Work colleague taking the piss

[bunzie]

I am absolutely livid over this so prefer to vent here so that I don't say anything harsh.

We are a team of 3 all have laptops that we need to take home incase we need to work from home. Manager takes his most days and if he doesn't have it , works off his phone.

My other colleague doesn't take his any day. He calls in sick atleast one day in a month and I end up covering for him. He is back next day not looking sick at all.

So he has accumulated all his holidays and taken the whole mid july to mid aug off. He was back for 3 days and took 3 days before uk bank holiday off. was supposed to be back on tuesday but called in sick and I had to catch up on my own work and cover his from the long weekend.

I brought his sickness behaviour once but Manager told me he was using his holidays from last year which should be max 5 days to be used before March. But I recall he took 2 sick days off in june.

I enjoy my job but this behaviour is bringing my motivation down big time. Manager seems to be letting him get away with it as senior manager is based in another country. when I look at holiday calendar, I get impression manager has booked more than authorised number of days off.

But I can't say for sure. the colleague came back work today and was not even grateful that I had covered for him. I asked him how his day off yday was and he said it was much needed. So he needed a holiday after a holiday. He went with some lads to Barcelona over the weekend. I was absolutely shattered yday. I am mum 2 two dc 18 mnths and 3 years and work fulltime and still manage to show up to work everyday.

Think the only language they will understand is their own. Shame that its coming down to this as I do enjoy my work. If I call in sick, I know I will be coming back to a big pile of mess and incomplete work. But I don't know what else to do. It is not serious that I should go to HR... plus I don't have proper records. Plus manager is pretty flexible. Having young kids means I may be in a fix sometimes. But I play by the rules ... other dept noticing this aswell. Also because I always show up, I am getting more and more work which I have realised and started to push back.

Unfortunately, the fact is, if attendance management does not exist and line management allows this sort of behaviour to continue, certain people will swing the lead because they can.

You can bet that if there is a redundancy drive, people like him will be let go of earlier, because it's at that point that things like poor attendance becomes a reason to get rid.

I'd keep your head down, in that knowledge, don't be tempted to go sick to try and claw back some holidays, it will never end well. Motivation should be from within rather than being affected adversely by slouchers. You could 'rattle cages' about it, but it becomes very unpleasant.

Stop covering for him. His attendance isnt a problem because the work is done (by you) to a good enough standard. They wont change anything until it becomes a problem for them.

I don't think you can complain about his absence. What you can do, however, is next time you are supposed to cover for him, tell your manager that you will not be able to manage his workload on top of your own. Find a way to make it clear that you want to be helpful but you are busy and have already had to do extra work because of his holiday/ sick time etc so you are now struggling with your workload. i.e., make the fact that there is work not being done your manager's problem. he/ she may well still insist you do it, but then you start to have a record of how much extra you are being asked to do and you can , in time, see about a more formal complaint.

Manager knows I am dedicated, has already mentioned to me jokingly. So they know I will cover as that is what we are meant to do. There are other things like they take long lunch breaks etc but to be fair manager comes in early. I am supposed to take half hour as leave early to pick up kids but work through lunch everyday... so am infact putting in extra hours.

I think if once I call in sick and do not work from home inspite of having my laptop with me, they just might realise. I have been ill once but still worked from home.

Frankly manager does not care about work... there have been times I have struggled and ppl have complained but he has just told me to sort something out.

I have been ill once but still worked from home
I'm glad you don't do that any more. If you phone in sick then work from home instead you will get no thanks or recognition In my place you'd be branded as someone who uses being sick as an excuse to work from home.

I wouldn't blur the lines or give them any reason to tar you with his brush.

You should work to rule. Get in on time. Leave on time. Take a lunch break. Do your own work first. Make sure if you do anyone else's work you keep a record of it and mark it in some way as done by you.

It sounds as though your manager won't be in his job in a year or so and hopefully the lazy colleague won't be, either.

This is your manager's issue. My colleague is like this and it really doesn't bother me simply because their shitness ultimately makes me look better as the comparison is poor. If the shit hits the fan, it will fall back on him or the manager.

it isn't really your business, and you don't really know anything about his health, nor should you.

Just don't agree to do his cover, and leave it at that.

I like the suggestion of stopping cover for him... never thought about that. I will definitely do that next time he is 'sick' . I know he is not sick as I have worked with him for over 3 years and in another dept and his behaviour was same. I wasn't his cover in the other dept so this did not bother me much.

Meanwhile I am still mad about having to do extra work after bank holiday... I may be 'sick' tomorrow after all. But I know it will be my manager who will be doing the bulk of covering. Now doesn't this also come down to him getting extra paid holidays. But if I am not covering for him going forward... it doesn't concern me.

Completely sympathise OP, I've had this in the past and it's SO frustrating.
My advice is to work to rule, no covering and what I have found is you give people like this enough rope and they do hang themselves eventually.