Colleague taking the piss….

[Laughingteacakes]

I work in a team alongside a colleague, we do the same job, we are on a small team in a public services workplace - don’t want to be too outing. We are able to work from home but also have an office base and we do work in the community, around the area of our office base.
This colleague has small children, she doesn’t have childcare in place consistently, she seems to be working her job around her childcare needs rather than pay for the right amount of childcare (money isn’t an issue, think expensive car, large house etc). She also travels from home to work in her work time so that she can be at home at the times she needs for her childcare, without making up the 1.5ish hours this takes her each day. The rest of the team are working really hard, extra hours, lots of stress about getting through the workload, she is breezing along with a much lighter workload and therefore managing to continue to be at home whenever she needs to for her children. It is driving me crazy, I am so pissed off that the rest of the team including myself are working so hard and she is taking the absolute piss. I know different people have different work ethics but I feel this is really out of order. It’s also causing lots of negativity in the team with people feeling so cross.
This has been going on about a year, but is getting worse. I need advice, how would you deal with this, our manager doesn’t seem to be interested as the teams work is getting done.
YABU - you should just get on with it and not get involved.
YANBU - this is a piss take and you should do something to try and get the workload more even. Thanks for any views…I’m that worked up about it I can’t think straight….😊

I'm late to the party but even if she was doing her work, if you are working extra hours consistently to get the job done all you are doing is masking an issue unfortunately.
I am also NHS and would struggle to put a business case together for staff/ resource/ technology/ investment to help/ if the work was getting done.
I have team members that do this. They are not martyrs, they care greatly about what they do but i try to make them see its on me, not them if things don't get done and all they are doing is hiding a problem. Having a healthy work life balance means being more likely to have happy staff who on a rare occasion will go the extra mile (not every single day) when it's needed.
I'd want to know if I was this persons manager so I could gather evidence, but I'd also want to make sure you were ok and not in danger of burn out.
I really hope your line manager listens

This - If her manager is happy with her performance then it’s not your business.

I think you should stop trying to micro manage your colleague and concentrate on your own work. Raise your concerns with a line manager and do things properly.
I used to work with a few presumptuous, vindictive women, who were bullying and unkind and embellished everything I said or did and turned it into a negative to try and prove that I was not capable of working the same load with young kids. They were vile and didn't know the half of it. It sounds like you and your other colleagues are determined to see the worst in her, which makes you look like a bunch of bullies. Be careful how you handle this as it could very much backfire and be harmful to your own reputation.

Lazy people rely on others picking up the slack and not challenging them. Not fair on the colleagues nor the taxpayer.

If she can't manage her time, she needs to go part time and get her pay adjusted.

The days I wfh I can do my hours with childcare in place. I just can't do that when I have to drive into work, I just can't get wrap around childcare and no after school clubs. Those days I make up for it by writing up notes, reports and sending emails in the evening. My manager is aware, but to my colleagues, it probably looks like I am taking the piss.

She might not be able to get childcare for her children. I have just booked a space as I’m TTC because the childminders are all booked out.

we have just bought a Tesla because my partner was sinking large sums into our old diesel with no hope of it becoming better again. Electric is much cheaper especially once the car is paid.

You are projecting. There is nothing in the details the OP has posted that suggests she has been at all bullying.

This.

Its so obvious its unbelievable.

I don't know anyone who would tolerate this for a minute, much less allow it to go on for months and months.

So passive.

I can't imagine the foolishness of working for free whilst a colleague does fxxk all.

As for all the posters telling her to mind her own business?
Laughable.

It is the OP's business when her private life is impacted by working for free to cover a colleague taking the piss!🙄

You're being too nice. Colleague knows you will pick up the slack and is happy for this to happen. To all those Mumsnetters saying leave her alone, imagine if everyone slacked off like her. Of course you need to have a proper meeting with the line manager and sort this out. The colleague needs to pay for some more childcare as she obviously needs it to do her contracted hours.

Shirkers are a nightmare & doing it in plain sight must be really galling.

Could you raise it with your manager as a team - so as to show that it’s not just affecting you? Plus then can’t be written off as an issue between just the 2 of you.

Sympathies it’s a nightmare when you feel you’re being mugged off by someone in your so called team & nobody’s doing anything about it.

Good luck

It's not fair, if she is paid for say 36 hours, but only actually spends say 27 hours doing her work of course that is wrong. Think that is quite common in some places, I have herd of others doing this.

I’ve worked in the NHS for 42 years and I am still picking up the slack for lazy colleagues. I’ve just been thinking of all the shirkers I’ve worked with. They seem to get away with it unfortunately. At least I have a clear conscience, I know I’m hard working and would be mortified to think anyone thought I wasn’t pulling my weight. I often think if the NHS was privatised these people wouldn’t last 2 minutes, not that I want that!

You can't understand why a colleague who is taking liberites with their time and impacting on their team mates is causing those team mates to get their knickers in a twist?

I don't read the OP's post as her being concerned about the colleagues routine, just how that routine is affecting and impacting on the other colleagues and team mates.

WFH is one thing, WFH whilst looking after young children is quite another. Especially when it affects your ability to actually do the work.

I used to work with someone who would come in late, leave in the middle of meetings, disappear early. She had children but it was actually because she was so disorganised. She gave working Mums a bad name. They made her have a flexible working agreement but she couldn’t even stick to that.

You know I’m a bit like you and my work ethic is that I will always do my best job . But threw covid I worked non stop while most if my colleague made up every excuse under the son . So gave me perspective and since then I miss work if I need , I stopped taking calls after work hours and when I needed long term sickness leave during my recent pregnancy I had it without feeling guilty .
My advice is do your work , let others do theirs . Do not feel obligated dog step up to do others jobs . It’s better in the long run

I haven’t got the faintest idea what you’re on about, but I mean “class” as in a “class of people”, not as in working/middle/upper class.

Personally I don’t see anything wrong with that. As long as she’s actually doing her job what does it matter ?
you can’t control what people do in their own free time

My advice @Laughingteacakes is that you cover your work and your work only for 1 week. Same goes for the other colleagues. If you're asked where such-and-such is, reply "Oh that's Lazy Colleague's responsibility, you'd have to ask them". Just do it for 1 week.
Start at your starting time, finish at your finishing time. Don't pick up any of the slack for Lazy Colleague at all during that week. See if Lazy Colleague raises it as in "I've noticed that Laughing hasn't been doing X/Y/Z this week" then you can reply "But that's your responsibilty, not mine" and get the dialogue going.

Life is too short to be doing someone else's job for them and not geting compensated or recognised for doing it!

Do you have a "next in line" supervision with a more senior manager now and again, OP? If so, it might be an idea to raise the issue with them if your line manager hasn't addressed the slacker.

If not, why not ask to meet with them to discuss how unequal the distribution of work among the team is. It's very unfair and unreasonable of them not to address it.

I had a similar quandary in previous job. Although this was someone who was physically based in same office but not same team so had no impact on my workload. Came and went as she pleased started about an hour late and finished an hour early every day. If she had a delivery or something at home she just pretended she was somewhere else - eg at a meeting and went home. Boss had no clue. I struggled knowing that she was basically taking the piss but then decided it was none of my business. I would definitely have approached boss if she was part of same team though. Good luck OP hope it gets sorted out.

You don’t “have” to pick up the slack. You feel like you should and are probably sacrificing your life for probably a billion pound multi-national… for what? Why do you think there are so many news articles about “quiet quitting?” If mugs workers didn’t act above their pay grade then maybe your manager would be inspired to change things around to make sure the work is done. That is their job.

Just do your hours, your job and don’t worry about others. Fair play to her for doing what works for her🤷🏼‍♀️.

Bet you work for the NHS

Ok, what is your evidence of her using company time to travel and lack of childcare?

if you have evidence, then document it and send to manager without delay. ok, you’re snitching on her…but the manager needs to know.

also prepare some factual data about how it impacts you - get specific examples of what you’ve had to pick up, when , how long it took you and the impact it has on your life. You need this to be factual evidence based and not a general whinge and complaint. With evidence you can keep it relatively unemotional and just focus on you are not being paid fairly given same pay but you have to work longer hours (or whatever it is)

in a 1:1 with your manager follow this up to ask if they’ve reviewed the evidence collected on your colleagues productive hours and clearly state your concerns in terms of how it impacts you and provide that data too at that point stay calm, stay rational, avoid disparaging your colleague. . Ask them to review this and come back with a response. If they don’t agree, offer a solution, give assurances it’s been dealt with or not make a change ,take it to a grievance process. But you need your documented evidence to support this over say 1-2 months.

I think my answer will shock you:be happy for her and proud of her.Ask yourself,what does make you angry,do you want her to quit just becuase she care for her children and making her anympolyed,just becuase she try handle both work and children?If you going to talk about her negatively with your managers,you going to put her down becuase she care and maybe do not want strangers to look after her children.IF you really need she participate in some more work,ask her,what exactly is important,to work from home on that particular projetc,or maybe she can do saturday morning,when childs dad or relative is involved with kids,rather then talking behind her back negatively.Maybe she feel your preasure and she is feeling the stress from you,but she love her kids and she cant abandande her.Maybe she doesnt have so understanding man or relatives,who would do their part of babysitting or childcare or maybe she prearange her hours to be shorter,you dont know,her arrangements are not your business,but if you need a hand with particular project tell her so.Its you task to get along well with your cooworkers rather then be rediculously jelous if somebody rush to pick up her kids from school .Who knows,maybe one day you will end up looking after ill mother or will have operation and it will be you who will need to be out of office for while,you dont know what other people going throw.With your attituded you will make man always more succesfull then woman,becuase it is usually woman who are needed to care more and do more for family,while also needed to earn money.