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.

Quick reply : sorry I’m on annual leave. I’ll sort it Monday

Unless the people I work with are my friends they wouldn’t even have my number

I'd say it really depends on what your job is, your relationship with colleagues and the culture in your workplace.

The colleague who covers for me went on sick leave unexpectedly while I had a planned leave. It felt quite normal/natural to tell the people who stepped in that they could call/message me anytime. We set up a whatsapp group so either I or my colleague on sick leave could answer any question /inquiry (we're the only ones fully trained in that field in our office). Worked well for us.

I guess the question is what are you happy with / what would you expect if the situations were reversed and you were the one messaging a colleague on leave.

Not sure what the issue is about messaging at 8h30 ? You don't have to reply straight away. If the tone wakes you then the onus is on you to silence your phone when you don't want to be disturbed.

I always turn off our work group chat when I'm off (usually comprised of why someone can't make it in that morning!) but I am usually in contact with my boss as I also consider her a friend. Most of the time we respect those boundaries on chatting as friends/adding in work issues. I leave her alone about work stuff when she is away and visa versa but we may catch up on personal stuff if one of us is on annual leave
.