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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to not want to be harassed about work via Facebook during my holiday?

46 replies

ClarissaTheTeenageWitch · 30/05/2015 18:22

Just got back from lovely camping holiday in the back of beyond with no internet for days to find I've been added to a conversation about work related stuff by two colleagues on Facebook who are discussing schemes of work and controlled assessments (I'm a teacher), asking me various questions etc. Surely this should be done via email?! I really didn't want to think about work until tomorrow morning, but now I have no choice. AIBU to ignore them?

OP posts:

Aermingers · 30/05/2015 22:33

Totally, totally inappropriate.

EvilTwins, nobody is saying that teachers shouldn't use Facebook. I would say it was an inappropriate way of discussing work no matter what the profession was.

The only time facebook should ever be used for professional things on a personal account is if it's absolutely urgent and there is no other way of contacting them.

SwedishEdith · 30/05/2015 22:35

Isn't this what Yammer is for?

EvilTwins · 31/05/2015 07:27

Aermingers - why? I just don't get the angst. Email is email is email. What difference does it make?

cricketballs · 31/05/2015 07:58

As a staff most of us are on fb and use messenger as

its more instant than email (in terms of notifications on phone is instant, whereas most phones will do an email check on a timed basis)
not all staff have their work emails set up on their phone/tablet)

And most importantly...

we can say what we want about the latest idiotic policy implemented without worrying (emails can be checked)

Op; you aren't under obligation to answer, just like with any work emails sent

LavenderRain · 31/05/2015 08:17

Where I work I am one of the rare people who don't have facebook and its so liberating when nobody knows what im up to when im off.
I hear them all talking saying I see you did this etc etc.
I can think of nothing worse and I love that im not on it

SomewhereIBelong · 31/05/2015 09:58

"I'm on holiday, talk about it Monday" if you feel the need to respond. People can talk/post/whatever, you don't have to listen or engage.

Bunbaker · 31/05/2015 10:14

"I got a text from one of our interns about a work issue at 6am this morning. I was dying for a lie in and couldn't get back to sleep!"

Simple. You do what I do and switch your phone off at night. We still have a landline and anyone who was desperate enough to get in touch with us at an unsociable hour would ring that.

DragonWithAGirlTattoo · 31/05/2015 10:19

"Where I work I am one of the rare people who don't have facebook and its so liberating when nobody knows what im up to when im off.
I hear them all talking saying I see you did this etc etc.
I can think of nothing worse and I love that im not on it"

Yes, because Facebook forces you to update where you are and what you are up to, its all automatic now

ConnortheMonkey · 31/05/2015 10:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AlternativeTentacles · 31/05/2015 10:24

I'd post a suitably relevant sticker and say 'I'll see you back at work on X day' and then leave the conversation.

sonjadog · 31/05/2015 10:27

I guess they wanted to include you in the discussion and rather than including you later when the holiday is over, they just added you from the start. I sometimes send work email at weekends, but it is because I know I will have forgotten it by Monday morning, so if I send it I know it is done. I would never expect someone else to respond in their free time.

I suggest you don't respond until tomorrow morning. Whatever they are wondering about can wait until after the holiday.

I am a teacher and I do not respond to any emails or texts that are not important and urgent in the weekends or holidays. I used to answer them when I was less experienced, but teaching can take over your whole life and it is important to have firm boundaries.

Bunbaker · 31/05/2015 10:27

"Yes, because Facebook forces you to update where you are and what you are up to, its all automatic now"

I thought that was only if you ticked the update location setting.

DragonWithAGirlTattoo · 31/05/2015 10:32

No, it posts status updates, tags your friends, insults your in-laws, sends out candy crush requests, posts insulting memes and gets into arguments - all automatically......

TummyButtonFluff · 31/05/2015 10:33

If they hadn't included you wouldn't you be annoyed not to have been consulted? Are you sure it's not just for info to read later? Agree though, FB inappropriate and surely not v secure.

Theycallmemellowjello · 31/05/2015 10:38

So many people post on this site about work issues - why is op getting a hard time? I think it is u of them to message on fb but that as it's your head of dept you have to be slightly careful about complaining. Maybe say something like you like to have a record of emails in case you need to check back so can they use the email system? And then stick to replying in work hours.

CamelHump · 31/05/2015 10:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Aermingers · 31/05/2015 11:17

EvilTwin, because of the nature of Facebook. It's not a work based medium, it's a social one. People mainly use it to communicate with people they know in a personal capacity and not just a professional one. People access it when they're not working. And it's also a lot easier to see when people have been on. Using it for work based stuff intrudes into people's personal lives. If you're not working you can choose whether or not to respond to an email related to work or leave it until later with no comeback. If you send it via Facebook they know you've been on and read it and it pressurises you to give up your personal time to respond whether you want to or not. It might mean you feel you can't update your status or add photos unless you respond. It's intrusive.

there are privacy concerns. I know a few years ago they made a load of old private messages from a few years before public on people's walls. They denied they were private messages and people were mistaken. But I remember on here people were swearing blind they were PMs and I am also certain some of mine were. Also people can very easily be accidentally added to group conversations.

It also doesn't provide a very effective paper trail of discussions and decisions made. If something went seriously wrong on a project I was working on and a paper trail was needed to establish where the fault lay my bosses would go absolutely postal if I presented them with a stack of facebook messages. Particularly if it had to be escalated to senior management or an external agency.

It's bloody unprofessional. And if it is ever necessary to account via paper trail for what was said you'll look like shit. And your colleagues will be pissed off with you for using a medium that is understood by the vast majority of people as a personal one as a work thing to pressure you into sending a response when it's inconvenient.

Aermingers · 31/05/2015 11:23

And, apart from anything else, most workplaces frown on the accessing of Facebook at work deeply. If you need to access messages to review what was said while you're at work you're going to look like you're skiving. It's difficult to locate and print out messages. And even if you do find them if asked for a paper trail, you may well hand them over interspersed with a lot of discussion about what pub you're going to on Friday, which shoes you should buy, your painful heavy period and details of your car playing up. Awful, unprofessional.

BlinkAndMiss · 31/05/2015 11:36

I love the comments about how this wasn't a 'proper holiday' and that you should have been running revision sessions and planning like everyone else! Some people have no idea - how people can comment on the prep work other teachers are doing is beyond me, how do we know what the OP has done previously?

I didn't run a revision class this holiday, I did mine in the Easter holiday and one of my colleagues took her turn to run one this time. I also completed my planning and prep in the weeks before this holiday by staying back late and working through lunch time. So I've done absolutely nothing all week.

OP it is inappropriate, work shouldn't be discussed through facebook as it just serves to make you act on it immediately even if it wasn't intended that way. I'd reply with something along the lines of 'thanks for including me in the info, I look into it more once we're back at school'.

Teachers are allowed to have down time, they don't have to work through every 'holiday' - they can be quite flexible with their time.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 31/05/2015 11:52

For the future, Clarissa - could you set up a second FB profile, that you use just for work-related stuff - then you could stay off that profile when you aren't in work mode?

Sandinmyshoes · 31/05/2015 12:43

I would respond saying that your family all have access to your Facebook (via ipad??) so please could work messages be kept to work email address.

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