22:30 work call - completely unacceptable?

[shortbreadconsumer]

I received a work call from someone in my organisation at 22:30 last night. I answered, thinking it was an emergency. The colleague was completely hysterical and impossible to understand. In the end I had no choice but to end the call with 'we can discuss this in the morning.'

This morning I spoke to the persons line manager about it, who said that it was 'unfortunate, but not unreasonable' for this individual to have called me as I had not answered any emails from said colleague over the weekend. They had sent me over 50 emails this weekend. I did not see the emails as seniors within the organisation take an 'if it's urgent, they have my number' approach.

I am more senior than both of of these colleagues and I was 'on call' all weekend as the most senior point of contact in the organisation. However, this was not an issue that required weekend working and, more importantly, it was not an issue that I needed to be consulted on. It was very simple and should have easily been resolved in working hours by this individual alone - her direct line manager would not have needed to input either.

AIBU to think that this was unprofessional and unacceptable from both of them?After no sleep, I've reached that 'was it really that bad' point where I am so sleep deprived that I am not sure whether I am overreacting in my annoyance or not!

So someone sends you 50 emails in one evening, gets hysterical and ignores basic instructions.

And this is all your fault

If jobs are about following simple instructions and rely on people to follow basic rules then why would you think the person who didn’t follow the rules should not have any consequences to their actions.

Obviously NO I can't imagine ANYTHING to do with work that would require a phone call at 10pm at night, that's ridiculously unprofessional.

However, what is the role of the on call person? Like unless their role is really specifically to do one thing, I find it very weird, and frankly cruel

However if you were on call all weekend, then ignoring 50 emails from an increasing distressed colleague sound like you were spectacularly not bothering to do your job. I mean I guess it depends what you are on call for, like if everyone knows the on-call is for one thing, maybe not, but I would have thought if a company has someone on call and someone was clearly working and distressed, replying to them is very much your job.

On the contrary, I spent my professional life working in a ‘very senior’ role with executives and boards of directors, as a result of which I have a very low tolerance for massive-but-swooningly-fragile egos.

Of course the OP shouldn’t be expected to deal with 45 minutes of a junior employee having a meltdown at 10.30 at night, but this was clearly an exceptional circumstance and a person who was not doing well. Which is neither the OP’s responsibility nor her fault, but nor is it really anyone else’s, including the company’s. It’s an anomaly.

Sometimes shit happens, and if an organisation is compensating you to be the most senior person on call, I’d expect you to be able to handle the situation with a measure of grace and empathy.

I’d have had a lot of sympathy if the OP was along the lines of ‘I had a weird situation at work, this is how I handled it but I’m feeling a bit rattled’. Instead, the AIBU is couched as the call being ‘completely unacceptable’ - in other words, a personal affront. Which is maybe just poorly expressed on the OP’s part, but it really doesn’t cast her in the best light as a competent senior manager.

I don’t actually have the facility to check my emails at home. If there is an emergency then someone phones.

emails are often very inefficient & increase workload so we make a conscious decision that they are only dealt with in office hours.

if one of our customers has a gas leak or the heating system breaks in a prison or hospital they phone, not email.

Good grief you absolutely aren't being unreasonable. You weren't with your first post and you are even more not unreasonable with your follow up explanations. Absolutely unreasonable behaviour from some one who shouldn't have even been working and it is not Ops role to act as emergency mental health support

I understand this but two things....the person who sent the 50 emails shouldn't have been working at all.....the person they sent to 50 emails to is not a friend or relative, or even someone they know more than in passing. They did have someone who they could have called...the triage on call person....but they didn't contact them. This is not an excusable effect of the person's mental health.

I’d be phoning the police if you did that on me. My husband and kids deserve their home lives not to be disturbed too)

Exactly.

Don't ignore people then

That sounds a bit threatening.

Your poor bloody colleagues.

The response may not be unreasonable. Posting a detailed, recognisable account of it on a public forum definitely is, though, and not what most organisations expect of their Very Senior People.

Employee phones triage on call person. Is told 'don't worry leave it till you're back at work. BTW are you supposed to be working weekends?' Employee stops working, leaves the problem till working hours. End of.

my priority is to protect my family & my own mental health which includes two autistic kids. I would absolutely ignore anyone else including a work colleague if they threatened that.

im not qualified to deal with someone having a mental health breakdown. Work issues are dealt with in work hours.

Unless you are the on call heart surgeon for the local hospital (or similar) I can’t see any need for past 10pm phone call.

people need to start compartmentalising home and work time and also learn what is a genuine emergency

YANBU

How have we got to twenty pages with so many PPs still not understanding that OP's job was not to monitor her emails, or take calls from anyone except the designated out of hours contact – who was being paid to monitor emails, and whom the employee should have contacted in the first place?

Thats a you problem, not your employers. If you turned up at my family’s home you’d be told in no uncertain terms to fuck off. Having a mental illness isn’t a free pass to do what you like without consequences.

This. That's walking a route to get sectioned....and yes I do know what I am talking about

because idiots?

Sectioned 🤣🤣🤣 you definitely don't know what you're talking about if you think this country has enough beds to section someone for that

Or you could just answer your phone and reassure the person it would take 2 minutes

I had to be on call out of hours, all hours, when I was a homeless officer. From Friday at 5 pm till Monday at 8am. Then Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday 5pm till 8am each day. Which is why I feel sympathy for the OP, having a completely unwarranted call, as I used to get, at all hours is infuriating.

If you are distressed out of work hours you should contact your mum, or your husband, or a friend.

Work places are not responsible for people's emotional state when they are not working. They are responsible for ensuring that work does not impact mental health and offering support to manage this, but this is addressed during work hours.

People have some ridiculous ideas about the responsibility of employers if they think managers should take hysterical phone calls out of work hours.

Why does the distress of one employee get to negatively impact another employee outside of work? This is why there are HR protocols. Your employer is not required to be your friend.

.....whom the employee should have contacted in the first place

The employee shouldn't have been contacting anyone, because she shouldn't have been working.

Why did you write it like that and not just put everyday