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?

TooMuch the poster above ranting about it being "our country" is racist, plain and simple. There is nothing in the OP's post to suggest her husband's colleagues are anything but British. As for the person upthread saying you can't be racist about Muslims because Islam is a race not a religion - that line is trotted it by every BNP knuckledragger. It's pretty depressing to see it on MN.

Management issue, IMO, to ensure that work is fairly distributed.

Very easy just to say to his line manager
OPDH - "Hi Bob, just as a heads up I'm completely snowed under at the moment, to the point that I don't think I can take on any extra cases this week.
Line Manager - "Why is that?"
OPDH - "Jim Bob, Paul Bob and Sonny Bob are on day shifts for June for Ramadan so they are missing out on the daily case allocation process ?
Line Manager - "Ah bollocks, I should have realised"
OPDH - "perhaps we could do it at 10am instead during Ramadan? We could do it at the end of day but it might not be the best plan to do it at the end of the day when everyone just wants to get off home and eat something? Your call - that's why they pay you the big bucks "

Hear hear nobility!

Nobility I've reported your post and I hope it gets removed. It's not OK to go around calling people 'nasty little racists' - it's an unfounded personal insult and shows that you are unable to engage with actual argument, instead choosing to throw around ad hominem insults.

Oh bollocks. I'm not the slightest bit racist, it's not about race. Race and religion aren't the same thing. I'm just pointing out that in a country where the more prominent belief system isn't even catered for, why should any other be? And a child being sick or having a school play doesn't go on for a month, does it. They shouldn't get to sneak off and not pick up caseloads just because they have changed hours for what is essentially a favour from the boss, not necessarily a right. My point is that in a workplace everyone should be equal and if they do you a favour and let you change hours for whatever reason then your colleagues shouldn't be so loaded under that their family and homelife suffers from it.

My point is that in a workplace everyone should be equal and if they do you a favour and let you change hours for whatever reason then your colleagues shouldn't be so loaded under that their family and homelife suffers from it.

It is a MANAGER's responsibility to spread workload, whether that be to accommodate a half-day off for a play or altered hours over a month for Ramadan.

It should be taken up with a manager (as the OP is saying she's going to ask her DH to do); he shouldn't have been bitching and acting martyred about it.

In a country where a lot of people get time off over Christmas, Easter, etc, from where are you getting your assertion that 'the more prominent belief system isn't even catered for'?

Sapphire have you ever worked in retail, by any chance? Most of us haven't had more than just Xmas day off for the last 5 years. it isn't allowed to be booked as holiday. My last Boxing day off was 2011. Not by choice either, its work it or there's the door. This is over two separate employers and several of my friends working in other retail positions are in the same boat. Office work probably isn't that bad, although saying that I don't remember the last time my mum had any time off around that time of year.

IDK maybe I'm getting unreasonably pissed off over this, perhaps its just that time of the month or something. You know when a topic just really gets your goat?

You're right though, his manager should be handling this and noticing that 3 of his employees have hardly any workload while others are struggling. He shouldn't even have to say anything

So that explains annual leave. What about when he swaps shifts? (Which is what his colleagues are doing here?)

Yes I have, Starry, thanks.

So if his manager should be handling this and noticing that 3 of his employees have hardly any workload while others are struggling. He shouldn't even have to say anything, why do you feel the need to keep shouting about religion?

Because I think it is unfair that 3 people are basically getting away with doing no work for a month because they have changed hours for ramadan, which personally I don't see that the company should have to do in the first place. The boss should have noticed but clearly hasn't. Is it me or is this conversation going in circles with us both just repeating ourselves?

When he swaps shifts it's with someone from the opposite team. So someone else will do his early and he will do their late. If someone is coming in late for whatever reason then the next shift they will take the first case and sometimes a second,

IT is amazing that the boss either hadn't noticed or has and doesn't care
I am mystified by the retail thing, I don't understand why our major holidays are based on a religion anyway but the fact that many essential services are on skeleton staff while retail workers have to work is yet another source of bafflement to me.

I'm just pointing out that in a country where the more prominent belief system isn't even catered for

If a christian needed shifts to be adjusted so that they could attend the ash wednesday thingie where they get a cross stamped on their head.. that would be accomodated too in this country

People keep bleating about Christmas, tell me where in the christian faith does it say "in order to practice your faith, you must not work christmas eve or christmas day or boxing day"? It doesn't! So working those days does not prevent you from practicing your faith. And muslims don't get all of ramadam off, they at best get time adjustmens so that they can eat

Christians in the NHS are allowed to refuse to partake in care of termination of pregnancies in this country

You're talking bile and shite.

Nobility I've reported your post and I hope it gets removed. It's not OK to go around calling people 'nasty little racists' - it's an unfounded personal insult and shows that you are unable to engage with actual argument, instead choosing to throw around ad hominem insults.

Ok well I guess since my post is still there that the admins don't agree with you. And you're wrong - it is ok to call people racists when they're racist. Actually, it's pretty important to do so. Nor is the term unfounded in this case. This post is clearly not some innocent inquiry.

"Oh dear is it unreasonable that nasty foreigners are taking our jobs then coming in late and skiving off to celebrate their weird religious festivals while my lovely English husband does his own work and theirs and also helps out sick people, is that unreasonable or is it ok that Muslims come to our country and then have it better than us English and we can't say anything because we might sound racist? I'm genuinely confused what do you think mumsnetters?"

Yeah. Right.

Christians in the NHS are allowed to refuse to partake in care of termination of pregnancies in this country

Actually this is nothing to do with Religious beliefs. Any doctor (atheist or agnostic) is permitted to refuse to carry out terminations. They cannot however refuse a referral for termination because of their beliefs.

Starry, 'they have changed hours for ramadan, which personally I don't see that the company should have to do in the first place.'

'personally' being the key word. The company is obviously OK with accommodating Ramadan; the only problem is with the reallocation of work. Which the OP's DH could easily talk to his boss about –without mentioning religion – instead of wondering whether to approach it by making snippy little 'jokes' until people 'get the hint'.

We're not exactly repeating ourselves; rather, you seem to be dancing around the issue that's really bothering you. Which doesn't seem to be a work/management issue but one about religious holidays and accommodations.

Actually this is nothing to do with Religious beliefs. Any doctor (atheist or agnostic) is permitted to refuse to carry out terminations. They cannot however refuse a referral for termination because of their beliefs.

It still counts against the claim that christians "are not catered for in this country". They have the facility to object to partaking in TOP proceedures or aftercare, so they're catered for, even if it's open to everyone

nobility religion and race are two different things. You are obviously one of those people who makes a mockery of those victims of actual racism by pulling the racist card in that way. In reference to this post - Muslims come in every race creed nationality and colour so how do you come to the conclusion the OP is racist? Uneducated attention seeker

It shouldn't matter what sex, race or religion these co-workers are. The manager should be ensuring everyone is pulling their weight.

Couldn't have put it better myself Ark
They're probably afraid of having the racist card pulled on them

nelly, this thread could just have easily have said 'three of my DH's colleagues have got favourable shifts/work patterns at the moment and it's impacting badly on him and our family life.'

But it didn't. If anyone has been discriminatory/racist (I think most of us here understand the sense of 'racist' as used on this thread) here it's the OP.

Sapphire I mentioned the fasting as its only a temporary thing for a month. Not a permanent pattern which would obviously not be fair if they were planning on never taking cases! In this case it's only for a month.

Still don't see why you needed to mention it, OP.