Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Collegue lying about illness and blaming me

95 replies

Grindelwaldswand · 24/12/2016 00:54

Absolutely fuming a new starter at work decided she wanted to go home early last week because she was "ill", 2 hours later i go on my break and check my phone to see a long message from her about how she's gone into town to do her Christmas shopping and her DP has bought her an expensive lunch etc etc. So i tell my supervisor when i get back on shift and show her the message and she says she'll deal with it today,so later today i get an angry message from this co worker calling me a snitch and saying she will make my life hell if i don't fess up Confused i told her she shouldn't send people messages like that if she wants to pull a fast one and that when she left her shift we all had to pitch in to do her work for her (she was 30 mins into a 12hr shift when she decided to leave) and ive just found out today she has handed her notice in already as its too hard working in retail !! She's been here two weeks Angry AIBU for telling my boss what she had done ?

OP posts:
MavisTheTwinklyToreador · 29/12/2016 16:45

Grindelwaldswand i agreed with your stance on this colleague and I'm glad that it's been resolved.

Are you aware that your posts are coming across quite negatively? Huge sweeping accusations like your comment above are antagonistic and make you look small minded. People posted to help you.

Buttercupsandaisies · 29/12/2016 16:45

Having morals means you don't pull sickies etc yourself - reporting others is not really about your morals as you've done nothing wrong. Reporting is pure spite and resentment

GilMartin · 29/12/2016 16:48

Some questionable morals on MN hmm for people to actually side with skivers says a lot about them as a human, can't have gotten far in life

op you work on the shopfloor and your career strategy consists of dumping on your colleagues in order to inch your way up the greasy pole. You really are in no position to lecture anyone on where they've got in life.

Rest assured most people on this thread will have achieved more than you and won't have shat all over their co-workers to do it.

YouTheCat · 29/12/2016 16:52

Buttercup, if the shirker hadn't have texted the OP to delight in the fact she was out shopping then no one would have known and no one would have told that she'd pulled a sickie.

The only person to blame is the shirker.

And I'm damn sure I'd have mentioned something to management if some lazy bastard put me in that position too.

SecretWitch · 29/12/2016 16:57

Interesting that she would leave sick but then send you a long text stating otherwise, especially if you have form for letting managers know about your colleagues misdeeds. Weird.

Buttercupsandaisies · 29/12/2016 16:59

I've been put in that situation before - you cant get into trouble for minding your own business! - it's not a disciplinary issue for not telling on someone (esp given it was a private text).

She hasn't been put in any position - it's not up to her what the other person does.

I'd just say nothing either way,

Babyroobs · 29/12/2016 17:03

YANBU. I'm completely fed up of skiving collegues this Christmas. One rang in sick on Boxing day ( the only day of the holiday period she was due to work) then posted on fb about a Christmas family get together. Another has gone off sick with stress after a fall out with our boss leaving me to pick up her shifts that needed covering.

YouTheCat · 29/12/2016 17:07

I'd not want to work with someone who'd I'd be constantly picking up the slack for. Maybe I'd feel differently if the text had said that she was feeling better after a few hours and so had gone to do some shopping but it didn't.

If someone is genuinely ill then I'd have no problem in helping out but she was 2 weeks into a job and she's already nicking off? No way. She's only going to get worse. Why should she have a job when there are so many hard working people without?

Where I work we support one another and work hard. I'm not the sort to go telling tales every five seconds but this kind of thing would really piss me off.

00100001 · 29/12/2016 17:52

At what point would the people defending the skiver think it was acveptable to report someone to management?

Would you report for stealing from the company?
Harassment?
Using company resources for their own gain?
Coming to work drunk?

HolidaySpiritsReinbeerAndWhine · 29/12/2016 17:53

It's not gotten, dear Grindelwaldswand. I hope your language skills improve vastly before August, otherwise that promotion you have been so passionately shitting on your workmates working hard for may never be offered to you.

SapphireStrange · 29/12/2016 17:55

And I'm damn sure I'd have mentioned something to management if some lazy bastard put me in that position too.

And me. And even if not to 'grass them up' but to make management aware that the colleague was putting me in a very awkward position by letting/forcing me in on their skiving scheme.

HolidaySpiritsReinbeerAndWhine · 29/12/2016 18:02

00100001, no one is 'defending' the woman who has now left. She did wrong, she left others to pick up her slack and didn't deserve the job. It's the OP's attitude that reads as if she has never done anything 'reportable' at work, but feels somewhat proud of the fact she's known to 'report to the manager' whenever she feels they are doing wrong. Others are merely pointing out that their experience of working with people like her have not been enjoyable ones.

We can only give opinions based around how we interpret the text, and whilst the op was not wrong in her response to the initial situation, she has not come over well in her following replies. Suggesting that anyone who does not agree with her lacks morals is extremely unreasonable, for example, bordering on being a GF in my humble opinion.

Libitina · 29/12/2016 18:23

OP YANBU for telling management what this woman had done. I can't believe you're getting so much stick for it either.

MammaTJ · 29/12/2016 18:58

All this talk of tale telling and 'being a grass' is reminiscent of the playground,imo!

The OP is not talking about the school playground she is talking about a workplace, where everyone is expected to pull their weight and do their share of the work.

The OP sounds like my kind of person, everyone knows where they stand with her, knowing she is quite direct and liable to raise any issues with management, instead of sitting on them and maybe causing a bullying situation. Neither does she spy on people and sneak around telling the boss, she is open in the fact that she will.

melj1213 · 29/12/2016 19:46

OP YANBU to report the skiver, but YABU to be so proud of being a telltale over any issue.

In this instance, I do think that you should have informed the manager, it's one thing going home a bit early, or call in sick (at least that way they can try to arrange emergency cover), but going home after 30 minutes and then texting you about it is just rude when you're having to cover for her (along with everyone else). But again, it depends how you did it, if you immediately went to your manager to be like "Manager, Skiver is skiving, she just sent me this message!" then it just sounds like you're wanting to get them into trouble. On the other hand,, something like "Look, I know it's not my business but I had to stay late to cover Skiver's shift, which I didn't mind doing if she was sick, but she's just sent me this message which makes it clear she isn't and I'm annoyed and just wanted to let you know that, and that I won't be covering for Skiver ever again"

Having said all that, I also work in retail and every shop floor colleague, at some point or other, has cut corners on a job or taken an extra long break or skived in the back room for five minutes ... if there was a colleague who "didn't hesitate" to report us for that kind of thing, then they wouldn't really be trusted very much.

It's one thing if your colleague has gone on a 15 minute break, your manager comes over 30 minutes later and ask where they are and you say "Don't know, they went for a 15 min break about 30 mins ago and they haven't come back yet" because you're just being honest, but another thing to go running to the manager after 17 minutes because they took more time than they should have.

I will occasionally "exaggerate" the time something is going to take, if I need time off, because I know that work will give out as little time as possible and often won't be punctual with cover so you can go on time. If one of my friends grassed me up then I'd be pissed off, I only do it because I know how unreliable the system is not to get any real advantage ... eg I had an important hospital appt at 4:45 a few weeks ago and it takes 10 minutes to get to the hospital, but I wasn't due to finish until 5pm. I spoke to my line manager a few days in advance but told them that the appointment was at 4:15 so could I leave at 4pm? My manager said that was fine so I reminded the supervisor at the start of my shift that I had to leave at 4 because I had an appointment at 4:15, no problem ... 4pm comes and goes and nobody came to cover my job so I had to call the supevisor who eventually sent someone at 4:10 ... if my appointment had been at 4:15 I'd have missed it by the time I got there, but because I knew this would happen, I'd built that buffer time into my request ... if one of my co-workers went running to the manager about my "lie" then I'm fairly certain nobody would be impressed when I told them (and I would be telling them so that they never said anything to the telltale colleague, in case they got caught out the same way )

Waltermittythesequel · 30/12/2016 11:42

Some questionable morals on MNfor people to actually side with skivers says a lot about them as a human, can't have gotten far in life

You've made it all the way to a shop, love. I'm fairly sure there are people on here who have had career success and not been a sycophantic lick arse.

And no, there's nothing wrong with working in a shop before anyone starts.

And no, I'm not defending the slacker.

The OP's attitude is dreadful.

JinnanTonik · 30/12/2016 11:48

I love the facebook wankers who go 'sick' then post all manner of incriminating evidence...then get all 'poor me' when they get busted!

OP, colleague is an arse, now history, move on chick! Wink

AngryGinger · 30/12/2016 12:05

"Fess up" to what? Is she an actress from bad girls? YANBU

MilkTwoSugarsThanks · 30/12/2016 12:23

Why the fuck would you give your phone number to someone you've worked with for just two weeks?

Shit, I worked with people for 15+ years and never gave out my phone number.

Grindelwaldswand · 30/12/2016 23:39

Thanks MammaTJ Grin im not their friend im their colleague and my manager has also said the same as you in my performance report and im seen as reliable and trustworthy because of it. And she got my mobile number from another colleague because she wanted everyone's mobile numbers for some reason Confused I hadn't even texted her until she text me and I realised who it was

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page