Ok, just need to vent.

There are 8 people in this department.  3 women and 5 men.  6 months ago, the women entertained the idea of 4 day work weeks.  The men shot it down without even a discussion.  2 weeks ago, 2 of the men had a brilliant idea.  how about 4 day work weeks???  The women didn't say anything about the past, they just hopped on the "4 day work week train" and said "sounds like a good idea to us".

My manager says "ok, work out the schedules and if it all falls into place, we'll do it".  So, we all figured out our schedules (most just added an hour at each end) and submitted them to the manager.    Here's where the trouble starts . . .

One of the leads was told by the manager "you have to be here on these days.  however many hours you want to work on those days is fine with me, you just have to be here on those days, no changes to days off". 

This lead tried to submit 2 schedules.  One to the rest of the workers that showed what days he wanted off and then another one to the manager that showed the days he was told he had to be here.  Unbeknownst to the lead, the manager's right hand (wo)man got ahold of the other schedules and the manager saw that this lead had set up his schedule to be off on the days he was supposed to be here.

Now the whole plan for 4 day work weeks has ground to a halt.  Because of one person trying to pull something. Sadly enough, none of us are terribly surprised by this because he is one of the three that *ALWAYS* cause problems when there are changes that need to be made or that the rest of us want to make. No matter if it is getting new chairs, ordering supplies, anything.  He always creates a huge fuss, no matter what.

 Maybe we'll get lucky and the manager will still make it possible to do the 4 day work weeks, but if he doesn't, it's ok, just frustrating.  I'm crossing my fingers . . .

i have known people like that. they are hard to figure out- it's like they want to be difficult for the sake of being difficult. even though it will be to their own detrement. it must be an attention seeking thing.

i hope things get worked out! you would save gas im sure, not to mention it would be nice to have that extra day!

jeweledsunshine:

Unbeknownst to the lead, the manager's right hand (wo)man got ahold of the other schedules and the manager saw that this lead had set up his schedule to be off on the days he was supposed to be here.

The lead is wrong for lying.  Submitting two different schedules was dishonest.
This lead person also sounds to be manipulative or childish in behavior.
The manager is wrong too and here is why -
- Allows the childish, lying & manipulating lead to control this situation for everyone else.
Instead of dealing with the lead properly which would require conflict, it is avoided.

The circumstances may be more complex - but good managers have to ability to deal with conflict effectively, and sometimes that means enforcing policy or firing someone or some other consequence for unprofessional conduct.
If the manager will not deal with this person, you will always be subject to the control the lead has over the manager.
So, your options are to accept the weaknesses in both of these people that tell you when to work, or to seek other employment that offers the flexibility you would like.....  Change is hard - but if they won't, you certainly can.....

PinkLemonade,

 Thanks for the response!  It seems like he is one of those people.  When the "right hand woman" asked him about it, he just kind of smirked at her, so he knew what he was doing.

kdymott,

Thanks for the response!  Luckily for me, he's not my lead.  Of course that's not to say that my lead doesn't have his own share of idiosyncrasies.  I wrote another post on that subject called "I just need to vent a little . . . coworker woes".  I figure I'm going to stick around for a while longer because I'm working with my manager to get into another position that works days instead of nights and none of the people I work with now will be around in that area.  In the mean time, I'll just keep working my 8 hour shift and then going home, lol.