Work colleague - say something or keep quiet...

[Ekerty72]

Need some advice!

I work in a lovely place where we follow a shift pattern. A lady joined our company a few months ago, haven't worked with her a lot due to a lot of opposing shift patterns.

Anyway I was saying goodbye to her a few days ago, I noticed she was on annual leave the following day so said have a lovely day off. She said to me shhhh dont mention it's my day off I want to keep it quiet. No problem, each to their own. She then went on to explain that in her last job she books her annual leave far in advance and then never mentions in the hope that the boss will forget to cover it and then they'll call her up and ask where she is and she'll have the delight of telling them that she's on annual leave and they should check their leave calendar. She had quite a smug smile on her face as well which I found completely distasteful. I'm guessing from that, that she intends to do this with this job as well.

I am just shocked that anyone would take pleasure in this and when I think about our lovely office I feel really sad that someone would come in with this attitude.

Would I be being unreasonable to being this to the attention of my supervisor? Thing is she would probably guess it was me who had said something which would be a bit uncomfortable.

So AIBU shall I leave it, keep my nose out and if the boss did their role correctly then the shift would always be covered or AINBU should I tell them what she told me so they can 100% ensure the shift is covered but also as a sort of heads up for maybe any future issues.

Thank you all 😊😊

I would be careful wishing people a lovely day off unless you are absolutely sure they are having a jolly day off/rest. I've seen it backfire horribly when someone had a day off to attend a funeral.

Snake in the grass that one

She's a fuckwit, obviously, and it would concern me that she's already trying to cause problems having only been with the company a few months.

On MN, though, there's always a band of vociferous "snitches get stitches" types who'll be vehemently against mentioning it to your manager.

Weird, but you'd be even weirder to bring it up.

On MN, though, there's always a band of vociferous "snitches get stitches" types who'll be vehemently against mentioning it to your manager
It's not about "snitches get stitches" though, just that adults in the workplace don't generally go telling tattle tales on each other.
The same principles apply in the workplace as in schools:
Reporting a problem/concern = important, concerned with safety or harm, an action done on purpose to harm someone in some way, the person reporting needs support to resolve the issue

Tattle tales = not important, an accident (excluding health and safety issues obviously), concerned with getting someone into trouble, the person could easily deal with the situation themselves

Hi Manager, I wanted to let you know that Mary specifically told me to keep her annual leave secret as she loves being able to rant if someone accidentally forgets she is on leave = tattling

It isn't great, but unless you're good mates with the manager I wouldn't mention it, because it'll just lead to trouble.

I used to have a manager who played the opposite trick. He'd pretend to forget you were on leave next day and he'd ask you to do something. Then when you reminded him you were away he'd act all shocked and annoyed, and make you think you had to give up your holiday.

He was a dick.

This actually made me laugh but only because this happened to me this week.
Booked my leave in Feb for this week, pointed to leave calendar last week and said to my manager "don't forget.." lo and behold I'm put on the rota for this week

I used to do rotas for my team -- and i had separate notifications for all booked leave, (i would have had to approve it after consulting the relevant calendar, plus requests for days or half days off, or for early shifts/ late shifts as well as keeping a tally so everyone had more or less equal shift patterns.
How could the rota manager/official do them at all without this info? So i suspect your colleague is going to be severely disappointed unless your place of work extremely chaotic.

This reminds me of kids taking pleasure in telling tales on each other while making sure everyone knows they are they very very good.

Leave it. She might settle down if your workplace is a nice place though.

Why on earth would you do that, maybe her last work place was awful and this was her way of getting her own back, but why take it to your new job.
Would also prefer to enjoy my days off, not be waiting for work to ring to find out where I was. Sad more than anything.

Well she sounds a little kooky. But if she thinks it's that thrilling to try to get the boss to call and ask where she is, so that she can say, "Ha! I'm off today. Gotcha!" why take that away from her. LOL.

Are they likely to forget someone has annual leave?

If she's only just joined, she can't have had leave booked for that long that someone will have forgotten about it.

Are they usually on the ball at covering shifts through leave? If so, I'm sure they're aware that she's off work. If not, they will catch on to her fairly quickly I'm sure.

I'd stay out of it unless you are the one called to cover for her if they have forgotten, and then I might be tempted to tell them what she'd said. I'd also try to avoid her in future, it's best not to get caught up in someone's office politics games.

I’d keep her at arm’s length but leave her to her silly games. People like that trip themselves up in the end.

Tis an odd one

I voted YANBU as I think it’s fine if you want to mention it but do agree with others that she sounds very strange and if it were me I’d be keeping my distance.

Some people really are odd.

She may have been joking

She then went on to explain that in her last job she books her annual leave far in advance and then never mentions in the hope that the boss will forget to cover it and then they'll call her up and ask where she is and she'll have the delight of telling them that she's on annual leave and they should check their leave calendar.

@Ekerty72 You must ask her whyyyyyyyy and report back here promptly with your findings.

Enquiring minds want to know.

Why did she try to confide her 'secret' to you? This draws you into an 'us and them' situation. I'd steer very clear of any new person showing such manipulative behaviour.

What a saddo. I imagine she has no life, and I guess it's a bit sad really. Keep your distance!

@FunTimes2020

What a saddo. I imagine she has no life, and I guess it's a bit sad really. Keep your distance!

What a nasty post. You have no idea what's going on in that woman's life. She's not hurting anyone, she's going on her pre-booked annual leave.

@excuseforfights she seems to want to at least upset someone though. Secretly hoping that they forget she is on leave, can only imagine it’s because of the disruption this may cause.

She’s not a nice person to do that. Or a decent colleague.

There must be some kind of calendar, if you knew she was about to have a day off? Why wouldn't the manager also know?

She sounds awful.

I wouldn't say anything but equally I'd steer clear of her.

Give her a wide berth OP.