Colleagues Taking The Piss

[bugaboo218]

I work in care.

I am absolutely fed up of some of my colleagues taking the piss- deciding when they will come in to work their shift, shift swapping and leaving early.

Recent examples:

Colleague has decided they do not want to work a shift today (They decided late yesterday afternoon) crossed them selves off the rota and decided they wanted to work a long day Thursday so have put themselves down for that.

Another colleague is not due to start until lunch time, which means we have a lone working situation -they may come in earlier, but probably not.

The other day a colleague decided they were tired so went home an hour and a half early.

People come in when they like and go home early for example, leave at 19:30 instead of 22:00

This does not happen obviously when my boss is here. They usually are in two - three days per week from lunch time until usually 4pm or sometimes 5pm

i have said to my boss before about people leaving early - nothing was done.

Never worked for a company where this culture is the norm. It impacts on the standard of care given if there is one person on shift instead of two and isn't right:

What do you feel would be the best course of action going forward? I do not feel my boss will deal with it effectively.

Am also concerned about possible reprisals from colleagues.

Find a new job.

Find another job

Email your boss with full details of everything that's going on and at the same time look for another job

Snap. You are trying to change an ingrained culture. Like pushing a boulder up a hill. Been there. You will suffer for it and its ultimately futile.

Get a copy of the complaints procedure.

Raise this with your manager verbally following the procedure. You are dealing with vulnerable clients and this should not be happening.

If nothing happens put the complaint in writing. Cite your concern for the clients.

If your aren't being taken seriously then leave. Put in a complaint to the Care Quality Commission who inspect these organisations. Send them a copy of your complaints.
They will investigate without revealing your name.

Please do this for the sake of all the elderly/disadvantaged/vulnerable clients that this company is responsible for.

Are they on a zero hours contract or set hours?

This is fraud. The local authority have calculated staffing levels based on assessed care needs. Their budgets are being used to fund these hours, if your company if not delivering the job hours and continue to pocket the money it is fraud. What happens if there was an emergency? Someone had to go to hospital or fire evacuation? You need to take this higher and have a formal record that you raised the issue.

How can the people you support meet their outcomes if staff keep cutting shifts early. They should introduce a clock in and clock out system.

Is it the cheapest care company that the local authority uses ? some are beyond shocking and have a high staff turnover because anyone decent leaves as soon as they can .

Keep a record of everything and email it to your manager. If nothing comes of it then escalate it. In the meantime I'd be looking for a new job.
I've worked in social care for many years and unfortunately have come across many lazy types that expect others to pick up their slack. It's frustrating to say the least.

They are on set hours!

Leave, that's unacceptable. And why should you put up
With that.

We have a sign in and sign out sheet, but some colleagues do not bother or will write 22:00 when they finished at 20:00

Also colleagues always want to work together so they change rota so they can work together .

Also we have a situation where colleagues were friends before they joined the company and they always want to work together and do.

Hi OP,

I also work in care and have done for many years and stuff like this I have seen time and time again. It happens in my current workplace but luckily doesn’t compromise the care as such as my guys are really independent. However, it really pisses me off too. On certain mornings the staff will roll in an hour or so late if management are not down on the rota. Similarly soon as management leave the staff decide it is home time. I’ll be honest in my previous job I actually made myself very ill over all the goings on and got myself nowhere complaining and
trying to do the right thing. In the end I just had to leave because I simply couldn’t stand it anymore.

You could whistleblow anonymously? Or speak to the manager above your manager?

For your complaint to have an impact, you need to separate things that matter from things that don't matter.

Things that matter:

1. Turning up late or leaving early, leaving one staff member
2. Incorrect times on sign in/ out sheets
3. Fully missed shifts, leaving one staff member
4. Crossing shifts off the rota, without a replacement organised

Things that don't matter and therefore undermine your valid complaints:

1. Swapping a shift, for whatever reason (perhaps they trust the friend not to leave them on their own!)
2. Adjusting the rota, where there are still 2 staff members on cover.

Where things matter, you need to report to management, requesting emergency shift cover due to someone not turning up, being late, etc. It isn't just a complaint, it is alerting them that cover needs to be sent. You can also report to the CQC here: www.cqc.org.uk/contact-us/report-concern/report-concern-if-you-are-member-staff.