WWYD - colleague's hours and possible corporate fraud

[AuntieRuth]

I've recently discovered that a colleague at work has only been working about 4.5 hours a day out of a contracted 7, and that this has been going on for years.

We have a flexileave policy, where we log our hours and if we work extra we can carry up to two days’ worth to take back when we need it e.g. if we need a shorter day for something. We are supposed to log the hours we work on a Google spreadsheet that we submit weekly. However, none of our line managers have ever checked them so people stopped submitting them.

The colleague confided in me the other day that she's still been dutifully logging her hours, but that she's not been working her full contracted hours for years. Apparently she's several hundred hours in deficit. Nobody is aware of this, certainly not our manager.

She's told me that she's covering childcare as she can't afford full time nursery for her pre-school and primary-aged children, and that her partner is only working part time and trying to set up their own business. For background, we're both in public sector jobs paying well above the national average.

She's got away with it for so long as she relocated during the pandemic and is now several counties away from our office. We're all expected to be in the office three times a week, but this isn't being enforced for my colleague who is allowed to WFH all the time and nobody has ever said anything. I know that she didn't ask for permission to relocate at the time, she just did it and assumed it would be ok. It means that nobody is noticing her drop in hours, other than that she just doesn't reply to chat messages.

What would you do in this situation? As far as I'm aware I'm the only person that knows, so if I raise this it will be obvious it came from me. We've both worked here a very long time and I don't want to damage my working relationships with other colleagues who may resent me making a complaint. Also, we currently only have an interim line manager and are being restructured, so I don't have anyone obvious above me to raise it with.

However, we're being paid by the tax payer and she's not fulfilling her contract. Is this corporate fraud?

I know many people will tell me it's not my business and to keep out of it, but it's galling that I'm working hard around family life, with early starts and late finishes to get my work and hours done, and am also having to pay out for childcare and regular travel to the office. In addition, the fact she's not working her hours impacts on my ability to my job. Whenever project issues are raised, there's this elephant in the room that if she was actually doing her hours she might have time to do all the things that are holding us up.

WWYD? Should I go to HR even though it will be obvious it was me, or do I just try to ignore it, even though I massively resent it for many reasons?

Can you be upfront with your colleague - tell her that you are duty-bound to raise it, since she will know it came from you. This would also give her a chance to 'confess' independently, which might be looked on better.

I wouldn't say a word about it, but I would suggest they might monitor the policies closer, maybe even offer to take is as an extra responsibility myself.

Thanks @CesareBorgia. To be honest I'd not thought of actually asking her to do something about it. I'd assumed it would have to come from me (since she's had years to voluntarily make changes). I'm going to give that serious thought though.

If you're Civil Service then maybe go through the whistle-blower helpline.

I’d report it either to the manager if I could trust them or in my workplace we have an anonymous fraud line so I’d likely use that. Dh used to work in a place they discovered they’d paid a guy for full time work when he’d actually set up his own business that had taken off so he was doing both (replying to the odd emails he’d check once a week) and was going away with it for 4 years.

Raise the concerns to management about her lack of work on projects and the impact on you. Show them your working hours sheets. Suggest that being unable to contact her at times suggests she's not working, which is also demonstrated in the work she's achieving (or not). Then step back. They can look at it themselves and ask for her flexi sheets etc.

Let her throw herself under her own bus.

In my workplace I would tell your colleague’s manager, so they can start to monitor their work.

I wouldn't say anything directly.

Does she sign into meetings on Teams while you're all in the office or does she have no presence at all during working hours?

I'm wondering if you could start by suggesting to colleagues that some things are done over Teams so her absence starts to get noticed.

If you work where I think you do you need to report it but can do so confidentially. The It dept can look into the hours they actually worked Vs the hours logged. Nothing may come of it but at least you’ve done your bit.

She may not be getting the hours in, but is she getting the work done?

People have different efficiencies. If she's meeting all her targets and is getting everything done there isn't a problem. Maybe she works an hour less a day, but is very efficient. Meanwhile you have another colleague that takes 3 x 20 min smoke breaks a day and spends half an hour chatting to so and so and making cups of tea. Logs more hours, but does far less work.

Unless there's performance issues I'd stay out of it. I don't believe in performative attendance. Fair enough in certain jobs like working tills, but I think absence would have been noticed in that type of role!

I don't want to damage my working relationships with other colleagues who may resent me making a complaint.

This would be an unusual response, most colleagues would be horrified that someone was able to get away with getting full pay for less than full hours, especially if the rest of the team is having to cover the extra workload.

whistleblower helpline is a great idea if you can access one.

You’d be reporting your line managers

For being thoroughly shit

Is she fulfilling all of the tasks for her role? If she is, I’d leave it. However if she has been missing deadlines or if colleagues have had to pick up the slack to cover her work then yes I’d do something about it.

An indirect approach to her line manager might be “I’m keen to progress X project but I find it really difficult to get hold of Jane Bloggs and I’m concerned that the project will be delayed because of this”. This may lead to her workload/hours being looked at a bit more closely

Is she fulfilling all of the tasks for her role? If she is, I’d leave it.

She's getting paid full time wage for working part time. I wouldn't leave it. It is corporate fraud.

If she can do the necessary work in less hours without a reduction in quality, then who cares?

THIS

Is she actually doing her job or falling behind in it?

Tbh if she’s doing her job in half the time it takes you to do yours, I might be inspired by her and try and be a bit more efficient with my time!

You can't have your cake and eat it, I'm afraid. If you want things to change, you need to tell her line manager. Interim line managers still have to address performance issues. I don't think asking her to change will have any effect whatsoever - she'll be angry and resentful and just try to improve her cover. However, if there's a chance that one or both of you will move/lose jobs in the restructure then I would wait and see what happens before I did anything.

One thing is certain. Can't be much "management" wherever you are

Do you have a policy about working from home and childcare?

Thank you everyone for your replies. I've not had anyone to talk to about it and it's good to get some different viewpoints.

To clarify, no she is not very efficient and and she is not getting her work done in fewer hours.

Failings in the quality of her work, and not doing things she was supposed to do ages ago, are blocking several other projects. However, she's always been very good at giving the impression to management that it's not her that's the problem, but that exisiting processes (which she is responsible for) can't be changed.

We do have a whistle-blowing option, but senior management have a tendency to minimise any issues raised, so I don't have any confidence that it would work.

We do have a policy on WFH and childcare, which basically says you can't do that. That might be a good route to take.

Having written all this down, yes I think this might be the bigger problem.

Do you have an internal audit team that you can submit the whistleblowing report to?

Thank you. I think this is what is irking me the most. It's not fair on anyone else that is working their hours (and the rest of us do work very hard and aren't taking loads of breaks).