To ask you what do you think I should do about my work colleague?

[DarkRosaleen]

I work in a team of three.
One of the team, ‘Janet’ is getting married next year. She seems to spend all day on t’internet looking at wedding related web sites.
Her role is pivotal and if she fails then our whole project goes tits up and us other two lose our roles. (We may get transferred to another team but possibly not on the same hours or pay. )
We are so far behind targets I am getting seriously worried. We are almost at the end of the first quarter and Janet hasn’t even come close to where she should be. She should get 10 ‘items’ per month and she hasn’t got one. Not one this quarter. She should have almost 30.
She keeps going to meetings but we suspect they are phantom meetings. Today she had a meeting scheduled for 10 am and was supposed to go there first but came into the office to say the meeting was rescheduled for 12. At about 3 she emailed to say the meeting was cancelled last week because of the snow. (This meeting was in the same town where her fiancé works.) And there is hardly any snow!
So the meeting was delayed this morning but postponed last week? This sounds like a load of bull.
We are managed by someone from a different department but pretty much left to ourselves to get on with it. We think Janet is either going for job interviews or just sloping off.
Should I report our concerns? How should I word it?
I just hate being put in this position of being a tattle tale but the alternative could be that our project fails and we all lose our jobs. I’m so stressed, I am not sleeping; my other colleague is getting very concerned and he is trying to see can he do any of her work to get things moving.
We keep making suggestions but she just gives reasons why they won’t work and changes the subject to weddings.
Sorry this is so long, but I think just writing it all down has helped me clarify what I need to do. I have to speak to management, don’t I?

Leave her to it .... haven't you heard the saying give enough rope .... had done that on more than one occasion...

I bottled it.
But, she had a morning meeting yesterday, a half hour’s drive away, and didn’t come back to the office.
She has in fact meetings booked every morning this week.
My other colleague thinks we should watch and wait this week, gather evidence, then report it to the manager.
He thinks these meetings are fictional. He is going to phone up the venues and check her attendance.
We are pretty sure Monday she was meeting her fiancé.
Thanks for all your advice.

Oh for the record, the manager has noticed her underperforming.
I suppose he can’t really discuss much with me.

Op you and your colleague need to flag your concerns to your manager. Even so he knows you both aren’t complicit, are worried about the work getting done and WANT it to be done.

Don’t forget, you two will be in the firing line when it all falls down. Just book a time to see him with colleague, and tell him you’re concerned re: not one of 30 yet - then just sit back and let him talk. Do it.

It's not up to you or your colleague to check up on her being at these meetings. Every day that you and he decide to play Scooby Doo but say nothing is another day closer to getting your P45.

Speak to your manager today. If they already suspect problems then you're only confirming them and are potentially saving two of you from unemployment.

You need to flag this now. As PPs have said, you're going to be deemed complicit because you are condoning her behaviour!

Honestly, I would rat her in now.

You are employed by a company which pays you and your department to deliver certain work targets. You know you are going to miss those targets because your colleague is going AWOL. Your manager manages from a distance, and is not aware that your colleague is absent from work much of the time.

At this point you are deliberately not telling your manager, which amounts to covering for the colleague who is likely to lose you all your jobs. I would tell your manager immediately.

Speak to your manager sooner rather than later. In protecting her you are putting your own credibility and job at risk. Do you think she would protect you if the tables were turned?

Dark I think you and your colleague are making a mistake "gathering evidence", that's really not appropriate at all and could backfire on you both. All you need to do here is raise your concerns with your manager. Be factual ie this is normally done however recently this hasn't been happening. You can flag that Janet is absent from the office a lot more than usual but it's not for you to guess what she might be up to, that's for your manager to establish with her. Oh and manager won't actually have to fill you in once they do establish what's been going on.

Honestly I can't understand how someone can bottle it re having a conversation with a manager yet has no qualms about getting involved in investigating a colleague and plotting with another . You're really overstepping there and it could bite you on the arse, you and fellow PI colleagues are wide open to accusations of bullying because her wrongdoing won't justify your wrongdoing.

My colleague is reluctant to make accusations without any foundation so that’s why he wanted to confirm whether the meetings this week are real and if so that she attended.
She had one scheduled for 9am today but hasn’t gone and hasn’t said why.
(Incidentally she is changing her wedding colors from teal and gold to grey and gold and going for a medium heel wedding shoe)

You don't have to have evidence. The evidence is that she was supposed to achieve x and y and hasn't even achieved z yet which means the project is behind and you are very concerned and need her to get on with her bits. That's all you need to say.

My colleague is reluctant to make accusations without any foundation so that’s why he wanted to confirm whether the meetings this week are real and if so that she attended.

The point is that nobody needs to make any accusations. All you need to do is say to your manager that the team is behind target, that you have concerns that there may be performance issues and ask that they address it. You do not need to say "we reckon Janet fucks off daily to meet her fiancé, look at wedding venues and attend job interviews" because that would be a guess. A bloody good guess but still a guess! As her colleague it's not part of your role to check up on her in the way you and male colleague are planning, you're not required to prove anything just to alert your manager to the fact a problem exists. After that s/he or HR will investigate in line with whatever process your company has in place for identifying underperformance/misconduct.

Stop playing Poirot and go talk to management today. Her wedding is not more important than your mortgage payment.

Agree with all of the people saying report it now. Let management do the “investigation.”

My colleague is reluctant to make accusations without any foundation so that’s why he wanted to confirm whether the meetings this week are real and if so that she attended.

You don't need your colleague's permission to report! For goodness sake, this is YOUR job on the line as much as the manager's. You are now complicit in any wrongdoing as you are effectively covering for her!

You don’t need to report her, you do need to report how key items are missing from the project and unless this changes then it will fail.
They can join the dots.

We have a meeting scheduled tomorrow with the manager. We will express our concerns then.
Thank you for all your help and suggestions.

good luck with the meeting, it sounds like you really need it

Good luck op and well done. You’re doing the right thing.

I have expressed concerns about a colleague underperforming to management. It was well received.

I've been in this position with a Janet of my very own and it felt insurmountable at the time. I did sit down with our Director and raise it as a 'risk' to our project's success and it was acted upon very quickly. They put in place regular checks, had a very firm chat, tightened up processes (resourcing her autonomy) and stopped personal internet use. Funnily enough her productivity shot through the roof! Sometimes these Janets just need a reality check / kick up the arse.

Good luck OP, hopefully you'll get a similar outcome to Qizzly.

I had this, but with a line manage not colleague. I spoke to ‘janets’ manager, I think, if anything, having that conversation helped my place in the company not risked it.

Very best of luck OP. I think you are doing the right thing. I wouldnt concentrate on the mysterious ‘meetngs’ and her whereabouts but would stick to this bit from your OP:

Her role is pivotal and if she fails then our whole project goes tits up and us other two lose our roles....We are so far behind targets I am getting seriously worried. We are almost at the end of the first quarter and Janet hasn’t even come close to where she should be. She should get 10 ‘items’ per month and she hasn’t got one. Not one this quarter. She should have almost 30

You dont need to play the sleuth, just stick to these professional facts and the management will work out the rest for themselves.

Just a quick update.

We had a word with the Manager. He had her all sussed already. He had noticed a massive underperformance and other minor niggles like closing down her screen etc.

He said he now will want a written weekly report from her, he will move her work station nearer his office, inform her that she needs prior approval to work at home and a whole more controls put in place.

We feel relieved that we spoke to him. And I’m glad he is doing something about it.