Shady people in the workplace

[ShaedyKD]

I have a dilemma. There is this girl that I work with, let's call her Michelle. She has the same position that I do, so we're on equal ground. She's been working here since like April. I started noticing over the summer that she would disappear every afternoon. Basically, she would leave early. Through some careful observations and a little investigation, I came to find out that she would not clock out when she left. Instead, she would let the computer automatically clock her out at 11:59PM, then come in the next day and edit her time to say that she left at 5:00PM. Our bosses who look at the time sheets approve everyone's edits at the same time, so there are literally hundreds of edits, so they never really look at them.

So basically this chick is leaving at 3 or 4 every day, and getting paid an extra hour or two. Another thing, is she's considered full time, because when she was first hired, she was working full time, now she works only 32 hours a week. But it's really only like 20-something hours, because she is never here the full time she is supposed to work. Full time people get paid holidays, so she got paid for working on Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday, but I didn't because I'm only considered part time even though I work 35+ hours a week. I was recently told that only 2 clerks (my job) can work full time. My boss told me that those two people are Christopher and Mary. He did not include Michelle, yet she is still considered to be full time. I questioned him on why she got paid for last Thursday and Friday, but I have a feeling he will just ignore it. He ignores other comments we make about this girl Michelle leaving early. This has been going on for months, and I really don't know what to do about it. There is a boss over my boss, but I really don't feel comfortable talking to him about it.

Should I write an anonymous letter to him or something? It's not so much I care about her getting in trouble, it's the fact that she gets to be full time and I don't, even though I work WAY more than her, and she gets enough hours to be full time by cheating the system. An added bonus is she sits at an empty desk and does her homework. My boss saw her books, and all he did was address everyone at the weekly meeting, telling the whole group to leave their schoolwork at home. I personally think he's sleeping with her.

Sorry so long, any help would be appreciated! I'm so sick of this girl getting away with this crap!

[James]

Edited to add: I appreciate your frustration but its like parents playing favorites, its unfair but it happens.

Her performance has little to do with your performance . . . so worry more about yourself is what I would say.

If you were on the same team or something where your performance was being judged in tandem that would be different.

But here what you are saying is that she has a sweeter deal than you for whatever reason. Even if you could prove your point, you look petty. Like you tattled.

I think you just chalk it up to experience and move on,

[valkyrie]

Originally posted by James
But here what you are saying is that she has a sweeter deal than you for whatever reason. Even if you could prove your point, you look petty. Like you tattled.

I think you just chalk it up to experience and move on,

Agreed.

Especially if she actually is sleeping with the boss, nothing's going to happen to her. Even if she isn't, though, I don't think most people would take an anonymous note very seriously -- really, someone could write an anonymous note accusing you of outrageous things, and you'd hope the bosses wouldn't believe it. It's kind of spineless, too -- if you want to report something, you need to have the, well, figurative balls to say it. Really though, in this situation, it's more likely that the boss is going to look at you as a tattle tale rather than someone telling him something he doesn't already know.

If I were in your place, it would piss me off but I'd probably start leaving early too, because it doesn't seem it's that hard to get away with it.

[AGDee]

I wouldn't say or do anything either. I had a situation where I had worked out a deal with a boss to come in late and leave early due to a medical issue and we didn't announce it to the whole office. I'm sure at least a couple people noticed, but it was a private deal for a specific time period and I made up time later on Sundays.

Besides, nobody likes the person who they think is keeping tabs on everybody in the office.

Interestingly, we have one of those in my office. Every couple months, we go in on a Sunday and clean all PCs of unauthorized software. She always has the most stuff... home designing software, embroidery pattern software, games. She is the worst offender, yet knows just when everybody comes in and leaves. It makes me want to slap her because I know how much non-work related crap is on her PC!

Dee

[Rudey]

I work with sharks and dicks quite often and here is what I found that works the best.

Do your work. Do as much work as you can and more. Remind people how you're doing this work so that when they compare the two of you they will have some comparison.

For my performance review, I literally quoted people. I had discussed this with analyst at other banks and they agreed it's the best way to name drop and get people to see how you're doing. I have found that often managers are bad at keeping track of these things because of a disconnect in the chain.

This year I am not only doing this but I'm going to be bolder. I am creating charts showing the work I've done. If I have $20 billion in transactions to my name and under other people's names are their awful numbers, I'm going to cause a storm.

Just work as hard as you can. If someone asks where this person is, don't cover for them. Over time people will see what's going on. Dont' stress the small things...just do the best work that you can, go home, and be content in it.

-Rudey

[aephi alum]

I wouldn't do anything. You don't want to be branded as the office snitch. Plus, if she is in good with the boss, he is in a position to help her retaliate by cutting back your hours or even firing you. Just keep doing your job and doing it well.

[ZTAngel]

I'm kinda going through the same thing. There's a guy I work with who does nothing and gets away with it. He leaves early, will take days off and still gets paid for it (doesn't even use vacation time), and just gossips all day. The boss loves him. They're best buds. They hang out on the weekends. They two of them will take 2 hour lunch breaks to buy hunting supplies for their weekend hunting trips.
It's certainly aggravating seeing as how everyone else works so hard and this guy does nothing but the boss loves him the most. Unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done about it. He's in good with the boss so tattling would be futile.
I just do my work to the best that I can and try to ignore the two of them. If I let it bother me too much, I would be miserable everytime my alarm went off the mornings and that's no way to live.
Karma comes around and I truly believe that this guy will get his eventually. The boss will hopefully catch on that this guy takes advantage of their friendship by wasting company money. I'll just sit back and laugh.

[Dionysus]

Say nothing. I HATE snitches. I would say join her sometimes.

[winneythepooh7]

I certainly see your frustrations, but having worked in a supervisory capacity before, in most cases, the supervisory staff already know what is going on. Like was mentioned before there may be a reason for her leaving early that you are not aware of and for good reason. Also depending on how the agency runs, often higher ups don't care about stuff like this as long as she is doing what she is supposed to for the most part. For example, in another program I worked in, the secretary used to do this kind of thing. However, the Director damn well knew it was going to be next to impossible to find someone to work the hours she did for the low amount of pay she did so he kept her. Also she was really good with the clients. Plus believe it or not, it is really difficult to fire people these days. I agree that you should just continue doing what you do to the best of your ability. That way you will most likely be able to advance quickly. When I was being trained in supervision, I was taught that you need to focus on the strengths people bring into the workplace. Very often an employee's good qualities are overlooked. And many of us are quick to judge too, but are often doing things at work ourselves that would be seen as questionable (ie. being on Greekchat at work ).

[ShaedyKD]

Thanks for the advice everyone. People, not just me, have made little comments to the boss and he ignores it. If she had some sort of alternate schedule for school, or personal reasons, he's cool enough that he would say "She's allowed to leave early every day, she has it worked out with me." If he said that, no one would ever mention it again. About the firing thing, our boss fired one of my co-workers who had been working there for like 2 years because he thought he had taken a day off, but it wasn't on my bosses calendar, so when he didn't show up that day, my boss fired him.

It's gotten to the point that no one else will speak to this girl. We all hate her because she gets away with everything. We would all love to start leaving early too, but we're too responsible for that. My co-workers and I have decided to take it into our own hands...let's just say her timecard now reflects the true hours she works. She can cheat the system...well so can we

[James]

You guys are altering her time card . . . hrmm . . that might be a more serious offence than what she is doing.

I can think of reasons why a boss might not tell the rest of the empleyees a special circumstance.

Maybe its medical and she doesn't want people to know.

I will say one thing: Never let your hatred of someone else make you petty and vindictive. Thats a reflection of your character and has little to do with her.

Originally posted by ShaedyKD
Thanks for the advice everyone. People, not just me, have made little comments to the boss and he ignores it. If she had some sort of alternate schedule for school, or personal reasons, he's cool enough that he would say "She's allowed to leave early every day, she has it worked out with me." If he said that, no one would ever mention it again. About the firing thing, our boss fired one of my co-workers who had been working there for like 2 years because he thought he had taken a day off, but it wasn't on my bosses calendar, so when he didn't show up that day, my boss fired him.

[James]

Also, if I found out about you guys gossiping, hating another employee and changing her time card, I might fire all of you.

Thats a bad atmosphere to have in a work place and doesn't speak well of the maturity or work ethic of the employees.

[dphies00]

I have to agree with everyone and remind you, karma's a b*tch. You have no idea how this whole situation will pan out and you have no real clue as how or why your manager's handling the situation as he is. Even if he is cool with you and your co-workers, that does not mean you are on the same level as your manager or privvy to the same information. You have control over your own work performance - focus on this. Controlling someone else's work performance is not evening the odds, its playing with fire and you might get burned.

Also, if I found out about you guys gossiping, hating another employee and changing her time card, I might fire all of you.

ditto