To say colleague is a cheeky fucker?

[SayYouCare]

She booked an all inclusive to Spain a few weeks back.

She requested a half day (leave at 12pm), so she can get to the airport and depart. The rest of the week she's there, she already had booked off.

Today she's requested to speak to me. Turns out she is telling me she will be leaving at 12pm on Friday (the date of her holiday), because she says she is now pregnant and has her first MW appointment (the booking one).

Employees don't need evidence for their first Midwife appointment.

AIBU to think she's cheeky and she is leaving for the airport?

She has played you. Frustrating as it is there is chuff all you can do about it.
My bet is that she is pregnant and has spotted the no proof of first appt thing and seized the moment. Is prob v smug.
I had a cf report who announced that she had booked pregnancy relaxtion classes and brought in the proof. Wrote off a morning a week for 6 weeks. Until entirely coincidentally i happened to have a morning off and spotted her in an entirely different town to her class having a coffee with her mum. I must admit i got huge satisfaction out of going and sitting at the next table to her.

Just let her go. Is it really worth the fuss and straw for a few hours less work?

Straw?! Stress.

There is sadly nothing you can do. But you can mention to her that now you know, you'll have to advertise for maternity cover so that someone does her job while she is gone. That might at least flush her out of the lie if it is one.

But I am glad you at least didn't make your team short by giving her the half day off. My managers do that a lot and don't care, but it's not them who then gets yelled at by the client because we are understaffed and can't cope with the volume of work that day. Drives me mad when they don't think things through.

From subsequent replies (though not confirmed by the OP so apologies if incorrect) it seems that they manage this person. Which makes this whole thread wholly inappropriate. If I was the person in question and saw this I'd be going straight to HR to report you

I reckon her flight isn't until the weekend and she used the flight as an excuse to get the Friday afternoon off without having to tell you she's pregnant and has her booking that day. Given that she couldn't get the time off as holiday, she had to tell you the truth.

Christ, I'm glad I work with normal people. What an absolutely awful way to behave posting this on here.

First thing I did when I got pregnant was join mumsnet if she sees this post I hope she goes straight to HR with it. How unprofessional to disclose such personal information about one of your staff on a public forum.

I would have completely assumed the original flight story was a cover for the booking appt, only because it didn’t work she had to disclose pregnancy. Do none of the people assuming cfery understand not wanting to tell work at 8 weeks? I certainly didn’t tell them , I said medical appt and left it at that. That way if baby didn’t work out work would never know. Allow the time, the truth will out. And the op will feel a right shit as the pregnancy becomes obvious. I’d put it in writing though to her to have a record, in case management had a go at me for running the team short staffed

"How unprofessional to disclose such personal information about one of your staff on a public forum"

Oh, so you can tell who this person is can you? You know which company this is? It's hardly identifying information. All you "know" is the woman works for a company "5 minutes" from an airport.

You don't even know if the OP is real, or she line manager, or this is a reverse... Or anything how would HR deal with this if the pregnant woman complained?

00100001 you are completely correct. I did laugh at people saying this was revealing as it's not. It could be anyone. It might not even be in the UK. No one knows who this is. There are ways to find out, but it's doubtful HR knows how to do it or even has the authority to get such information without breaking the law.

If the colleague sees this and believes it's her manager, she can complain sure. But all OP has to do is say 'it's not me' and they have nothing. The company can't demand to see her private laptop, although if she has been stupid enough to reply via her work laptop or work phone she deserves to be caught.

She might be lying. But she might be telling the truth and sadly have a miscarriage at a later date, making you think she was lying all along, but what a bloody lot of fuss for one wee half day!! Get a grip of yourself woman!!

Mammylamb, Do you not appreciate that some business settings do not allow slack in their system for being under-staffed? It's not the OP's fault but she is working under guidelines that say no more than 2 staff off. So it's not "a fuss about nothing." She was following company policy.

QUnited, what if the team is only three people and there is a requirement for cover, so only two people can have a day off.

Would you be happy if you went to Tesco of a Saturday at 3 and they were closed and the reason was "oh yeah, well every fucker wanted the day off, and Mumsnet Users seems to the Hinksey that's OK as they all only wanted a wee half day off"

"err no can't send the ambulance out, all our paramedics wanted the same day off, sozzzzzzzles"

"ha ha ha ha school is closed, take your kid back, all the teachers needed the say off at the same time, so sort yourself out some childcare, k, thx bye"

So was this Friday the day in question OP? Anything to report?

?

YABU - and very unprofessional.

Perhaps she didn't want to tell you she was pregnant and tried using the airport as the reason for needing the half day. When you declined she was forced to tell you about the pregnancy.

This is probably what I would have done.

Why book a flight for 3pm on a working day? Booking a holiday before having it signed off is a massive breach where I work.

It's an afternoon. Surely you could ride out a busy, difficult afternoon just once? I would and have.

Conversely, I've also had to lie to get time off to reach a flight.

If someone has booked and paid for their holiday, there's no way in hell they will be prevented from going. Best not to force people into a corner.

What's her general attendance like?

She may be pregnant, who knows?

As a PP says, without knowing what you do it’s tricky to gauge if the OP is being totally reasonable or a bit tight but ultimately reasonable.

Yes, it seems very convenient but you need HR advice. Have you asked them @sayyoucare

Also, just out of interest if any HR pros are on here, how do you address something like “my colleague rang in sick and then posted a pic of her at the airport on social media”?

Is a disciplinary enforceable or is snooping the greater crime (assuming manager and employee are not friends on social media)?

Genuinely interested x

Well, Friday has been and gone.

At 10.30am on Friday morning, she posted "Late breakies with this lovely lot" - I checked her insta out of curiosity when I got home.

This was swiftly followed that same evening with hotel pictures, etc etc

Not really sure what to do/think now...

So she posted on Instagram about a late brunch with pictures at 10.30?

What time did she say her apppintment was or did she not?

She did say but I can't say off the top of my head (if is written and recorded within my books at work).

I do however know she was leaving at 12pm latest as she had to be at the appointment on time

sorry im confused - she booked a half day at 12 to leave for the airport and now shes saying she wants to leave at 12 for the midwife apointment - hasnt she already taken the half day?