To just quit now???

[hillarypcof]

I start a new job at the beginning of next month, and my last working day in my current role is next Wednesday as I have some annual leave to use up before I go.

The new job is career progression and higher salary but my current job/colleagues have always taken the p*ss. Slacking. Totally abusing WFH by barely being at their laptop for half the day. Me being left with work to complete and picking up their pieces.

Since informing my colleagues that I am leaving this has only got worse, it is as if they are punishing me for leaving them in the lurch (I'm not, I have always done more than my fair share!!!)

Basically AIBU to just leave now? I'm not sure how much more of this i can take. I would take unpaid leave for the remainder of days that my annual leave does not cover.

My manager is a lovely person but not a good manager and let's these individuals get away with acting like this. It is making my final few days in the role incredibly negative and has started to impact on my moods and my personal life. My partner was pleading with me this evening to do something about this as he says he can see what it is doing to me and he does not like it.

What shall I do??? :-(

I would explain the situation to your manager and take unpaid leave. Life if too short to put up with crap like that and enjoy the extra days off

Why are you picking up their work?

I would go one better and go sick. You are stressed OP send a self cert in for 1 week and bgr the lot of them . Good luck

If you’re WFH can’t you just set yourself to active and watch box sets for a week?

@EnjoyingTheSilence

Why are you picking up their work?

Working in the field I am (NHS - won't go into specifics as would be outing) the work my team does has statutory deadlines and timescales. We are all of the same grade. The only way I can describe it, its as if my colleagues fit the job into and around their hobbies (10 mins of emails here, 20 minutes there), and I slog away going my contracted hours religiously. Unfortunately as much as I like my manager as a person, they do not like confrontation and have admitted to letting these things go as opposed to pulling my colleagues up on their behaviour. All well and good but it is me who the work is falling onto, as well as having to deal with my own. It is really starting to burn me out, at a time when if anything I should be starting to hand over the work!

If you can, I would use the next week as practice for just doing what you can in a standard workday without going the extra mile. After all, what’s the worst that can happen?

I know that’s easier said than done but it’s rare to get such an opportunity to practice setting boundaries at work, without fear of any repercussions to your employment.

I understand why you want to leave now. Would it leave your (weak) manager in the lurch? Are you required to handover and train a successor? I would be inclined to be professional and just serve out the week but doing the bare minimum to handover.

It is supposed to be career progression, so you want to leave on a good note and not give your manager any reason to not give you a good reference.

I like what Happenchance says. You can give this as feedback to your manager (assuming he/she is listening) which would help in hiring the next person and indirectly make your colleagues look bad.

@blueshoes

I understand why you want to leave now. Would it leave your (weak) manager in the lurch? Are you required to handover and train a successor? I would be inclined to be professional and just serve out the week but doing the bare minimum to handover.

It is supposed to be career progression, so you want to leave on a good note and not give your manager any reason to not give you a good reference.

It shouldn't leave them in the lurch as there are 2 other members of staff within the team, plus somebody external to the department who has joined us whilst on light duties. I am not expected to do any kind of handover as they haven't even advertised my role yet. My last working day is next Wednesday and the references and pre-employment checks have already gone through. Absolutely I want to leave on a good note, the last thing I want is hostility but equally I need to try and figure out what is best for me/my health as I have been crying all evening about this stupid issue :(

You are leaving so why do you care. Sign in do a little bit of work and sign out. Why are you unable to do this?

@JellyBabiesFan

You are leaving so why do you care. Sign in do a little bit of work and sign out. Why are you unable to do this?

Because my conscience won't allow!!!! Wish I had the balls to do this

I’m not a “pull a sickie” person but I’d suggest doing so tomorrow. Give yourself a breather.

Sounds like you can leave without disruption. In that case, I would be tempted to say that you are not feeling well and offer to finish off as much on Friday morning and rest. On Monday, you won't have improved but got worse ... I'd prefer this to unpaid leave. You said your manager does not like confrontation so I expect he would not call you out. What can they do, dock your pay? You were going to take unpaid leave anyway.

I hate fake sickies but in this case you seem really distressed and it really is only 3 days and a bit. If I were your manager, I would understand.

Can't you just do your own work and not pick up the slack for the others? If it's not done then you can show you've done your share so it will be down to the others to finish it.
If your manager says there's work left just say yes but I've done what I was supposed to do.

Don't get stressed about it. You do you and stuff the rest of them.

@GreenClock

I’m not a “pull a sickie” person but I’d suggest doing so tomorrow. Give yourself a breather.

I 100% agree with this, your mental health is suffering, you are actually ill. Take the time off till you leave 😉

YANBU, is be writing up a report on these people and sending it to HR.

I am disgusted that this is what my taxes are paying for.

As you're leaving could you just email the two slackers and cc your manager saying until you leave you will be focusing on your workload so cant take on any extra work. Then literally do only your work! You don't need to do theirs, so don't!

@stackemhigh

YANBU, is be writing up a report on these people and sending it to HR.

I am disgusted that this is what my taxes are paying for.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Surely there is a responsibility to highlight this kind of wastefulness when it is public money. I work in a charity funded post and some of my collegues could do with a kick up the bum as far as working efficiently goes. Like op, I too have a weak manager but it fills me with anger that charity raised money is wasted paying people who seem to be so absolutely inefficient in what they do ! When I leave , which I hope will not be in the too distant future I shall seriously consider highlighting to the charity what is going on.

It is a good idea in principle but HR does not generally pay attention to leavers interviews at least in the private sector. It is a waste of time.

I suspect OP just wants to leave, not start a new battle with her soon to be ex-employer and colleagues. They won't change. The colleagues will still be piss-taking and her manager will still be weak.

Thank you all so much for your advice. I don't want to end this job on a sour note as I have had a really good time here. I have decided I am going to call my manager first thing today and let them know how worked up I was getting last night. I shall be saying that from now I will be taking my foot off the gas little by little, and start the process of handing over my work. I shall also say that if this cannot be accepted, or does not work out, then I shall take unpaid leave for the remainder of my days within this role.
(I would take sickness but this new job is an internal, upward move and so would stay on my file for a year - I already have a couple of periods of genuine sickness from the past 12 months!)

Thanks all x

I think you'd be doing your manager a favour by doing as @Happenchance suggests. It would give her a chance to start addressing the slacker issue.

Just be clear with everyone that you have to focus on your own workload for the rest of your time in that role, so that you're not handing a backlog of unfinished stuff.

I worked in a team where there were lots of slackers. It was a nightmare. The grafters hated having to cover when a slacker was on leave, as we'd invariably have to deal with stuff that had got unnecessarily complex because it had been left for weeks.

I would if they let you and you don't need the money.

It sounds like you've decided to do the right thing op but just making the point that if you quit now, won't you lose your continuous service for redundancy, holidays and pension?

The way I deal with these things is to work out how much it would cost to take the unpaid leave.
Let's say you get £100 a day, and you've got 5 days left (just pulling figures out the air, sorry)

Would you pay £500 to not go in?

@StealthPolarBear

It sounds like you've decided to do the right thing op but just making the point that if you quit now, won't you lose your continuous service for redundancy, holidays and pension?

Thank you, good shout, I would imagine that by combining unpaid leave with annual leave I would keep my continuous service etc because I'm not resigning, I am still on the books but just choosing to take it unpaid/paid holiday leave x