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?

I misread your thread title and wondered who was only doing half a shit

Tell her she can either have reduced pay or work her hours. If she starts 15 minutes late then she leaves 15 minutes late or reduced pay. Ask which she wants to do then inform hr. Don't let her continue under the old arrangment because its not fair to the team.

I'm confused - you only mention her leaving 15 mins early, but then say that her lift currently gets into the office 15 mins later - so does that mean Linda works half an hour less than she should? If so, yes you really need to get it sorted!

I wouldn't bother 'being flexible' and stopping the early finishes but still letting her start 15 mins later - she is still going to be annoyed with you that you're making her finish later, and the rest of the team will still be annoyed that she is working less hours than them for the same pay, so lose/lose for you.

Being flexible would be giving her the choice of how she makes up her hours - i.e. either she starts and finishes earlier/later, or has a shorter lunch, or just gets a new contract where she is paid less for less time - not making allowances for her that nobody else gets.

I am amazed none of the rest of the team have put in a formal grievance about this yet or demanded to work their own reduced hours due to the time their buses arrive/childcare/any equally pertinent reasons - if she's starting 15 minutes late and finishing 15 mins early that's two and a half hours PER WEEK she's getting paid for not working, which adds up to, what, the equivalent of 15 extra days leave per year? If another member of your staff asked you to give them three weeks extra leave per year for nothing, or give them a 7% pay rise for no extra work, would you do it? Obviously not!

I’m not surprised there is a build up of resentment. It really does need addressing before you have an issue with absenteeism or staff going elsewhere.

Why are her colleagues salaried? Do they get more when you add up the hourly rate plus benefits? They deffo should do.

People really need to read the thread. Op has updated and said that the person in question is indeed only being paid for the time she's working.

I don’t know about the legal issues

Buy agree with other posters that working in an office where people aren’t pulling their weight and there are perceived favourites is bloody awful. You’d have no leg to stand on if “Jane” suddenly wants to go home 15 mins early too and then “Sarah” decides she wants to come in 30 mins late. Well “lucy” does and that’s not a problem is going to be their answer

How early is she going home ?

I think that the custom of working shorter hours should stop. There may be ways of making the impact of the poor transport links less burdensome, but just doing shorter hours for the same pay is not reasonable.

Only being paid for the time she’s there doesn’t mean she can chose her own shifts, however

She doesn't have any rights to continue this. 'Custom and Practice' relates to duties and does involve time IF she had been working earlier/later/another day to make the time up.

Several things here with my union hat on. Firstly, she should work the hours she is contacted for. She should work her full hours, otherwise there could be a bunch of grievances from other staff, (rather than just grumbling) and they would win.

Options are: She could indeed put in a request for flexible working. Unless there is more to her story than you have said, it should fail. She is not asking for it for any legitimate reason such as carer responsibilities, medical reasons etc. Just because she can't be arsed to find a way to get to work on time is not the employer's problem. If arriving at work for 9 am means she has to get a bus at 6 am, then that's what she does if she wants to keep the job.

Other suggestion is flexi time/making her time up. Good idea, as long as flexitime is acceptable in the workplace and also available for everyone else as well.

Doesn’t matter though. Maybe all the shifts are 9 hours but this woman is working 8 and only being paid for 8. If another member of staff wanted custom shifts would they be allowed?! If not then this woman needs to be told she does the standard shift

Echo making sure you will be backed up by both HR and your own manager before raising it. Historic issues like this can have a back story.

If you allow her reduced hours what's to stop others asking for reduced hours - even if they get paid less? You could have a situation where Linda comes in 15 mins late and leaves 15 mins early, Janet then wants to start 20 mins later and take a shorter lunch break, Geraldine decides she need to leave 45 mins early on Monday and Wednesday. So you could be setting yourself up for a right mess. I'd tell her that her contractual hours are 9-5 with an hour lunch break (or whatever it is) and that she needs to stick to that from now on. Her transport issues are not your problem.

You definitely need to take this up with HR and put a stop to it ASAP. The last thing you want is for the resentment to build up as it will end up aimed at you because you're in charge.

The first thing you need to do is speak to your HR department, get some advise, find out what her contracted hours are including start and finish times, if there is a special agreement in place, and if there is a clause in her contract about altering hours to suit business needs.
Once you are armed with that information you can then have a conversation with her about her hours. You could say that you know there was this informal agreement with previous manager, however this doesn't suit business needs any more and you need to start doing X hours. If she has an issue, she can put in a flexible working request and it will be considered.
She will undoubtedly be peed off with you, but better one person in the team is annoyed than the rest of them team.
Hope that helps!

18 months is long enough to argue custom and practice and changing arrangements is a contract change.

Unless there is more to her story than you have said, it should fail. She is not asking for it for any legitimate reason such as carer responsibilities, medical reasons etc.

I thought flexible working requests should be considered purely on business need, not the reason for the request?

How odd you even post as a department manager
This is so very straightforward

She’s not working her contracted hours and you are jeopardising the harmony of the entire department by this lazy legacy approach.

It’s should be a conversation between you and her that takes all of two minutes and should have occurred within 24 hours of you learning of the situation

Excellent post from SorryDidISayThatOutLoud. Apparently the employee's taken this for herself through an earlier manager being a friend, interim managers have done nothing and now you're stuck with it

Definitely get HR on board to cover your back, but yes, this needs to change unless you want real trouble with everyone else - they'll be looking to you as the new manager to sort this out and won't appreciate it if you don't

The good news is that once it IS changed, she'll probably leave - especially as her "manager friend's" no longer there to back her

Are the other team members paid for the extra time that is needed to make up the slack when she leaves?

Because it seems to me that they may be concerned at the issue of money more than the issue of extra work falling to them per se, iyswim.

Tread very, very carefully when it comes to sickness and absence levels. This is a separate issue and there are legally protected elements to it.

Is she getting paid for her full shift hours or her leaving early hours?

Just thinking about the basic maths if she is working an hour less per day but multiple members of the team are working extra to "pick up the slack" could the workload issues go beyond her only doing 8 hours? Could there be an element of her being a scapegoat?

How early does she leave?

It’s should be a conversation between you and her that takes all of two minutes and should have occurred within 24 hours of you learning of the situation

It's not that easy - according to the government website:

"Changes to employment contracts could be made by:

• agreement between you and your employer
• collective agreement - this is a negotiation between your employer and a trade union or staff association
• implication - that is through a change in long standing custom and practice (for example, if your employer allows all employees a day off each year for New Year's Eve)"

This employee has been working these hours for eighteen months now. Unfortunately contract law means it's not so easy as to say "change or leave".

Not surprised her colleagues are miffed!