Should I cover for a chronically late employee? [duplicate]

Question

The chronically late employee has worked here 3 years I just started. Short of changing my job (I've only been here a little while) I don't know what else to do. No one else is affected by this lateness except me because I have to cover both our phones until they are settled in. There's no way around that. They have been late every single day. I did try to bring up about them coming in late and their answer was mind my business. But it affects me. I'm not here to do two jobs every day 30 days in a row so far. The job description did not include covering for a late employee every day. I have yet to have my 30 day assessment. There are cameras everywhere, management seems to be aware of the situation. Yet it continues. It's been past the 30 day assessment and management hasn't gotten around to doing it. Another red flag. And this is more than 2 or 3 minutes late, every day for 30 days. I'm essentially doing two jobs here. Should I quit?

Answer 1

No one else is affected by this lateness except me because I have to cover both our phones until they are settled in. There's no way around that.

Don't blame the guy, ask your manager how you deal with the situation.

Hi Alice, I often have to answer both phones in the (first half an hour of the shift) before Bob arrives, and this inevitably means that I'm missing some calls if both phones ring at once. How would you like me to prioritise in this situation?

Of course, I'm assuming it's a reasonable length of time here - if it's consistently between 3-4 minutes, then you're going to sound petty however you phrase it. Wait for the reply, and act accordingly.

Perhaps your manager isn't aware, in which case that will make her aware of the situation without you sounding aggressive.

Perhaps she is, and there's a good (but private) reason for it, in which case you'll likely get a "just do what you can and don't worry if you miss the odd call" response.

In either case, if it just means you're a bit busier for the first half an hour of the day, this shouldn't be a massive issue.

Answer 2

You say there are cameras everywhere and management must know, but that's not necessarily true. They may not look at the camera feeds unless they have reason to suspect shenanigans. If the work that needs to get done is all getting done (by you) then they don't know anything is amiss.

Of course the late employee is going to tell you to mind your business. They clearly don't care about the trouble they're causing. My advice would be to do exactly as they suggest. Mind YOUR business, ignore THEIRS.

• If the other person's phone starts ringing, ignore it.
• If someone comes over to our desks with paperwork for the other employee, leave it on their desk with a sticky note or something. (Basically do whatever the delivery person would have done if neither of you were there.)
• Etc.

If management comes to inquire why the other employee's work is not getting done, or their phone is ringing constantly, I would simply explain they they aren't here yet. If necessary, explain that you don't want to answer their phone because they've asked you not to pry into their business.

Hopefully this will lead to inquiries about when they normally arrive, which I would answer honestly. Then, if management sees the problem, maybe they'll take action to fix it. If they don't, then you need to re-evaluate if you're comfortable with how things are, and if not, leave.

Answer 3

Should I cover for a chronically late employee?

Since you already brought it up with your co-worker and were rebuffed, you should now ask your boss what you should do.

If the answer is that you should just cover both phones, then that is the job. You can decide if that's a job you want to continue with or you can find a new job, give an appropriate notice, then leave.

"Should I quit?" is a question only you can answer and it depends on your financial circumstances and your alternatives.

The job description did not include covering for a late employee every day.

You cannot reasonably expect a job description to mention this situation.

Answer 4

Disclaimer : I'll answer "Should I cover ...?" ; not "Should I quit ?".

Stop answering their phone.

You can just stop answering their phone calls, all the more if you are already handling another call. If the activity is somehow being monitored, their non-answered call metric (which is generally a Key Performance Indicator in phone-based activities) is going to rise significantly above the "normal" level, and this will raise an alert. Then management will have to investigate, since this is a direct performance issue from the other employee.

Now, there is a tricky part to your situation : you have a 30-day assessment period. I would hold on taking action before this period is over, just to ensure that this cannot be held against you. Then, I would stop answering as described above.