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?!

Spot the ignorant Daily Mail reader.. 🤔

Wouldn't survive a single day's work in the public sector.

I don’t agree. They made a decision that we couldn’t go early because the colleague was taking the piss.

I have a similar arrangement at my work. Christmas Eve is not a bank holiday, its a normal working day and technically should be treated as such.

Our managers will, at their discretion, allow people to finish at lunch time on Christmas Eve. However, in the morning you are expected to work as normally until 5pm, and then any early finish is a nice surprise.

Anyone who came into the office loudly saying they couldn't wait to finish at lunch and spent the morning pissing around instead of working to the point the early finish was pulled for everyone, would be public enemy number one.

I dont blame the manager as it is a normal working day, there is no right to leave early. My blame would squarely be on colleague who ruined it for everyone else. At least im confident thats how it would go down at my place of work (also public sector)

This is where I’ve settled now I’m over my mood about it

But she took away everyone’s early day because of one person.

But the early day isn’t a guarantee.

It’s not as if our contract says “you’ll finish at 12 on Christmas Eve” and she made us stay late because of this person. It’s a tradition in the team as a thank you for working hard, but she decided that she wasn’t willing to do it this year because of that behaviour which I understand. She would need to justify it to her superiors if needed and I guess she didn’t want to

If people dont want to they can generally book it off, people who dont have that privilege generally are in roles which you cant "not work" for such as care work, emergency services and similar.

Yes unfortunately our office can’t close for the whole two weeks everyone else seems to get off. We had to make decisions about who worked the non-bank holiday days. But we all had a chance to argue why we wanted days off.

Your manager sounds like they need more training

Why?

And what training would cover this?

“It’s a poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every 25th December”

E. Scrooge

I was a manager at public service and while I was often happy to let people go early on Christmas Eve I had to stay behind until the end and cover. To do this I had to trust the staff, ie that they had done their work and there were no emergencies in the pipeline that I didn't know about and couldn't handle. If she wasnt trustworthy in thst way I can see why the manager eouldnt be willing to fo the cover. Though as I got more experienced and confident I did let people go on an individual basis rather than a blanket whole office.

People management obviously.
There were multiple ways to have avoided pissing the whole team off.

she sat there like a child moaning-its all on her

she should get discplined for being on her phone

The manager didn't punish anyone, they just didn't reward anyone either.

this. My contract is 40 hours a week billed. Letting 12 people leave early is a loss of 48 billed hours. On a day rate that’s a lot of money

yes it’s usually a thing but can’t be relied on. I took half a days hol today as I needed to do things this afternoon. I didn’t want to take the chance of having to work

Your manager did absolutely nothing wrong and you were all put in a shit position by you dick head colleague

Your colleague sounds very childish. Does she think that she is at school?

How old is she and is she usually like this?

YANBU but the managers are the actual villains.

I chose not to use my leave for it because I wanted to go on holiday and fully accept that it was my choice but I just found the behaviour of my colleague so irritating. She unilaterally decided she was done with work

She’s mid 20’s but yes, she acts very immature.

So one persons behaviour ruined it for everyone? Does her lack of work make everyone else’s hard work disappear?

You are angry at the wrong person

I don’t know how else I can spell it out.

In the past, management have allowed staff to leave at 12. It’s not a guarantee and our contracted hours on Christmas Eve are until 5. This year new starters were informed about this informal agreement and were told it isn’t guaranteed. One person ruined it by acting like a onob.

I think you're flogging a dead horse here OP, it's very clear that a lot of posters don't understand how public sector usually works at Xmas.

We have a 'gentlemans agreement' at my public sector job too. Anybody still in the office ((as I was today) usually gets the nod from a councillor who comes in to do the rounds and wish us all a good Xmas. Today we got really lucky it was one of the nicer ones and the nod came at 12:30.

It's never an expectation to leave early on Xmas eve. Your colleague made a huge mistake going on about it. Is it their first Xmas in the public sector? They won't make that mistake again!

Yes, it’s their first. To be honest I hope they’re feeling a right idiot tonight and a lot of regret.

Oh definitely. I wouldn't be surprised if they leave for the private sector shortly too...

Shame they messed up OP, I hope you get a relaxing Xmas now regardless. 😁