Colleague texting about work on Boxing Day

[Grandmotherschina]

They do not celebrate Christmas (Muslim)

Received a text message this morning “Dear X, don’t feel you have to respond immediately but I need to know if X/Y/Z have been sorted. Can you also let me know what is happening with A/B/C, thanks Y”

1. I was on annual leave last week so I don’t have any up to date info about the above
2. Colleague has major form for messaging at weekends/evenings etc and expecting a reply
3. It’s Boxing Day ffs

Aibu to message back and say “just because you’ve said I don’t have to respond immediately does not make this ok”!

Also, super grumpy having my own atheist Christmas ruined so being a bit gungho in my messaging. I am sure the OP didnt mean it in that way, but casual 'othering' of people can be harmful.

Just reply - can you please send any work requests to my work email, and I'll respond once i'm back in the office.

@dancingbymyself

Just reply - can you please send any work requests to my work email, and I'll respond once i'm back in the office.

Perfect! Send this @Grandmotherschina ^

This kind of thing really annoys me, especially the comment that you don't have to respond - really disingenuous as they are clearly trying to pressure you to respond. If you don't need to respond then why send it?
I would text them to say that you are on annual leave. When you get back let them know that you don't expect this to happen again unless urgent.

[quote R0tational]@Landof People of all faiths and no faiths celebrate / mark Christmas or the festive season so I don't think it is important. I think its enough to say its a Bank Hol / Boxing Day is enough context for brits without needing to add " theyre a foreigner " overtones so "they wouldnt understand the sanctity of our special Christian Boxing Day".[/quote]
I don't think the OP meant anything by it. It's very understandable that people would think Muslims would not celebrate Christmas! Many of them don't! Why are people jumping on the OP for this? Drop the PC card, and let it go FFS.

If you are on annual leave or if it is your day off you should not be contacted by anyone. They have said you do not need to respond immediately so I would not respond at all.

Upon returning to work if they mention that you had not responded to the text, I would then say that I don't respond to work queries in my personal time/outside of work.

@rwalker

I really don't understand the issue unless they want a response today .

Deal with it when your back at work .

The issue is that it makes some people feel that they are always on call. It's not good for mental health to never be able to switch off.

I don't think the OP meant anything by it. It's very understandable that people would think Muslims would not celebrate Christmas! Many of them don't! Why are people jumping on the OP for this? Drop the PC card, and let it go FFS. hmm

Oh bore off. Ironic for you to tell people to let it go whilst responding yourself lol and the same old “PC card” response how typical.

@MadMadMadamMim

I would ignore it entirely. And deal with it once I am back at work.

I am currently on holiday and for the first time I set up an auto response on my work email that said something along the lines of Work is closed now until 4 January and I am on holiday. I will not be checking emails until that date.

I have actually checked email once - and a couple of people have emailed me with utterly irrelevant questions. They have presumably had my auto message bounced at them.

I will answer their irrelevant shit after 4 January.

Our work answerphone message says we are closed til 4 Jan. I've had numerous calls to my mobile following put downs on the office line (i get a ping on my phone when message is left) .... all unanswered......

Muslims like the holiday as much as anybody else & many celebrate it as an family event rather than religious -which when you think about it so do most of us

If your job role isn’t one where your expected to check on work while on leave, i think the best thing is just to ignore.
When picking the message up after the holidays i would simply be answering the question and then also add FYI for future reference please don’t message about work when I’m on leave. No explanation or apology needed from you just state the facts. If it wasn’t urgent they could have waited until you’re back at work to contact you, and if something is urgent surely there’s an out of office contact covering while you are away.

The issue is once seen...you are reminded of the world of work whether you reply or not.
Similar thing happened to me today as I am on annual leave til Wednesday. Someone has a booking at my place of work in a few days and messaged me to confirm it is going ahead. Do people not have anything better to do on Boxing Day or not realize it is inappropriate.

Do you work for the NHS? You mention clinical and operational. In my trust we are categorically not allowed to use personal phones for work related stuff. No exceptions.

So I would not be responding and raising it with my manager on my return for that reason alone.

Yep just a courteous request to email to work email and then a conversation in work about professional respect for work life balance. If doing it to you probably doing to others too.

This would really piss me off as they made you think about work in Boxing Day. Everybody is entitled to a break.

Email not so bad as you have to check it and choose not to but text messages are very intrusive.

Ask them to email in future and not text as it's intrusive on your personal family time.

I never understand these kind of issues. It’s a text message, not a court summons, just ignore it, what are they going to do, kill you? More so if it’s on your personal phone, you have a phone for your convenience not theirs!