In thinking I should not be adminished for not answering work emails out of hours

[hoovercraft]

I work part time but can access work emails from home. I stupidly do look at them on occasion, especially on monday night to see if there will be anything to deal with on tuesday (I dont work monday).

My admin assistan has ssent me 3 client enquiries out of my work hours - two after 5 pm on thurs and one today. She has copied this in to our manager with a comment/question as to why I havent responded. The copying alone is pretty snidey but really should i have to do that in my non work hours just because I can access them?

speak about

btw Im not her manager....but she is my admin assistant (the whole offices)

could she have forgotten that you weren't in?

You can switch off the flag that tells people whether you have read emails or not, if you want to.

I'd ignore it if I were you. If your boss expects you to work out of hours, then they should tell you. It depends a bit on the work culture though. I do work out of hours, but am given loads of flexibility for house/childcare issues, so I see it as a bit of give and take. If they are very strict about your working hours, I'd say you have every right to be strict about your non-working hours.

You can specify whether the receipt is sent back to the sender (at least with Exchange/Outlook you can).

Even if you have opened them, and they know it, you are not working therefore you don't actually have to do anything about it. It is not unusual for anyone to open e-mails in advance of being in the office.

I would keep her e-mail and any subsequent digs and start building up a case against the both of them, in case you need to especially with regards the bullying. Get as much evidence as possible.

In the meantime just reply that it is on your to-do list for when you get back to the office tomorrow.

hoovercraft, do what fakeplastictrees said. Don't make it into a big drama with big discussions and meetings - you don't need to speak to your boss to speak to her about it as that will make you look weak and will encourage her (the assistant) "managerial" traits. Cut the shit down before it even starts and show that you mean business in a non aggressive way, impersonal way.

That's how men get ahead. They cut straight to the chase, no bellyaching. I understand it's annoying and you feel admonished by thte assistant but let it be known who's in charge...in a nice(ish) way.

If it's Novell Groupwise, her sent message will show in the properties pane if you have opened it.

Whatever e-mail client you use, I smell a rat - she's stirring it. Be very wary.

hoover take the simple option, reply on email, copy all - what fakeplastic said. Blow her shit up and shut her up. Once she understan ds that her stirring will go nowhere she'll soon be sucking up to you.

Okay, it changes things a bit that you're not her manager. A friend of mine (male) had this recently with the team's admin assistant, she reported to his boss so it was for his boss to sort out any issues, which the guy spectacularly failed to do.

So this needs to be a friendly conversation between you and your boss, to make sure the assistant is clear what to do with your enquiries on your non-work days. It may well be that a bit of give and take is required as 120 describes, I have that at my office (although I work f-t my hours are much more erratic than I would really like them to be) but it is precisely that, give and take.

Doesn't need to be a big drama, but your clients will have a certain level of expectation, that the firm needs to manage collectively. You are entitled to work part-time. Your firm has agreed to this arrangement. All that needs doing now is ensuring the infrastructure is there so neither you nor your clients are inconvenienced as a result.

The email that you should've seen on the 20th is the one ringing alarm bells to me. It smells like she accidentally (deliberately?) forgot to forward it to you and is now trying to kick up a stink about you not working on Mondays to hide her own failings. Could your boss have got a call that spurred him/her to ask what happened to the email?

Jump on it. Ask asst (and cc boss) a) when she got the email, b) why she did not forward it to you on the day she got it, and c) her ideas on what procedures need to be put in place to ensure she doesn't miss important emails like this again.

In these situations I think that the truism about the best form of defence is attack is very true.

Could you email IT to say you were expecting an email that you haven't seen, and wondered what happened to it? (They may reply saying it was sent but junked/lost, or they may say it wasn't sent in the first place).

If you are being bullied then it will help if you keep all records of this, e.g. emails, and your responses.

thanks

can you tell admin lady/boss that admin should have been sent the 20th email on the 20th - you were in that day and could have delt with it then and there. Also say you are keeping a log as the behaviour is not normal.

also can you say you were too busy to answer emails at home and remind her of the hours you work.

I always went for the "innocent" approach along the lines of..

... oh dear. It seems this email arrived with the company on the 20th (when I was in the office) but wasn't sent to me until the following Monday, one of the days I don't work. I'm concerned there may be a problem with the email system as otherwise I don't understand why I didn't receive this whilst I was in the office and able to deal with it in a more timely fashion...

The way it was put to me was (unless you want to escalate it dramatically) to always try and give someone a way to save face. At the moment it is possible that she did forward the message to you and is now getting flack because you haven't responded (because you didn't get it). You get to take the moral high ground, give her a graceful get out if she is sticking a finger in the being awkward pie - whilst making it clear that you are an eager employee doing your best to meet your clients needs during your working hours. If she insists she sent the message on the 20th then that's the time (IMO) to start dragging in IT to prove whether she's telling porkies and trying to set you up.

Does sound like keeping a record is a very good idea, and having a conversation with your boss re. responsibility for these things on your days off might be worth doing.

If you are concerned about being contacted out of hours then I would be very cautious about handing out your mobile number (assuming they don't have it already). Giving it to them could be considered an invitation to use it, and who do you want to determine what is "urgent"?