On annual leave - colleagues messaging

[Bunny2021]

My first AIBU - please be gentle 😂

I’m on annual leave this week as I had holiday days I needed to use up before the end of the month. I haven’t gone away anywhere other than visiting family Monday and Tuesday.

Yesterday my boss sent me a WhatsApp on my personal phone asking about a document that had corrupted and would I be able to go back in to redact the information and resend. He finished the message with “if you can’t, not to worry I will do it tomorrow”. I did it last night.

This morning at 8:30 - so outside of normal working hours - another colleague has messaged (same level as me) asking for a call today to talk him through a contract that could probably wait until Monday. If not, my boss has my notes from when I went on mat leave that covered this contract. This message has really annoyed me. I think because it’s before our usual working day (which starts at 9:00).

YABU - it’s a quick message and they only want to chat for 5 mins.
YANBU - you’re on annual leave and it’s unacceptable to be messaging at 8:30 on your day off.

I'd have ignored both.

If you reply explaining why you won't do it it will feel like you're justifying yourself which you don't have to.

People respond to actions over words sometimes. If they bring it up when you are back say "I don't have my phone on me much when I am on AL" and leave it at that.

Unless it is a life or death situation you don't need to be responding to work stuff when on annual leave.

When I was less senior I once had a colleague who treated me like her PA 😂. She rang me when I was AL and I knew it would be something trivial. I was pretty pissed off about it and I ignored her.

I'm on leave but I had one thing that I was waiting to hear back on. My director boss goes away this weekend with work and I needed confirmation on their travel booking. That's the only thing I'm dealing with. I did it before for my other director boss. As their PA I see it as my job to make sure they are sorted. I will log in later tonight to update their calendar with the info.

But I'm just sat on the sofa watching Homes Under the Hammer so its not actually annoying me or putting me out.

I am reasonably senior in my role and this is my pet peeve. For a million reasons. Entitled to a break for your health and well-being. Not paid for it. Statutory requirement. My overarching thought is my clients / work are not more important than myself or my family (who I am presumably spending time with while on leave). I always make sure I do good handover or exit notes though. I find in my corporate job some people actively enjoy working on their annual leave. Fine. But I’m not in that camp and you should not feel pressure to be.

Don't read and don't reply any work messages op. If you do it once they'll try it every time. You're not on duty.

to any*

Actually it is true some people don't mind being contacted, in fact I think some people in our area actively enjoy it, as it demonstrates in their own mind how very important they are.

I've actually said to my boss that for me to continue working at a high standard, I need to make sure I don't do loads of overtime or work frequently on my non paid day. Happy to jump in in an emergency or if I choose to, but if it becomes routine the longer term negative consequences of me being off with stress isn't worth it.

My boss when I was a legal secretary loved to ring me on my personal mobile (we didn’t have work ones), asking when I was returning from holiday - he knew perfectly well when or his other legal secretary knew!

I think it was a power trip on his part to ring me but I just refused to answer his calls from then on if I was on holiday. I wasn’t paid enough either but that’s another story!

We very occasionally rang him or he rang us when he was on holiday but he owned the company and employed a locum to do his work whilst he was on holiday.

So no OP you shouldn’t have to do other work whilst you’re on holiday whether it’s 2 days at home or 2 weeks in Greece.

I ignore any messages if I’m not working.

Wow such interesting mixed views here.

Neither of those things sounds critical or like you're the only one who could do them?

In a serious situation or where my colleague was distressed and I was the only one who could help then I would.

Otherwise I'd reply saying "I'm on annual leave this week but you should be able to find the previous version of the contract on this drive/boss should have my notes on that contract and can advise. Otherwise happy to chat Monday when I'm back"

No need to be difficult or rude, but important to set boundaries. I'd expect the same boundaries to be enforced by my colleagues if they were on leave, and I'd be horrified if I messaged them not realising they were on leave and they did the work (and were annoyed at me disturbing them) rather than let me know.

Either block them or just ignore them.

Some of theses responses are hilarious 😂

id of done the first part if I had time

but having a call / I’d say I’m really sorry but have plans the next few days but happy to pick up once I’m back 😊

it sounds like ok both occasions they’ve given you a get out if you can’t do it though.

OP might have all the time in the world. The issue is that work are infringing on her personal time where she probably doesn’t want to be thinking about work, let alone doing work

It’s all about protecting the workforce and reducing burnout. Perhaps your industry needs to look at a culture shift away from their employees being married to their job and contactable at all hours of the day/night to having processes in place for other employees to access information/support or having more than one person available to answer queries during non working hours/booked leave.

I don't understand why your colleague has your personal phone number. Are you friends outside of work? Or do you use your personal phone for work calls?

I don't share my personal number with random colleagues, so when I'm on leave, they'll either get my out of office email or a message saying that my phone is switched off. Job done!

I'm on AL at the moment, and I've muted our work chat. I would be probably answer quick messages but I wouldn't be switching a laptop on....

Work pays the bills, yes I understand your perspective op. But helping keeps the cogs going

I’d just ignore them unless I wanted to reply. My boss is brilliant at not contacting outside of hours or on holiday so if he did I’d imagine it was urgent/important to him and I’d help if I could.

my team are 1000+ and not everyone reads out of office notifications so I literally ignore them and reply when back at work.

It shouldn't be usual to contact colleagues on AL ....but it is. I've had this, and I've done it. Tbh I'm not always abreast of who's on AL or half days, or on a course etc. I think the level of seniority does matter and if I was senior management I'd expect to be contactable.
Ultimately it's up to you if you even look at the messages let alone respond to them. Sometimes just being contacted riles you as much as dealing with it. From your description it doesn't sound like the company will collapse if you don't respond.
Might be worth considering setting up out of office replies including changing message on answerphone. That's our company policy....but less than half follow it.

^^ This.
or out an out of office on saying you will be uncontactable

Just say 'Hi, happy to work with you on this when I'm back at work on Monday"

Then ask for a raise - you're obviously essential to the business if they need you to be on call!

I refuse to be in the work WhatsApp group. My manager was like ‘you can let us know if you’re late?’ No, I’ll be driving, so I won’t be in my phone. ‘Let me know if you’re sick’ erm, no, not anyone’s fucking business. She’s HR 🙄

YANBU...I wouldn't have done what your boss asked you, especially when they said they could do it. That's taking advantage if you ask me! As for the colleague who would like a chat - yes it's cheeky to message that early! Plus if it can wait or your boss has the information, then leave them to sort it out. You're entitled to a break and unless your boss is willing to pay you for this extra work, then politely tell them that you are on annual leave and anything that requires you to look at, you will do when you return to the office on Monday.
Like others have said, I would mute any messages from work and enjoy your week off!!

Text back and say I am on holiday so just fyi I won’t be answering any work queries. See you next week. Then mute them.

I don't understand why you did the first job for your boss when he explicitly said he could sort it himself anyway.

So, YANBU to think that they shouldn't text, but YABU to agree to do work when you're on annual leave! Just ignore them.

How flexible are they when flexibility works for you?

Work is very very flexible, there is no issue ever about having longer lunch breaks or otherwise getting stuff done in the middle of the day.

In return, I don't mind being contacted when on holiday. There would be no issue if I ignored the contact, but if I can easily help, I would.