None of her business...

[Whym]

Following a week off work (annual leave) I spent the first couple of days catching up with emails, etc. My colleague emailed me asking if I’d finished off a particular job as she wanted to ‘keep the in box down’. I have no responsibility to her but (to be polite) replied ‘I was still catching up’ and would be finishing it off the next day.

How do I stop this micromanaging from her? It wasn’t the first time and I doubt the last. I don’t work for her, we work in a small team of 4. As we are still currently working from home I’m now dreading the email telling us we are to return back. She talks to herself whilst working, moans, groans and occasionally bitches about others behind their back.

[FartingInTheFence]

If you dont report to her, then simply, you dont reply to her.

Dont make her issue become your issue.

[Whym]

I was so annoyed with her that I didn’t! I don’t report to her but she’s been like this on and off for some time and I’m fed up with it.

[forrestgreen]

Is she after promotion

[PaulinePetrovaPosey]

If you're working on a joint project I don't think she's unreasonable at all to see how you're getting on.

Telling you to do something obviously wouldn't be appropriate, but simply enquiring and explaining why it's important to her sounds like good communication.

[FartingInTheFence]

If you're working on a joint project I don't think she's unreasonable at all to see how you're getting on

Try reading what the OP said.

It was about keeping items down in an inbox, not a joint project. Not that hard to read, surely? Jeez. 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️🙄

[PaulinePetrovaPosey]

It's a reasonable assumption that they're working on something together.

If not, why would it be in the colleague's inbox?

[chipsandpeas]

@PaulinePetrovaPosey

It's a reasonable assumption that they're working on something together.

If not, why would it be in the colleague's inbox?

sounded like a shared mailbox to me

[FartingInTheFence]

@PaulinePetrovaPosey

It's a reasonable assumption that they're working on something together.

If not, why would it be in the colleague's inbox?

Very evident reading comprehension is not your strong point.

Zero evidence from the OP's post about working together.

Its a shared mailbox scenario.

🤦‍♂️

[trinity0097]

I would be concerned about why it is taking you a couple of days to catch up with your emails after just a week off!? What type of job do you do? I imagine she was wondering when you start doing work rather than just catching up? Had she been covering your role?

[Kassandra1]

How many days does it take to get back up to date after 5 days off?

[Whym]

@trinity0097@Kassandra1; To answer your question it can take a couple of days to catch up as some of our work is Statutory and would need to be prioritised above other work, (the work in the shared Inbox marked with my name). 😆

[BBCONEANDTWO]

tbf I don't think she's being unreasonable. I think you are getting worked up over something you have no control over.

She's probably just trying to keep on top of things.

[Whym]

@BBCONEANDTWO; Thanks for your input Sweetie 🤪

[Whenwillthisbeover]

Just ignore her as you have or wait until she comes back from leave and ask her the same. Cheeky cow.

[Moondust001]

If you are both responsible for the incoming mail to a shared inbox then I can't see what is wrong with this - it is common and normal policy to ensure that emails are response to within a specified timeframe. So it is as much her business as yours. It's hard to say given no context, but based on this incident you seem overly touchy. After all, she allegedly bitches about people behind their backs, whereas you totally don't post all about her for everyone in the world who has an internet connection. There are more critical issues than someone asking when you'll have finished answering some emails in shared inbox.

[PleasantVille]

[quote Whym]@BBCONEANDTWO; Thanks for your input Sweetie 🤪[/quote]
If that's your response to someone pleasantly disagreeing with you maybe the issue here isn't with your co-worker

[trinity0097]

Catching up with emails means something different to me to what it means to you. To me that means just reading them, not actually doing work!

[Whym]

Lol

[Whym]

Yes I agree. See how she likes that, lol.

[feistyoneyouare]

I imagine she was wondering when you start doing work rather than just catching up?

Eh?

Catching up on stuff that's been missed after an absence is part of most jobs. Sometimes it can be time-consuming. It sounds like the OP's job is no exception.

[iklboo]

How many days does it take to get back up to date after 5 days off?

For me, at least a day. The emails we get usually have task requests in them that need doing, not just general keeping people up to date, news, meeting requests etc so it's not just 'read & delete'.