About text messages re. work on my day off?? Bloody annoyed!

[MrsOverTheRoad]

I've recently begun working for a friend's business. The friend is WONDERFUL but has gone abroad for a month.

This means that the co-director of the company is now in charge and as far as I can see, she's not really up to the job. She works full time and is trying to do that as well as run the new business.

She delegates things to me which aren't really my job...think inputting a load of data when I'm meant to be a salesperson. (it's a shop of sorts)

And not doing basic stuff in the store when it's her day in there...

Then she texts me on my days off to ask me questions about the last day's business...like "Did you get the office sorted?"

Checking up on me sort of thing or checking up on the progress of buildings works.

Then when I text back, she doesn't respond!!

I think she might feel threatned by me or something. Not sure how to handle it.

She's texted me today and said "Did the builders finish the wall?" so, knowing they had NOT finished it...due to some issues with materials I replied, "No...didn't they call you?"

Which they said they WOULD do...as the foreman wanted to explain some technical stuff to her....and she hasn't bloody responded to my text!

RUDE! Bothering me on my day off...then not responding? AIBU to be wound up?

Hold on a mo. Unless I've missed it, you said she was sending you a couple of texts in your day off. You didn't say you were expected to make sales calls / run errands in your day off. That's a bit different!!

There's too much drop feeding here for me to form an opinion!

*This whole small businesses work differently thing is such horseshit. Yes, they do work differently, BUT THEY SHOULDN'T, and unless people start challenging the non-existent policies these businesses have then nobody's work life balance will ever improve.

It's your day off? Ignore all contact from work, you're not available

Consistently staying late 'because you have to' - no, you don't. You do your contracted hours only, or negotiate overtime rates

Going over and above and have nothing to show for it? Reign it in, they'll soon notice the difference

I know I sound like a dick, but small business owners need to realise that unless their employees have a stake in the company they are not obliged to work as hard outside of the work environment as the owner.*

If every new business/shop had staff like that none would ever get off the ground.

I have run and started a few businesses that start off with an owner and one or maybe two employees.

The jobsworths tend not to last. The ones who get stuck in tend to do very well and one who was straight from school when he was hired as an assistant got stuck in and took it upon himself to help with marketing, painting the showroom, mail drops, researching new product lines in his spare time etc. The business ran at a loss for about 18 months as most do, and so we could only afford to pay him a basic wage that didn't reflect the time and effort he put in but he was a big contributor to making that business a success, so we gave him. 20% shareholding to show our appreciation and give him the incentive to keep working hard.

His efforts have helped us grow the business and make good money from it and he now gets a healthy salary - plus now owns 60% despite never having four anything in other than enthusiasm and sheer graft.

You don't have to do anything. You don't have to respond to her messages you don't have to do the extra tasks. You don't have to stay late.

I work for a small business. We all muck in and do what we have to do to keep things moving for our clients.

I don't review emails when I'm not in work. I will respond to a text from the boss or check an email if inneed to - e.g. If he texts asking me to look at a particular thing I will - but when I'm available to. They know this.

Go in and set boundaries.

I'm on maternity leave in a few weeks and have said for the first week or so (or until baby arrives) I'll check emails and will forward anything sent just to me onto the team. After that, I will switch off and only go back online if they specifically ask me too.

I've done enough handing over to feel confident I won't hear from them except socially.

scoobydoobydont I have worked in a number of small businesses. I agree you shouldn't do over your hours, but also agree that you can not stick to a narrowly defined set of duties. OP is annoyed at having to do anything outside of a narrow set of duties. That is not how working in a small business is. You have to be flexible.

Can she jot see that the office is/isn't sorted or that the wall is/isn't finished? I'm assuming both are at work and she's there when texting?

I used to temp in an office like this. They once rang me on my day off to ask for a computer password... instead of asking the IT guy in the next room! I figured it was a kind of jealousy thing that they didn't want me to enjoy a day off while they were slaving away in the office.

I agree that a "handover" email or phone call is the way to go - it'll be harder for to come up with random queries / requests if you've specifically asked her if she needs to know anything before you go "offline".

I agree with just ignoring messages - you'd be within your rights to do this anyway, but the fact she just ignores your replies clinches it. (It also sort of implies that she isn't actually interested in the answers, she just wants to know that you're jumping to attention.)

Out of curiosity, is your friend abroad for business or a holiday?

Also, this is a very mumsnetty thing to say, but I suspect some of the people saying YABU must also be bosses who regularly contact their staff with irrelevant shit on ther days off

Also, I wouldn't let her get away with this "just for now" because the businesss is new and she has a lot on her plate - you'll be setting a precedent it will be impossible to go back on. As you said, they're not paying you enough to be stressed about ths!