It really doesn’t sound like Carl is some master of trickery, which means it’s nigh-impossible that the boss is unaware he’s unproductive, unless the manager is blazingly incompetent. And mostly-absent or not, if a manager seriously wanted to get rid of the guy and was looking for a way to do so, he’d figure out the timesheet fraud on his own, via his own methods. That this hasn’t happened means that either Carl is so entrenched that he can’t be dealt with, or that the manager is incompetent himself. If the first case is true then my report won’t help. If the second case is true then my report won’t help. And in both cases there’s a chance that somebody will hear about my report and get mad about it. Even if they don’t know that I’m the one that sent the report, they’ll know that it’s one of the people in the group, and retribution could be levied against the entire group. At which point it’ll probably come out who reported it (because everybody else will deny it and I won’t lie), and the shit will hit the fan.
Do I have to pick up Carl’s slack, or is he otherwise getting his work done to an acceptable degree of quality in the time he is putting in? I’m not ratting him out if his only offense is cheating the time card. Most people are not working 100% of the time they are clocked in. Or do you all clock out every time you use the loo, get a drink of water, or shoot the breeze with your co-workers?
Your hypothetical workplace where no one but Carl The Retaliator ever runs errands or takes a day off is getting more divorced from reality with each post. Not really sure what your objective with this thread is, but the habit of adding unrealistic special conditions to nullify particular responses doesn’t make for interesting discussion.
She would ‘forget’ to punch in when late, which was often. She would ‘forget’ to punch out when leaving early, also often. She did the least amount of actual work of any employee. Which wasn’t that bad, because she made many mistakes and her work would often have to be redone. She had an excuse for everything. Nothing was ever her fault. If pressed, she would argue until you wanted to kill yourself, just so the noise would stop.
She would volunteer to pick up lunch for co-workers, call in the order, leave and be gone for 2 hours, then return with the food and take her lunch break. (we worked 12 hour shifts)
The supervisor knew. His supervisor knew. Everybody knew. She was still there when I left.
We all said that she had naked pictures of somebody higher up in the company.
Hoo boy, that sounds just like Carl (except fir the supervisors being aware). I really don’t think there are nekkid photos in the mix.
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This situation seems like Junior Modding as applied to the workplace. If no worker is getting screwed because of Carl, it’s not your problem. If this is true, it means you are overstaffed and Carl might be helpful in making it look like you don’t have too many people. Is the work falling behind? If it is, there might be a case.
I agree with others that if the boss gets pressed to deal with this he’s going to be mad at the reporters, not Carl. Chances are that the people who receive the mail will ask him if there is an issue, he’ll say no, and they’ll mark it down to whining workers. You are not going to make an incompetent boss competent with a complaint letter.
Workers *are *getting screwed, in the sense that the workload is backed up. Even with Carl pulling his weight they would still be understaffed (not over).
The boss is not incompetent, just spread way, way too thin.
The manager being upset because he was not apprised of the situation - that his head was “went over” - I had not considered and is valuable input.
I don’t understand why you can’t just talk to your manager and even their boss. You say they are both good at their jobs. Walk into their office, sit down and share your concerns.
Cool. Then here’s a suggestion. Measuring things allows you to improve them. Suggest to your boss that you measure by putting your name on the things you complete. Say that this will help you find issues. I assume he knows you are falling behind. It also might help him justify new hiring - most bosses would like more people. Tell him he gets a report every week. Then Carl’s slacking will become obvious. Putting the stats up on the wall, like a Baldridge Award winning factory I used to visit did, could help also.
Tell your boss that you won’t send the report to anyone but him. If he still does nothing, then forget it. Hell, all of you might reduce your workload to Carl’s.