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!

When I was on call for work I often had to answer the phone at all times of the day and night sometimes dealing with serious problems, and I also answered all emails. What is the point of having someone on call if they choose not to answer emails and object to getting phone calls? If someone was hysterical on the phone I would have assumed some disaster and certainly not hung up until I fully understood the problem, saying we can discuss it tomorrow would not have been an option, tomorrow could be too late.

Because the senior person on call only needs to be phoned if the junior on call person finds it necessary to escalate. Its the junior person on call responsibility to monitor emails, not the OPs. And this person was emailing the wrong person, skipping over the correct point of contact.

OP I have read the entire thread, and as a PP said, the call was at 10.30 pm so why (according to the final paragraph of your first post ) did you have no sleep and so are sleep deprived?

You should remind your staff about the on call procedure, and consider incorporating it into your own weekend out of office autoreply.

Failing to include the procedure in the OP has condemned you to up to forty pages of 'if you were on call, why didn't you answer your emails'.

Person A was not at fault, as they should have been emailed but weren't.

The manager was unreasonable: their report ignored procedure, sent a ludicrous number of emails, and appears unduly stressed. Needs investigating by manager, not shrugging off.

It sounds like this person didn't understand the way the company's on-call works if they'd dropped 50 emails before calling!

And for something minor?

I wouldn't be happy with a 10.30pm call at all. Especially if it wasn't an emergency.

You were not unreasonable at all. The procedure in your update shows clearly what is supposed to happen.

I have a reasonably good understanding of the civil service structure and your update shows that the person who called you ignored the whole on call procedure and went straight to you.

That would be like me deciding to work at the weekend, seeing a comms issue kicking off and going straight to contacting our chief executive rather than checking to see who the on call comms person was and contacting them (they would either deal with it or escalate it to their head of office, if necessary and under their on call protocol the office head would decide if they needed to escalate it further).

I agree with the others that there's a sign of something else going on with the employee and with their line manager. Why would their line manager say it was unfortunate but not unreasonable as you hadn't replied to any of their emails when 1) the employee shouldn't have been working and 2) if there was an issue they needed support with then they should have emailed the person who was named as the point of contact and who could possibly have helped them. I'd be wanting to did a bit more into that.

@catipuss because the calls/emails should have been sent to a more junior employee who would then decide whether to escalate. Managers, IME, know they might have to deal with something out of hours but not in this situation. There was no emergency.

They were scheduled to be on call so presumably they are paid as it’s part of their contract

In that case, the 50-emails-sender was so obviously out of order that it’s a performance issue. And if their immediate manager can’t see that clearly, that’s another performance issue.

What are you going to do? Fifty-emailer can’t carry on like this. They need help. And it sounds like their immediate manager can’t be arsed.

I think the interesting thing is however that the person’s line manager said it wasn’t unreasonable for the staff member to have called OP.

That is somewhat contradicting the OP’s version of events.

Ah, I missed that point but failure to understand or follow the process still needs following up with all the people involved. Whenever I’ve been on escalation (as the managing partner level) I would also be checking my mails. One early reply to say “not urgent, can wait until Tuesday” copying in whoever is relevant to the problem would have closed it down.

I don’t think I’ve ever been kept awake all night by a mistaken call. I have followed up where someone seemed to be in unreasonable distress to check on the team functioning.

Well if you’re so sure you’re right why did you post asking the question?

Not answering a 10pm call-reasonable

Not responding to over 50 emails, clearly showing a colleague you are responsible for is struggling while you are the only call senior manager? Terrible behaviour and I'd expect you to be disciplined for it.

If it wasn't work requirkng resolution over the weekend then that is an opinion your seniority allows you to make. On which case you respond 'thanks for flagging this Sharon, it's non urgent and we can discuss and manage this on Monday, please don't worry and move on with other tasks' or something to that effect.

What has the outcome been? You've caused significant distress to a colleague and ignored your senior role responsibility

I suspect sleep deprivation is from logging on to her computer and reading the 50 emails, making contact with the employee, helping them calm down and discussing the situation. Rather than 1 5minute phone call.

Literally over 50 emails during the weekend? That's a hell of a lot! All about the same thing?

This person has clearly been working herself up into a complete state over the few days, for whatever reason.

A very late work call from an hysterical colleague is not great, but you were the senior person on call all weekend and hadn't responded to a single email they sent. Even if you thought it wasn't an urgent issue and could be dealt with today, you could've emailed back saying that to put their mind at rest.

This is entirely on you.

The outcome for the colleague? Not really relevant, but is being handled appropriately via HR.

My outcome? Nothing. The 'big-boss' is content I followed procedures and is very concerned (as we all are) that someone could get so hysterical over such a small issue and that their line manager seems to have neglected this member of staffs mental health. It is not normal, or healthy, to be ringing any colleague that late at night and screaming down the phone at them.

I tried to explain that on-call procedures meant she should not have contacted me, as she knew I would not be monitoring emails, and that we could discuss tomorrow. She would not listen. In the end I had no choice but to cut across her and make it clear we would discuss in the morning. I'm not sure what else I could have done. I followed procedures perfectly and the colleague in question did not.

@shortbreadconsumer ah I missed the post where there was a junior on call person - yes you need to find out why the sender didn’t contact that person or did they not know the correct procedure?

So you were really second line on call? Was that adequately explained to the junior colleague? I would be checking both their training and the wording for emails giving contact details, it sounds like she mistook you for being first line on call.

Also, if it's all being handled neatly what's your beef? What made you create a post? What IS the question really
??

It seems she was BU but if you hadn't read the emails at the time she called you, and she was impossible to understand and hysterical, were you not concerned for her welfare? She could have been calling for a legitimate reason and needed urgent help and you just hung up on her.

But she did none of those things though?

She said she “cut across” the hysterical staff member and told them it would be discussed in the morning - she then followed up with the line manager in the morning who thought the staff member had acted reasonably. OP seemed unaware of the emails til this morning because she’s said several times that they’re not checked by her over the weekend.

Seems like a very over dramatic reaction - on multiple fronts - by someone so senior.

I tried for over 45 minutes to explain to her I hadn't read her emails as the organisation's procedures mean I don't monitor emails at the weekends. I also tried to get her to tell me what was wrong but she just couldn't take anything on board and couldn't communicate properly.

I ended up having to cut across her, stress that I hadn't seen her emails because of procedure and that we could discuss in the morning, and then hang-up. I then emailed her to say the same thing.

Nothing I said was getting through to her so there was nothing I could do.

Reading that process description, I wonder if OP is actually more annoyed that a low-ranking underling had the cheek to phone such a high and mighty executive such as herself.

Something has gone terribly wrong for the employee to get SO het up and distressed - either the processes for the issue are not clear, the work culture is toxic (hence the distress at having to make the call) or the employee is potentially very unwell. None of those things would make me as angry as OP is about it. Well, maybe the toxic work culture one, if I was part of it.

But fgs, it was 10.30pm not 3am. I might also be in bed by that time, but it's one call, one time.