full stop on MN without being called racist. its also used in lieu of xenophobic, anti religious etc. It's so odd.