Boss expecting me to answer her messages while driving!

[Drummend01]

This week I’ve been all over the country representing our company at an event. Approved by my boss, out of office is on, I’ve told everyone I won’t be easily contactable etc (I’m usually very efficient).

Yesterday I was driving home from Manchester (3 hours), boss messaged me about 4:30pm on Microsoft teams on my work phone “can you call me please”, I didn’t see it as I was driving, then another at 5ish “important”. I saw the messages when I pulled into services about 6pm and replied to her on teams (we finish working at 5) saying “sorry I was driving, is it something to discuss now or shall I call you in the morning?”. I didn’t get a reply.

This morning she video called me saying how I need to be contactable in work hours, how she’d waited until I was finished at the event to message me. I explained that had she called me then I would have heard the ring and picked up on hands free, but I wasn’t checking my phone for messages while I was driving (with it being illegal and everything!). She said “I didn’t call you because i knew you were driving, as a manager that wouldn’t be very professional”.

I’m so confused, I’ve built a good reputation with her and this company, I got promoted in November and have been working really hard. I was up at 5:30, spent 6 hours in the car yesterday, worked way more hours than I am paid for so far this week and she’s annoyed because it took me 1.5 hours to answer her messages while I was driving. If it was that important and she knew I was driving then shouldn’t she have called me?! AIBU?

Ask her what she expects you to do.

I don't think you should even offer to answer hands-free calls when you are driving. It is distracting and dangerous. Send her an email clarifying that you were not ignoring her but were driving and that in future you will plan in a coffee stop at the services every hour so that you can check for messages.

If it was that important she could (and should) have called you in the first place.
It is unreasonable to expect you to be available all hours of the working day when those hours by nature of the task mean you'll be driving for some of them.

Perhaps a brief catchup meeting with her to set reasonable expectations is an idea?

She sounds bonkers! She waited until she knew you'd have finished at the event but knowing that you'd be driving back, and then said she couldn't call because she knew you'd be driving, but somehow expected you to respond to her text on Teams?? If it was that important and she knew about it before your conference had finished then she should have left you a message in the afternoon asking you to call before you started driving home.

I think you should tell her “there is a little matter of the legislation”. And tell her that you do nit want to have an accident.

That makes absolutely zero sense! She wouldn’t call you on the phone as you were driving but expected you to respond on teams?!! Is she hard of thinking?

As a PP said, ask her what (the hell) you are meant to do?

And why didn't she respond when she got the message? (Probably because she was driving.)

Wow I'd be making plans to leave this company. Are you getting your time back for all these extra hours worked? What was the actual issue she wanted to speak to you about? Was it actually important? This sounds like power play at work - be careful of her she sounds threatened.

I had a boss like this once. She was hard work, to put it mildly 😣

Your boss is an idiot.

“I didn’t call you because i knew you were driving, as a manager that wouldn’t be very professional”.

"And, as a driver, I don't check my phone for messages when I am driving because that would be against the law".

If you have an iphone you can turn on auto messages back to say you are driving and cannot see the message. That might help her Get The message

Ignore her, she's being a tit. You explained the situation and why you didn't respond which was quite understandable.

Just tell her it's illegal to be on your phone whilst driving and to call in future.

Is your car ancient? Because with most even relatively modern cars you can connect using Android Auto or the iphone equivalent and have messages read to you - no need to read them yourself and perfectly legal. You would have got the message and then known to call her back at the next opportunity if you didn't want to call in the car. I can see where she's coming from.

Dear boss if this will be an ongoing issue for you then I feel it will be better if the company arrange a chauffeur for me so I’m fully available during working hours.

Do you get toil back for the hours you spent outside of work hours driving? No way would I be getting up at 5.30 for anything work related - that’s a hotel needed the night before. And / or after the event.

She sounds like a twat. Just tell her that you were contactable, if she'd have rang you could have answered the call. However unfortunately while driving you're not psychic and didn't know she'd messaged. Then tell her she's a twat.

Your car doesn't have to be ancient to not have this feature.

I wonder if she counts driving as off time. And expects you to stay at the event until 5pm. That's the kind of bollocks my old boss would have done.

This is completely bizarre. She wanted you to BREAK THE LAW.

It sounds like you like this job and usually things are good. I think you need to email her something like,

"Hi Boss. I was thinking about yesterday and I just want to reiterate that I am sorry I wasn't able to see your messages as I was driving back from the event, and of course, I can't look at my phone while driving. Next time I do one of these events, please don't worry about giving me a call if you need to - I'm always happy to take the call on handsfree and if it requires more concentration I can then find somewhere to pull over and call you back.

I really enjoyed taking part in '[activity details] and... whatever workr-related note you should mention there."

No, it's absurd to expect someone to have this feature.

She sounds like she's backed herself into a dumb corner and has decided to stay there.

If I need someone out of the office urgently, I would call them. If they are legally able to answer the call they will. If they cannot they will see the call and call back when able.

Messages when someone is driving are useless unless its just passing info for later on.

Lots of not ancient cars don't have this feature.

However perhaps this post explains the manager's reaction. If she is used to this kind of facility perhaps she was expecting the OP to get the message then pull over to call back.

@Drummend01 what a twat your manager is!! does she not understand that handsfree in car is legal. how can you possibly answer a text if driving? she should have more common sense if she is a manager!

My car is by no means ancient but I don't think it has this feature. Even if it did, my work mobile isn't paired to the car because company policy is that we don't take calls while driving!

If you are expected to drive regularly for work, your company should have a policy in place outlining what that entails, which should be guided by the law.

Taking hands free calls/messages in the car is not illegal per se (assuming your car has that function) but it can and does affect concentration and your employer has a duty of care to protect your safety while you are travelling on their behalf.

I'm not a big 'HR NOW!' type, but if your manager continues in this vein, then I would ask your HR department for clarification.

She said “I didn’t call you because i knew you were driving, as a manager that wouldn’t be very professional”.
I'm afraid I have to confirm your boss is a complete idiot.

Explain that next time she knows you're driving, you expect her to call within work hours. If you are driving and are unable to answer, you'll call her back at the next available time.

If she ignores that, then I'd leave some feedback to her boss.