Told her to resign over this - AIBU?

[tiv2020]

A coworker of mine recounted to me how she had gone to our manager with a complaint that whenever she is off duty (sick/on holiday/whatever) her workload is only perfunctorily looked after by the appointed substitutes, who often perform just the easiest / most basic tasks, procrastinate till she is due back in, and generally act as if her "inherited" workload takes a back seat versus completing their usual tasks.
She is a good and conscentious worker who gives her 100% and cares about providing good service to her customers, many of which have followed her when she switched to our company several years ago.
She suggested that her substitutes get more training in her role (she has a special "niche" job and her substitutes do not have nearly the same level of expertise, possibly adding to their lack of confidence in tackling demanding tasks) or that she got a trainee to team up with.

Our manager replied he did not think the team were neglecting her work, that they did the best they could considering what was on their plate already, and that if she wished to address the issue she should talk to them herself.

I told her to resign.
My reasoning being that our manager is a waste of space who is only in his role because of nepotism (he's one of the sons of the founder) but he is utterly unwilling to exert any effort in managing anything at all. And that from the little i have seen of office life over the years (i WFH 90% of the time) i very much trust her word over his, her workload IS being neglected, and nobody but her gives a damn. Since she clearly feels let down by his lack of interest in her contribution to the company, she should try and find another place, and once more bring her customers with her.
Aibu?

Because proper training would take several hours, and she feels she does not have the autorithy to command people away from their jobs to attend to her impromptu training.

I think this is fairly common actually that when someone is off their role is half-arsed covered. If she’s off that regularly it’s a problem then either she could look for a company with a better culture, or b) make an effort to keep her workload low. I have opted for B personally… If I know I’m going to be absent or less present for whatever reason, I deliberately wind down my work load so it’s not a problem for either client or other staff. It does cost the company money: they choose not to cover or organise properly so the way I see it, it’s their problem… sounds like your colleague has stayed in her job a bit too long for me. She seems to care more than her manager! I’d be surprised if she stayed much longer. X

Thanks for that! I'm a nurse so very much deal with the here and now! We don't use agency nurses so if there's sick leave and nobody to work overtime we just have to add to our caseload. I rarely finish work on time and breaks are few and far between, but my holidays are my holidays! There'll be daily text messages about overtime though...

It's not for you to tell her to give up her job. It sounds fairly usual for the bare minimum to be done by colleagues to keep things ticking over in your absence. I'm a lawyer and the unwritten rule is if anything is urgent in your matters a colleague will pick it up but anything else waits. I'm probably a bit more responsive and if a client has made a direct request in an absent colleague's file I will try and deal with it, but I've noticed no one does the same for me. But meh, if it's not urgent I can't complain. Client may no be overjoyed at having to wait but lawyers take holidays in rival firms too. Most firms can't afford to have spare staff covering absences because they'd be twiddling their thumbs the rest of the time!

I thought it was fairly normal too. Colleagues have their own workloads so just do what is needed/urgent. If course if she's off work long term sick then the management need to arrange cover .

Out of curiosity, how much of her colleagues workload does she do if they are off work? Or is that different?

The reason i do not resign or look for another job myself is that i found that i rather enjoy the perks of having a manager who does not give a toss about what I am doing. I take it as permission to care not a jot more than he does.

But if this is your dreadful work ethic, do you really think you're the best person to hand out advice?

Most people who have pride in themselves and their work, wouldn't change that just because someone else doesn't give a toss about theirs.

That's her problem then. She has been given the authority to do so by her manager. She has knowledge which is important to the role that others don't have, but she is choosing to not share it because of her own issues/lack of confidence/stubbornness.

OK it's been awhile since I worked in an 'office' setting, but colleagues would only pick up the 'have-to-do' stuff during a 2 week break. That's why one boss I had would go away for 3 weeks - then the day-to-day stuff had to be covered too. You can't expect colleagues to pick up all aspects of your work whilst you're away for under 2 weeks.

Having said that your manager should have either put your colleague right on this point or, if her complaint was justified, handled his staff accordingly. he should not have told her to sort it herself.

Nah, it's really a coworker's problem, not mine.
Only I empathize with her because for a long time i took great pride in doing my job well. And although i was gratified to hear from many of my customers that they were so happy i was back in office (after holidays sickness etc), i always left knowing my coworkers would prioritize correctly and do their best. This was in the same field, but at other companies under other managers. If i ever had felt the need to tell them that my coworkers were making a shambles of my work when I was away, and they had replied that they did not see the problem, i would have felt belittled and undervalued.
The fact is that i find our manager utterly ineffective. To me, her telling me this was the last piece of the puzzle in deeming him absolutely unequal to the job.

Just for context I live & work in southern Europe. I often browse Mn threads about work because i find some really different dynamics apply in the Uk. Its very interesting and a new perspective.

Thanks to whoever contributed their pov to the thread and sorry to have mislead you with my poor choice of words.

Actually it is different 😅
Because while 4 of our coworkers have minimal training in what she does, she on the other hand has zero training in what they do.
So now you mention it, she actually never has to reverse roles and be in the position of having to deal with their workload when they are off.

So it seems to me that several people are suggesting that I should have let her vent and leave it at that; and that possibly she has irrealistic expectations of what other people can do when she is off.

Both points have merit. Also the suggestion that she make a list of Vip customers to prioritize sounds sensibile (she may already have done this, i am not sure)

She definitely lacks the confidence of taking coworkers away from their usual workload to train them on what would be perceived as her whim, since our manager has not empowered her to train them (to him they are doing a good job already) or given them notice they would be receving training. "Speak to them" is not a license to manage their working days.

Op unless she regards you as some sort of god like figure

I very much doubt she will resign on the basis of your remark

We do not work shifts, but whenever we are OOO, someone must pick up the slack. It is utterly unthinkable to come back to a backlog of work.

The manager clearly disagrees. Even if your friend is you, why are you so invested? Your job isn't at risk. Just get on with it.

Do her colleagues spend vast swathes of their day sitting around doing nothing, because that's the only way they would be able to pick up someone else's work at short notice and do it to the same quality?

I'm off work for a week at the moment, planned holiday, I got as ahead of my work as possible, delegated anything I could and have accepted that the rest I'll have to catch up on when I get back. That's how it works.

It is very strange

and talk about inflated ego - thinking this colleague is going to Jack in her job because you mentioned it

If she is taking a lot of sick that will be an issue in any job. And I might be way off the mark but it may be that her high standards are affecting her health and resilience in the form of overwork and burnout. Expecting your own high standards from everyone is a road to nowhere. Control what you can, look after your own responsibilities and accept others limitations.

@tiv2020 “The reason i do not resign or look for another job myself is that i found that i rather enjoy the perks of having a manager who does not give a toss about what I am doing. I take it as permission to care not a jot more than he does”

I actually think this is totally ok in the context given here @LaughterTitsoff … you sound like you are easily manipulated and probably underpaid- many businesses rely on people prepared to work their arse off for not enough in return. I would argue that’s part of the problem in the UK economy actually and it’s breeding terrible inequality. The business goal is obviously to make money- but who for?? It should be for everyone’s benefit and that includes adequate reinvestment in your workforce. It’s not ok to be lazy at work or to ‘underperform’ of course but equally it’s not ok to expect your workforce to be on it 100% and more when you don’t have in place any decent management to support them.

I think your expectations are unrealistic. The colleagues are probably at full capacity or close to full capacity themselves. They probably cannot cover her whole role between them. Perfectly normal for them to just do the essentials and leave anything else until she returns.

Pretty normal isn't it? When I'm off for whatever reason my team cover some basic daily or weekly tasks, my Manager or fellow team lead will cover anything urgent that they can't deal with, and the rest of it waits for me to return.

For planned leave I'll make an effort to get ahead of myself before I go, to balance what's waiting when I get back.

Well, this sounds rather silly to me!
Yes, it would help if she could train someone. She has offered. The manager did not take her up on it.
So? It is not her problem! She will puck up the work when she is back.
At least somebody is at risk of dying because the task is not done for the one week or two she is off, then I do not get it!
I mean, the manager is shit, but if this is the only issue with the role, why would she resign?