I was told off by a work colleague

[selepele]

i have been at my current job since June, the person concerned has been there longer than me. He is the accounts guy, not my manager and I do not need to answer to him at all.

He works downstairs and me upstairs but you can see my desk if you walk round the corner from downstairs as I'm at the top of the stairs.

I work as admin so people sometimes ask me to type up stuff for them ect, which is no issues. I was hired to do the project manager and ICT persons admin.

so this particular person I have never had issues with and had a good relationship with until today.

He ask me to type up some stuff and I ask when does he need it by which he says "its not urgent, like 2-3 days I don't need it today" he gave me this work around 3pm

so everyone has left the office and it is just me and him (we are a small team of around 8) he walks pass the stairs (at the bottom of the stairs) once and sees me on my phone, he then does it again to go loo then when he is back turns around and says to me...

"I will appreciate if you do what I told you to do and not play on your phone"
I said I am doing it which he said "no youre not" and I said you told me it wasn't urgent which he said "that's not the point you don't just sit there on your phone"

I was very shocked by his attitude, as stated he is NOT my manager or of any authority to me.

He didn't even come upstairs to see if I had done anything since giving it to me so I made a point to finish it all and put it on his desk before the end of the day at 5pm.

I then left and I did slam the door and ignore him when he said bye to me.

do you think I am wrong at all?

He asked me to type up some stuff for him, which was fine

It's a bit different working in the NHS, not in general office admin when there is a deadline of two days for a piece of work. No-one will die.

The criticism of the fact she's texting her relative whilst I'm hospital is related to the fact she said she was texting them because they get bored. That's a totally different thing to using your phone in an emergency to text an unwell relative. Any boss would say that it's ok to text someone whilst in hospital but this post makes it sounds like they're mindlessly texting them whilst at work because they get voted in hospital, not to check if they're ok. They're very different things. One can be seen as time wasting at work, the other is being concerned if someone is ok, as they're unwell. If she knows they're ok, and she's at work she shouldn't be texting them just because they're bored whilst being paid to do work. That crosses over from what her boss expected I imagine.

Two possibilities: you have a tendency to be on your phone a lot, it is known, and although no one has says something yet, he took that opportunity to do. In that is the case (you might not be conscious ot it so much) Do NOTHING

Other possibility: he is a jerk who takes pleasure from picking on anyone else. He does it to everyone and he annoys everyone doing it. If that is the case. Just ignore his comments and do what you're asked within the time scales given. The roblem is him.

Seren96. You might well be right we just don’t know quite what manager would be ok with. If I were managing someone I would be happy they were At work and doing their work rather than taking time off to visit relative. Having relative in hosp even if not in critical situation is stressful (for both sides). But you may be right and support may have become unnecessarily distracting from what needs to be done.
I have managed others and been managed by others well and poorly over time. Self employed currently and for a long time.

It's a bit different working in the NHS, not in general office admin when there is a deadline of two days for a piece of work. No-one will die.

No they won't, but if you are on your phone alot and you havd admitted there is generally not enough work for you, you could be talking yoursrlf out if a job.

He sounds like a bit of a jobsworth op - not worth door slamming etc over though. I get why you were annoyed, but you'll make yourself look bad doing that stuff. Hold in your rage at work like the rest of us and let it out on here

I too manage a team of people. I can't imagine any boss being ok with someone texting a relative all day because they're bored. As a manager you would have to consider what message this is sending the rest of the team and be mindful of how these things can spread and effect team morale ( as evidenced ). Texting to check on the welfare of someone is very different to texting to alleviate someone's boredom, that almost comes irrelevant that they are unwell as it isn't the purpose of the texting in my view. Phone would need to go away and by all means text to check if they're ok before work : during break : lunch etc but no need at your desk during work time if they are stable and ok, and just bored and need entertainment.

I think he's rude and condescending. You're right to avoid banter with him in future and yes I would mention it to your manager. Sending messages on your phone is normal as long as you get your work done.

Not allowed to use my phone at work and wound get told to do something if sat staring into space or reading the mail online or mumsnet

If a colleague of mine were texting a relative in hospital I would hope I would understand and be thankful I worked somewhere where if I needed to I could too. Obviously if the said texter was taking the p* and/or work not getting done was impacting others I would feel differently or would think they just needed to have asked for time off etc.

You can't advise you manager he was rude when your own behaviour was far worse.

He went past on more than one occasion & each time you were on your phone. He was the senior member of staff on the premises with a junior, it is accepted practice that he will assume responsibility. He callled you out for your phone use & that's what you don't like. Saying you won't share banter anymore is truly pathetic. I'd want you off my team TBH, people like you are toxic.

He may not be your manager but if it's part of your role to provide admin support to the team then I can understand his irritation.

2 possibilities -

This wasn't about you at all. He's stressed about something and you were an easy target (not condoning his behaviour)

You've been irritating him for a while and this was the final straw. We have someone at work who swans around doing sod all and really winds up those of us who are working flat out. I'm generally polite to her but have been known to snap over something seemingly trivial when I see her doing non-work things in the office.

But Heron the colleague had no idea OP was texting a sick relative, she didn't explain that to him.

Also OP was only in contact with relative due to said relatives boredom, not condition. Two very different scenarios.

Perhaps the accounts guy might not consider having a tonne of staff sat, arsing around on their phones and finger pointing as to who manages to shirk the most work they can, great value for money.

I don't think your looking at the bigger picture here. There's 24 hours in a day. There are allocated breaks during work time to text. By all means check on your relative. I agree with you there. But if you've been allocated work, by a team member to achieve the teams overall work goal. Do the work first and then text, we don't know what the end date of the Poorly relative is, we don't know how long this has been going on? At some point a work boundary needs to be drawn. To me it sounds like this person works in a supportive environment and has been afforded her phone to text her poorly relative but this is now being taken advantage on. The whole fact that this has been written in means that there is usually a no phone policy or else this wouldn't have been afforded. Perhaps others are under pressure and have noticed this as an ongoing issue. Perhaps they too have unwell relatives but also respect their jobs / colleagues and aren't being so luxurious with the texting and are doing their work on time.

Jeanpaget - agreed. There are lots of unknowns imponderables which make this difficult to be categorical about (she says categorically!)

I can't believe the responses OP... for some reason people are taking out their work frustration on you.

1. Nothing wrong with occasional phone use if you're getting the job done.

1. It wasn't urgent and he said the timings himself so nothing wrong with you doing the work to that deadline.

1. I work in a formal, traditional environment and have admin and junior staff that answer to me, and I would never speak to anyone like your colleague spoke to you. I might ask how you're getting on with the task but it is not my job to police my admins phone use unless I'm concerned it interferes with their ability to do the job (which in your case it doesn't seem to since you're meeting deadlines)

What I would say though since you're relatively new is that if you do have lots of time on your hands then you should be asking your line managers whether there are any admin projects they wanted to get done but haven't got round to. Basically show as much initiative as possible so that you can't be accused of using your phone when there's work to be done. But you absolutely don't answer to your accounts colleague and certainly not in a disciplinary sense, so I'd clarify that with your line managers asap.

I actually felt my blood boil.

No - you actually didn't.

I've worked in many offices and phone use has never been policed... shocked at the draconian measures some offices take. You should trust your staff to behave like professional adults and monitor their own phone use (obviously there are environments where personal phones are a risk for confidentiality reasons...I.e. police, defence and social services departments so I don't mean those).

@WitchesHatRim yes she has said that he’s nobody’s manager and doesn’t even have the title of manager. Keep up in the cheap seats.

Jeepers some MNers would recoil in horror in my workplace.

People use their phones. Go on Facebook. Play games. Book holidays. Get personal packages delivered. Use the it support team for personal work (and they will fix your home laptop on work time), take longest than the allotted 1hr of breaks in a day...

We don’t police it, because they get the job done

Jeebus, glad I work in a mature work environment where people are relaxed in regards to flicking through your phone from time to time or doing some online shopping.

They know we’re professional enough to manage our time properly. There are peaks and troughs. We’re not expected to stare at our screens for 8 hours a day.

Can’t believe people work in places were they have to lock their phones away. Hell no! I expect the school to be able to get straight through to me, not be on hold on reception on line 3.

Up in the peanut gallery here. View blocked a bit by large heads in front trying my best. Also op is a bit off centre and in the wings and not fully convinced of her interpretation but a difficult role to convey.

Now that you aren’t so new anymore it sounds like the mask is slipping

Perhaps it's the other way - now that OP isn't new any more she's expected to know what to do and when to do it, so they aren't cutting her as much slack.

I had a bit of sympathy for you at the start OP, but the more I read your posts the more I'm glad I don't work with you.