Colleague has called in sick when they definitely aren’t!

[peedoffandtired]

My colleague has been on a fixed term contract with a plan to go into another job at the end of it. They’re not exactly the best employee at the best of times.

They got rejected from that position and asked our boss yesterday if they could stay. The boss said no.

So they just walked out. They’re not in today and to be honest I’d be surprised if we see them again. I’ve already picked up the work of one colleague who has left. Now I’m picking up this work too. AIBU to be totally peed off and fed up?!

You can be annoyed they've dropped you in it but be more annoyed with your boss for not managing them better and not replacing the other team member who left.

It’s public sector so not really on the boss, they’re at the behest of the jobs’ panel.

Your problem is with your boss. He/she can’t expect you to do three people's work - you need to talk to him/her about it. If he/she needs to pass the problem up the chain of command then that’s what should happen.

Agree with @Jennyginger.

Come back when you've spoken to your boss and let us know what they said.

Yabu

Good for them for getting away - just refuse to do the extra work, they wont fire you

Be pissed off with your HR or CEO for not approving the permanent recruitment or your boss for not making a good enough case.
I'm public sector too and recruitment is a nightmare but if you're already struggling doing two peoples work then I'd be looking elsewhere. Which is exactly what I did

My boss isn’t going to change their stance. We’re public sector. The work level is the same no matter how many people are in the office. I’m pissed off at the colleague because they know this is what happens, and they only think of themselves!

Well leave yourself then.

I don’t understand what you mean. What is the boss's "stance"? I find it hard to believe that they think one person can do all the work three people were previously hired for.

That the work needs to be done. Because it does.

The management must have had a plan for replacing the colleague at the end of the fixed term though- what is it?

Try to get a job through panel, if not just struggle on.

Were you already mad at this colleague before they called in sick?

Some days yes, some no. They’re not a brilliant colleague to be around at all.

Sounds like poor management and not enough staff. I don't think I would be hanging round a temporary job when they said they didn't want me to stay on either, although tbf, I wouldn't phone in sick if not sick.

Are you positive they are not ill btw? We had this in one of my old public sector work places where the manager decided in her infinite wisdom not to keep on a perfectly decent staff member and he stopped turning up for work. We were actually all quite concerned about him. His temp agency found him though and he was ok just feeling very down as he knew he was going to be unemployed very soon

But if it took three people to do it before, which is say 75 hours' work a week, how can anyone do it in 25 hours? (Assuming you were all working hard before)

Definitely not ill. The colleague is young and not particularly keen on working. Just went home yesterday when told no.

If you keep on being heroes and managing to do the work, then why would any job panel allocate more staff? Just do what you can, if the work can't get done in the time available, it can't be done and your team will either have to drop some of it or get some more resource.

So you're no worse off with them ringing in sick then.

Realistically though, why would they have any loyalty to the company?

Typical public sector. No-one is accountable for anything that goes wrong.

Why would your colleague show any loyalty to an employer who isn't extending their fixed term contract? Has her contract come to an end yet?

You can be pissed off that it's more work for you and other people on the team but you are being unreasonable to blame your ex-colleague and not your boss.

You’re not in the CS are you? If you were then you’d know that ‘the boss’ has no say on if and when they get a post filled. They can’t direct recruitment, so we are made to plug gaps in resource for years. There’s currently a recruitment freeze in my department, so pretty much no one who’s left has been replaced since August last year.

We’re very grateful to the media and public who have erroneously banged on about us being underworked and over resourced for so long that the govt has decided to cut posts to the bone and deal with the consequences later. We are extremely fucked.

Your frustration is misdirected. Do the reasonable amount of work you can, don’t be the hero.

Their contract isn’t due to end for another six weeks.

To be honest, they can’t be surprised. They’ve spent the entire last year talking about how much they hate the job, more time away from their desk than at it, and continually made mistakes. If they weren’t on fixed term they would’ve been sacked!