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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think some people need to grow up a bit?

3 replies

sicklycolleague · 09/04/2020 11:30

I work in a team that's spread out across two offices. There are three of us London-based and three in an office outside London. Most of the time we have clearly defined roles and so the London/not London work doesn't (or shouldn't) cross over that much. My line manager is non-London staff.

During the current crisis we are all working from home, full-time (and the part-time staff are doing their max hours), no need for furloughing which is all fine. But what I've noticed is that some of the non-London staff (two in particular) are taking the p*ss.

One is CONSTANTLY ill. There's nothing much wrong with her, which we know because she is a terrible oversharer, but since I've been in post she's had at least one sick day off a month. Every cold, every ailment, she apparently gets. I don't actually really care but on occasions when I need to ask a straightforward question, it's very frustrating as it takes forever to get an answer. So things just get delayed for days/weeks.

The other is my line manager, who is incredibly officious but seems to do very little work. She works 4 days a week compressed hours but her 'day off' is not consistent and always seems to be additional to any sick days or leave. So if she has a sick day on a Monday, even if she normally has Monday as her 'day off', she will also take a Friday off. We have very generous annual leave and sick leave allowances so combined with the amount of time spent on holiday/caring for her husband/childcare dramas, I end up picking up a lot of the slack. I have not so far taken any annual or sick leave this year, while she had almost four weeks off in February and March not counting sick days. She's also started randomly skype calling since we've been wfh with a grizzly child in the background so no work gets done for an hour to discuss pointless things that could've been an email.

I'm at my wits' end tbh. I have quite a bit of work and projects to do, and they keep going on about how they're drowning in work/asking if I can do bits of theirs/spending hours deciding who will do which bits. If they just knuckled down and stopped moaning and creating drama and taking days off, the work would get done. We have a ridiculous group chat which seems primarily used for updates on my line manager's pregnancy and my other colleague's health moans and I just want to mute it.

What do I do? AIBU to want to raise this with our director after the coronavirus crisis is over?

OP posts:
HugoSpritz · 09/04/2020 12:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SharonasCorona · 09/04/2020 12:48

No advice but this sounds awful, you have my sympathies, OP.

Do you enjoy the job or is all this spurring you to find a new one?

sicklycolleague · 09/04/2020 15:17

Thanks both.

@SharonasCorona I do enjoy the job but tbh think I will start to look elsewhere. It was a bit of a sideways move for me (for various reasons) and I've been here six months. But I'm wary of getting into a pattern of leaving jobs too soon so think it will be a very slow job search.

@HugoSpritz I am happy to do a little extra as we're all busy but they make it complicated! It's never a low-key thing, which is all that's necessary, there's a conference call to discuss who has capacity. Saying "if I send you 5-10 bits to take on is that ok?" would be fine. I do feel sorry for her at home with the kids as her DH is not working though poorly so less able to help. What usually happens is I end up entertaining the baby for a bit on video call by making faces/playing peekaboo etc. I don't really mind doing that occasionally and I'm not mean about it but it is a waste of time happening almost every day. I strongly suspect a lot of the calling is for social rather than work reasons as she is lonely, and I feel for her.

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