Contacted outside of work

[Rose789]

I work in a call centre, in normal times I leave work at the end of my shift and don’t think about work until my next shift.
For the first few weeks of lockdown they weren’t sure what my department would be doing if we would be furloughed or if we had the capacity on systems to work from home. The manager sent links so we could access email, teams and the internal intranet from our phones and advised in an email in March that they would be contacting us with updates and this could be outside of working hours. Which was fine, it was a highly unusual situation and plans needed to move swiftly and we all wanted to know what was happening.
But I’ve been working from home since the beginning of April and the contact is constant.
Full Team what’s app groups
Partial team what’s app group
Emails to my work address but reading them on my phone.
Emails to my personal email account
Notifications on teams- although I have turned them all off and they still keep bloody coming.
Messages on Facebook messenger with queries when I don’t answer on what’s app.
Calls on my phone and on teams
Text messages.... it just goes on and on.

Yesterday was my lieu day and I was with my kids so my phone was in my bag. Today my boss emailed me and then called me to say he had tried to contact me yesterday and why hadn’t I responded. It was nothing urgent, and a task he wanted me to do that he is meant to be in charge of but is time consuming and fiddly so he asks me to do it. This task is in no way part of my job description and doesn’t need completing until month end.
I told him that I hadn’t looked at my phone it was my day off and I was spending time with my family. Told him I was overwhelmed with the amount of notifications coming through and people asking questions constantly. In the office I don’t mind when people have queries, I’m experienced and normally know the answer but contacting me on my day off on Facebook to ask what the wording in a policy booklet means- nope.
Or sending 2 teams chats, an email, a what’s app and a Facebook message when I’m in the middle of a call with a customer and already stuck 20 minutes past my finishing time- absolutely not.

He basically said it’s unprecedented times and everyone has to go above and beyond and be flexible. I told him I do go above and beyond I do many things that aren’t in my job role that I don’t get paid to do, I have no problem helping anyone during working hours but outside of working hours my time is my own. He ended the call saying “we’ll discuss this in your 1:1” and then hung up.

If it was a work phone I would just turn it off outside my shift but because it’s on my personal phone I obviously can’t. I’m so tempted to delete the work apps and mute all the what’s app groups but he sounded thoroughly pissed off. What makes it worse is this 1:1 is my mid year review which helps dictate year end score and bonus so I really don’t want to piss him off but I also can’t deal with the stress of it all.

I would also suggest that if they are contacting you this often outside of hours (or even inside hours), there is obviously a wider training issue and a knowledge gap in the wider team that needs to be filled. Proactively suggest ways in which this can be addressed that do not require you to unreasonably be on call 24/7 for non urgent queries. This could include training sessions, you providing a 'Commonly asked questions and answers' sheet, and the team compiling non urgent queries over a pre set timescale that you then address in one go, in working hours. This would then help to identify what the biggest gaps are, and who in the team needs the most support so that training can be focused onto key areas.

That would drive me mad 🤦 I don't think they have any right to expect you to do that on your day off, unprecedented times or not. Just keep stocking to your guns about feeling overwhelmed because I would be as well

Good luck sending that email today, sounds perfect and your manager can’t really argue with that

Sent the email word for word this morning. Thanks again.
10 minutes later I got a phonecall from my boss asking why I was making such a big deal and reiterating again that it’s unusual circumstances. I repeated what I had already said and asked if the union were aware I was essentially being asked to be on call 24/7. He stuttered that it’s not a union issue that everyone has to go above and beyond right now and that we are lucky to have jobs. There is no threat of redundancy currently and the business is actually doing better financially since they have switched to home working as overheads have been drastically reduced and productivity and attendance has actually increased.
He then said while we were on we would do my 1:1 now. Luckily I had already prepared for this as it wasn’t meant to be until next week.
Most of the examples I mentioned of when I had performed well/ over performed he tried to dismiss “yeah well the website was down one day so the customers had to phone in no wonder your sales are high”. Luckily scores are worked out on percentages so although he seemed loathe to rate me highly I came out in the top 5%.
I’ve told him I’m deleting teams and outlook from my phone. If they want to provide me with a company phone I will gladly re-download them. I received 2 Facebook messages and a couple of what’s apps from colleagues today and as they were work related I responded asking them to contact me on teams or outlook on my work computer as I wasn’t doing work on my phone. Everyone apart from 1 women apologized and contacted me officially. The one women that didn’t will be sulking, which frankly is good riddance because she’s a needy Nora.
Finished work at 5 and I’ve heard nothing since- absolute bliss.
Thanks you lovely bunch

Well done

Did he back down on his stupid stance at all? I can't believe that he still thinks he's in the right

Well done OP. It’s either that or go off with stress.. what would they prefer?!?

Loved your update op. Well done on getting your point across so well

Brilliant! Well done @Rose789

I knew he’d phone you. These types of managers claim to prefer to chat in person and that email is so “impersonal” but really it’s so that they can say things that aren’t ok and then deny it later. That’s why putting things in writing to backup any conversation pisses them off no end but protects you. They can’t find a valid reason to tell you not to email them a quick thank you afterall.

So glad it helped and well done for scoring so high. That’ll chap his ass no end

This is why you should always have a second PAYG fone for work.

Turn it on when you start work, turn it off when you finish.

Never give your personal number.

Thats what I have always done. When not in work, that time is mine. Work can fuck right off. They do not own my time. Couldnt give a fuck if the whole office was burning down, if I am not at work, I dont want to know or give two shits.

If you havent done that already, thats exactly what I would be doing.

Managers like yours are cunts. Keep everything in writing so that they are forced to be accountable. How assholes like this become managers is lifes great mystery. They are fucking oxygen thieves.

Great update!