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?!

NHS worker here. I absolutely feel your pain. Had a work colleague who did next to nothing whilst she was in, constantly went off sick with no repercussions - the person managing her never enforced the sickness policy so she just got away with multiple episodes of sickness whilst I single handily covered her workload. I spent 2 years raising it in my supervisons but nothing ever got done. I left in the end and told them exactly why during my exit interview. Tolerate the shit workers and lose the good ones

You sound like you just want a good gossip about it to be honest.

I could write exactly the same thing about the NHS. Starmers plan to get rid of all the admin staff has basically meant we’re fucked.

You dont need to do the work of 3 people. Meet with manager, confirm what parts of each job you do and the rest gets left. Its only when performance fails that higher ups take notice. Learn from my mistakes, made myself ill trying to pick up double workloads. Its the organisations work, not your work. You're one person who can only do 1 job

not sure its still the same but when I worked in the NHS we were stopped from writing the trad kind of reference. We could give dates of employment plus objective verifiable stuff like sickness absences, any national courses taken or qualifications achieved plus a copy of their JD and that was all.

oh but that started with Tony Bliar. I was there and I know.

Just do what you can at a reasonable pace and do not rush to complete this work . You go home on time too .

They only need to ask one question : Would you re employ . There are only two one work answers to that question . No tells them all they need to know .

It’s not about hard work it’s about faces fitting. I found out the hard way. If people’s faces fit , they get away with murder .

again it might have changed but we couldn't answer that either

Why be pissed off at your (ex)colleague, yes they have left you in a mess but it sounds like this was going to happen at the end of their contract in a few weeks anyway.
It is not their fault that your boss isn’t allowed to hire anyone and it’s not your responsibility to cover the work of three people.
If the work is really that important then they will have to get someone else in, if you can’t prioritise then dump it on your boss.

I say this with full respect and empathy. You are misdirecting your anger. Your ex colleague was not shown any loyalty and they repaid the favour. And where that leaves you is; The more work you do, the more you will be rewarded with. There is no incentive for them to recruit if you continue to do 3 peoples jobs. You need to get assertive & clear about your job role. If they don’t listen, I’ll be going off sick myself.

Empathy isn’t in your toolbox is it.

Most people have no choice.

Only do what you can do.
You are just a number to them.
Prioritise your own work first.
It’s your managers responsibility to find cover.

Well said .

They owe you nothing. Your boss does though. I’d redirect my annoyance towards them.

It’s your boss you must be annoyed with . He should be prepared to this

I feel your pain, I moved up into another position because i couldn’t deal with my old job anymore then the 4 admin they brought in to replace me all went off, one basically went AWOL and the next notice was a sick note signing her off work due to ‘stress’ the other apparently has a fever, one has had to leave the country for three works to visit her ailing mother apparently and the fourth has had to go back on site so I’ve been railroaded back into helping do their jobs

But the fixed term contract was going to come to an end at some point. 6 more weeks of a mediocre contractor who, by your account, was doing little or no work doesn't seem like it would have made much difference to your work place.

I appreciate public sector has ongoing recruitment freezes but you're angry at the wrong person (or at least for the wrong reason - be angry that they were not doing their job when they were there, not that they've left early. They were on a FTC, so there was always the risk that they would leave early for another role)

Be angry at the inherent management and "structure" that freezes recruitment and puts pressure on the staff.

And on a personal level, only do what work you can do. Don't be a martyr about it.

So don't pick up the extra work. Let it pile up. Don't work any harder, faster or longer. Take your assigned breaks and lunches in full. When your boss moans ask him which tasks does s/he want you to prioritise.