Taking the piss - Lunch break

[DeedlessIndeed]

Okay, so work for an organisation where contracted for 37.5 hours a week + a 30 minute, unpaid lunch break each day.

Everyone works remotely, but visits clients etc in pairs most days.

A couple of members of the team have started to take extended lunch breaks together, when they are working together. This isn't everyday, but fairly routine.

Other team members annoyed. Nothing has been formally raised to management and due to nature of role its easy to falsify timesheets to say a client visit ran over etc.

Today it happened again, it was noted that they took at least a 1hr 30 lunch break.

The staff are mixed, one is a great worker, great attitude etc and gets job done. One has got good experience but hit and miss when it comes to hitting targets. The other is in probation, but has shown good promise.

If report to management likely result is cracking down on flexibility to role, which would impact whole team.

The AIBU (i know, not really an AIBU)

1. Should team report to management?

1. What is likely outcome to the staff? Only can prove most recent incident.

1. Should all staff members involved be treated the same?

Who cares what they’re doing? Let them be and get on with your own life.

Unless their absence is affecting your ability to do your job e.g. more work is falling to you which they should be doing.

The result of reporting would be that you get monitored so closely that you'll be picked up for logging on at 9.01am and not dealing with something that came through at 5.02pm, never mind having to ensure that you miss 5m of each side of your break to make sure you're seen to be available again and your timesheets being subject to so much scrutiny that even a single mistake means your entire salary is in question.

It's not worth that.

Mind your own business, can’t stand people like you at work who are all up in what other people do and waiting to catch people out. Does it really matter? If they’re taking the piss their managers will find out soon enough. Unless it directly impacts you or you’re their manager just leave it.

Thanks all, just re-reading the messages after finising work!

No, we don't have flexible working in that sense. But if someone works past their time they will get it back.

I know about it because they are so vocal about it! Messages in the team chat.

I guess I'm peeved as it directly impacts my workload. We are supposed to be a team, if they get less done there is more to do for everyone else.

We work with vulnerable people, and there is a waiting list for our service. Fewer people we see in a week, the fewer people get help. I don't feel comfortable slacking off but I know that is a me problem.

I won't speak to management, I understand it is not my place.

Thanks mumsnet!

Just to confirm we are not care workers.

However, we do support vulnerable service users.

It's all in a team chat! No investigation required!

They put it in the team chat (WhatsApp on personal phones, not work device).

Also due to the highly sensitive nature of our job there would be limited topics you could safely discuss in a fast food restaurant. We work with really vulnerable people, it'd be worse if they were discussing work.

Maybe they need more time to compose themselves between difficult meetings with vulnerable people.

You are in charge of your own time and meetings, focus on that. No one is asking you to work faster/longer to cover for them, it’s a queue system.

I'm a big believer in karma. Don't get involved in things that don't concern you (unless it hurts others), unless you are prepared for it to come back and bite you one day.

@Taylorswiftly23 do you have are a very particular set of skills. Skills you have acquired over a very long career?

This involves vulnerable service users. By failing to act you are complicit in any negative impact that this behaviour has on those service users. It’s a shame that none of the other people who voted have posted on the thread and as a result the written responses standing alone look really one sided. And it’s utterly depressing but not surprising to see how many people who practice and condone this sort of shitty behaviour in the workplace.

Is 30 + years in health and social care enough for me to have an opinion? 😉

Similarly, by not working myself into the ground all day every day I am possibly not helping as many vulnerable people as I theoretically could at work, but there comes a point where you have to say 'I am not a machine' and 'I will maintain a sustainable work throughput so that I am able to really focus when I am with clients'.

Taking long breaks is not harming vulnerable service users, nor is it a safeguarding issue. Not turning up to meetings on time, doing the work you are supposed to be doing with, acting neglectfully or abusively - yes that would be harmful.

I also don't think I'd be publicising long lunch breaks on the team WhatsApp though.

If it's in a team chat then it's all in the open so I'd stay out of it.
Your managers can manage with the information they have. If it isn't affecting your workflow then I'd not say anything. If it is then speak to your manager about the workflow issue and leave them to come up with a solution.

@DeedlessIndeed

They're being pretty foolish if they are openly admitting these linger lunch breaks on a WhatsApp group. Maybe take some screenshots and keep them.

If they are being that open about doing it is it the 'norm' in the workplace? Ie we all know what the rules are but we do the work when we want and management is ok about it.

For all you know they may agree to do some work out of hours informally and can provide evidence of it if asked. Therefore I'd keep out of it.

If anything, I'll be sidling over and saying 'so how do you manage to work so flexibly?' And see what comes of it.

Be careful about reporting them OP because your other colleagues will not back you when the shit hits the fan . They will deny ever saying anything to you about it or even noticing it . Say nothing but don't pick up their slack either .

Your not the manager.

Not your problem.

Sooner or later management will notice.

Maybe management know but don't care as long as the work gets done . As they openly do it it seems management don't care . I would not do their work on top of mine though

The chat is more of an informal WhatsApp group- management don't have sight of it.

Definitely not an agreement with management. It's been picked up before that we should be only taking the 30 mins. That's when the Time sheets were bought in.

It's different if you are at a visit and it runs past your time. You then speak to the manager and you get that time back, blocked out on the group calendar so no one books a joint visit with you.

I won't say anything, either to the manager or the staff. But I can't help but feel it is wrong to do so regularly. It's taxpayer money and it's people who really need help who are having to wait longer.

If that makes me a judgemental arsehole then so be it.

A close friend of mine is a social worker whose job involves foster children. She is in her 50s and has worked as a social worker since her 20s.

She and the whole department are run off their feet. They have far more cases than they can manage.

Yet if she spends 30 minutes more with a child after a supervised access visit, if she is in court for 15 minutes more than she might have been, she claims every single minute back as time owed in lieu. She regularly takes long lunches and/or finishes early. She has to for her mental health as the job is difficult and emotionally draining. so much so that people are leaving it in droves.

I originally took the view that by doing this, she and her colleagues, were taking time from their clients. and spending taxpayers money. But the reality is they need to do this for their own sanity. My friend regularly points out that people not getting proper care is not her responsibility. More social workers are needed and to entice them to the role, better money and benefits are required.

Perhaps when you are in the job longer, when you have seen it all before and realise the onus is on you to look after yourself first and foremost.

It seems that management know because they are so brazen . As I said up thread say nothing because because your colleagues won't back you up when push comes to shove . Is there a way of reporting anonymously?

Is there a way of reporting anonymously?

Ffs 🙄

Companies who say all employee’s are on camera, are wind up merchants.

A third of the team during past three weeks have refused to put camera on. It was said to be ‘company policy’ but I’ve never seen it enforced.

Gets away with Managers. They just accept it with no authority,

If they are carers & managing to have 1hr 30 lunch breaks & still only doing their 7hr30 working time, you can bet they are short changing their clients, some of which are probably paying for their care. I would definitely report it because it could lead to a client suffering potentially serious consequences, they could be messing with drug timings or not spotting something that needs urgent care.

Sorry, seen it's not care, but if they are working with vulnerable people, they aren't giving their clients their full time & attention, this could have serious consequences.