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Is my colleague taking unreasonable leave

immy

immy

Member
Jul 3, 2022
1,886
So, I work in a finance role and this week is key for us finalising our forecast and presenting to the CFO and CEO.

The equivalent in my team has a very system based role that he manages, completely remote.

He is actually working abroad at the moment visiting his sister while working at her house. Today my manager informs our team, that our colleague won't be working the remainder of the week as his sisters mother in law has been given taken ill in hospital. To me this is a bullshit excuse, but let me know if I am being too harsh.
 
GazRB

GazRB

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,872
Not your job to worry about. The real answer is completely dependent on your organization's culture and policies.
 
Tom Penny

Tom Penny

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,907
My Colleague is currently taking the entire month of April off to go to Hawaii.

A few days 😂
 
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stopmrdomino

stopmrdomino

Member
Jun 25, 2023
6,109
you don't know how close that family is. why get mad at him? it's none of your business

sounds like your management failed you if this is a major blow to your project, not the one employee
 
Absoludacrous

Absoludacrous

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
3,464
stopmrdomino said:
you don't know how close that family is. why get mad at him? it's none of your business

sounds like your management failed you if this is a major blow to your project, not the one employee
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Yea, if one person missing half a week halts the entire team, then management dropped the ball hard.

Shit happens, you have to account for it.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot
Member
Oct 25, 2017
101,909
here
immy said:
It fucked over our team massively to be clear, we are struggling hard as no one else knows his role
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i get it, it fucking blows, but thats not a failure of you or them or your team, its management for not foreseeing this being a problem
 
Trick_GSF

Trick_GSF

Member
Nov 2, 2017
1,175
If he is close to his family, them possibly being extremely ill matter more than work.

That's just my opinion.
 
Palette Swap

Palette Swap

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
11,848
I started reading your post thinking "yeah, they should at least give a heads up unless it's because of an unpredictable event", which it exactly sounds like.

It's none of your business and if you faced personal circumstances that made you drop everything, you'd appreciate your company being okay with it and your coworkers not questioning how legit this is.
 
jph139

jph139

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,961
It sucks, but yeah, it's an organizational problem - even if this excuse is weak, what if it wasn't? What if he quit? What if he got hit by a bus? If people aren't cross-trained and there's not sufficient documentation on vital roles, these kind of issues are inevitably going to crop up, and this one guy's absence being an issue is a symptom, not a cause.
 
BWoog

BWoog

Member
Oct 27, 2017
40,303
I thought you were gonna say the rest of the year! The rest of the week? My dude who gives a shit.
 
ratprophet

ratprophet

Member
Jun 24, 2021
2,065
immy said:
We basically are not allowed to take this one week off on holiday every month, it's a unofficial rule.
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And do you not have the awareness to realise that granting this as an exception indicates you do not know the full story?

immy said:
He only needs to do 2 hours work to not fuck us, he could do both
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'Tell me you work in finance without telling me you work in finance'
 
Rosebud

Rosebud

Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
46,752
It probably means he has to help out way more, both in the house and taking care of her.
 
Viewt

Viewt

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,956
Chicago, IL
I manage a team and approve time off.

The only factors that impact whether I approve or not are:

- Do you have the PTO banked to match the request you're making?
- Did you actually submit PTO for approval and didn't just take off and send an email?

Then I approve it. It's literally NONE of my business why anyone takes time off. It's part of their compensation. That would be like telling someone they couldn't spend their paycheck the way they wanted to.
 
sfedai0

sfedai0

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,667
The more glaring issue is how one person missing from your team wrecks the entire progress of your team.
 
TheMadTitan

TheMadTitan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
28,209
immy said:
It fucked over our team massively to be clear, we are struggling hard as no one else knows his role
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Then that's the fault of the company, not you or him. So don't worry about it.

I fucked over my whole company and department for a month because no one knows the job I do adequately enough to not struggle doing it, and I purposely got no one up to speed on how to do it effectively because it's not my job to make sure, that's a failure of everyone above me. And it's a failure of everyone above you and him that you're in this slump.
 
elenarie

elenarie

Game Developer
Verified
Jun 10, 2018
10,789
It's not their job to care whether things fall apart without them there. The problem lies elsewhere. If things depend so much on one person, may be time to train others to do that work too.
 

RaphaBE

Banned
Sep 19, 2020
779
California
How dare his family member get sick and require hospitalization. Seems extremely inconsiderate from them to inconvenience you in such a manner. /s
 
Burly

Burly

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,351
Well you have a manager, so presumably it falls on him to inform his bosses that the forecast will be late, or find an alternative.
 
OP
OP
immy

immy

Member
Jul 3, 2022
1,886
RaphaBE said:
How dare his family member get sick and require hospitalization. Seems extremely inconsiderate from them to inconvenience you in such a manner. /s
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Dude needs to log on for two hours max.

Didn't know everyone on reset era was so devoted to their siblings sister in law.
 
Palette Swap

Palette Swap

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
11,848
Viewt said:
I manage a team and approve time off.

The only factors that impact whether I approve or not are:

- Do you have the PTO banked to match the request you're making?
- Did you actually submit PTO for approval and didn't just take off and send an email?

Then I approve it. It's literally NONE of my business why anyone takes time off. It's part of their compensation. That would be like telling someone they couldn't spend their paycheck the way they wanted to.
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I think it's fair to ask people for some anticipation when they can, just so you get an idea how things are gonna work out any given week. And by anticipation, I mean like a couple of weeks notice if you can and know you'll be OoO for a week or more, and need to organize backups.

To be honest, most people do this naturally anyway, so it's not like it's a hard rule, and it's organically part of your daily job anyway.

But yeah, why is generally no one's business. If someone tells me they have an emergency, I'm not here to make them disclose it or judge it.
 
cubanb

cubanb

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,624
He does not report to you. It's really none of your business. All you can do is react and work around it.
 
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