Team Leader tried to contact me during my annual leave - did I do the right thing?

[PinkStarAtNight]

So I posted last week I think about micromanagement in my call centre job and described how awful I'm finding it. It just got worse.

So I'm on annual leave this week, 17th July-23rd July. Booked weeks ago, all authorised and showing on my schedule so no confusion about whether or not I'm actually meant to be off work. I'm definitely on AL.

This afternoon I noticed a message on WhatsApp from my team leader, that had come in at 16:49, saying 'Hi Pink, hope all's well, could you give me a call as soon as you're free please?' I then noticed I'd had a missed call from her at 16:48. I was a bit confused and so was my boyfriend. He then made me doubt myself by saying 'are you sure you're definitely on annual leave and haven't got the dates wrong??' so I logged onto my work laptop and checked my schedule on the HR site, yep all there and approved, I'm definitely on AL. I then checked my work emails and there was one from team leader with the subject 'Last week's stats' that was sent at 16:26 and said that she had just been checking my stats and she has noticed they have dropped since the previous week - is there a reason for this? Can you think of any support we can put in place for you?

So obviously she was wanting me to call her to discuss my stats. I did think maybe she has forgotten I'm on annual leave...but I also logged onto Teams and there were no messages or calls from her on there, and Teams is ALWAYS the way that she would contact me in the first instance. We got told this during induction, that your manager will always reach out to you on Teams. I think the only reason she would avoid Teams and use WhatsApp is because she knew I wasn't working so wouldn't be logged on and see anything on Teams.

My boyfriend told me not to call her, that its completely unacceptable for her to be trying to call me about my stats when I'm not working and that I need to make it clear (in a polite/friendly way) that I'm not ok with that. So he suggested I send her an email explaining that I'm on AL and not really available. So I did...I tried to make it polite and friendly. I said that I wasn't sure whether maybe she had forgotten I'm actually on A/L and that I'm a bit busy this evening and have plans all week because I'm on holiday so is it OK if we have a catch up when I'm back in work?

I'm now really worried that this was the wrong thing to do and she's going to hate me for it and find a way to end my contract. Its a temp contract with a probation period which ends middle of November and whether or not you get kept on depends on your performance, your stats, your adherence, your compliance with the lateness and absence policy etc...boyfriend said they can't fire me for not being available on my annual leave and I haven't had any lateness or absences, but as she's just said my stats have dropped...I'm worried she's going to have me down in the bad books and be on the look out for an official reason to end the contract early, and I'm guessing she definitely won't be extending the contract after November. I suppose I don't really want to keep working here anyway, but then again I need a job and I'm now second guessing myself thinking it was stupid to 'put my foot down' and send that email basically saying I won't be available for calls this week, when really I need to keep this job.

I've worked in other call centres before that have been awful for all the normal reasons, but never ever had one that has called/messaged/emailed me when on my days off or during annual leave. I thought that was just a no no for all companies...or AIBU and should have agreed to call her and discuss my stats?

Also just to answer any questions about stats before people ask... I'm new to the job, only been doing it 2 weeks (after 4 week training and a pre-booked hol last month) so the stats she's referring to are my stats for 2nd week. In my first 1:1 she was gushing with praise because the target for week 1 was set at 45% productivity and I had actually come out at 68%. The email says that last week (my second week) dropped to 54% productivity. I think this is because I had 4 calls last week that ended up being really long and complicated and the person was wanting to complain, because I'm new I had to call the support line for help with them and even they had to go consult someone else, then come back to me and explain what I needed to say/do and then I had to go back to the callers, talk through everything, then write out lengthy emails to different departments and go through lots of processes...so I think that's why my stats have dropped, because they're based on how many calls you take per hour. Its fine for her to want to talk through this, but surely not when I'm on pre-planned annual leave???

I've been left feeling really stressed and upset by this and wondering what to do now. Obviously dreading next Monday. So...AIBU?

@PinkStarAtNight - step away from the laptop. Stop checking your emails and messages. You’re on holiday. If your line manager doesn’t know that, then they need to check the schedule more carefully in future.

Unless you’re senior management then you shouldn’t be dealing with anything work related on holiday. Junior employees don’t carry enough responsibility or significance within an organisation to make it necessary for anyone to contact them while they’re not being paid to work. It’s very poor practice to do this and I would complain when I returned to work about being interrupted when not being paid to be thinking about or doing any work. You have no obligation to respond and I would temporarily block my manager’s number if they kept trying to contact me while I was away.

With kindness, you are choosing to make yourself stressed by this and you need to take responsibility for your emotional response. You are choosing to catastrophise. You can equally choose not to. Mind over matter. You’ve emailed your manager and told her you’re on annual leave. Job done. Don’t check any more work emails or WhatsApps and relax and enjoy your holiday. Second guessing what your manager wanted from you is going to do nothing but distract you from enjoying your holiday. Don’t let your work have that power over you.

If you really can’t stop thinking about it and I know I couldn’t.

Send her message on teams saying you are confused about the dates /figures she quotes and you will pick up with her when you're back in the office.

Then please try to stop thinking about it . Annual leaves is important for your mental health

Well whatever.... she's fuckin ruined your week off. Totally unacceptable, and HR first thing mon.just be aware hr may be no good If run by mgmt

How many people does your manager manage? I cant keep track of others annual leave and would fully expect an automatic email reply or my call to remain unanswered until a colleague was back. I don't WhatsApp anyone from work on their personal numbers though, that in itself seems wrong. I would raise that as an issue.

" Im thinking maybe I should have a think and write some notes of what to respond with, so I feel prepared for her bringing it up?"

I think this is a good idea, not for work's sake but because it's a recognised technique to get it all out of your head. The more it churns round in there the more it will take from your leave. You've probably written the justification several times in your head already.

In terms of the WhatsApp if a further response is needed I would maybe suggest she put a meeting in for when you're back. From an anxiety management perspective remind yourself that you can"t change your historical stats. Whatever this is about has already happened, and it can wait until you are back in the office. You do have the option of talking to HR if she is hassling you on holiday but personally I would focus now on getting yourself out of this worry spiral to make the most of your holiday. You're anxious anyway and you're in a brand new job. I think it's very normal to be adrenaline-y about work this early on, especially as an anxious and probably conscientious person. Don't beat yourself up about that, accept it and focus on letting go of what you can't change and making the most of your leave.

Step away from it. You can't change it, your stats are fine anyway and it'll get sorted when you're back
I know it's hard - my manager can't say to me "have you got a minute/meeting later?" because I spiral and when he says it I think I'm in trouble/going to be sacked
I had a conversation with him about it, he was horrified and now he will say "have you got a minute so we can work out your leave/do X?"

not really, you’re telling them without actually telling them that you’ve decided to make an allowances for the fact she could have contacted you by mistake, and also setting the tone that you don’t want to be contacted.

I don’t see the point in being obstructive over it, you’ve answered the question she had but made it clear that you’re not prepared to discuss it, after that I wouldn’t give it a seconds thought till next week.

each to their own but I’ve always operated in a give and take sort of way, assume the best in people not the worst sort of way and it’s served me well so far.

The amount of time OP is agonising over this is because she feels like she’s done the wrong thing, you should only do what YOU feel is right.

In about 5 years time or more, when you have moved jobs you will not even remember his/her name let alone what s/he felt you were failing at.

When you return from AL thank her for her emails and then challenge her with regards to her understanding of time away from work. Why does she have your contact number, did you consent for her to use this for work purposes? Your HR department should have that for emergency only.

Your manager is highly likely working towards some target set by their management team and the criteria for them (not you) to get a payrise is probably time specific.

You have a right to time off.

Stats are just that, recordings of data. You're a person not a statistic.

You are not going to get sacked for poor performance because it costs your employer money to train you and they need to get their money's worth.

I disagree, what sort of Team Leader doesn't even know when a team member is on AL, not just that, the OP clearly wasn't IN the office, meaning she was not at work, so she should not have been contacting her about work at all as she was not in the office.

Keep screenshots of all logged calls and messages just in case you need to speak to HR. Diarise the discrepancies between what she told you in your befriending and the stats, plus the “last week’s stats” statement. She sounds chaotic. Diarise how much time you spent reviewing this while on holidays and the stress levels that this contact has caused.

Seriously, she’s calling you while you’re on holiday for a chat about KPIs when you’ve only been live for 2 weeks?!

Fucking bonkers.

After looking closely at everything, I think she's got confused and thinks I'm on week 3 when I'm actually only on week 2. Target for week 3 is 55% and I'm at 54% so she is calling/messaging me during my annual leave over what would be a 1% drop below target.

I think I'm moving past the anxious/stressed stage and starting to just feel angry now

@PinkStarAtNight when you do have a meeting with her next week, use the voice recorder on your phone to audio record it. Just in case it's needed for HR. She's an idiot. If it's low pay, look for something decent. If she's chasing you after only two weeks live on the job then it's probably always going to be pretty shit!

Well, not that it’s gonna help you this time as you’ve already responded, but I’d have just gone with

”Hi Whipcracker, I’m on holiday, is it something very urgent?”

Then she’d have to admit (to herself if not to you) that actually, no it isn’t, and back the fuck off.

I used to work in a mobile network call centre that ran like this. People would come to work with stomach bugs because you could get disciplined for taking too much time off sick, and vomit into bins so they didn’t have to leave their desks. I was 19.

My manager phoned me whilst I was abroad on my honeymoon last year. Ignored the call, didn’t message. No repercussions on my return. Some managers/team leaders etc will try their luck, but have no right to. Just ignore it.

Another one who was contacted on their honeymoon (20yrs ago). I worked for an airline at the time. They wanted me to drive 5hrs to the airport, fly 2.5hrs to my home and then go on a four day trip. Took a bit of convincing for them to hear me state that my new DH probably didn’t want to see out the rest of our honeymoon by himself. (They tried about four more times, but I only answered the once!)

But you still have no idea that she called you about stats. You need to not get ahead of yourself as your mind is running wild!

Either talk to her or ignore it. Fretting and analyzing what it possibly might potentially be about is not achieving anything, and the only person who's losing out is you. Your boss has spent much less time and headspace on this than you have, and she's being paid for it.

Mute her until you return from holiday. Then when you get back speak to hr her behaviour is totally unprofessional

This. Please do not worry about it OP, the job really is not worth it if you are going to be treated like this.