Aibu to tell her that she needs to do a full shift.

[DawnFawn]

Hi,

Posting here for traffic to see I'd any managers/HR gurus knocking about.

I am a fairly new manager, I have been managing a department for about 2 months and all is running pretty well, however, I have an issue with a member off staff that I cant get my head around.

Let's call her Linda, she started under a previous manager who was a friend of hers. She doesn't drive and lives about 15 miles away with not great/not horrendous public transport links.

For about 18 months she got a lift to and from work with manager friend. But since manager friend left she was able to finish work earlier than the rest of the team, to get a lift home with another member of staff who finishes earlier. The stand in manager allowed this for an easy ride.

So......(thankyou if you are still reading)
In I come as a department manager, there is a festering resentment with team members that colleague is going home early, and it shouldn't be allowed. I totally agree but how do I stop this? She doesn't have any children, and doesn't require flexible working as such.

Would I be a bitch to say that she needs to be making her own way home? I'll allow a degree of flexibilty in the mornings, she can start 15 minutes later as this is when her lift arrives at the office, but she needs to finish with the rest of the team? Does she have any rights to say that she has been doing this for a while and should be allowed to continue?

Why not talk to the colleague and find out what situation is?

Then if she needs 30 mins, give her shorter lunch.

Go to the letter of her contract.
If she wants to do different hours she will need to submit a flexible work options request - you don't have to have a children or be a carer to make this type of request. An employer is obliged to consider it but they are not obliged to agree the request.

You should consider this request and whether the business needs are 35 hrs or 40 hrs. You can reject on the business grounds that work that needs to get done is not getting completed and you need her to work the extra 5 hrs.

Just go through the process - you will have one at work.

What impact would finishing at the same time as everyone else have on her ability to get home via public transport? Would she be stranded, or take hours to get home? If so, and she has been allowed to leave early on this basis, she could claim that this has become a term of her contract of employment by custom and practice.
Depending on the size of the organisation, if this is having an impact on business needs you might argue that she is not fulfilling her contract of employment, and suggest she is only paid for the hours she works, but she could challenge this. Can she put round an email asking if she can share a lift with anyone who lives near her?
I have a sight defect and therefore cannot drive; if she doesn't drive for medical reasons or similar, she could argue that leaving early is reasonable adjustment until the Equalities Act. No guarantee she will be successful but it's something to consider.
Don't you have an HR department which can give you a steer on this?

As someone else said, I would see if she can do some of the 'boring' tasks a little bit earlier. If she is going to quit and cause a lot more stress as a result trying to get someone in, I would think of ways around this to take the pressure off everyone eg. shorter lunch, boring tasks done earlier in the last 45 mins of her shift, or one longer day when she gets the bus home to compensate. As a manager, you need to work out what is best for everyone and not just the most vocal whingers. Believe me, they will be even more vocal when they need to do all Linda's work because she's left.

I would tell her to submit a flexible working request. If it’s grsnted yeah she can do it and if it isn’t then she can’t. If she queries any of this then I would say you are being accused of favouritism and are at risk of having a grievance opened against you by yours. Her travel arrangements aren’t yours or the rest of the teams issue

Not yours -others!

Her having children or not is a red herring. Lots of people have flexible working, it’s not just about having children

If you let it go you're setting a precedent that you're prepared to put up with it too -
Say no -
Be bold, what's the worst that can happen? She leaves ... ok... that's fine you'll find someone else 👍

You're a manager. Some of your team aren't happy with a work situation. Taking action is not being a bitch. Have an informal interview with the member of staff who is not working her hours. Tell her you understand her reasons, but could she suggest a way/s of dealing with getting full pay for slightly less hours. A manager owes it to all staff to deal with difficulties.

I wish you well.

Okay so she's working less hours (for less pay), but her 2 colleagues are getting a bit hacked off with doing all the crappy 'end of shift' jobs on their own when Linda leaves. Can Linda be asked to spend the last 30 mins of her shorter shift doing some of these crappy jobs so they are shared out amongst the team members more? And maybe say to Linda that in the circumstances that another staff member is off sick / on annual leave, she needs to stay to her regular contracted time so all the crappy jobs don't just fall to one person?

SorryDidISayThatOutLoud I'm bloody glad you're not my union rep!

Custom and practice that has become her shift regardless of what is in writing.less than 2 years service easy to change, more than 2 years risky for you. That simple.

There seems to be a lot of 'advice' here based on zero understanding of the legal implications to the business. Many a manager ended up in an employment tribunal by following the advice of 'Dave Down The Pub' who had no clue what he was talking about. Although it beats me why any manager should be posting this on Mumsnet rather than getting advice from their own HR Department.

Could you work it so she only has 30 mins for lunch so she leaves earlier? I used to do this in a job and it worked well. Or, she needs to change her contractual hours and take the pay cut.

As a manager I think it’s a good thing to allow flexible working wherever possible but ultimately she still needs to work the hours you are paid for. Maybe she could do one longer day to make up the time or reduce hours. It is never worth ignoring it though - this is a great opportunity to show to your team that you wish to operate fairly

Tell her she needs to work the hours - or take a pay cut.

Sorry Op, I think you’ve got some undeserved flack here, it’s good that you’re considering your options before speaking to HR. I think it’s likely that given this arrangement has been in place for a while you’d need to change the terms of her contract, even if her current one doesn’t reflect what she’s doing now. Could you allow the 15 mins late start but revoke the early finish if it no longer works for the department? That would seem like a suitable compromise as getting to work on time is harder than getting home on public transport? You’d need to do it with HRs support but only go down that route if you’re prepared to lose her or end up with a grumpy, resentful Linda if she stays, which may just replace one problem with another.

@Devora13

I have obviously spoken to HR at the first available opportunity. The thing is about forums like this is that its often better to form an opinion through speaking and listening to others, which then enables me to clarify my position to other people.

I'm going against the grain here, but I don't think there's anything wrong with working flexibly (I read that she's only getting paid for what she works). I would say your problem is with other members of staff feeling like they can have a dig at someone who's works different hours to them.

If the issue is that certain work is left at the end of the day, then just sort it so that she does some of that work before she leaves, if possible. Or makes up for it another way. You're going to have a bigger problem on your hands if you have to react to and acquiesce to staff who decide they don't like a colleagues working patterns.

personally after taking a view from HR I would ask her to put a request in formally for a change of hours whether this be working part time (i.e. the hours she actually does at the moment) or to come in earlier and leave earlier. I don't understand from your posts why there needs to be such rigidity about hours ... clearly she should only be paid for the hours she works but is a little flexibility so difficult??

Everyone has the right to request flexible working, and the employer has to consider it without judging the reason for it. However, the employer has the right to refuse it. I think this woman should request a change to her working hours, which would involve a reduction in hours and her salary / holiday / benefits pro rated. Or she needs to work her current contracted hours. Just taking time off every day isn’t an option.

Have a meeting with her and say you are unclear about her working arrangements and contracted hours. Get the full details from her and if she says it is due to lifts you can ask her if she needs to reduce her hours to accommodate it.. providing there are no real reasons.... tell her she either does her contracted hours or reduces them and pay. Tell her it can't continue as it is as it is unfair to the rest of the team. As with all HR as long as you are behaving reasonably there isn't usually an issue. Basically if you are reducing hours you just need to get her to agree to the reduced hours rather than demanding it. Taking the p I think!

If she wants to leave earlier then she needs to come to work earlier as well.

Depending upon how long she has been doing this, custom and practice could prevail, regardless of what is on paper. I would, use this as a starting point. Meet with her and discuss with her the written terms and that she isn't currently meeting her contractual requirement and see where it goes. The options potentially are to flex hours and lunch break etc. So that she is meeting contractual hours, otherwise reduce her working hours to what she is actually working and pro-rata pay. This could be mopped up in a cleverly worded retrospective flexible working agreement. The only other option is to accept the custom and practice as contractual, formally consult to change and serve her notice of the change. If she doesn't accept the new terms, SOSR dismiss and immediately re-engage on new terms. SOSR can be risky, and the risk is greater with 2 years service or more or protected characteristics.

But OP has clarified that all her staff get paid by the hour and the lady is being paid a reduced wage to reflect her hours. So she isn't getting paid extra for nothing, she arranged with the previous manager to do these reduced hours at a reduced wage. OP needs to find out why, what was put in place originally and assess what to do from there.

What did HR say? Are they aware of the arrangement? And thd difference with contract?