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I was recently in a position where I was able to see the timesheet of a co-worker(private information, and I should not have seen it). Our standard work day is 7.5 hours with flexible overtime. They said they worked 9.25 hours but I witnessed them only working 7 hours including lunch. This person has been with the company a lot longer than I have and has a higher position.

Is it appropriate for me to report this? Are their risks to me if I do not?

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    It is none of your business.
    – Dunk
    Apr 24, 2014 at 20:16
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    And do you know if the person worked from home during other hours of the day?
    – HLGEM
    Apr 24, 2014 at 20:19
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    I saw this happen in my early career where someone reported the same thing about another worker. What the person reporting didn't know was that the manager had given permission to work a certain number of hours from home because of a temporary family situation. Anyways, word spread that person A reported on person B. Person A eventually came to be an office pariah over this matter. Just go to work and worry about your job and your responsibilities, not anyone else's.
    – Dunk
    Apr 24, 2014 at 20:24
  • Voting to keep open because ethics is on topic. meta.workplace.stackexchange.com/a/454/437
    – Jim G.
    Apr 25, 2014 at 1:10
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    @Dunk - it becomes the OP's business when someone asks why you don't work as much as the other guy or how can you have the same hours when you arrive and leave at the same time?
    – user8365
    Apr 25, 2014 at 19:04

2 Answers 2

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No, unless your duties include signing timesheets/monitoring hours.

My advice is to stay out of it. Consider the following points:

  • Perhaps they worked from home?

    Are you absolutely 100% sure that you know exactly what is going on, and are prepared for the impact of your accusation? Mistakenly accusing people of inflating time sheets will surely damage your relationship/career prospects.

  • Perhaps they worked overtime before and were not allowed to book it for whatever reason?

    This happened to me personally - we had an artificial 'cap' on hours we were allowed to work, so management asked us to book our overtime at a later month.

  • It is simply not your job to monitor hours worked.

    Once you start doing this, you are effectively stepping on your manager's toes. The dangerous implication is that they are not doing their job. The dangerous assumption is that they don't already know about this person cutting hours. Maybe this person inflates timesheets, and the manager is aware of it, but the person is so so productive that they are letting it slide. You don't have the information, or the authority to act on this matter.

  • What are you trying to achieve by this anyway?

    There is absolutely no rational upside in 'reporting' your coworker.

One thing to note: if you feel that this employee is not pulling their weight, then you can approach your manager and tell her/him that. If you believe this employee hasn't been there when they needed to be, you can tell your manager that. As it stands, what you perceive to be a problem has no bearing on your work, and thus it should be none of your concern.

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  • not pulling their weight - I think this is the root cause of my frustration. I will approach it from this angle. Thank you.
    – user19006
    Apr 24, 2014 at 20:37
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    @user19006 - Then you should probably focus on making sure that you are pulling more than your weight while making sure it is visible that your coworker is not.
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    Apr 24, 2014 at 20:43
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    I think this is a great answer. It explains why very well.
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    Apr 24, 2014 at 20:52
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It is appropriate if you have been told by your manager to monitor your coworker's working hours. If you have not been told by your manager to do that, it's not appropriate. You run the risk of looking like you yourself are not doing any work. ("If you have time to log your coworker's hours, you need more work")

It is up to the manager to look for and detect these things. Snitching over petty things you are not completely privy to won't build a lot of political capital.

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    I am not saying he should report it. But "not being a snitch" is not a good reason to or not to do anything.
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    Apr 24, 2014 at 20:40
  • Point taken--rewording
    – Garrison Neely
    Apr 24, 2014 at 20:42
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    You said the same thing though just slightly less bluntly
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    Apr 24, 2014 at 20:43
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    I disagree. In the workplace, others' view of you is important. And in this instance, snitching on a coworker without knowing the whole picture doesn't net the asker any benefit.
    – Garrison Neely
    Apr 24, 2014 at 20:47
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    It is pretty apparent that the OP thinks it is and your answer has not even attempted to show it otherwise.
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    Apr 24, 2014 at 20:58

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