We have an employee who is employed on a 5-day working contract based on shift work – 8am-4.30pm and 10am–6pm. This employee has children and is always complaining that she doesn’t see them due to her work patterns. We discussed this with her and temporarily (due to operational reasons) changed her work shifts to 4 days a week (8am – 4.30pm), which she is still working. These changes have upset the rest of her department, as they have to cover all of the later shifts (10am-6pm). This employee is a negative annie and still does not seem to be happy with this arrangement. She doesn’t help in the office and sticks to doing her own job. Everyone seems to be rallying around trying to keep her happy but all she ever moans about is her workload (which isn’t huge and help is supplied when asked), not seeing her children, even though she always makes time for social evenings at work and outside of work. She is demoralising the team and her line manager with her negativity and her constant moaning. What else can we do with her? When we’ve had job chats with her and tried to help her, she keeps referring to her children and not being able to cope.
Madeline Clark