Or is my colleague

[Iwishiwereheather]

So colleague is senior to me but we also have the same manager.

My manager and I have an agreement that I can log out of my phone 3-4pm. Our job isn’t particularly call based and you get like 3 a day max. Due to anxiety I’m allowed this break a day.

Today my manger was off and the senior told me to log in, he said he was aware of the agreement but one time wouldn’t hurt would it?

I think if discussed beforehand then I would have done it but springing it on me with 10 minutes to go I think is very unfair. There were other people logged into their phone so they weren’t left with no one answering calls.

You should have simply said no. “The arrangement with (manager) is xxx so I won’t be logging on. If you have an issue with this arrangement please take it up with (manager). Thanks.”

He is wrong to request it of you and that’s a bald fact. However, I can’t help but detect a thread of preciousness in your attitude too. You could refuse politely and move on...but no, drama instead.

People are pricks on here so pretending to not understand. Anyone with or without anxiety will be worrying that if they're on the phone for the last hour of the day that they might not get the rest of their tasks done. So someone with anxiety I imagine can be much worse and trigger them so the manager s helping with that. I could be wrong but at least I'm TRYING to understand without just being a nasty bleeeeeeep

Your colleague is being unreasonable but by the sounds of it (and rightly so) the senior is unaware of why this is in place.

You need to calmly have a discussion with your manager which sticks to facts that in future you would like reassurance that the agreement will be upheld if your manager is on holiday etc.

You can tell from your posts that you're very emotive about what has happened but going in all guns blazing saying you're senior was out of line etc won't get you anywhere and clearly the senior doesn't have the facts of why it's in place (which is correct thing to do to protect your confidentiality).

People are asking because whether your colleague was being unreasonable depends in part on whether the original agreement was unreasonable.

@PurpleOkapi Not even close. Senior doesn't over ride management. Whether or not the senior agrees with the arrangement is entirely irrelevant. In fact, if the senior does disagree with the arrangement I think that would make them more unreasonable? As it would add weight to the idea that they have done it to pull a fast one whilst manager is not in.

The people who are hounding OP over, as far as I can tell, details that really are not going to add anything to their original question are probably not going to contribute anything helpful anyway as they have clearly not read what the OP asked. If they had, they would realise you really don't need anything more.

@loveheartss Whether senior overrides management when management isn't there depends on a lot of things, including the structure of the company and the nature of the agreement. Whether the senior was reasonable to disagree with the agreement would, again, depend on whether the agreement was reasonable. "The agreement exists to benefit the OP" isn't anywhere near enough information to determine any of those things, and that's really all we've been told.

@PurpleOpaki

But the manager made the agreement. Not from his goodwill, but because an argument and reasons were presented and on balance it benefits the business.... All RAs have to be to benefit the business as much as the employee.

"The employer needs to consider carefully if the adjustment:

will remove or reduce the disadvantage for the person with the disability
is practical to make
is affordable by the employer or business
could harm the health and safety of others"

So even it's in informal, the manager will take into account all of the above, as they may have to justify it to their manager.

So we can reasonably assume, it's a reasonable adjustment, formal or otherwise. And the senior is doing what so many people eager to be promoted before they're ready do: assuming they know everything when in reality they know the square root of fuck all.

@PurpleOkapi Do you not think if that was the case, OP would be aware that this colleague assumes managerial duties whilst the manager is off? And thus, acts as manager during any absences and can therefore make the rules?

The agreement is obviously there to benefit the OP though...otherwise it wouldn't exist. However, the manager is clearly fine with it. Outside of that, it really does not matter whether other colleagues agree with it or not. If they have a problem, they take it up with the manager, not try and bully the OP into doing what they want when the manager is off.

The question wasn't "does my senior colleague have the right to question whether my arrangement with our manager is reasonable" it was asking whether they should be telling OP, with only 10 minutes warning, to go against the arrangement they have had in place with the manager and whether OP was right to of said no. On balance, based on the guilt tripping language senior used, I would say they were trying their luck and using it as an opportunity to get a dig in and show their displeasure at the existing arrangement in place. OP completely within their right to say no.

@PurpleOkapi

People are asking because whether your colleague was being unreasonable depends in part on whether the original agreement was unreasonable.

No it doesn't. The manager has decided it's a reasonable adjustment to make. The colleague doesn't get to over ride that.

Its hard to judge accurately, my job is usually a few calls a day, yesterday due to the bank holidays, it was so busy.

Was this the case?

From what you've written, I think your colleague was being unreasonable. I'd mention it to your LM when you next get chance.

But maybe this was your colleague's clumsy way of letting you know he thinks the arrangement doesn't suit the whole team.

Regardless, your working arrangements are nobody's business except you and your LM. Assuming they don't negatively impact the rest of the team, and that you're flexible when there is a business need.

If it was diabetes and a person and their was an agreement for them to always have their lunch break at a certain time to keep it under control I'm not sure many would say it was reasonable to ask them to shift lunch by an hour with 10 minute notice.

And then make comments about how it isn't hard to do it this once.

Justfrustrated has the OP confirmed that she has a disability? Because the regulations around reasonable adjustments apply in the case of someone with the protected characteristic of disability. I don't think it would be ok to assume that anxiety is a disability (in the legal definition of it) for all who suffer from it, and the OP might not view it this way.

Did they give any sort of reason like "I know 3-4 is your protected time but Mrs A is probably going to phone about situation B so could you make an exception for today?"

Otherwise it sounds like they were on a power trip.

OP your work sounds similar to my old job.

Some phone calls, but not many, and we all reported to the same manager but we were of varying levels of seniority.

First up YANBU. A colleague senior to you but under the same manager can’t override your manager’s decision with something like this. And if there’s not many phone calls then he is choosing to ask you because he knows it’ll cause you distress.

In my old job I would never have dreamed of waiting until my manager was out and then doing something like that and pretending I had some sort of authority over those junior to me.

Also some of the posts on here are shocking! We don’t need to know the full background of this, OP’s manager is happy with her having that time without the pressure from calls and that is all we need to know.

She also hasn’t been rude, she’s been matter of fact and straightforward.

For those saying she rarely has to deal with calls, anxiety doesn't work like that. When the thing that makes you anxious is a possibility it's there in the back of your mind, you're on edge. Knowing a break is coming can make a big difference.

Yes, though I'm not surprised at how dense people are being about it, sadly.

I have an adjustment where if I come down with a migraine I don't need to give advance warning or call in sick to be late, because often a lie in fixes it and I can make up the time. Setting my alarm purely to send a text saying that I have a migraine is completely counterintuitive.

But people are always nosy and judgemental about adjustments.

I agree with those who've suggested it was a bit of power-play - he took advantage of the manager being off to see what he could get away with. Do you have an e-mail or similar stating that the manager has agreed to the arrangement? If not, get one and wave it in matey's face next time (figuratively speaking, of course!)

@Iwishiwereheather

Thanks to some posters for explaining it better.

And Moondust I’m not being aggressive in the slightest - buzzwords like that and “you sound very angry” are said all the time on aibu to control a nonexistent narrative and discredit the OP.

I’m trying to not detail this thread. Because I’m not asking for opinions on an agreements.

I’m asking whether someone who is more senior than me has the right to determine something as “not difficult” and go against an agreement I have in place with someone senior to us both.

I think that the answer to this question is yes, if the needs of the business are such that it's appropriate when this senior is acting in the superior role. Ideally morning notice would have been given, but if this isn't their usual role per se, then they may have overlooked something re capacity until later that day. And tbh, I think that this informal agreement is wonderful, but requires flexibility on your part too.

We absolutely don't need to know why you have this arrangement because you aren't asking us whether the arrangement itself is ok. It doesn't matter if you take that hour off to go pick daisies or play knock and run at the neighbours! It's pure nosiness.

Yanbu to feel that a colleague should not be trying to override an agreement that exists between you and your manager. Why you have the agreement is not a factor given it is approved by management!

@Iwishiwereheather

Thanks to some posters for explaining it better.

And Moondust I’m not being aggressive in the slightest - buzzwords like that and “you sound very angry” are said all the time on aibu to control a nonexistent narrative and discredit the OP.

I’m trying to not detail this thread. Because I’m not asking for opinions on an agreements.

I’m asking whether someone who is more senior than me has the right to determine something as “not difficult” and go against an agreement I have in place with someone senior to us both.

Yes they do. The hierarchy is your manager, your colleague, you.

In the absence of your manager, your colleague is is charge.

If it's been agreed, and it evidently isn't causing issues to your work or it would have been reassessed before, then yes, they are being unreasonable to be flippant about it for seemingly no reason.

It doesn't matter why the arrangement is in place. His manager has told you to do something. He doesn't get to override his manager just because he's not there watching over unless they were dealing with an unprecedented amount of calls.