Always taking the later lunch

[Noodge]

I 'man' a helpline on a night. Two or three of us, colleagues in same role each shift, and one manager although manager wouldn't work every night.

Manager recently got seconded to a different department. Her job was advertised (also as a secondment) and a colleague applied for and got it, although she does work each night I work.

Before she was seconded into this position, we used to swap lunches, one of us taking the latest one, one the earlier one. If the third colleague is there, she prefers the earlier one so always goes first, then me and 'manager' colleague would swap as we both prefer later (I hope this makes sense)!

Now she's got the position she always takes the later lunch. I feel It's unfair-her reasoning is she now works later due to her new position. She works 15 min to half an hour later and she chose to go for that position. She's also paid more.

One shift recently I was feeling really unwell (VERY rare for me, I'd had a small procedure done that had given me an awful headache) and told her I'd prefer the later one as I was struggling to keep awake and an earlier 'lunch' exacerbates this. She said yes at first and then said 'no you go now and have a rest'.

I feel It's unfair, It's pissing me off and I am tempted to raise it with her or our old manager (who 's still our 'official' manager).

If I don't say anything, old manager will ask me how It's been going at some point, I know she will and I'll struggle to not tell her.

Who is being unreasonable/WWYD?

I think you should speak to your new manager first. Explain that you struggle with the early break, and your role hasn’t changed, so why should your break times be always the less favourable ones. Her change in job/shifts is not your problem to solve. If she agrees, but backs out, then state firmly ‘We agreed I’d have late lunch today, I’d rather stick with that.’ Or the MN classic ‘That doesn’t work for me.’ (- note, I did actually use this once & it worked a treat!)

Can you also try being more assertive with the other issues eg ‘It’s fairer if we take responsibility for half the files each. If I have time when I finish mine, then of course I’ll help x with hers.’

If that doesn’t work, speak to your old manager, but I expect they will tell you to speak to colleague & also give things time to settle down before they jump in.

Thank you, some good advice on this thread including this.
She's off for a couple of days now (😁) and as I was getting ready for work today I thought 'I'll do all the admin tasks we have to do, I know X (3rd colleague) struggles with them'.. and I realised that that is my natural way of thinking, I do find it a lot easier than she does, I am a kind person, and I get through them much quicker-I am naturally absolutely fine with that. However I do not think management should be thinking 'Noodge is better at X task, therefore she should do it all and let others off with it'.

I just don't think that's right-what if I was ill or on AL or something?

And as some others have said, (and I have been in charge of a team before)-I just thought completely differently about things when I was.

Keeping staff happy is important! For morale, for productivity, for when you need them to do you a favour or take a shift/lunch/task they may not favour so much-if they feel appreciated and are happy, they're more likely to so for you and for the company. It's just a contrast from 'I'm in charge and on a bit more money so I can do what I want and 'F' everybody else' which seems to be her thinking, if that makes sense.