Endless work calls

[Andso]

I need help please and I'm at a loss as to how to approach this situation.

So I WFH 3 days a week, all good apart from this one person on my team who rings me randomly and we have what feels like endless chats. We have scheduled calls to review work deadlines queries etc... and then she will call me before and after those calls at random times throughout the day and fill me in on everything from her holidays to her mad weekend to what funny thing her dog did. I'm finding it very difficult to end these calls and as her stories seem to go on forever and then at the end she'll mention the work issue she vaguely mentioned at the start of the call.

I need to log my hours as we bill clients based on hours worked on each project so ever since I was transferred on to her team I'm am finding I am allocating more time to general admin. We would usually allocate a certain portion of our weeks work to admin but this is getting crazy now.. can anyone give me any one liners I can use to end the personal chit chat. Help

Oh and yes I am a wuss who hates confrontation..

Just don't answer the calls

You can always drop a message to say, can't talk working on project X

Or just block focus time in your diary

Thanks, we do work on the same projects, so sometimes she will say can you call me about x client, then when I do she will launch into her tales...

Message her and say you have a 10 minute window at 11.30 or whatever, so she can call you. And stick to it. Either that or ask her to email the query.

Otherwise it looks like it is you who's making all these long-winded calls that go on forever. If your bosses check, it will be you who gets it in the neck.

You have to be more assertive.

I have a similar colleague, so I wait to reply until say 20 past the hour and then say, I’ve got 10 mins, call at half past. Then after 5 mins of what ever story, sorry X only got 5 mins left, what was the work thing you needed.

Set your limits very clearly and right at the beginning of the call.

"I can't take your call right now, can you send me an invite with details of what you want to cover"

"I have a hard stop at [insert time here] because I have another meeting/work to get done for another meeting"