Boss expecting me to answer her messages while driving!

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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?

My ancient 2017 Honda doesn't have this feature 😆

This is good. Also good to put it in writing like this.

My definitely not ancient Tesla has that feature but I haven’t turned it on because it’s distracting to get all your messages read out while driving. My phone automatically switches to driving mode when I am in a car.

I would check your HR policies and share with your manager. It will say you shouldn’t even take calls while driving I imagine.

Hello boss, please can you show me the company risk assessment on responding to texts while driving a car?

Should this show little to no risk and be considered legal then of course I will respond to emails etc while driving.

Could you also send me a copy of the company's grievance policy as I feel that without this risk assessment, your demand that I be contactable by message whilst driving on company business is unreasonable.

Ah don’t even try to bend over backwards for unreasonable people. They’ll always want more.

OP ask her what she expects you to do while driving, given that using your phone is against the law. I’d cc her boss or HR if pushback.

She sounds unhinged.

Don't do that (plan in a stop every hour). That's completely unreasonable expectation, it'll take you much longer to get home or to where you are going, and you may not be able to anyway due to traffic or lack of services in appropriate places so you'll be setting yourself up to fail.

I'd just send an email following up (I'd probably use the phrase "clarifying in case there has been any confusion") replying what you have said to her ie that you were driving when she messaged and that you were was unable to check messages as it's illegal to do so. Say you would be happy for her to call in these circumstances which you could answer using your hands-free but understand that work policy may not permit this (many policies don't allow it). If she comes back to you again I'd reply asking what exactly she suggests you do in that scenario.

I’m desperate to know what the issue was she wanted to speak to you about so urgently.

Sh’s an idiot. Definitely make sure you take all the TOIL and expenses etc you’re entitled to, and if she mentions it again get her to explain very clearly and slowly exactly what she wanted you to do.

Yeah, she's an idiot. I totally get why you're feeling confused and frustrated about this situation. It might be a good idea to have a friendly chat with your boss to clear up any misunderstandings and talk about how you can improve communication in the future. You've been doing a great job being dedicated and committed to your work, so finding a balance between being available and staying safe is key.

It is unreasonable of your boss.

Email her.
Politely highlight that you apologise you were not contactable on x date at x time. At that time you were driving and, therefore, unable to read messages.
For any urgent enquiries you would be happy to take a short call to advise your assistance is needed and will pull over to services safely and timeously.

This is what the law says.

Although it's not illegal to answer hands free calls, you must not be distracted while driving.

In my view, thinking about anything other than the road is a distraction that could cause a loss of concentration.

https://www.gov.uk/using-mobile-phones-when-driving-the-law

Your boss is ridiculous. Best of luck with a boss like that my god.

My car doesn't have the read out message facility but having been on the receiving end of messages that were sent by people who have I would say it is an inappropriate way to respond to important business messages. Amongst friends we have a lot of laughs about all the mistakes in the messages. I'd hate anyone to make a business decision based on a reply from a hands free message! (And yes I'm aware you dictate and it reads back before you send but that's just an extra distraction and should not be happening whilst driving IMO).

She is being beyond ridiculous.

You even take calls while driving which is even more than I'll do.

If you are that indispensable that she can't manage without you for a couple of hours, you certainly need a pay review.

Is your boss expecting you to drive in your own time and be working at a laptop until 5pm?

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

And did you reply? Because it seems odd that the conversation would stop dead there. Didn’t you say anything else, like “But if it’s unprofessional to expect me to take calls whilst driving, surely it’s just as bad for me to respond to messages whilst driving - worse, in fact, because I can’t use hands-free to do that?”?

@KrisAkabusi my car is my private vehicle, not a company car. It was connected to my personal phone at the time as I was using maps to navigate. It’s not connected to my work phone, nor do I want it to be. You still have to press a few things on the screen for messages to be read to you which is distracting, I don’t do this for my personal messages either and I’m not sure it works with Microsoft teams.

I'd send a message saying I am heading out in 15 mins and won't be contactable whilst driving ETA is x depending on traffic

It was to do with forecasting (checking we are on track to sell the expected amount this month), the deadline isn’t until midday tomorrow so I’m not sure why it was urgent yesterday evening when she could have called me this morning (which she did anyway).

I'd ask her if she could put in writing that she wishes you to answer texts while driving to and from work events in future.

Say you need to double check with HR that that is the standard company policy because what she's asking you to do is break the law.

She's an idiot.

This did make me laugh!! What do you consider ancient?? My car is 8 years old and has no way to read me messages!! No idea with Android Auto is despite being quite au fait with a lot of techy stuff.

Boss is being a tit. If she wants immediate contact she'll need to find a way to teleport herself into the passenger seat so she can have an instant meeting.

Unfortunately your manager is a maniac, like so many others.

The wider issue here is that your boss, and many others need to learn the difference between important and urgent.

I didn’t really know how to reply because I was confused at what she wanted/expect and before I got a chance to, she moved on with an ‘anyway the reason I wanted to talk to you…”

she has always been a pretty good manager, but she’s back from maternity leave recently and I think she feels the pressure a bit. Perhaps why she’s passing on the frustration to me. We’ve got a catch up meeting next week anyway so I am going to raise it then and just say I was confused at what she wanted, and that I will answer within work hours if she calls me (if it’s safe to do so) but won’t be answering messages until I’m out the car.

I do have this feature but it requires several button presses on the sat nav display to get to the message reading thing and for some reason ever since my son connected his phone to play his music now my phone won't read or display messages.