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!

'After no sleep, I've reached that 'was it really that bad' point where I am so sleep deprived '

I thought the phone call was at 10.30pm

how did you end up having no sleep and being sleep deprived ?

Anyone who emails anything, for any reason, 50 times has a problem. If you're senior to them, I'd put them on written warning unless they agreed to a training programme. That's ridiculous.

Yabu and tbh I'm shocked you not in trouble from this. You are on call which means you answer email phone calls etc on your on call time. A colleague phoned detressed and you hung up in them. Shocking behaviour on your behalf. However I work nhs and on call means you on call.

I would be unsettled by the manager's reaction, which seems obstructive at best. But colleague's discussions with HR should throw light on whether something has gone wrong in their working relationship.

So did you end the call without knowing what your colleague was hysterical about and leave it overnight?

I get up at 04:00 for work. By the time I had done everything I needed to do (including contacting HR, checking for said emails etc) it was gone middnight. I then couldn't sleep as I was so stressed.

So she wasn't actually 'impossible to understand' as you said in your original post then? Because you were able to work out she had sent you emails and that it wasn't an issue she needed to call you over and it could wait. She might not be the only one who's a bit hysterical in that case.

This thread mirrors the situation it’s describing. The OP doesn’t clearly explain the process of on call, and has therefore led to hundreds of questions and reactions that have completely missed the point and gone on about checking emails and who is actually on call. This suggests communication could be improved.

Yes! Exactly this! She's too important to be listening to some girl crying. That's how I read it.

My days.

Tell me you've never managed people, without telling me you've never managed people.

Something's obviously gone awry, but starting from the perspective that it's a disciplinary matter, and not a question of training, or wellbeing...

Unfortunately, despite being equivalent to a 'managing partner', this is the line the OP has taken too.

I think your procedures need a rethink if this is the outcome.

You say that this issue was clearly one which did not need to be escalated but, looking at the facts, unless you think that the employee was doing it deliberately the junior employee was clearly not able to make that judgement themselves over the weekend. It could be that the employee was either just too inexperienced or too mentally unwell to make that judgement accurately but whatever the reason they’ve obviously had a shit weekend and now things have got worse.

Plus, why were they sending you emails if they knew that you were never going to be looking at them? I think this seems like a failure of a policy, which seems to be un-workable, or that more junior employee needed to be able to speak to their middle manager to assess this over the weekend.

You may have followed all procedures, but this does not sound like a happy place to work and I feel sorry for the junior employee. Also there’s never been a situation where I’ve had to “cut across” an employee especially one who was obviously distressed in that manner? It all just sounds like a bit of a shit-show TBH and seems to be unashamedly designed to make the senior employee’s life easier, whilst putting a lot of stress on the shoulders of a junior member of staff.

I would suggest that having this idea of very junior individuals monitoring emails but with senior colleagues only ever available by phone just doesn’t work. Either the senior colleague needs to check the emails themselves a couple of times, or there needs to be an In between stage of manager also on-call who can if necessary get involved to avoid this happening again.

I own my own company so I manage every one, including my responses, emotions, communications and that of my staff.

Tell me why you don't without telling me why you don't......

You're on call as in working hoursand hung up on a distressed subordinate. What do you think.

If your partner/child/parent/sibling/friend/someone you care remotely about sent you 50 messages and then called you while at work - would you answer them or would you chastise them for daring to call you at work?

IMO, if you’re willing to reply to personal messages and calls in work time you should be willing to reply to work messages and calls in personal time.

You were on call. Would it really have hurt you to reply and say ‘Don’t worry this isn’t a big issue we can navigate it on Tuesday’?

If you contacted HR last night were they on call or were you calling them at past 11PM for something that could have waited until this morning?

Disciplinary a total waste of time given op did nothing wrong.

If you are on call then the person to speak to is you. I dare say you get paid extra for being on call too.
You don’t ignore telephone calls or emails when you are on call. You are, effectively expected to be at work if needed.
YABU.

Depending on the nature of your work being contacted at 10pm can count as reasonable. Senior post in sensitive type of job/area . It goes with the job at a senior level.

It sounds to me as though the employee could be having a mental crisis, they are fixated on something that’s not an issue and did not need escalating, but are unable to see that for themselves. Sounds like possible OCD.

OP I would genuinely be concerned that the employee needs mental health support/referral. I hope they’re getting this from HR.

Well, I suppose you have to chalk that up to being why you command a senior salary and on call costs

The entire organisation gets the procedure, in words of one syllable, by email every Friday evening. I don't know how much clearer it could be.

But like all the Mumsnet threads where people ignore or misintepret information that has already been given, no-one probably reads it properly.

I think it's pretty sad that this is being seen as a 'departure from procedure' issue rather than a 'colleague in need of help' issue. What harm would it have done to say 'Hold on a second while I read one of your emails...ah, I see, so you're worried that you won't meet the deadline because x department hasn't done their bit? Don't worry, we can sort it all out tomorrow. Get some sleep and I'll see you in the office.'

Then tomorrow you explore the reason they got so distressed, and address the fact that the best way to get the support they need is by following procedure.

This is a really odd thread and I can’t figure out what OP would want from it.

I've been there OP - no you're not being unreasonable. I get that you just wanted to vent. I think that the important thing is to identify the pastoral support your colleague probably needs (because it sounds like she's going through something if she's spammed your inbox and called you out of hours for a non urgent query) and less of the disciplinary approach. You probably will need to reiterate escalation procedures team wide (may be adding an out of office for your oncall period also reitierating escalation frameworks and that your emails are not being monitored). Hopefully you get through the day and get to bed early to make up for it.

Someone who has decided to email 50 times, ring the very important OP and is then hysterically for 45 minutes over a routine issue is not having a normal “not understanding professional boundaries” experience, they are having some sort of metal health crisis.

I’m shocked the OP didn’t realise that and I’m shocked she’s not being more empathetic towards someone who was behaving so far outside the realms of normal.

Nah I'm not on call 😅