Colleague buggering off home early. As their manager, would this bother you?

[Marie2022]

I have been in post for a few weeks and have had some problems with one of my direct reports. Nothing serious, mainly of the “Not my job” type of response from her, regarding things that very clearly are her job.

I sent her an email a few days ago at a time when she should have seen it. She didn’t reply. At which point someone said that she wasn’t actually there. The following day I asked her to confirm her hours, which she did.

I have just checked the CCTV for the past 2 weeks and she has been leaving 10-20 minutes early every single day.

Is this a big deal? As a manager, would this bother you? I just want to get some opinions before I do anything.

Many thanks.

Do you have strict start/finish times, or any kind of flexi working agreement? At my company for example, you are trusted to do your job rather than stick to set hours, knowing that some weeks you work more, some less. As long as you do your work and dont take the piss its fine.
I would check that there was no prior agreement for her to have a change in her hours informally.

As for the 'not my job' responses, then you need to have a frank discussion with her and talk through her job description.

Firstly thinking things that are your job are not your job is as serious as it gets when you're employed to do that job.

Secondly this is time theft and and it's taken seriously as fraud

"Time theft definition: Accepting pay from an employer for hours not actually worked. Time theft occurs when an employee is not working while at work, or they are not at work when they are supposed to be. This ranges from “shirking” (avoiding responsibilities) to outright fraud (for example, time clock theft)"
6 types of time theft and how you can reduce them

I can't believe people get away with leaving early, even 10 minutes. Try working in the NHS, you'd be slaughtered!

@DaphneDeloresMoorhead, you have a very limited understanding of privacy law if you think it only applies to bathrooms.

If the CCTV camera is used to check employee finishing times, this needs to be stated in company policies and employees would need to be very clearly informed that the CCTV camera is used to monitor employee attendance.

Otherwise, what the OP did is illegal.

Where I work managers don’t allow any bending rules,

I had this at my previous job, I asked for a swap of shifts and was told it was against the rules and they didn't bend the rules to keep it fair

It was for my aunts funeral 200 miles away - but hay ho its life - I did manage to get to the funeral

Anyway a couple of months later they had no one to work a Saturday and asked me if I would swap.... I explained very calmly it was against their rules and I couldn't possibly break those rules.

be careful how inflexible you are as a manager as it might bite you on the arse later. The turn over of staff was 6 out of 8 in 12 months

It's just ten mins.

I guess you need to weigh up whether it's worth pissing her off vs her work contribution generally.

If someone told me off for leaving ten mins early I'd laugh tbh. But then I work a lot of hours of overtime, and contribute greatly to the team, so if I leave ten mins early one day then that's just tough!

"It would be a massive issue where I work."

It wouldn't be where I work. Let's face it, if the email was urgent OP would have gone up to colleague's desk to check she'd seen it. We can miss emails for all sorts of reasons. If a colleague emails me at 4.55 I might not be able to deal with it until the next morning anyway.

Unless it's the kind of job where someone has to be there like at a shop checkout, I don't understand the obsession with a few minutes here and there.

Yes to this!!

Set up a daily zoom call with her and the team at x o clock. She will need to be at her desk.
Then change it to every other day, different days per week

I've never seen an employment contract that says you can be monitored by cctv! I would not sign that and if my work issued such contracts I fully expect that I would not be able to hire staff.

10 mins early would not bother me. Lots of people 'waste' more than 10 mins a day of paid time making cups of tea, smoking (especially) chatting, 'walking to photocopier', eating lunch slowly. It reads to me as if you don't like this particular person and are looking for a way to either 'get rid' or make an issue. If it were truly the time ect. that bothered you, you would have a meeting with them, rather than furtively looking at the cctv. Your title also suggests you don't like them on a personal level.

Don't mention the CCTV. Tell everyone they are expected to work their contracted hours. Then don't expect anyone to start early

I wouldn't be impressed with a colleague finishing 10-20 minutes early each day. That means they are not pulling their weight, not a team player, getting paid for going early, leaving a backlog for others to sort out. Where I work there is always something that needs to be done and never up to date at the end of the night with a clean page the next day.

Not in my experience. Was routine to leave earlier in my old NHS office job. Had a reasonable manager! Its down to individual management. Not many people, especially now, want to work for someone who gives absolutely no flexibility. I wouldn't, even if it was the perfect job in every other way. Flexibility is everything, and to be honest I think checking the CCTV is weird. It just screams that you have no trust in your employees, it's not exactly the right message to give out. There are better ways of dealing with it if she actually is taking the piss.

If its a large office could you say something like it has been noted that some people are leaving before 5 and if they want to leave earlier than that can they make sure they have cleared it with you?

Yes its only 10/20 minutes but they all add up. If its so she can get a bus or something I'd consider asking her to submit a flexible working request whereby she starts early and finishes early. And warn her that this will be occasionally monitored.

And never expected any favours from your staff again if you can't treat them like adults

Wow! You’re checking cctv! Is that part of your job description?
you’re on dodgy ground, and if she finds out it’ll you who’s in the shit!

I think firstly you need to establish whether there is an agreement in place for her to leave early - this may have been agreed by the previous manager. I would bring this up in supervision and say "could you confirm your hours" and then see what they say and go from there.

If it is in their JD to be doing tasks, I'd also take in a copy of the job description to supervision and go through it with them - you could take the position that you want to understand their job role properly and to do that you need to go through the JD with them.

Every day is absolutely not okay. Occasionally, especially if she sometimes stays an extra 10-20 minutes to get work done, perfectly reasonable. You need to be telling her to pull her socks up with her attitude in general, imo.

Calm down, if someone has disappeared then it is perfectly ok for a manager to check the CCTV.

Disappeared 😂 yes maybe if it was mid day and she just left I might be concerned but ten minutes? I'd use my words and talk to her.

Are there any part time staff in the office who are contracted to finish early? If so then this would potentially massively piss them off. As a one off its fine as a regular thing she is basically stealing from the company.

Calm down, if someone has disappeared then it is perfectly ok for a manager to check the CCTV.

I'd expect them to check the CCTV if somebody actually disappeared.

If not I'd probs try phoning them first

Not doing things which are part of her job: Does she realise they are actually her job? Have a conversation about workload, tasks, responsibilities, agree what is and isn't her job. If she's lost motivation to help out generally that's a separate issue to address. Work on team spirit with everyone.

Leaving 10 minutes early each day: Does she get paid by the hour? If so, I'd expect her to stay the full hour at the end of the day. My team are very relaxed about hours. We get an annual salary to do a role - how/when we do it is up to us. If the workload was busy would she stay an extra 10 minutes without overtime?

Not replying to an email straight away: Email is not instant messaging. If you wanted an urgent answer you should have gone over to speak to her or failing that, phoned her. Never use email for something so urgent.

Checking CCTV to see when she leaves work: Incredibly inappropriate and unprofessional. Is she aware the car park CCTV is used by management to track attendance? It's illegal to monitor employees in this way without telling them.

You are coming out of this situation seeming a lot worse than your employee.

@AlisonDonut Diseppeared! Don’t be so dramatic😀
she probably has an arrangement to leave earlier, but the op hasn’t bothered to have an actual conversation with her. Some manager!