To not prioritise my colleagues workload over my own work when she is off?

[Timetogoo]

I work in a team of 4 but two members of the team work with a different client base than myself and my colleague who work with the same group and split them between us. We help each other out when we can and pick up each others work if we are on annual leave. Colleague works 4 days a week and has one day off.

I have been doing this role since January and lately she has been making digs about people not being “team players” and complains every Monday about how much work she has to pick up from Friday and over the weekend. She complained so much that I did say I would pick up her work on a Friday where I could. So the Friday just gone, I was absolutely swamped with my own work, plus my manager was giving a few other tasks to do as a priority. This meant that I didn’t get to finish my colleagues work as I prioritised my own plus the work given by my manager. Even though I got lots of her work done I still came in this morning to her saying “x came in on Thursday evening, did nobody see it or something, because it hasn’t been done?” She brought it up again another two times. I said yes I saw it but I didn’t have chance to get to it. But it’s rubbed me the wrong way. It might not sound like much written down, but the way she said it has aggravated me. I can only do so much work in the space of one day!

I feel like I’m not being unreasonable so not sure why I’m posting but maybe looking for justification and if I should say anything further?

What does your manager have to say about too much work being split between too few employees? It shouldn’t be your or her problem: you need more staff by the sound of it.

Sounds like you both need a chat with your manager to see how the workload could be better spread. It’s not fair for you to have to pick up the slack, and it’s not fair on her having to do a week’s worth of work and only get paid for 4 days. Sounds like bad management.

I think a lot of whether she is being fair to complain depends on whether you come back to a pile of work waiting from your leave or not, so hard to answer. But you can only do what you have time for in a day.

This is bad management. You are working full time and have a full time work load - you cannot constantly be doing two people’s work every Friday. The work that’s there for her on Monday is her work. She needs to be clear with clients that she doesn’t work Friday. Management need to address this or bring in a part time worker to help you both.

Her working 4 days doesn't mean you should work 6 days (ie cover her work on Friday) The only thing you should be covering is unexpected (ie she couldn't foresee it was going to happen) urgent work that arrives on Friday and can't possibly wait until Monday. I've worked various part time hours and job shared in the past. Her part time hours shouldn't impact you, the workload needs to be managed better.

Well if she is doing 4 days and you 5 then she should have 80% of your workload. Does she or is she expected to cover 100% of a FY role? If the former then you need to have clear discussions with your manager about client expectations on Fridays, what you pick up then and what you don’t. How that works is really going to depend on the nature of your work.

Under the circumstances I don't consider you unreasonable. But if I was your manager I would be looking to move away from this "my work/your work" approach. I would help you to arrange the work in order of importance to the company's goals.
eg if you are in accounts receivable and invoiced one of your customers for 30k when you could have invoiced one of her customers for 500k that is a mistake IMO. But it would have been caused by the way the work is currently arranged.

you all need to have a chat about it

If she wants to only work 4 days a week surely it is up to her to manage her workload accordingly? People working part time shouldn’t impact full time workers - or they shouldn’t have been allowed to go part time in the first place. It’s different when someone is off sick or something and need to be covered.

I think you should pass her work back to her and say you don't have the time to do her work and yours. Tell her she should speak to her manager to get role reduced to reflect the part time hours she's is doing. Might mean more work gets put on you but maybe if it's divided by the all 3 members of staff, then it won't feel so much. Or if 4 full time roles are needed then they should maybe look for someone to cover that 1 day a week she's off.

She complained so much that I did say I would pick up her work on a Friday where I could.

Just tell her, after reviewing how this works over the past couple of weeks, you’ve realised you don’t have the capacity to do this any more. She’ll have to think of another solution.

This is a manager problem. YOu need to respond to her with, "if you have 5 days work but only work 4 we need to talk to Manager. I can't do 6 days of work in five days. "

Then approach your manager. Her work load should be redued to compensate for her 4 days a week.

If I helped someone out and then they said I didn’t help enough it would be the last time I helped tbh

Does she work 5 days compressed into 4 (ie full time) or part time 4 days? That makes a difference.

but generally I agree - your manager needs to sort this out. Your colleague also needs to stop the passive aggressive commenting.

Agree with this - just say "I said I'd help out "where I could" and I had too much to do of my own work, so I couldn't."

This is a manager issue, not yours. I don't think a role that regularly has Friday tasks that come in and need to be done before Monday should be the responsibility of someone who doesn't work Fridays (whether they are working compressed hours or not).

So what actually happens if you go on a weeks leave? Who covers then?

I have come back to this thread because I'm actually so annoyed about this.

I am working part time for one of my clients at the moment. It's so frustrating for everyone because there is enough work for a full time role but that's not our agreement (we're negotiating a new plan longer term). But no one is accusing me of not getting work done and no one else is expected to get the other work done. Instead, work is just taking longer and we're achieving less as an organisation. hence the conversations about how to improve this longer term.

It really really annoys me when one person's flexible working results in extra work for everyone else.

It's not the same as covering for a colleague on holiday - you do that knowing perfectly well you'll have to work harder for a few days, but on the plus side, that colleague will step up to cover for you when YOU are away, meaning that you won't come back to a huge backlog or a bunch of unhappy stakeholders.

I'm on s 5 day week where most of my colleagues are on 4. We don't check their workload - it's for them to manage their time appropriately.

Is your colleague part-time or is she doing compressed hours? If it is the former, she should have 80% of a full-time member of staff's workload and your manager should make sure that there are enough staff to cover remaining 20% without you having to cover two people's work on a Friday. If she is working compressed hours, she needs to be able to complete all her work during four days instead of five which will mean working longer hours on those days.

The other person picks up the work of the one who is on leave.

and in answer to another question, yes she does compressed hours

If she is doing compressed hours, you should hand a couple of tasks to her to free up some of your Friday time to do her work. I’d suggest that - ‘ hey x, I know I offered to try and cover your work Friday, it’s not been possible to do a lot of it after doing mine and anything urgent. I’ve been thinking- what about if I give you x to do in your compressed hours to help me find a bit more time on Friday for your pieces?

If she does full time hours (and gets 100% pay) in 4 days and it’s not working well for projects or herself then this is her / her manager’s problem IMO. She’s foolish IMO to moan and make the problem with her work pattern obvious.

Did your manager know you were seeking to cover her clients on Fridays?

This all sounds a bit bonkers.

So if one of you takes a holiday the other has double the workload and therefore predictably things get slower and are reprioritised accordingly by the person still at work. You both then pick up when back to full time.

However on a Friday, you both don't do the same which is to deal with the priority / emergency issues [you] and for you both to catch up on all work down the week. Instead there appears to be an expectation you can do the work of two people? By a) your colleague and b) your management.

You need to sit down with your manager and agree on ways of working and expectations.

Unless there is actually time critical work (in that something coming in on Friday needs to be actioned before monday) then she needs to plan her own time and workload better. If she's doing compressed hours she's basically expecting everyone else to do her job as well as her own despite you all working the same amount of hours, just spread differently.

Even if work is time critical there should be a set process agreed with your manager regarding what to do if something on her caseload comes in on a Friday and needs to be done- not just depending on good will and someone being free.

Similarly even if she wasn't doing compressed hours and was struggling to do full time work in part time, this is for her to organise reducing her tasks from your manager.

Basically it's nothing to do with you!

I have a colleague like this. It's infuriating. I'm the only person that works 5 days in my office, so I'm expected to also pick up the work of those who work 4/5 days (3 others). Its impossible. I do as much as I can, without sacrificing my own, but inevitably it doesn't all get done. Two of my colleagues are super grateful, but the third will find something to pick at every monday morning. A few weeks back we fell out because she complained about a price I'd given her customer and I just replied with "did you mean to say thank you"

This needs to be addressed by the manager. They would at review of 4 days should have addressed how the work load would be completed.

If you already at 100% then not your issue.