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!

I always remember Sir John Harvey-Jones at ICI, who told staff he was only to be called for absolute emergencies... he was called twice, once by a very junior manager who soon understood that he should not have called, and the second time was to advise him of a hostile takeover threat.

Frankly, if someone was emailing 50 times over three days, I would expect them to have the nous to call another manager to sense check why you are not calling back, For me, this would be completely ridiculous... I gatekeep for a C-suite director, I keep an eye on his mail over the weekends and evenings, and have on occasion texted him but that will be for a Ministerial email or something from our Chair that needs immediate attention. I am afraid that this behaviour would get very short shrift from our office and levels of urgency would be explained in great detail. It would not happen again.

It's impossible to give an opinion without knowing more details.

When you're on call, what are you meant to do? Are you meant to check emails regularly? Are you meant to be contactable for simple advice? Or are you only meant to be called in an emergency?

And what was the issue? A flood that is damaging the office is different from a broken photocopier.

I've been on call in multiple jobs where I haven't been expected to check my emails when on call. I was always given a special on-call phone and I was just expected to use that. If the on call system exists for emergencies only, then people shouldn't use it for non-emergencies.

The colleague clearly thought it was important and that she needed help and was getting worked up about it. If it wasn’t so urgent then explain that to her and give her guidance on how to handle it differently next time.

Is this a reverse?

I used to do on-call work.
I dealt with whatever came my way, regardless of whether I felt if was urgent, because obviously the employee or client thought it was.
It's called being professional.

Sounds ridiculous. I do on call and there is a clear escalation policy and procedure - you wouldn’t email me or message me at any time of day and night and expect me to pick it up. Also it’s generally clear what is an on call situation and what can wait for office hours. I’d be very concerned that this individual is not coping with their work or level of responsibility if they send anyone 50 emails about anything. If it was urgent they should’ve rung you or whoever they escalate to before sending an email anyway, as email isn’t an instant communication which requires an instant response.

I think people are getting mixed up with "on call" = actually arranged on call cover where you must be available, and the on call that comes with being a senior manager = unofficial capacity, part of give and take, expected to answer telephone calls if its an extremely urgent business matter.

Im assuming op was the latter version of "on call".

I agree with this , and the other similar posts.

If you want a senior corporate salary then don't complain when you are expected to earn it !

You sound a bit...aloof. A bit removed from the issues faced by those lower down the working hierarchy as illustrated as you specifically emphasising being more senior, and higher than both the colleague and the line manager. Yet you were the one on call.

You're clearly extremely experienced in your role, but it can be worth taking a bit of time to stop and reflect on how it feels to be junior, and sometimes not even able to execute tasks without the work passing inspection from someone with senior authority. Or simply not knowing what to do and feeling like it demonstrates incompetence.

I personally would have emailed you a maximum of three times, called once, then seen that as proof of me trying and covering my back and relaxed But if this person suffers from anxiety, you left them in a fix and whilst you're complaining about them disturbing your sleep, they probably had little sleep themselves and a horrible tense bank holiday.

That said, it does seem like processes for out of hours contact need to be refined at your workplace

Also, you say that you are more senior than both of them, so perhaps its time to lead by example. Not responding when on call and acting pissed off that someone junior to you had contacted you for help (while you're on call), is poor leadership, poor management and sets a pretty crap example of how team members should behave. Would you want your team to do the same? What about the next time you're on call? People might avoid calling you at all costs, even if it leads to disaster or turns out to be a real emergency.

If you’re on call, I would expect you to reply to one of the 50 emails, even if it is to simply say that ‘this can be actioned on Monday’.

OP wont come back if she cant even be bothered to read emails whilst on call...

What is your job role?

It depends what the "on call" process is. DH does on call on a rota, his job is in an industry which has major impact when things go wrong - sort of like electricity generation but not. But there is a very very clear and long established process for things being passed up the chain of command and dealt with at lower levels. Also their process is that if the issue is serious enough that it does need on call input from a senior manager, then communication is always by phone. DH is not sitting by his laptop at 2am pressing refresh just in case someone emails. But when he is on call, he takes the mobile to bed and will answer calls if they come through.

Seems like a combination of lack of understanding around what is and what is not an urgent issue, and the process for escalating that issue through appropriate levels of management.

This 💯

I am assuming it was the former version of “on call”. She says “I was ‘on call’ all weekend as the most senior point of contact in the organisation.”

Are you paid to be on call? If so YABVU. The colleague sounds a bit hysterical and you maybe need to gently advise her that in future this isn't urgent. However it serves you right getting the late call if you couldn't be arsed to reply to your emails when you're on call.

I think you’ve handled it quite badly if you’re senior to this staff member. If they’ve sent you 50 emails, then they are very clearly out of their depth if it’s something really simple and they’ve reached hysteria levels. And why are they working over the weekend? Were they rostered to work? Or doing unpaid overtime because they’re struggling with their workload? As a manager, shouldn’t your first concern be whether they need additional training or some sort of support plan?

And is it communicated to the staff at their level that you being on call means they need to text or call rather than email?

The fact that the person’s line manager very clearly didn’t completely agree with you make me think that there’s a pretty big mismatch in what’s expected and what’s communicated between the different levels, as there so often is. You’ve got an opportunity to fix that here. Or you could just get really cross about it and then feel surprise when staff at lower levels aren’t full of confidence in their leaders.

I did not see the emails as seniors within the organisation take an 'if it's urgent, they have my number' approach.

This needs to be an explicit policy. Email culture in your organisation might need a look too - sending / receiving 50 emails is not good for anyone.

Do the other people on call stick to the same policy of not answering emails, are are juniors getting mixed messages.

Do you have an out of office on saying that you don't read emails while on call but can be contacted by phone? Without this I don't really think you can describe yourself as being on call at all.

Obviously this wasn't pleasant for you or the colleague who called you, but you have a policy and communications issue to deal with as a team - no point hammering it out with them or their line manager or getting punitive about it.

Rather than be wound up and agitated about who’s right who’s wrong, I would take this as an opportunity to clarify in writing the ‘on call’ procedure for all staff ie it sounds like phone calls not email, only to be used if the situation genuinely cannot wait to be resolved on Monday.
Set up a standard out of office format which specifies that emails are not being checked and states the procedure.

If someone thinks sending 50 emails before calling, instead of picking up the phone at what would have probably been a reasonable time of day, for something they think is urgent, is the right course of action, I question their ability to do the job.

To be clear, we have formal 'on-call' procedures. They are written down and kept in a shared online area everyone can access. They are even stated in an email we sent at 18:00 every Friday to all stakeholders detailing who is on call and what their email is.

So Friday's email said:

'Department X is closed for the bank holiday weekend.

If your query is urgent, please contact 'A': 'insert email address and phone number'.

If necessary, 'A' will escalate it to the duty senior point of contact who will be in touch.'

The 'junior' person on call is expected to monitor emails all weekend and reply to anything that needs actioning. They are very generously compensated for this.
The expectation is everything urgent goes to the 'junior' person who will escalate to the senior person, via phone call, if their input is needed. Juniors are any grade up to Deputy Director.

The 'senior' person on call is expected to only answer the phone and not to monitor emails. In five years, averaging being on call once every two months, I have only had to be rung once on the weekend and that was due to a death on the premises. That is how high the bar is for contacting my level.

This colleague who called me and emailed me, was not on call and nor was her query urgent. She should not even have been working. She did not, in any way, attempt to contact the junior colleague on call. She emailed me directly, multiple times, on a non-urgent query knowing that I would not be checking emails. She then rang me in utter hysterics making no sense because I had not replied to emails she knew I would not be monitoring.

I honestly cannot stress how non-urgent her issue was.

For those of you who understand civil service structures...think of it as a HEO ringing a SCS3 to ask for guidance on something very routine (say, an email to an internal colleague about a meeting). That's the closest comparison I can make. Or think of it as a trainee lawyer ringing the managing partner.

I’ve been the person making the call in the middle of the night. And I don’t mean 10.30 I mean 02.30. I used to actually loath doing it but it was always a situations which warranted it or where I felt out of my depth and needed to run my actions passed someone with authority. I guess I never called anyone with anything trivial but perhaps in my job identifying the serious from the trivial was more obvious. I always was treated seriously and given the relevant reassurances. It’s a shame you didn’t pick up one of the 50 emails and call them to stop that individual floundering any further and the phone call
could have been totally avoided.

This sounds very sensible.