Manager phoning on day off

[ZibbleDibble]

Today is my first day of a weeks annual leave and my manager phoned me. Firstly, there was no apology for phoning me on my day off.

A bit of context, I am very organised and proactive so a lot of the department organisation falls to me. I had volunteered to send an email organising an appointment for tomorrow. I copied in a colleague to the email plus saved the email on our shared folder.

So this morning my manager phoned me and asked if I had sent the email. I said yes and that I had copied my colleague in (who she was with)! I also explained that I saved it in the shared folder. She didn’t seem phased that she had phoned me on my day off and praised me for being so organised.

AIBU to feel irked that not only was I called on my day off but that she didn’t even bother to ask the team or check the shared folder first?

This. Set the boundaries. If you have HR policies it should be clear managers only call personal numbers in emergency. Or with prior arrangements such as if you are on long term sick and having a check in.

@DontBlameMe79
Choose to be kind is not a bad way to live your life.

🤣🤣🤣

The rudeness and bullying from the mob on this thread is unacceptable and you should all be ashamed of yourselves. Have some self awareness of how you are coming across with this ridiculous, pile on about something so trivial.

I’m surprised OP hasn’t claimed the call from her boss has affected her mental health.

Ask yourself what will happen if you were taken so ill you were in hospital and couldn’t access emails? Someone else would have to pick up.
if you continue to falsely believe that you are personally indispensable it will be you that is so unwell you can no longer function.
Everyone needs time to switch off for whole days at a time. It is not good for anyones mental health to always be in that state of vigilance.

See, as a manager, I am brutal about private time being respected. And it's for entirely selfish reasons.

Burned out employees are of neither use nor ornament. And they have no perspective.

I know from bitter experience that reacting negatively to a simple message is a red flag for OP REALLY needing the downtime.

Comedy gold.

You may lack a lot of things but it looks like self regard is not one of them.

I'm recognised and well compensated for my skill in this particular area, yes. I don't see much point pretending otherwise.

I'm also particularly interested in how we deal with the chronically poor levels of management skills (both people and wider management) in the UK, because it impacts all of us in our workplaces and the taxes

It's interesting that you complain of 'bullying' while being the one resorting to 'yawns', 'crazies', 'in a lather' etc. Could I suggest that you take your own advice around self-awareness? You've been rude and dismissive to many people on the thread, but also haven't engaged with any of the discussion or issues in good faith, preferring to resort to ad hominems. People have pointed out that, taken on face value, your statements are not the hallmark of good management. What you do with that information is up to you.

*the taxes we pay.

Don’t forget “get over yourself” and “settle petals”. It’s amazing how someone can be so arsey and then accuse others of piling on and bullying. I would mind if they’d had anything constructive to offer.

It's interesting that DontBlameMe79 mentioned about bad behaviour being caused by stress.

I would hazard that she herself is being very poorly managed and is actually at breaking point.

I'd prefer to think that was the case rather than she's actually that much of an arse. Because with the right support things can improve. Some of her posts are genuinely unhinged. Beyond irony.

I'm beginning to think DontBlameMe79 isn't a manager at all, or if she is then what she is writing is just hot air and bravado. If she really does have that management style then HR would have had words long before now as she comes across as someone who would be on their radar for bullying.

Don't answer phone call from works on your days off, full stop. it is just appalling management to ring you for such a trivial matter.

My previous boss who was a bit disorganised and scatty had a habit of doing that. Now and then she would try to call, leaving messages or even trying to contact me on WhatsApp on the days that I was not contracted to work (I was working part-time) for trivial matters that could have waited for me to be back in the office.

I simply ignored her every single time. My average wage did not justify me being on call whenever she needed something...

One of the many reasons why I left that organisation...

I hope you're not a manager

Well of they are a manager, they can't be needed that much to spend all afternoon on MN. Is it still half term in some areas?

Boss: did you send the email
Employee : yes. Bye. And hang up.

Simple.

My point is that this is a trifling thing and nothing to be clambering on any high horses about. There are more important things to be getting upset about. This sort of lack of tolerance is what makes a lot of workplaces so toxic as it ends up being reciprocated to everyone’s detrimen

well, Dontblame me sounds like a boss i once had. Middle management and interfered in the running of my team by calling on days off, on vacation, on sick leave, on maternity leave etc. Alongside a lot of other foibles which lead to a very toxic workplace.

We had 365 evaluations and they never ever took any of the constructive criticism (from above or below) on board. When it looked as though the company might either withdraw from our country to consolidate their market, a rival was looking for people. So my team of 6 applied as a functioning team to the new place, and were taken on.

Boss way very put out, and applied to the new company. Was declined because it's a small industry and their reputation preceded them.

What a lot of managers fail to appreciate, as pp have pointed out, is that you may be fantastic at the job, but managing people is a whole other skill that has to be learned/practiced.

Have you considered that some people’s jobs, workplaces and managers are so toxic and stressful that being able to switch off for annual leave – which is a right, not a “nice to have” perk like free fruit in the staff room – is a mental health necessity, and being interrupted by a manager on their personal phone, not even their work phone!, could be detrimental to their mental health?

I don’t suppose you have as you’re too busy deciding on everyone’s behalf that it’s a trivial matter. It isn’t.

My old manager used to do this on my days off. Or even better would phone me on my annual leave and say things like "can you pop into work today to go through the emails from .. or voicemails from ...".
I soon learned never to answer the phone if their name came up.

are you always so rude?

Some people seem to intertwine their work and personal life in a way that works for them.
So my friend works from the gym cafe and is happy to chat for an hour or so to me ( on my NWD) and then pick up her laptop at the weekend.

I'm a work is work and home is home person. I would be ok with an emergency phone call - I put my number on for out of office but have only ever been called once - but something mundane that they could check with the person there is disrespectful and lazy.

When you go back I'd issue an email detailing exactly where everything is and who is your back up in holidays. I'd reissue it before every holiday and not pick up the phone in future if it is the boss calling.

It wouldn’t bother me if my manager did this, especially as it sounds like quite a quick thing, but we’re all different, and I think it’s a bit thoughtless not to preface it with an apology. The obvious thing is not to pick up, but you did, so the next most obvious thing, other than brushing it aside, is to politely ask her not to do it again.

I’m old enough to remember when there were no mobiles and no email and if people were not in the office they were non-contactable, full stop. There was a list of home phone numbers that only very senior staff were on and it was only maintained for use in genuine emergencies which might happen out of office hours.

However did we manage.

You're an entitled primadonna to expect your annual leave to be annual leave except in cases of actual emergency.
Ridiculous. 🤣