Leave it or not?

[Chugalug21]

I know I’ve posted in aibu , I’m ready!

I’ve also name changed about six times and changed key details to protect the guilty and innocent!

I have a colleague at work who is completely taking the piss.

Manager works part time. On the days manager is not at work, colleague doesn’t come in. In the beginning, colleague used to text in or email and say they’re working at home or they didn’t feel well.

Now they don’t even do that, just don’t come in. It was even worse during the summer when said manager was off on planned sick leave for six weeks. Colleague had around two of those weeks off completely, taking various days not to come in.

It’s becoming even more of a problem because now it’s so obvious and colleague is so bold about it. Last week he even posted pictures of himself out and about with his children on a day out when he should’ve been at work.

There’s also been a few incidents where collegue has ballsed up
deadlines or forgotten work because of these ‘holidays’.

With a small team of only six , based in a satellite office of a large company, I guess that’s how he’s been getting away with it for so long. Nobody says anything although I know other colleagues are annoyed, And seem to have taken the tack if they don’t care what colleague does as long as they don’t get caught and it doesn’t affect anyone else.

It’s driving me silently crackers, and the Christmas holiday is sort of tipping me over the edge. Basically colleague, knowing manager will be off for most of the Christmas holiday, has booked less days off than they need themselves. The idea being that they just won’t come in those days and the manager will never know.

I don’t know what to do,. If I speak to the manager and tell him exactly and what’s being going on, it’s going to be obvious it’s me as I’m really the only one who spoke out and said what colleague is doing is totally out of order. To top it off colleague isn’t all that nice a person and will probably make my life pretty uncomfortable.

Do I just leave it and not say anything? Basically this person is having two full days off per week. They aren’t working at home, they have an admin role and certainly aren’t doing the admin that they should be doing. Emails are unanswered, phone calls not picked up, because basically they treat in that time as a day off.

I can't believe you've let this go on for so long, and that your entire team seem to be complicit in this. It reflects badly on all of you for not speaking up. It also shows that your manager needs a roasting too as this is shockingly poor management by them to have not noticed what's going on.

Please speak up asap OP. Speaking up may be what saves your job. As others have said, you're all complicit in defrauding the company. Time to put a stop to it by speaking up.

Time to grass him up.

"... and then asked me and someone else not to say anything when they didnt come in during the smmer, as they had had too much time off sick."
I'm going to be very cynical here. This was a test, and from his point of view you passed. He tested you to see if you would cover for him. And when you did, he knew he was safe to take the piss, because having covered once, you'd be less likely to call him out, partly because you now felt complicit. He really knows how to manipulate people!

I just cannot understand why people let stuff like this continue

I suggest you mention it to the manager and say there is a situation where a colleague keeps taking time off when they know you are not here. I am not going to mention names but if you could pop in during your next set of days off if I was to maybe text saying its a good day to drop in it would be appreciated. It let's them know somethings going on without naming names and if manager was to drop in they find out for themselves.

Tell the manager. They can catch the colleague out with proof without saying it's third party information (like coming in on planned days off!) .... as a people manager I would want to know this and would use the information to do my own investigation

The consensus seems is I’ve been unreasonable about doing something for a long time, but also It’s reasonable for me to raise it at work. The aibu method at its best :).

I am inclined to raise it with manager initially; he’s not a bad bloke and I think he would be able to understand my reasons for not coming up sooner hopefully :/

All these replies are really helpful, thankyou.

He’s basically stealing his salary from the company and you could be on a sticky wicket if you knowingly let it continue. I’d absolutely let my manager know what’s happening

I would be inclined to mention that you think he will cause you harassment/ be a bully in the work place and that's why you have been reluctant until now in reporting the problem , I would go straight above your manager as he's not readily available

I would definitely raise it.

If you don’t feel confident enough to do that then a print out of the offending Facebook posts showing he was out of the office anonymously put in an envelope on managers desk should work.

We are lucky in that we get a lot of freedom to be out and about and to my knowledge this isn't abused by anyone else

Holidayhead is jeopardising that freedom, & unless you get active & either report or 'naively' ask if the rest of you are also allowed to work from home X days per week, when repercussions finally hit they might curtail that freedom.
Holidayhead is a selfish fucker who might cock up a nice working environment for all of you.

Chin up & do it, OP!!

I agree with everyone else op. You need to report him. He is stealing from your employer. And it's not fair on the rest of you.

No one likes a grass though do they. Are you public sector? Does them being off make your job harder? If no and no I would personally leave it. I think I'm in the minority there though.

Personally i wouldn't say anything
You don't know and can't prove that they're not working from home - so if that's allowed they're not doing anything wrong.

Don't get me wrong, I'd be fuming, but if you each have your own work then it's not your business.
Don't pick up the slack and leave them to it, theyll be caught out for how little work they're doing

I would maybe instead mention things to your boss about how you're still waiting on X email/piece of work
Or cc in boss to an email to absentee in the morning when they're both off - boss will wonder why there was no response until the next day.
Or mention how you could've used absentees help yday
Or ask how his day off was
What did you get up to yday

Reference a meeting that was had without them or other ways round it.
But really that would just be for fun, if they're going to be off and it's going to annoy you why make it easy for them.

If you share a work load and you're taking on more because of them that's different. And do say something.

Do be careful that boss doesn't already know, they're not closer than you think are they? And there's no chance they've had a conversation about it and it's been agreed between them etc. Maybe for personal circumstances you don't know about, you'd look like a right bitch then

Jason, no, no one likes a snake in the grass and I'll be frank ,that's one reason I've not said anything. Private sector, think big money although I don't earn the big money .

Mrwoofington I'm certain manager doesn't know, i cant realy say more without outing myself. None of us are allowed to work at home and we're strictly 9-5 no flexi.

No one likes a grass though do they.

How old are you -13? No one likes someone who takes the piss and makes other people’s jobs more difficult - which OP has already mentioned so you haven’t even bothered to read the thread.

MrsFezziwig I'm dissapointed in myself that I've that thought but its such a small team, any way I do it it'll be obvious it's me.

Ooh so sorry @MrsFezziwig how dare I not rtft, get me told. You might be all high horse now but does OP really want the reputation at work of being the one that dobs to management. I would not want that.

I’m thinking of first asking manager if there is a arrangement in place with anyone regarding reduced days to three, or working at home. If not then I’m thinking of raising the issue in terms of not naming names, but giving a full
picture which manager would probably crack onto quite quickly.

Ahh now Jason and MrsF, just different opinions. Let’s be friends.

Jason , I’m human and I am concerned about being that person. But then my blood pressure goes up and I think why should I work my hours and book leave when I want to go off.

And then I think just leave it alone, get on with yourself and keep your head down. In part for an easy life and in part for fear of the consequences.

I'm so tempted to vote YABU.

The YABU would not be for wanting to say something to the manager or HR though.

It would be for you and the rest of your team for being so chicken livered not have done anything for so long.

Don't you all know that when it all comes to light that the lot of you knew and didn't say anything, that you will also be in the firing line!

I'm pretty astonished that your employee got to keep his job ruby! To me this feels like a level above your 'normal' skiving (being in work but not doing anything, taking some pretty spurious sick leave) because it's so calculated and devious. I don't think people should be lazy at work, but I see how people slip into bad habits - for me it's the dishonesty more than the shirking that makes this so awful.

@JasonPollack you have every right not to read the thread, but then you have every right to be called out on misinformed comments. So what else would you overlook before “dobbing” someone in - stealing, bullying? I wouldn’t want to be the one who potentially gets implicated in someone else’s fraudulent behaviour. But then I work in a profession where you may be deemed culpable for not reporting serious issues, perhaps that’s where the difference lies.

@JasonPollack the OP is not grassing anyone up, she is reporting them for not turning up for work. Who knows what is going on in their life, they could need support or they could be taking the piss, either way their work is not getting done and putting more pressure on everyone else
Grow up

Yes @MrsFezziwig I probably would ignore stealing from a huge business. @DryHeaving reporting someone is grassing them up, sorry if you don't understand the colloquialism.

What everyone appears to be missing are the possible personal and professional consequences for the OP if she does speak to her manager and everyone knows it was her. She could be punished and isolated at work and for what? The lovely glowy feeling inside of having done the right thing? Get real.

Can you frame it to manager as promoting good practice, is knowing where everyone is every day? My team work remotely so we are often not in on the same day but as long as we clearly show in our calendar whether we are in the office, traveling, working from another office, working at home or on leave then all is good. Everyone knows and no one is put out. He may genuinely have leave booked/ a working from home arrangement but clearly hasn't communicated this to his colleagues. Alternatively he could be massively taking the piss.