AIBU reporting colleague

[endofmytether4]

My colleague is in a senior position to me. In our office we don't have a clock in/out system and we have no onsite management.

Part of her job is to fill in a timesheet on behalf of everybody in the department.

Over the last year or so she has never worked a full week and marks on the calendar that she has a couple of hours holiday leave to take maybe twice- three times a week. I was suspicious for a while because although she doesn't take full weeks off, it seemed like she had a lot more leave than anyone else.

Her leaving early means a lot more work for me as we get busier towards the end of the day and if she took a full day off, someone would cover her role but not if its just a couple of hours.

Last week when she left early I checked the timesheets and she hasn't declared any of these hours. She has almost four weeks of leave left and we have been offered payment for any days left at the end of the year (April- April) so I'm assuming she's going to cash it in.

Our manager has no way of knowing she's doing this unless someone explicitly tells her.

YABU- she might have a reason she needs to leave early so much/she might need the holidays and the extra money.
YANBU- she is abusing the system and making work life more difficult for the people who have to pick up her slack.

@blyn72

I wouldn't report her but I would speak to her about it. A direct approach is often the best way. At least give her a chance to explain and you can tell her how her absences inconvenience you.

This is the lousiest advice.

Confronting a colleague senior to you about fraud could cause a whole series of problems.

Report as anonymously as you can in the first instance.

If you can't be anonymous, then report to the person who signs the timesheets.

@DreamerSeven

I’d raise it with your manager in a “as Barbara is regularly taking a couple of hours a week of leave, it’s putting additional stress on my workload. Are there any plans to backfill her hours so we have adequate cover? You can see from the calendar how often this is occurring” That way you’re raising it from the point of view of how it’s affecting you rather than accusing her of anything.

I was coming to say exactly this.

You dont raise it as a co plaint about her. You raise it as a request for help because the additional workload it makes for you is too much. Just make sure to mention that her using her leave up in this way is causing the issue, so the manager will see what is going on without you saying "she is cheating the system."

If the leave is legitimate, and your manager knows about it, then it will get her to realise that she needs to sort our something to help you in the afternoons. If it isnt legitimate, then you've told her without it being "snitching". You're just asking for help in how it affects you.

@Gingernaut I think the suggestion of reporting it as a 'me' problem is the best solution. Telling my manager I am struggling to cope with the workload because of her holiday leave and lack of backfill.

Hi OP

Does your place of work have a clock in/clock out mechanism, or do you need to enter/exit the office building by using an ID card reader of some sort?

Are you all paid on a hourly rate, or do you have a fixed salary? Similarly, do you have a contracted number of holiday days in your contract of employment, or do holidays need to be earned (above the statutory minimum)?

In my place of work, time sheet completion is not linked at all to what people are paid or how much holiday they get. Timesheets are a senior management tool designed to establish how much a team/piece of work costs over the course of a year, nothing else. If the fire marshals/fire brigade ever needed a record of who was in the building, the info would be taken from the clocking in/door entry mechanism, not by anyone looking at timesheets.

If the workload is too heavy and you feel this colleague is not pulling their weight then by all means raise this using your company's procedure/policy. I would advise you not to mention timesheets unless you are completely certain there is a company policy which says they must be accurate. The fact they are stored on a shared drive would lead me to think this could not be the case; it would be very difficult to prevent people from updating someone else’s data (either deliberately or by accident).

Yanbu

You don't know that it's holiday leave. You've assumed it is. The same way that you have assumed the management don't know about it.

Before you speak to anyone, make sure you don't inadvertently let your bias show. You shouldn't have checked her timesheet. You don't know if her early days are authorised. All you do know is that you're not coping with covering for a few hours.
And if you're lying about it being too busy for you (because you want to get her into trouble) then you need to be prepared for every outcome including management being unhappy that you feel you can't cope because a colleague leaves early.
I've worked in offices where staff had lots of time off in lieu to take. Junior colleagues wouldn't necessarily have known and everyone would have been bemused if they complained it impacted them that a staff member was taking time they were owed.

@goldierocks

Hi OP

Does your place of work have a clock in/clock out mechanism, or do you need to enter/exit the office building by using an ID card reader of some sort?

Are you all paid on a hourly rate, or do you have a fixed salary? Similarly, do you have a contracted number of holiday days in your contract of employment, or do holidays need to be earned (above the statutory minimum)?

In my place of work, time sheet completion is not linked at all to what people are paid or how much holiday they get. Timesheets are a senior management tool designed to establish how much a team/piece of work costs over the course of a year, nothing else. If the fire marshals/fire brigade ever needed a record of who was in the building, the info would be taken from the clocking in/door entry mechanism, not by anyone looking at timesheets.

If the workload is too heavy and you feel this colleague is not pulling their weight then by all means raise this using your company's procedure/policy. I would advise you not to mention timesheets unless you are completely certain there is a company policy which says they must be accurate. The fact they are stored on a shared drive would lead me to think this could not be the case; it would be very difficult to prevent people from updating someone else’s data (either deliberately or by accident).

There is no clocking in or out, no ID card entry and no CCTV.

Fixed salary and holidays are contracted. They're the same for everyone across the board (apart from pro rata for part time).

As far as I'm aware timesheets are used by admin staff to record absences, special leave and sick leave all in one place.

@Snoozer11

How do you know she isn't attending medical appointments or has caring responsibilities which her manager knows about?

In which case she’s got nothing to worry about if it’s flagged up has she?

I think you should speak to her about it first before going up the line. You have absolutely no idea what's going on in her life and seem to be assuming she's going off to put her feet up somewhere. terrible advice.

It’s not down to the OP to challenge her senior colleague, after all said pisstaker will probably just say that management know all about it and OP won’t have any further recourse.

People are being naive if they think it’s likely something the manager knows about and there is special consideration. While this kind of thing is usually confidential,as a rule people do know at least something about their colleagues, and if someone was taking 6 hours a week off without putting it on the timesheet and lying that it was leave then I think people would know if it was legit.

But this is why people get away with it, because nobody ever wants to challenge it because “what if”…

@LorelaiDeservedBetter

You don't know that it's holiday leave. You've assumed it is. The same way that you have assumed the management don't know about it.

Before you speak to anyone, make sure you don't inadvertently let your bias show. You shouldn't have checked her timesheet. You don't know if her early days are authorised. All you do know is that you're not coping with covering for a few hours.
And if you're lying about it being too busy for you (because you want to get her into trouble) then you need to be prepared for every outcome including management being unhappy that you feel you can't cope because a colleague leaves early.
I've worked in offices where staff had lots of time off in lieu to take. Junior colleagues wouldn't necessarily have known and everyone would have been bemused if they complained it impacted them that a staff member was taking time they were owed.

She's written on the calendar that it's holiday leave.

I'm not lying about it being too busy, this is happening two or three times a week so can be around 6-8 hours work down.

How irritating. But I agree pitching it as a "you" problem is the way forward.

I read an employment tribunal judgment recently where the employee had managed to take an extra 3 or 4 weeks leave (on top of 6 weeks leave allowance) for about 4 years by manipulating a similar system, and they were dismissed for gross misconduct.

Does it honestly, truly affect you and your workload? Are you just aggrieved because it offends your sense of fair play, coupled with the fact that you don't much like her? Or is it genuinely adding to your personal stress level?

If it really is affecting your working day, then I think you would be reasonable to raise it discreetly - from the angle that there needs to be an arrangement for covering her work and who the burden falls on, etc.

If you can't honestly say that it impacts you personally - it's just annoying - then I would keep my beak out.

I'm not lying about it being too busy, this is happening two or three times a week so can be around 6-8 hours work down.

That's a whole day pretty much! Definitely approach it from the look, how can we get help in or rejig the work load angle

I think that if one member of staff can take 8 hours a week off and it not affect the rest of the team’s workload then they’re probably over staffed and should be considering redundancies.

Given that this doesn’t appear to be happening, I think it’s fair to say that the workload of a team is going to be affected by a full-time team member being unavailable for a 3rd of their working hours.

@AlternativePerspective

I think that if one member of staff can take 8 hours a week off and it not affect the rest of the team’s workload then they’re probably over staffed and should be considering redundancies.

Given that this doesn’t appear to be happening, I think it’s fair to say that the workload of a team is going to be affected by a full-time team member being unavailable for a 3rd of their working hours.

It really is affecting everyone, usually once a week some of us have to stay behind to catch up with the backlog (maybe 15-20mins). We don't have flexi/overtime so this is unpaid.

I think you should definitely say something, then. That's completely unfair and needs addressing. That's what management is for. Nobody should be having to stay late to cover someone else's workload.

Stop staying behind to catch up her work. At the end of each day give your manager an update of the outstanding work with a reason why.

@Mo1911

I think you should speak to her about it first before going up the line. You have absolutely no idea what's going on in her life and seem to be assuming she's going off to put her feet up somewhere.

Worst advice ever.

@girlmom21

Stop staying behind to catch up her work. At the end of each day give your manager an update of the outstanding work with a reason why.

The reason we've done it is because there are service users at the end of our workload. It's a charity service that helps vulnerable people and while it's tempting to take a stance and not pick up the slack, it would negatively impact people that don't deserve it.

@LorelaiDeservedBetter

You don't know that it's holiday leave. You've assumed it is. The same way that you have assumed the management don't know about it.

Before you speak to anyone, make sure you don't inadvertently let your bias show. You shouldn't have checked her timesheet. You don't know if her early days are authorised. All you do know is that you're not coping with covering for a few hours.
And if you're lying about it being too busy for you (because you want to get her into trouble) then you need to be prepared for every outcome including management being unhappy that you feel you can't cope because a colleague leaves early.
I've worked in offices where staff had lots of time off in lieu to take. Junior colleagues wouldn't necessarily have known and everyone would have been bemused if they complained it impacted them that a staff member was taking time they were owed.

Lying because she wants to get her into trouble? Ironic that you accuse the OP of 'assuming' things when you yourself are jumping to conclusions on zero evidence.

@AlternativePerspective

I think that if one member of staff can take 8 hours a week off and it not affect the rest of the team’s workload then they’re probably over staffed and should be considering redundancies.

Given that this doesn’t appear to be happening, I think it’s fair to say that the workload of a team is going to be affected by a full-time team member being unavailable for a 3rd of their working hours.

It's impossible to say. I've worked in more than one office where staff could easily be taking similar time away. It doesn't necessarily impact workload because staff members have different roles and job descriptions. This is OP's superior so although there may be similarities, they aren't filling the same role. I can see why posters who have only worked in rigid timeframes with everyone working similar hours, might find this type of arrangement unusual but there are lots of sectors where it's common. Because, at a different time, those more senior staff members will be putting in extra hours, although not necessarily in the building.

I would report her.

Stop covering her work load and staying late. It's the only way to get management to notice

I would also mention that when you take it up. Make it their problem.

I worked with a piss taker once. Always off. For spurious reasons. Once asked for two weeks off when we were really busy. Boss said no. He could take two weeks later or one week then. He took the week then rang the boss the night he was due back saying he couldn't come back as he car had broken down. So yeah he needed another week... apparently car hire totally unavailable in the north of france. Two hours from the port. I remember my boss telling me he actually laughed down the phone at her.

I ran a sweepstake on 'how many days off Damian would have this month'.

I totalled up his days off over the year. It worked out he was off sick/holiday five out of 15 days. So he was in for two weeks then took a week off

People knew. It was raised in senior management meetings why he wasn't acting up to cover our boss's leave etc and it came back 'well he's never here'.

Until you make it managements problem. Ie the work won't get done as people do unpaid overtime then nothing will get done.

If some of the team are having to do unpaid overtime to cover, then it does need to go to the next level of management. This person may struggling with childcare/medical appointments, but her early finishes might leave other members of the team stuck when they have responsibilities too.

Agree with PPs, it needs to be approached from the perspective of managing team workload, and what needs to be prioritised when you are short staffed due to X leaving early.

I’m a bit confused about timesheets/ calendar, and what’s recorded where, because I don’t know what evidence there is that she’s leaving early. Is the calendar a shared official document, or is it a whiteboard which gets wiped clean every day? Surely there’s a calendar/ timeshee5 discrepancy?

@DreamerSeven

I’d raise it with your manager in a “as Barbara is regularly taking a couple of hours a week of leave, it’s putting additional stress on my workload. Are there any plans to backfill her hours so we have adequate cover? You can see from the calendar how often this is occurring” That way you’re raising it from the point of view of how it’s affecting you rather than accusing her of anything.

This is how I would handle it ask for extra help on the afternoons that she is leaving early.