Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Boss says I have to work tonight or will face disciplinary.

484 replies

Partygal · 31/12/2019 10:51

Some of my colleagues are on here so have name changed.

I work in a 24 hours a day, 365 days a year job. Everyone has to take their turn at doing the shit shifts.

As I was off over Christmas last year, I willingly took my turn to work and did Christmas and Boxing Day. It suited me as I am going to a party tonight that I have been looking forward to a lot.

My colleague who was supposed to be working tonight sent me a text earlier today saying he can’t work tonight due to illness!!! (Yeah right!) He went on to say he was just giving me the heads up to block the manager’s number.

I thanked him and said no way was I working because I’ve done my time in work over Christmas.

Anyway my boss rang up as predicted - using someone else’s phone. She first asked why everyone seemed to have blocked her number, and asked if my colleague had already told me that he wasn’t going to work that night. I denied it.

She went on to say what I already knew that he won’t be at work tonight. I told her that I would not be covering. She says no one else she has managed to speak to, can get child care at such short notice and nor can she. According to her, “it has to be me.”

I still said no. She said she would try everyone else again, and threatened me with “consequences” if I turn my phone off. She has come back and has again said she can’t find anyone else to work. She says I will face a disciplinary if I don’t go in. I told her to go fuck herself. She has been texting repeatedly every since and has just told me that I will be fired for this.

Can she do this?

OP posts:
Emeraldshamrock · 31/12/2019 14:32

I think the bad language must be acceptable between employee and manager here.
I'd never use bad language to my employers though neither would they.

FredericaBimmel · 31/12/2019 14:36

@AriadneOliversApples It’s “principle”... Grin

wheretonow123 · 31/12/2019 14:38

Once you were not answering you boss's phone you should have left your phone off.

Schoolboy error.

ProfessorSlocombe · 31/12/2019 14:44

Posters talking about call recording need to read the OP again as the manager called from someone else's phone.

I missed the bit in the OP where it confirms there was no call recording mechanism in place on that phone ?

I have an app on my phone that records all my calls automatically (and uploads the files to my cloud account).

Call recording is unlikely maybe. But not impossible.

Digressing massively (or maybe not at all Hmm) but given how relatively easy it is, I am amazed more people don't record their calls as a matter of course. It can be very useful in disputes.

Umberta · 31/12/2019 14:50

If the call was recorded, it would prove even more that the manager was in the wrong to bully and threaten the OP. (The swearing was in response to the manager's swearing and seems culturally normal in the job, so no one would be interested in that in an individual disciplinary, although they may try to address it organisation-wide.) This manager has no leg to stand on at all especially regarding discrimination against non-parent employees. I'm totally Team OP here too, enraged on your behalf OP Angry

AriadneOliversApples · 31/12/2019 14:52

@FredericaBimmel Ah, crap Shock

ProfessorSlocombe · 31/12/2019 14:55

Just wondering if your phone is a work phone or your own private one, which you pay for? If it’s your own phone I don’t think she can legitimately have a moan about it being turned off or not answered.

It would all depend on OPs contract. Some (cheapskate and best avoided) outfits try to sneak clauses in about being contactable with with the "understanding" that a portion of the employees pay is intended to facilitate that. Along with questionable clauses in provision of OOH numbers being for "role-related" communications.

All highly dubious, but until they are challenged, they stand.

BaolFan · 31/12/2019 14:56

@ProfessorSlocombe that's fine as long as you don't share or use the recording for a third party. If you were to do so then you need to disclose that you are recording calls.

However in the OP's case this is the course of her employment and it would be illegal for her firm to record her and not notify her if they intended to use the recording - e.g. to share it with HR or for disciplinary purposes.

Sindragosan · 31/12/2019 14:57

Phone recordings or not, the op has swearing in text, and multiple texts harassing her about cover when she's already said she's unavailable. Easy bullying and harassment case even with a sweary response.

AnotherEmma · 31/12/2019 15:00

"I told her to go fuck herself."

YABVVVVU

It's a disgraceful way to talk to your boss.

Her text calling you a "fucking cow" was also disgraceful, unprofessional and fucking stupid.

It's good that you're a union member. Keep talking to your rep. You should raise a grievance.

ProfessorSlocombe · 31/12/2019 15:03

ProfessorSlocombe that's fine as long as you don't share or use the recording for a third party.

Wouldn't dream of it. A transcript is all that's needed, and all that a court would view (if it ever came to it). Not that any permission or notification is required for personal use (which this would fall under) anyway.

Holidayaddict · 31/12/2019 15:04

Why did you answer the phone? I know you said she called from a different number but, personally, I rarely answer calls from numbers I don't recognise and certainly not if I'm avoiding a call. You could easily have been somewhere with no signal or away from your phone so no crime in not answering.

Given that you did answer, why didn't you say were hundreds of miles away?? It's not as though you weren't pre-warned and didn't have time to get your story straight. Again, if you'd said you were miles away no way could they force you to travel back.

The big mistake was swearing at. I would've thought you'd be disciplined for that. Whether you could be disciplined for refusing to work when it was feasible for you to do so is down to your contract I would've thought.

BaolFan · 31/12/2019 15:06

@ProfessorSlocombe in your case it's personal use, but that doesn't apply to the OP's manager.

Helenluvsrob · 31/12/2019 15:07

Sorry can’t possibly work. Boozy lunch .., hick

nowyoulistenheretaeme · 31/12/2019 15:08

Your boss has not covered herself in glory by any means. That is not acceptable behaviour at all. It could have been handled so much better. And I guess it would have been if she didn’t find her number being blocked by everyone.

But I hope she does read this thread and finds out that the person pulling the sickie pre-warned everyone.

The villain here is the ‘sick’ person. Shameful if they aren’t sick and more shameful for pulling everyone into their game.

Purpleartichoke · 31/12/2019 15:09

Best case scenario, I think OP is going to be very unhappy with her schedule the next couple of months.

AnotherEmma · 31/12/2019 15:09

"The villain here is the ‘sick’ person. Shameful if they aren’t sick and more shameful for pulling everyone into their game."

Agree with that

Biancadelrioisback · 31/12/2019 15:12

To everyone telling OP she should have pretended to have been drinking and therefore unable to do her job...she posted this at 10am. I'd be more worried about an employee too drunk at 10am for a shift at the arse end of the day than one who swore at me.

ProfessorSlocombe · 31/12/2019 15:13

ProfessorSlocombe in your case it's personal use, but that doesn't apply to the OP's manager.

Not quite sure of your meaning, to be honest ? Probably best not to guess Grin

BaolFan · 31/12/2019 15:16

It means that OP's manager is calling OP in the course of her employment - i.e. acting on behalf of the firm - regardless of whether she does it from some random phone. Basically it's not personal use!

Helenluvsrob · 31/12/2019 15:17

Didn’t spot the 10am 😂
It’s now 1500 on NYE and a boozy lunch on a day you re not expected to work is entirely believable and not necessarily indicative of anything sinister.
If actually this all started at about 9 am it may well be that 12hrs notice is in the op contract.

TwentyViginti · 31/12/2019 15:20

GinDaddy

So dull........ that you had to @ me about it Grin

GrandTheftWalrus · 31/12/2019 15:21

My boss was trying to get me to work on Saturday last week even though my child was ill. I couldnt get a hold of DP as he was at work as well.

So I was told I had to get someone to watch that kid or else basically. I told them no that my child comes first. So they took my shifts off me and hung up.

However I'm back in tonight etc for them. It was unfortunate timing but i had no other choice.

themental · 31/12/2019 15:22

This thread is hilarious 😂

"Op you should have lied and said you were out of the country, you'd already been drinking, you were projectile vomiting"

"Op you're a real gem for listening to your union rep who told you that the swearing can't be proven lying is sooooo unethical"

So.... which is it? Can we lie or can we not lie?

The boss should go and fuck herself, end of story.

Also, to the people saying OP is BU.

I've worked in a job that paid me £35k a year. I answered my phone to my boss, I cancelled plans to cover for emergencies, I even did unpaid overtime.

I also worked in a minimum wage job. Do you think I answered my phone to my boss when I wasn't working? Do you think I covered in emergencies unless it absolutely suited me?

You pay peanuts you get people who come in, do their hours to the best of their abilities, and go home. And that's EXACTLY the way it should be. Unless the op wants to drop a massive dripfeed that she's in a salaried professional job earning senior wages, she is absolutely in the right here, swearing or not.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 31/12/2019 15:23

I am amazed more people don't record their calls as a matter of course. It can be very useful in disputes.

Whilst it is legal to record ANY call, you cannot share that information with a third party unless you have warned the other person that they are being recorded. THAT is ILLEGAL.

So any secretly recorded information CAN'T be used in disputes.