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?

Why are some of you tying yourself into pretzels insisting that this woman is pregnant when of course she isn't?

Keep following her instagram OP, look out for baby's first tequila slammer

I think she is genuinely pregnant and her flight is genuinely at 3pm

But what has been said to make you think that? Not the insta update saying she'll have her packing done by 1pm on Friday. Not her gossiping at work that she wants to get to the airport early. Not her first asking for the tie off to get to the airport, which only got changed to an antenatal appointment when she was turned down. So, what's formed your opinion?

Feigning a miscarriage would hardly be a massive effort to go to. Most people would think it was a pretty ethically dubious thing to do, but ringing in sick over it then staying off for a few days afterwards would be the work of a moment.

why would you want to get to the airport early to catch up with the people you are going on a 2 week holiday with

Ignore the flight. That is a separate issue.
Simply ask her to come back after her midwife apptmt to finish her shift.
That way you are supporting her pregnancy apptmt and following policy

The Maternity hospital she's named is miles and miles away. She'll never be back on time (if she is going to the appointment), and she made this clear to me when we had our chat

Keep your powder dry @SayYouCare.

Authorise the maternity appointment, keep the holiday request unauthorised.

Then keep a close eye on her social media pages as it sounds like she isn't too sharp at joining the dots.

if you were me, I'd be asking IT to give me remote access to her work emails and reviewing content there.

Best case, all one big co-incidence, no harm done.
Worst case, you end up with incontrovertible evidence of misconduct.

I'm confused - First she tells you she needs to leave at 12 and then asks for the whole day as the hospital is so far away? You've already told her she can't have the afternoon so she asks for a whole day? Would it really take the whole day to get to the hospital and back if that's all she was doing? She has got you over a barrel as she knows she's covered by maternity discrimination. Could you give her the time off but say you expect her to make up time when she's back after her holiday? You may get some flack from those who are working on Friday, could you tell them she has a medical appt for which she's entitled to time off if anyone asks? If it is a lie she'll give herself away at some point but until then I think your hands are tied.

So did you ask her how on Earth she was going to make her flight at 3pm then? If she can't get back to work, then presumably she can't get to the airport either? Unless the hospital and the airport are next door to each other?

Whatc@ShotsFired said. There's really little else you can do.

You could inform her in writing that leave for her appointment is authorised for give date. Leave for any other reason is not authorised and disciplinary action will be taken if it comes to light that leave has been taken for any other reason than this appointment. I think that's what I'd do. And I'd ask her to put in writing the time of her appointment and the hospital which it's at.

^ agree, this

Vivie Technically, it's none of my business what hospital it's at, although she did disclose this to me.

We as a company are literally 5 mins from airport

Haven't RTFT but why did she 'request' to speak to you? Are you her boss? When she asked for the 1/2 day was it granted or not?

I do hope your colleague doesn't post on mumsnet because she is very recognisable.

So what are you going to do OP?

What is your company's policy about line managers starting threads about members of their team on social media. Threads in which, on the face of it, confidential medical information is disclosed?
It might be an idea to check before this thread with its wild accusations goes any further. Can just see the Daily Mail sadface article "my boss refused my time off for appointment and started a thread on MN calling me a liar"
It might end up not being HER in hot water at all.

This is such a breach of someone’s privacy and so obvious if someone knows who she is.
I’m glad your not someone either I work for or working for me making accusations of lying on the internet in such an obvious manner. I would tread very carefully or you may find yourself in hot water for breech of trust and confidence. Not really something a manager should be discussing in public.

I think you should ask for an appointment card. She’ll either have a letter with her appointment on, or, she can get something from them at the time to verify her appointment. Employers ask for this for appointments all of the time.

Think carefully before you dig yourself any deeper

The OP never suggested the girl lives five minutes from her workplace On the scale of far fetched stories this one would be a 2 or 3 at best. You know what to do if you;re suspicious, but troll hunting is boring, and also not allowed on here.

I think you should ask for an appointment card. She’ll either have a letter with her appointment on, or, she can get something from them at the time to verify her appointment. Employers ask for this for appointments all of the time.

As I posted upthread, and the OP has indicated, you cannot legally request this for a first antenatal appointment.

OH dear. I think you've been played too, but really don't see that you can do anything about it except let it go.
Unless you have timestamped photos of her at the airport when she should have been in her appointment, which you might if her social media is wide open, then there's not an awful lot you can do - except if you can prove she didn't have a booking appt, then you could potentially get her pay docked the half day.

Just throwing this out there. If I already had the afternoon booked off I would think it was actually good planning to book a MW appt that morning and just request an extra morning off. It's much less disruptive to the day at work and I think a good use of her time, she goes to her appt, then off to airport for 1pm which is ample for a 3pm flight. And totally able to get to either airports from London in an hour btw. So her instagram post is correct 1pm at airport and bring on the holiday! Poor girl being spoken about like this by strangers online...

@noloudnoises Except for the fact she wasn't grants the afternoon off work for her flight. That request was denied.