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 agree with @Heronwatcher - the on-call procedure doesn't sound fit for purpose. It leaves junior staff to determine whether or not a matter is urgent enough to warrant a phone call when they might not feel able to make that decision themselves. You may have known this matter could have awaited today but clearly the junior member of staff didn't and it must have been alarming to feel that she was emailing into a complete void. You were on call. She sent you a great many emails before calling you - she was obviously trying to avoid having to call you but her emails were going unanswered because, despite there allegedly being on call arrangements, there was apparently no-one there to help her deal with whatever the problem was. She must have been really worried about calling you so late at night but she obviously felt she had no option. So yes - I really think this is on your business and on your procedures. Frankly, I think it's unacceptable that a junior member of staff was left unsupported to deal with things over the bank holiday weekend with the person allegedly on call ignoring her increasingly desperate cries for help. As a previous poster said - how long would it have taken you to check an email and tell her the matter could wait until Tuesday.

It suggests that the weekly email has become so monotonous that it is just ignored as if it were spam, probably like equally repetitive emails about the fire alarm being tested every single Friday or the monthly reminder form HR to book holiday on the system.

Just sending out the same message over and over again is not a good way to communicate, especially if action is reliant on it. It's just ticking a box and walking away.

If you are confident you’ve done everything according to procedure (and are comfortable with that procedure) then what are you actually asking?

I don’t think it’s clear why the colleague was so upset/agitated. Did they explain? You’ve said it was a minor issue but presumably they didn’t feel the same, is it reasonable that they were more worried because they have less experience?

Tbh your updates paint a completely different picture so I’d say YANBU based on that. Except that they make it sound so cut and dried that I can’t believe someone as senior as you say you are (the equivalent responsibility of SCS3 wouldn’t really even exist in most businesses) would need to come onto MN and post about it!

Edit - I also agree the on call procedure doesn’t seem fit for purpose - it puts far too much on the junior on-call person and too little on the senior - I realise this person wasn’t on call but the “you can call me but only if it’s life or death” structure would be incredibly off putting.

Forget it, I see the OP put further information on a few subsequent posts. 🙄

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YAB (a bit) U to start a thread about something you seem to feel is abundantly clear and not really up for discussion.

YABU not to consider if the person emailing & calling is/was ok - as others have said it sounds like they were having an extreme panic over something and need some support from their supervisor.

I hope you can all resolve it rationally, and with some empathy and understanding (from all sides) today

Good job the disciplinary investigation would reveal that op did nothing wrong

I would have been polite and said let me read the first email and call you back. That would have given the caller time to calm down.

Would have read the email, called back presented solution and ended call.

Would have contacted HR today explaining the numerous emails and state of mind of the employee.

But that's just me

Exactly - mistakes were made, but not by me!

You sound like quite a cold fish. I’d be more worried and concerned about my colleague than whether or not I’d followed procedures correctly.

What I don't understand is how a quick phone call at 10:30 pm meant the op got no sleep. Odd.

Not surprised - who wants to listen to someone blubbing at the end of a phone on a non urgent matter at 10:30pm?

OP was on-call for urgent work related matters that needed attention then and there, not someone apparently having a MH crisis who thinks being on-call means that OP is the Samaritans

Quite. None of it makes much sense

Frankly the response from the line manager is appalling and needs to be dealt with. It’s a line manger’s job to ensure work is allocated appropriately and to ensure the welfare of direct reports. If this staff member has got into such a tizz that they call someone so much more senior in hysterics over something so simple then they clearly don’t understand procedure (line manager problem to sort) and shouldn’t have been entrusted with that work (line manager problem to sort). It’s also entirely inappropriate for the line manager to declare it not unreasonable for one of their direct reports to deviate from procedure so drastically. I couldn’t fathom taking that stance if my direct report had acted like that.

How is the better part of an hours phone call a "quick call"??

then there is paperwork to fill in about it and winding down etc. OP gets up at 4am so yes, she could have grabbed a couple of hours sleep, but obviously didnt.

But the "junior" member of staff according to op is up to deputy director level. Depends on the organisation but presumably someone with enough sense and knowledge to filter things coming in out of hours.
Clearly the person panicked for whatever reason and should have contacted the "junior " oncall but didn't and rang op. I would have calmed them down told them i would check and if needed action anything and to "leave it with me" and just dealt with it in the morning

It makes sense with this post

You are the senior person on duty and the junior person should have heard from the caller first and passed it on to you

The caller missed out the step of contacting the junior entirely

My suspicion is that the caller made a mistake and was trying to fix it without involving anyone else. Or she hasn't understood the procedures. Clearly, she's having a panic about something and if you can't see what it is, it's possible that's because she's not communicating clearly what it is - because she's in fear of something

I hope you get it sorted, but I'm not sure why you're posting

You can't get into trouble you haven't done anything wrong

You are senior enough that you might have to deal with this kind of thing sometimes

I once worked in a system where we would be given the name of a senior official and how to contact them out of hours. This was before email. Obviously it was not the same person every evening and/or weekend. They took turns. So I am assuming its part of your job description to be "on call" on some kind of rota. That being so, I would have checked my emails and/or texts a couple of times a day to see if there was anything urgent. If I was not on call I would leave it until the working week as I dont believe in the culture of being available 24/7 unless you are paid for it.

Having said that an adult person does not send 50 emails. They may send 2 or marked URGENT and then try some other means of communication.

@Dery please read all OPs posts. Just because the on call person is a 'junior' does not make them incapable. I wasn't a manager but I was on call regularly for a local authority. The decisions I made were ones that I made within working hours too. The OP doesn't expect to be routinely called because the on call person should be able to deal with 99.9% of calls. Furthermore the caller never followed procedure to contact the actual on call employee, and shouldn't have been working.

You do understand an 'on call' concept, right? They must be able to contact you and hear from you 'oh, this is unimportant, forget about it for the duration of the week-end'. YABVU

I don't know about a private company, but an NHS consultant, when on call, will stop playing golf (joke) and attend a boil on the bum, if asked by a junior.

OP you're obviously totally reasonable but you're now going to get infinity cancel the cheque responses asking why you didn't check your emails.

Junior to the OP. Not junior in the overall hierarchy.

When I was the manager on call, I was the "first on call" as a Team Manager but I was junior on call to a Head of Service.

You were on call, it was a bank holiday weekend which meant the distress your colleague was facing was increased at the thought that nothing would be dealt with until Tuesday. I think your response was mean spirited, you could probably have resolved the issue in minutes by responding to the emails.

Read the OPs updates - that wasn't her job.
I literally predicted this two posts above yours though.

@ThisTimeWillBeDifferent yes, I agree. It's made me quite concerned about the level of support this colleague who rang me gets in her day job. Because, surely if she is adequately supported in her day job, she would never have gotten into such a state?

But I also have to confess, until last night I had never spoken or even interacted with her so I was quite thrown by the whole thing. She's not in my 'business' area so our paths have never crossed. Me getting further involved would do no one any good, and of course for all I know there is more background than I am (rightly) aware of.