To say my workplace should not call me of an evening?

[PinkGlitter123]

My workplace stays open till 11PM everyday but I finish in this particular job at 1PM. Lately I find I am getting calls at 7PM or after which make me feel panicky as they are suggestive of soon to be unemployment. Voicemails asking me to call them back as they want to discuss falling numbers and the like.
There is nothing in my contract about this and I am on a set hourly wage not a yearly salary.

Hercule, not a line manager either.

OP, what hours do you/ your line manager work? Can you start returning her call early in the morning, when you start work?

Sorry, x post!

I would not answer, and if asked, say I have family stuff going on for the foreseeable future, so won't be available outside of work.
That should be enough to break the pattern without causing upset.

haha at KnobJockey's excellent suggestion. The second you start work, ring her back from work number and keep ringing until she answers.

I'd be really pissed off at one manager giving another your private phone number so they can both harass you in your private time. I'd have thought it was against data regulations TBH.

I'd be telling her she won't get me on that phone outside of your paid working hours, as you keep it solely for work purposes. If she asks you for a different number just tell her you don't give out your personal number and she can contact you on your work phone during working hours. Plenty of people have 2 phones to keep their work and personal life separate.

Is there a bonefide need for her to contact you?

If so can you need to get your manager involved but be proactive and come up with a couple of suggestions for arranging a fixed point of contact to resolve this business issue.

Possibly involving flexing your time, or hers, preferably both a little to meet in the middle. However ensuring that this contact point is a fixed point in time, and is a one off, or if it’s needed to be ongoing, it has a trial period and feedback to ensure its effective for both parties.

By specifically focusing on creating a solution to a business need, you keep the high ground, and ensure it moves away from this persons shrieking & wailing(!), and just wanting you at her beck and call, when you are clearly unavailable. That’s a really ineffective way to behave and shining a light on it, whilst being perfectly professional and focused on solutions, will hopefully put a stop to her

What exactly is she saying when she’s leaving you these unnerving messages? I can’t tell if this person is panicking about the business potentially failing (falling numbers etc), which is unfortunate, and not nice to get her second hand panic passed on to you. Is she trying to get an ‘all hands on deck’ type of response where she expects you to leap in to help in your time off because it is an emergency? If so, you need to be clear whether you personally can make a difference by being on call 24/7, or if it’s an emotional response she wants, a show of loyalty etc, but the actual work can actually wait until you’re working again?

Or is she actually threatening you with ‘soon to be unemployment’ if you do t pick up the call right then and there? Which is a different matter entirely...

Go to HR. Phoning you at all is surely an invasion of privacy. I'm not sure if it's lawful for this line manager to give your number to the other but you could call ACAS or CAB to ask about it. And the content of the messages and calls sounds like harassment/threatening or bullying; wanting to talk about work/performance issues but then not responding to your attempts to contact them is very taunting.

I would not answer, and if asked, say I have family stuff going on for the foreseeable future, so won't be available outside of work.
That should be enough to break the pattern without causing upset.

No, bollocks to that. 'family stuff', whether it's true or not, is not the manager's business. And why not 'cause upset'? The manager's behaviour is not acceptable.

Set a voicemail saying your hours are 9am - 1pm, if the matter is urgent they can call XXXX XXX XXXX.

If you're very brave, tell her you didn't answer because you were making love all. night. long.

Please do this!!

Seriously though, unless you're in a well-paid senior position where it's expected for you to occasionally work outside your contracted hours, then bollocks to them. You're not being paid, so don't answer the call.

I used to have a colleague (not even a supervisor although she thought she was) call me after five o'clock. I was usually running to pick the kids up from after school club or similar, and after about the third time of me saying, "I've finished work, I'm now sorting my kids out," she got the message and didn't do it again. Bloody frustrating though, especially when you're on a low salary!

Laughing at some of the suggestions, thank you!

Trying not to out myself but I work a service which requires attendance of people. It is just of a morning. It isn't doing well at all lately but neither is the business I work from as a whole.
I am on minimum wage and not in management.

What upsets me is the "We need to discuss the falling numbers" and then not responding when I try calling/texting her back. I also have a feeling they are trying to give me one mornings work a week to avoid paying me unemployment. Can they actually do that?

Ignore them. You're not working at that hour. Tell her to fuck off.

Just ignore the calls. I work a 30 hour week, have done for years but colleagues still don't grasp it. After 3pm I don't answer unless I'm expecting to have to deal with something urgent.

Have you got a separate work phone?

What upsets me is the "We need to discuss the falling numbers" and then not responding when I try calling/texting her back.

I repeat, speak to HR.

I feel like they blame me for the falling numbers but it is not my job to sell it or bring the people in so discussing it with me is pointless as its not my area. 😐 She is speaking to the wrong people.

Feel a bit stronger reading the replies. Thank you.

Op, there really is a simple way to deal with this, you're panicking for nothing.

Do not go in stamping your feet about gdpr or invasions of privacy or grievances or job descriptions...

Just text her back at the start of your shift something professional but factual e.g. "Work hours are 9-1 mon-fri. Call me back if you need to discuss further on work line xxxxxx (this number is personal)".. then, if it's not your job to deal with her queries, just point her in the right direction ("That's not my remit but I'm sure Bob/the other team/the MD/whatever can point you to the right person to help you").

I'd once been given the wrong number by an idiot team admin contact - I asked for a person's work mobile number, they gave their personal mobile... I called. Only to get voicemail. I tried a second time later that day. Got hauled into an HR meeting the following Monday to answer an "harassment" grievance that had been raised by the employee - they were on annual leave. Person isn't in my team so how the heck would I know? Still avoid working with that person, it was just a mistake by their admin and I was immediately apologetic when I realized... But they went for the nuclear option via HR the moment they got into work

I completely understand. My DH is in a director/managerial position in the medical research field, and is salaried as opposed to hourly pay, but is constantly working. He leaves at 7.30am in the morning, doesn't come home until after 6.30pm most nights, has a quick dinner then straight onto the laptop and works from home most nights until well after midnight. He gets 'skype' meetings at ALL hours (the company is based in America but we are in the UK) so they don't care about the time difference, as long as he is contactable they don't care how intrusive it is. He gets phone calls all the time.
Last year we went on a rare holiday for two weeks, he took his work phone and laptop with him, and I kid you not, he was getting calls before we even left the airport. I threatened to chuck his phone and laptop in the pool when we were on holiday, and I wasn't joking.
I have become so very tired of it, and all it feels like he is concerned with is work. It's got worse over the years as his position has become more high in the company, its now crept into Friday nights, Saturday nights etc. There can be nights when we are sat at respective ends of the sofa and not a single word is passed between us from 9pm (kids go to bed) until 12pm. Actually this is MOST nights.

I have spoke to him about it constantly, I get nowhere, and its really threatening our marriage but he doesn't seem to see it, he thinks because he is paid well that he should be at the disposal of his company. He is paid well, but there still has to be some balance surely?
I have found that the more you do in your own time, the more they will EXPECT you to do, it becomes something they take for granted.
I don't think they realise that putting such demands on people can really threaten family life and relationships.
I don't know what the solution is sorry.

I am sorry PP. I grew up with my dad in the role your DH is in. Even during Christmas lunch he would be on the phone. I can relate to how difficult that must be for you.