Advice on colleague issue

tallgirl_3

I work in retail, with five of us employed in my office. (i would rather not say what field). We are open Monday to Saturday 9 to 5. We are 2 full time and 3 part time. About 3 years ago my colleague requested to work school hours only so 9 to 1. (9-5 on a Saturday is the only full day she can do). We all agreed in the office that this was workable as do not want a single mum to lose her job , especially with 20 years experience. She has 2 children aged 13 and 9. Due to covid we are all now on flexi furlough and only allowed 2 in the office everyday to use as much of the furlough scheme as possible.(Our business is massively hit due to covid) This has caused complications with S's hours as she only works part days. The minimum we are required to work is 7.5 hours, all other unworked hours we are on 80%. We are rostering most of s's hours on a Saturday so she can cover a whole day..(her ex has the kids). Any other days in the week mean we have to cover the afternoon shift 1 -5 so all other colleagues are driving in from quite a distance to cover this so doubles our fuel and parking costs. My assistant manager is trying to be as fair as possible. (it's very complicated).She still moans constantly about any hours shes given . ie not enough in the week.  Last week I saw a list of dates on my AM's desk. it contained all the dates in August that S says shes 'available to work'.  . I was pretty shocked at this. I am part time, on full flexibility so is my other colleague M. At no point have we ever told our manager or AM that we are only available to work 'certain days'.It now turns out she did this in June and July. Apparently she is not available to work Fridays as she need to 'pack her kids clothes' for the weekend ahead with her ex husband. She has told my AM she is not available 'any Friday in August.   As far as I am concerned. her agreement with our (very well known employer) is that she works 9 to 1 on whatever day she is rostered in, and I'm bloody angry that she is dictating what days she actually works and my boss seems to be going along with it !... This will affect anyone else who wants a Friday off, especially if they are off on the Saturday and would like a weekend away for example. Can I force my boss to go to HR about it, and someone has told me that you can only enforce certain aspects of flexible working if your child is under 6 or disabled under 18. She is basically taking the !!!!!! and actually dictating her hours which i'm 99.9% certain is not in her contract. Noone else does this !! . Please note that our rotas are always done as fair as possible and always put out to peruse over with minor adjustments put in etc.. but neither me or my other part time colleague dictate what days we will actually work. !! ...

theoretica

At heart, your problem seems to be that this colleague is asking for what she wants, but you are not.  If you need or would really appreciate specific days on or off or fewer half days let the manager know and let the manager manage the situation.  But you are not this colleague's manager, and should worry about your own rota (which it seems your manager is putting a lot of effort into) rather than hers.

tallgirl_3

Neither myself or my other colleague actually 'specify' what days we will or won't work. I have never in ten years sent a list of days in that I'm 'not available'.. If we have a doctor /dentist appointment for example we ask for that off. My contract is for me to work 22.5 hours a week, it doesn't also say I can specify what days I work and tell my boss when 'I'm available to work'.. we are flexible workers and have to work when asked to suit the business. Her agreement is to work from 9 to 1 and cover 17.5 hours a week.when she's told. Not when she decides, so I do think this is an HR issue because my boss is going along with it and its not fair on everyone else. I might tell him I'm not available on the next bank holiday if it carries on. 

oh_really

tallgirl_3 said:

 I do think this is an HR issue because my boss is going along with it and its not fair on everyone else. 

This is an issue to be raised with your boss, the function of HR is not to iron out employment bumps for you. Ask for a meeting with your manager and table your grievances through the proper channels., sticking to facts and avoid whining.

Are you a member of a union?

Brie

Your manager will probably want to know that this is an issue for you.  And there's absolutely nothing the matter with a manager reaching a compromise with an employee but should push back on the "I can never work Fridays".  If that's what the employee needs then they should do an official flexible working application to specify that.  It's been allowed with some of our colleagues but only after taking into account that it's fair, the work gets done and the other colleagues are not disadvantaged by it.  

mark55man

theoretica said:

At heart, your problem seems to be that this colleague is asking for what she wants, but you are not.  If you need or would really appreciate specific days on or off or fewer half days let the manager know and let the manager manage the situation.  But you are not this colleague's manager, and should worry about your own rota (which it seems your manager is putting a lot of effort into) rather than hers.

Agreed.  Sometimes it seems everyone being inconvenienced is fairer than maximising everyone's chances of convenience

Diamandis

I'd maybe enquire if this is just a temporary thing. They may just be trying to support her through lack of childcare due to covid. You need to have a conversation with your manager about how its affecting you rather than just complaining about your colleague. 

TBagpuss

What do you actually want? 

If what you want is for the hours to worked out so you are not doing short shifts with lots of travel, then ask for that.

If you want to be sure that it will be possible for you to take a Friday off if you want one, speak to your manager to ask how that will work. 

It's perfectly legal for a company to agree a flexible working request for one employee even if it means they can't then offer the same flexibility to someone else.

If you have specific hours you do want to request, or want to avoid, then you can request those