This.
And I am concerned about :
Which sounds to me like people are coming in sick as there aren’t enough people to get the work done. Because it is a tight team. Is everyone taking their vacation time?
This is the essence of it.
At our office, a full-time employee works 5 days a week, 47 weeks a year. So we’ve got 235 work days per employee, right?
Hahaha, no. By the time you allow for sickness, sick kids, sick parents, needing to be home for the plumber, and lightning strikes*, we reckon on 220 days per worker and plan workload accordingly. No-one’s coasting, but there’s slack if we need it. And if we don’t, we can do some bonus projects. Or, we can have some non-stressed, happy workers.
*the fire took out the attic, but no-one was hurt. Meant the guy was doing a lot of life admin though
Also - the discussion of small and large groups suggests this is a relatively large employer - which will likely have a robust HR department and policies. Saying ANYTHING to a fellow employee about their attendance and/or use of leave is NOT something that should be done by a co-worker on the verbal “blessing” of one’s immediate supervisor. I have often been impressed at what strikes me as the ridiculous lengths medium to large organizations go through to address such matters.
Mentioning something to a co-worker about their FMLA status strikes me as an awfully quick way to earn yourself some attention of a not wanted sort.
Wow, am I glad I asked.
To clear a few things up…yes, he is a transfer from another department. New to us.
About the tight staffing, all I can say is, preach it. This is a battle I’ve been waging for ten years. Staffing is based on specific, ridiculous metrics that are not going to change.
I guess I’ll just keep my head down and do my job. Retirement is a little over a year away. 
mmm
This is true. I’ve had a handful of employees who I believe did a masterful job of gaming the system in regards to intermittent FMLA but there wasn’t a lot I could do about it. They jumped through all the required hoops to get that leave and an employer really doesn’t want to appear as though they’re taking retaliatory action against someone for FMLA.
Not advice, but just want to offer my sympathy. My ex-husband was a SWAT officer, and being short-staffed literally meant putting your coworkers in danger. It was a self-perpetuating problem, because people wouldn’t want to transfer into the unit because it was well-known that you were always on call and frequently called out, worked lots of overtime on short notice, and essentially needed to come in even when you were sick or injured. It’s poor working conditions, and it’s not easy to even be a family member to a person in that sort of job.
Just trying to be helpful here, but I wonder if mgmt ever recommended that you figure out how to “do more with less”? 
For the life of me, I’ve been unable to identify any options other than reducing the amount and/or lowering the quality. Good luck in holding out for the next year. I’m planning on sticking out somewhat longer - each add’l year will just make retirement that much more comfortable. But management’s claims that they are interested in quality fall on deaf ears of the reduced workforce.
Or the brilliant advice of “work smarter, not harder.”
When I was a manager my very good boss told his staff that the one thing you don’t do when someone threatens to cut your budget (or starve you) is to say that you can find a way to manage. That just makes them cut more.
Be honest about schedules slipping and about the deadlines that will be missed. Escalate the pain up. Especially if, like MMM, you are retiring in a year and so don’t give a shit about your next performance review.
Just chiming in to agree with all of the advice above, and to commiserate with you, @Mean_Mr.Mustard . I too am in a team leadership position without actually being a manager or having any authority to address performance or expectations. It’s wildly frustrating- it’s nominally up to me to facilitate our output, but no one is accountable to me.
I’ve been working on trying to have a clear understanding between what is truly my responsibility and what is management’s responsibility, and making sure that I am just clear with management about what our team’s needs are without getting too invested in trying to push us to be the perfect unit where those needs have actually been addressed.
MMM is finding more and more things to not give a shit about.
So now my manager just texted me, wants to hear my thoughts on something tomorrow. I’m pretty certain it is about this.
mmm
Tread carefully. This is not a hill you want to die on.
Just be really careful.
If your manager is not ‘finding out what resources you need in order to keep to your schedule despite the new guy’s absences …’ you’ll want to distance yourself from the conversation in some pretty clear way (“I’m not comfortable talking about this. Maybe we should go to HR with this situation. ISTM that there may be some legal stuff involved”).
The risk, otherwise, is the same (effectively) as if you and your colleagues had ‘pressured’ the new guy to show up more regularly despite an apparently valid FMLA justification.
This is a grenade.
Meaning: you could be named in some future action if you even quietly go along with the manager ranting about this subject.
And people invoking rights under FMLA and ADA tend to make for some pretty sympathetic plaintiffs (or leading characters in the news), if you know what I mean.
IANAL, but the son of an HR exec and a former corporate exec, myself.
People are allowed sick days in your company, correct? Then I don’t see how it is any of your business as to when or why he calls in sick.
Then I wish you the best of luck in your new job.
You might want to read the thread.
mmm
I’ve been continually impressed at the ability to be keep lowering my standards - below what I would have previously thought possible!
Just keep your mouth shut, and proclaim ignorance as you run out the clock.
[Puts on manager hat]
I hear what you are saying. As you know, things are tight right now and I realize everyone is under a lot of stress with everything that’s going on. Rest assured help is coming. I’ve spoken to senior leadership and they are clearly interested in what you are saying. But for the time being I need to ask everyone to just dig in for a little while longer until we get through this rough patch.
[/Puts on manager hat]
[Puts on what manager is thinking hat]
Only six more months of listening to these losers gripe about their stupid jobs. Then my options will have vested and I will be eligible for that transfer to the new Digital group. I mean do these guys not realize our company doesn’t even use whatever it is they are creating anymore? The Old Man just asked me to babysit these clowns as part of a corporate tax write off! After the fiscal year they’re all getting cut loose anyway!
[/Puts on what manager is thinking hat]
Might I suggest:
If it is, then you should put it on him to deal with this new employee in your group. He shouldn’t delegate to you, nor should you ask for, supervisory responsibilities that aren’t yours.
And keep repeating as many times as is necessary.
Document the discussion and put your notes in a safe place. You may need them.