Time taken in lieu

[Rollypoly100]

I work in the NHS. We have a crisis at work where amongst our admin team some have been starting work early and leaving late to accrue TOIL. It seems no one has authorised this. They add up all their accrued time and then take the odd Friday and Monday off. Their manager is reluctant to police this and doesn't want to get involved (incompetent) and it is creating huge resentment.
AIBU to think this is unfair on others who do their work in the allotted time.

I work in the public sector and for service user facing staff core hours are ten until four , with at least one late evening offered (appointments finish at nine) . You are expected to work to the needs of the service user and business, but this means it is flexible the other way. If they have no further appointments booked in, or their last appointment fails to attend they can go if they want to, up to half a day toil then it must be authorised, but will be if there is no work to be covered.

Essentially if we want people to stay until Christ knows what time when there's a crisis or urgent assessment, escalation, or report needs to be done or a sick colleague need to be covered (fairly frequently) we have to be a bit flexible back. It was the same when I was a practitioner. It means in some roles where there is a need for evening working most nights and no structured appointments/groups on a Friday, it is rare to see people from those functions on a Friday, however they do not have a different contract and if training/meetings etc are on Fridays they have to come in as it is their contracted working day.

Does this person working in the way they do actually affect anyone? Is someone else covering their work or are they just doing their own work but working a slightly different pattern that the manager is fine with? If the latter YABVU.

It depends on the nature of the work. Most public sector organisations work a flexi policy. In the main it's extremely useful for people at different stages of their lives .. (child care, school pickups , elderly parents etc) .. however the degree of flexibility is usually tailored to each different part of the business and that business need.
I got example work a fully flexible role because I have no customer contact in that most 'customers' don't want to see me.. (security/policing role) . I have to do 36 hrs a week. Which I currently do over 4 days. However within that role am expected to do very early starts that can easily lead to a 25hr plus day.. those hours are banked or claimed as overtime.
I can also choose when to start and finish. So literally come in at 11 and go at 2 if I have the hours.
However colleagues in the same department but customer facing would have set core hours so that the public can have someone to assist them when they come in.
It's just the luck of the draw.
We know we are fortunate and wouldn't swap out jobs with anyone mostly because of this great perk. !

Seems weak management who are not prepared to have potentially difficult conversations. There is a world of difference between someone agreeing different start and finish times with plenty to do (say to cover childcare needs) and someone who just turns up early (or late), with little to do for part of the day, and then leaves at a time which suits them and with no regard for others.

Reminds me of those who expect term time only jobs or shops open all hours but who would never want to work in school holidays or at weekends.

Why don’t you ask the manager if you can do it too, put them on the spot.
I actually had a team leader who stopped someone else from doing this but when she wanted to do it herself the policy was reintroduced

Our Trust doesn't have TOIL, however we buy in services from other trusts and it causes mary hell when they have TOIL or condensed hours and we are not allowed.

Seems weak management who are not prepared to have potentially difficult conversations
This is exactly it. Our manager won't allow it but other departments do. My colleague is part of our team so her absence does impact heavily on our workloads. Our manager says colleague retires soon so let things lie!

Also public sector here. My department is totally flexible but we aren’t customer facing so it’s less of a deal. It is useful to be able to leave early/get in late you need to, and it is a nice feeling when you have worked extra hours and get an afternoon or even day off. I’d take advantage if you can OP.

That being said, there are a few people in my office who use it for their own gains rather than business needs. I had a deadline today that I needed some information from a colleague for by the end of the day. She was doing something else so I said if she told me where the info was filed It would just be a simple copy and paste job. She said no she wanted to do it because she wanted to build up some flexi for her upcoming holiday. So I had to wait, which I think was flipping ridiculous.

The amount of people who work over their set hours every day just because that’s the culture and they want to build a nice cushy flexi balance. It seems fairly pointless to me sometimes.

I actually her comments like ‘oh, half day today is it?’ If I leave after doing my 7.5 standard hours because it’s just the norm for everyone to do over.

Thanks for all your comments.