Should I feel bad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think you absolutely did the right thing. You didn't go to the partner and tell on her, he came to you and asked direct questions. You gave direct answers without giving a lot of details. I would have done the same thing. It's not your job to cover for her. Those PPs that say otherwise seem like they pull stuff like that themselves and expect others to cover for them. Those are the kinds of people that mooch off of everyone else and try to get away with doing as little work as possible. I've known a few of those myself!

Completely agree with this. You did the right thing OP!

[Anonymous]

1. Blatantly lying to cover for the early leaver would've gotten both the OP and the early leaver in trouble.
2. If the early leaver has left the OP in the lurch, work-wise, due to this early leaving, why should the OP cover for someone who's making OP's life harder?

The folks saying "mind your own business" don't seem to say why the OP needs to be covering for a co-worker, putting OP's ass at risk.

If the OP had posted, "Hey my co-worker is always leaving early, should I tell managers?" I'd have said no.

I would advise the OP to mention this to the early leaver. If she has a habit of flipping out on people, I suspect that's another strike against her when it's layoff time (unless she has Gregory House levels of genius.)

[Anonymous]

I don't think you did anything wrong. It's not like this was a one-time thing and the coworker asked you to cover for her. She's leaving early every day and taking advantage of the fact that nobody had noticed yet. Now they have. It's possible the partner has received complaints about her leaving early and that's why he/she came around. The coworker might not like you very much after this, but even he/she would have to accept that it's not really your fault.

I have a not-that-busy job (also not paid a ton of money) that is especially slow this time of year, with a lot of folks on vacay. My boss was unexpectedly out 3 days last week. I normally work 8:30-4:30, but last week I pretty much bailed as soon as my boss's boss was out of the building, around 3:30 to 4:00. I wanted to pick my daughter up early, since she's usually in daycare for 10 hours. If someone had asked where I was, I wouldn't have expected a coworker to cover for me.

[Anonymous]

You're a lawyer. You stated the facts as you understand them.

I have a co-worker who cuts lots of corners and I state the facts when I am asked where she is. I figure that if they really wanted to know, they could check the badge swipe in and out times.

This is what happens when you are a time keeper. If you were a time puncher, this wouldn't have happened because your co-worker would have had to stick around twiddling her thumbs until official quitting time.

[Anonymous]

Well, here's the thing about law firm life. Outside of a few dinosaurs, at the end of the day, no one really gives a fuck where you are if you are billing hours. How do her billables look? I'm sure they are down, but are they better than yours? If so, don't count on her being gone before you are.

Also, if she is senior to you, expect her to start hogging work and refusing to push things down to you asap. Your nose might be clean, but she will throw you under the bus to the partners since you've ratted her out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, here's the thing about law firm life. Outside of a few dinosaurs, at the end of the day, no one really gives a fuck where you are if you are billing hours. How do her billables look? I'm sure they are down, but are they better than yours? If so, don't count on her being gone before you are.

Also, if she is senior to you, expect her to start hogging work and refusing to push things down to you asap. Your nose might be clean, but she will throw you under the bus to the partners since you've ratted her out.

Yeah but she could the one to go since her billing rate is probably higher than OP's rate and she probably doesn't have her own book of business.

[Anonymous]

Ratted her out? If co-worker wanted OP to cover for her, she should have said something, "Hey, if anyone' looking for me, just let them know I'm _________." Otherwise, she was a fool to expect OP or anyone to invent a story or beat around the bush on her behalf.

[Anonymous]

aprilmayjune wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, spoken like a true snake in the grass. Its none of your business where she is and you didn't know that she went home you just think she did. You should have answered honestly and said, "I don't know." Glad I don't work with you. Mind your own business next time.

But she said this person leaves early every day. I think at that point it's pretty fair to assume that she left early. She wasn't out to get her in trouble, she was just being honest. I don't know wouldn't have been an honest answer.
I'm glad that I don't work with you! Someone who believes it's okay to do wrong and to expect that your coworkers who do things right will cover for you when you don't.

I agree with this. If someone leaves early once in a blue moon, and IF asked, I would probably say something like "I'm not sure." But if someone leaves at 2 (and I'm someone who leaves the office some days at 4, to pick up my son, an dsome nights at 8 or 9 pm) e.v.e.r.y. day, I think it's OK to say "I think she left for the day."

OP, you did fine. Don't stress it. You were asked and you have no obligation to cover for soeone who does this every day. BTW: it it hadn't been you, it might well have been another situation that exposed this.

[Anonymous]

Good answers.

[Anonymous]

I would have admitted the person left for the day but also said something about her always coming in really early.