To think my working hours are none of my colleagues business?

[tequilasunrises]

I’m desperate to tell one of my colleagues to piss off but DH says I should just get over it.

She is DESPERATE be seen as the one that works the hardest and constantly comments on what time everyone else comes in/leaves. We work flexi and she’s normally in before me (I have a longer commute) but if I get in first she makes some dramatic excuse about why she’s ‘so late’. Bearing in mind this is normally about 7:30am I normally just ‘hmm’ but it’s so annoying!

I normally do about 30 mins beyond my set hours a day, as I have commitments in the evenings but when I pack up she comments on how nice it must be to leave early all the time. I work more than my bloody hours!!

She gets really arsey when people come in later than 9 and a sarky ‘good afternoon’ is usually employed.

We are busy, but there is rarely anything urgent that can’t be spread over a few days but she just can’t bare not to be the last one out so she stays late into the evenings just faffing and moaning about how busy she is.

Would I be completely unreasonable to turn around and tell her to keep her nose out of my business next time she comments?

(Stories about how other people deal with keener colleagues would also be appreciated)

Next time she comments say “why does it bother you what time people come in and leave? We all work our hours.”
Then just leave it at that. I’d have to say something as it would drive me mad!

How about a “Gosh l, you must be dreadful inefficient if you have to work long hours. Everyone else seems to manage within their contracted hours”.

Next time she says it must be nice to leave early just say "Yeah I know, amazing what being good at my job can do!"

Love @EL2019 comment!

If she is just staying beyond her hours to be last it would be worth having a chat with managers - she is obviously building up flexi for the sake of it. We had a woman do that where I work and she was 'spoken to'. You could make a sarky comment about everyone having a similar workload and if she's struggling perhaps extra training might help.

Oh @EL2019 I would LOVE to say that. I feel she’d put in a complaint about me or something though!

I stayed a bit later tonight as I was on a bit of a roll tonight and you could tell she was itching to leave but didn’t want to go before me. It was rather amusing. She finally gave up and said her DH was insisting she ‘came home early’.

I'd ask her if she wants any time management tips.

Above comments are good. Use those!

That’s a good idea @Ijustwanttoretire. It could be that I’m worried work isn’t being distributed fairly as irritating colleague seems to have too much on. Really though, I know she doesn’t. But if it meant she would get spoken to...

“I guess I’m just efficient and I manage to do my job well in my contacted hours with less overtime than some need to put in.”

You could choose to leave it there but in my head I’d add “happy to support anyone that needs it to polish up”

She feels threatened, I've worked with someone like that in every job .
I usually just ignore or make a sarky comment back like If I only I was as dedicated to my job as you are .
It usually shuts them up while they figure out you being genuine or not .
Seriously annoying as it is people who feel the need to pass comment just shrug it off and do the same back to her if she's in later say afternoon etc .

I'd probably go with Oly4s suggestion

Yep, go to them out of concern for poor colleague who doesn’t seem to be coping as she’s making such a show of the hours other people work.

My husband works with one of these, she’s a bloody nightmare. She looses a lot of flexi and makes sure everyone knows how much she gives to work.

I'd probably laugh whenever she comes out with anything tbh, couldn't help myself.

Tell her presenteeism is so 20th century... or any of the above. She's obviously insecure and I would just focus on being confident that you're good at your job and get everything done in the allotted hours.

I love EL2019's comment.

If you don't want to be that blatant, you could start a conversation about the four day working week and how it's interesting that some countries and companies are recognising that efficiency stays the same, or even improves, with working less hours...

Or be blunt. I'd probably have to ask her why she cared so much about everyone's hours. She's got a classic case of presenteeism.

Sadly presenteeism is noticed and often rewarded! There was someone like this in my old office and we all thought her a bit sad, with no life! Yet the last I heard, she got some massive promotion so I guess it worked well for her. I place more value on my life outside of work. You should just feel sorry for her that her self esteem and value in herself are so linked to her job. IMO there is usually something lacking in someones private life when they are so keen to prove themselves in the work place.

Offer to help her with time management skills. I have one of them too.

See, I love dealing with people like this and completely messing with their heads.

If she makes a comment about you being there later than usual, respond with “well I don’t even have that much on to be told, I just want to keep my powder dry in case that rumour going around is true”. Then touch your nose conspiratorially.

Ugh where I work isn't this bad and we don't have Flexi but lots of us have changed our working patterns either formally or informally so people start and finish at different times etc. My colleagues are all generally nice enough but they do love to whinge about how hard they work and sometimes bitch about other colleagues essentially accusing them of laziness. One of the funniest things for me is that I only work 30 hrs and I work it to the dot pretty much but I have a bigger case load than some of my colleagues who work 5 days a week and I still manage to keep on top of everything fine without stress or overtime and still time for a fairly relaxed pace, odd tea break and a chat etc. Lots of my colleagues take longer lunch breaks which my manager doesn't know about, spend copious hours pretending to work when they're actually trying to watch Netflix or on their phones...and still whinge about other people in the team. I don't moan about anyone as I think it's none of my business and not my job to be concerned about any of it. I hope that means people will leave me out of the firing line too (not that I do any of the above anyway!) but I wouldn't bet on it somehow...is your work low paid OP? Mine is. I just don't understand people who don't even work that hard but seem to think they work harder than everyone else. It's so weird.

he wants to get a life! However, the time management remarks are great!!

I'd say, 'I do my work in my contracted hours and surf the internet at home instead.'

Reply "It's called being efficient" and walk out. Do you keep timesheets in some form? Print off the last month and next time she comments pick it up and put it on her desk. Walk away.

Or you could say something like "I don't know why you comment on my hours at least twice a day, but it's starting to feel like workplace bullying so please stop."

The person I sit next to at work constantly talks about how busy she is and how long hours she works. It's bizarre because some of it is an outright and obvious lie, e.g. she claims to always get in at 7 but I work from 8 two days a week and she isn't there then... Does she think she's fooling me, and why does she want to?! We're at the same level so impressing me with her (claimed) hard work achieves nothing for her...