To be secretly fuming about my colleague ruining the early finish today for everyone?

[felixnavidad]

I work in the public sector and apparently it’s an unwritten rule that if work is quiet and there’s no emergencies, we get an early finish from the office. We were warned by other colleagues that this is by no means guaranteed. It’s an arrangement between the managers and the staff.

One colleague this morning swans in and starts talking about how happy she is to finish at lunchtime today. Nothing mentioned by the managers, just her decision. The manager immediately side eyes her and says it’s not a guarantee.

All morning she craps on about it to the point that the manager says “if you sit down and do your work we’ll see, and get off your phone”. Said colleague refuses, keeps going on and by lunch the manager says that unfortunately we won’t be leaving early, because of this colleague.

We’re all pretty annoyed by that point but this colleague is now going about the office whinging about the fact that we didn’t get to go early, but it was her fault.

Now I know this is pretty crappy management by the manager, but AIBU to be pretty fuming about the colleague not just sitting down and doing her work?!

Ive clearly messed up today too.
My boss came in about 9am with mince pies, and asked what was going on. Most of us had tied things up, but 2 people still had stuff running. Boss left telling me "your call on when everything is done". We worked it out, and figured we could all be done by 12. At 12.15 it was clear one person still had about an hour of stuff to do so I sent the rest of the place home, and finished the job off with 1 remaining member of staff.
Hope there isn't a complaint coming my way.

This is the first suggestion on this thread of what the manager could have done in this situation. I assume he was hoping the employee would change behaviour due to peer pressure rather than managing the situation directly.

Any other useful suggestions of what the manager could/should have done?

I don’t know why the manager is getting a hard time
this is down to the colleagues actions
the expectation were laid out
it was abused so the privilege was withdrawn

The manager handled is very badly.

It sounds as though she was on a power trip but it could be that she didn’t want others to take the piss in the future.

The colleague is absolutely shocking though!
Being on her phone and not working, even though the manager told her not to??

The manager handled it very poorly.
She should have let everyone but this woman go at 12 and told her that the only ones that can leave early are the ones who’ve actually done their work.

We only get to leave early if we do our work (we all work hard and do it doesn’t really matter if we didn’t finish but we’d never take the piss and just not do it).

She will hopefully get disciplinary action for refusing to work and being on her phone.

Nah this is normal. It’s official at my work that you’re expected to have exited the office before 2pm on Christmas Eve. I don’t want to work Xmas Eve so I don’t feel like I’m missing out

I think the reason the manager didn’t do this though is the colleague could’ve easily complained and the manager ends up in deep shit and those of us who would’ve left would’ve been docked pay!

I sincerely hope, for everyone else's sake, that the idiot colleague is gone long before next Christmas!

Such a moronic comment. Do you have a clue how the public sector works? In general it runs off the goodwill of its staff who do ridiculous amounts of unpaid unnoticed overtime to stop the whole system falling over. And you really think an extra 4h off on Christmas eve is a problem? JFC. Merry fucking Christmas.

OP I hope you gave your colleague a talking to afterwards- less to complain about you all losing out but more to help them understand this was an opportunity and they need to learn that a gentleman's agreement requires 'gentlemanly' behaviour. Otherwise I can imagine the same thing happening next year.

Exactly what I was thinking!

but then again, colleague has been acting rather childish. Someone should have taken her into the toilets and pulled her hair given her a talking to!

These 'gentleman's/ gentlewoman's' agreements only work if everyone plays along.

I don't expect my manager to risk losing their job. If the rules are you work to the exact times then you work to the exact times. Or everyone plays the same game and keeps their mouth shut.

If I was a manager and couldn't trust one member of staff I would stick to the rules for everyone. Because I couldn't afford to lose my job.

Okay? That's your workplace and you were taking direction from your boss, who is presumably in a position to take responsibility for that sort of decision. I'm guessing OP's boss is middle management and isn't.

Yeah I totally understand why the manager did what they did. It’s shit for me (because I’d mentally allocated that time to making a trifle) but it is what it is

How Could the manger discipline the employee over this? It feels a bit of a power trip to be honest if the employee was just talking .

If this an if the job is finished every one can leave early, which is something I remember from some jobs at Christmas. If someone not working means the job isn't finished no one goes home early, blame the slacker.

Exactly and no doubt a bulling accusation as well

Talking, not working, sitting scrolling on her phone, loudly complaining that she was being made to stay. To me it feels like could be disciplined but I’m not a manager!

Surely if she is refusing to work and going on her phone then that is grounds for some sort of disciplinary action?

If I was the boss I would have called her into the office immediately and told her exactly what I thought and the consequences.

I’m (mainly) over my strop about it now. It was just seriously frustrating

Only in the public sector. No one knows where they stand and managers manage no one but love wielding the bit of power they do have. Grim

I can't agree with all the omg you're not children comments. Working in the public sector means decisions need to be defended, and if you're paying someone but they're not working, how do you defend that really? But I understand the historical 'if it's quiet' thing. So colleague ruined it for everyone.

I agree with this, I work in the NHS very different to a private company. I often let my team go a little early if the end of the shift is quiet because they work bloody hard all day mostly without a break. If they are twatting around then I far less inclined to do so.

Ooooh. Nope don't blame the manager at all for that decision.

Working in the public sector is a gentleman's agreement. You take the shit pay for immense responsibility on the basis that you get flexibility (and good sick pay) occasionally.

It's the same in my Local Authority. It's an unwritten, unspoken understanding that people working Christmas eve (usually because they have to, and for no extra pay) get sent home around 3pm and senior managers cover the last 2 hours. We all know if an emergency comes in then it's not happening and we all know it's at the discretion of the senior manager.

We work flat out until we are 'dismissed' early. Your colleague was taking the piss and left the manager with no choice as going along with it would suggest it was custom and practice and lead to issues in the future.

To be honest the more I think of it the less I think it’s grim from the manager. At the end of the day if they let us go early it’s their neck on the line if it gets questioned. If someone turned up at 1:30 and we’d gone, she’d have to defend it. I’d be much less inclined to do that if someone has been a twat all morning

Indeed the colleague seems to believe it is already custom and practice which is even more reason for the manager to demonstrate that it isn't.

@felixnavidad Exactly because they’re incapable of making a decision. Trust me. I worked in the public sector for years.

How old is this colleague? Her behavior sounds very immature.