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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be fed up with colleague working on her days off

79 replies

Ceci03 · 08/10/2021 09:21

So my colleague works 3 days a week, but she's started checking her emails, and ending up working on the other 2 days as well. It's just starting to really piss me off. I'm full time, and here, wanting work to do, but she wont put an 'out of office' on her email, or email forwarding, and won't let me pick up any of "her" work when she's off-time, she deals with it herself. I'm not sure if she doesnt trust me, or she is just a bit of a control freak. It's annoying cos I am full-time, and was brought in originally as there was too much work for 1 part-timer. I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs and she's just put a message on teams that she is online this morning as she has a lot of urgent things to deal with (she doesnt work on Fridays). I replied to her to just forward stuff over to me, but she said it's no problem. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

OP posts:
FortunesFave · 08/10/2021 12:08

@ssd

So her contract is up in dec and shes been there years Hmm
OP said she's been in various depts.
Smalldogbigdog · 08/10/2021 12:10

@Ozanj

Speak to your line manager. What she is doing is a huge red flag for fraud - working days off, not delegating. Add on wfh and it’s very possible she’s doing stuff she shouldn’t be. Your manager needs to handle it
I see a few posters have mentioned fraud, but I don't follow. Where is the fraud in working on days off?
Ozanj · 08/10/2021 12:11

@Smalldogbigdog - it’s not just her working days off which is the red flag. It’s also refusing to delegate. Add on wfh and that she is a woman, makes internal fraud much more likely.

Rainbowheart1 · 08/10/2021 12:12

Bonus!!! Sit back and relax and enjoy a coffee, your still getting paid the same so more fool her, let her get on with it.

Cornettoninja · 08/10/2021 12:13

@Smalldogbigdog not taking time off and blocking visibility of what you’re doing is a red flag for employees trying to hide something. I think it’s banking where it’s mandatory to take a chunk of time off every year largely because it allows anything fraudulent to come to light.

Yerroblemom1923 · 08/10/2021 12:15

Put your feet up and enjoy the peace/mumsnet etc etc Do you think she's making the rest of team look bad? Maybe just tell them you'd like more work or enjoy getting paid for not working....?

Dixiechickonhols · 08/10/2021 12:16

smalldogbigdog

Basically not letting anyone else cover work could be for many reasons but one is if you are up to no good and stealing money etc. some finance roles you need to take 2 weeks annual leave so discrepancies can be picked up.

Mary46 · 08/10/2021 12:16

Maybe you a threat to her work wise? You sound a good worker. I was temping it got quiet. I asked the PA for more work as felt boss knew I was quiet at times with workload

Dixiechickonhols · 08/10/2021 12:19

I’d cover self by asking to discuss with manager and following up by email. Also visibly ask for work from her and manager on teams or email. Even if you know she will say no. Say I’m happy to deal with x. Be proactive and suggest to manager you reinstate handover etc.

Wisteriac43 · 08/10/2021 12:19

I've worked with several people who were 'work hoarders'. Neither of them were very good and realistically it was a way for them to low level bully imo.

Could you bring it up under the guise of it not feeling like a team? Is there anyway you can point to the work being damaged going ahead if she isn't sharing? Especially since she stops in December.

LaBellina · 08/10/2021 12:23

I used to have a colleague like this. She was a massive bully who was trying to make herself look more important. She also was constantly planning meetings with all sorts of people from other departments. Her results on the other side, were very low. She constantly talked about how she was busy trying to improve the processes at work Confused.

Williamshatnershorses · 08/10/2021 12:26

@Dixiechickonhols @Smalldogbigdog @Cornettoninja can confirm in banking (or at least when I worked there) you had to take a full fortnight each year - I think it was because they reckoned two weeks was long enough to show up any financial irregularities in the systems compared to the rest of the time. I had nothing to do with any of the financial systems but I still had to take my two weeks in full each year!

bluebell34567 · 08/10/2021 12:28

@YodaiamsaidI

I'd think shes trying to push you out of your job as she now wants full time.
agree.
2Rebecca · 08/10/2021 12:28

Raise it with your manager. Your manager should be putting in a system so that work automatically goes to other staff if a staff member isn't in. Also she could complain that she was expected to work on her days off if your manager doesn't make it clear that she should not be dealing with urgent stuff when she isn't there. They need to be giving her less work and passing more to you so she doesn't get near it.

bluebell34567 · 08/10/2021 12:29

@Dixiechickonhols

I’d cover self by asking to discuss with manager and following up by email. Also visibly ask for work from her and manager on teams or email. Even if you know she will say no. Say I’m happy to deal with x. Be proactive and suggest to manager you reinstate handover etc.
agree.
Bluntness100 · 08/10/2021 12:35

How’s it a red flag for fraud for goodness sake? I often work from home way beyond my contracted hours , many people do, it’s not bloody fraudulent or a red flag for fraud

Op is it a clear job share you have? You can explain to your manager that you are under utilised and happy to pick up more work load.

ICouldHaveCheckedFirst · 08/10/2021 12:38

If I were your manager and you told me about this colleague, I would approach the colleague out of concern - I wouldn't be wanting her to be going off with stress, for example. I'd want to get to the bottom of things - does she not trust you, for example? Are there new systems or processes that she's struggling with? Is she creating extra work for herself so that she seems indispensable? (I had one of those). Is she doing extra stuff for another department? (I had one of those too).

If it's any comfort, she's reducing her hourly pay by a significant amount.

Blueroses99 · 08/10/2021 12:44

[quote Williamshatnershorses]**@Dixiechickonhols* @Smalldogbigdog* @Cornettoninja can confirm in banking (or at least when I worked there) you had to take a full fortnight each year - I think it was because they reckoned two weeks was long enough to show up any financial irregularities in the systems compared to the rest of the time. I had nothing to do with any of the financial systems but I still had to take my two weeks in full each year![/quote]
Yes this is still relevant in banking, it’s called Block Leave. It’s mandatory as a result of an actual fraud that went undiscovered for years because the individual(s) never took weeks of leave and worked on their days off.

I don’t think that’s what is happening here though, sounds like a control thing.

Whoopy1 · 08/10/2021 12:45

I know how you feel op. A previous colleague of mine was similar. There were 2 groups of employees, one group contracted for 30hpw and one group relief (used if short staffed, sickness cover etc.).

Colleague on relief started offering to do school meetings/talks as a volunteer. These should have been carried out (and extra paid for) by contracted staff, but employer was delighted not to have to pay anyone. Then she put herself forward as the union rep. (Again not much point when she very rarely worked with us). I stood against her and was voted in as union rep. after which she barely spoke to me as I was “ruining her chances of getting a proper contract.”

Thing is, she had said at her interview that she couldn’t commit to working all the shifts, as her husband often travelled to other cities during the week and she wanted to go with him. Then she was unhappy she was only offered relief position!

It took her 2 years to realise that employer was never going to offer her a contract on her terms! She thought that she was indispensable, but in the end employer stopped using her as a relief, both because she became very picky about when she worked/volunteered and because contracted staff decided to turn down the extra hours to do the talks she didn’t want to do! She was so entitled, that she thought employer should have allowed her to pick the shifts she wanted, and the rest of us should pick up those she didn’t want!

Dixiechickonhols · 08/10/2021 12:49

Lots of people work extra but not wanting to take time off, not letting others handle your workload is definitely a potential red flag. It’s not for OP to speculate about its for her manager/employer to deal with.

SentDeliveredRead · 08/10/2021 12:51

I think the point being that they shouldn't be working from home or indeed working @Bluntness100
So I can see their point about fraud, very interesting, I'd never have thought of that

Martinisarebetterdirty · 08/10/2021 13:02

@Bluntness100

How’s it a red flag for fraud for goodness sake? I often work from home way beyond my contracted hours , many people do, it’s not bloody fraudulent or a red flag for fraud

Op is it a clear job share you have? You can explain to your manager that you are under utilised and happy to pick up more work load.

I thought that it was quite well known that people who don’t take annual leave, are never sick, work days off or weekends and don’t let others have visibility for their work are more at risk of committing fraud. It’s because they keep control of what they are doing and it’s less likely to come to light. This is definitely why those in financial services take block leave as pps have said.
Bluntness100 · 08/10/2021 13:03

I thought that it was quite well known that people who don’t take annual leave, are never sick, work days off or weekends and don’t let others have visibility for their work are more at risk of committing fraud. It’s because they keep control of what they are doing and it’s less likely to come to light. This is definitely why those in financial services take block leave as pps have said

That’s mad, and her work is visible. Thr op hasn’t said she is in financial services 😂

MargaretThursday · 08/10/2021 13:08

It seems odd that she's been here for years, but her contract is up in December. Does it come up for renewing regularly, in which case maybe she's like this every time it's coming up? In which case it's probably anxiety.

My other question is, are they things she has begun to deal with? Because sometimes (me and colleagues are all part time) you can find if someone takes over part-way through it can make for some misunderstandings.

I had a situation a few years back where we had a big event coming up. I'd met with the clients, sent several emails to and fro and we were all comfortable with what was happening in 10 days time, last minute arrangements were all that was needed. An email came in late on Wednesday, I mentioned it to my colleague in a "just leave it, it's all sorted" type of way. It was not urgent, and she had had minimal dealings with this client although she knew them from a different group.
Off on Thursday as usual, back on Friday to find she'd replied to the email, cc-ed everyone in with different arrangements, in some cases directly contradicting what I'd said we could do.
So I then spent Friday/weekend doing several hours overtime to smooth this over and reassure the clients that we would be doing what I had told them originally!

I have absolutely no idea what she thought she was doing! I am sure (knowing her well) that she thought, and meant to be helpful.
It was at an awkward patch at work, so I think there was an aspect of trying to prove her worth (which no one except her would doubt) but it made me feel very undermined, and I went in on Fridays for a few weeks with my heart in my mouth waiting to find if anything similar had been done on my day off.

BoredZelda · 08/10/2021 13:11

So her contract is up in dec and shes been there years

Perhaps they renew it every year.