How would you advise DS to respond to this?

[Soreteatowel]

He has a junior management post for a chain of coffee shops you'll have heard of.

Possibly related (or not) to a grievance DS raised, after getting bombarded by up to 40 messages a day on his days off, the area manager devoted this week's weekly meeting (on Tues) to telling all staff that when they're not working, they're not working and shouldn't respond to messages.

Yesterday the same manager has put a message in their group chat about a product recall. It was posted at 3:30, DS finished work at 3pm and is not on duty again until Sunday.

So, in line with instructions, DS has not opened or responded to the message (just seen it in preview).

There are now 3 messages in the group chat, for all to see, chastising DS for not responding.

He's already applying for other jobs, but what does he do for now?

I've said nothing now, but reply as soon as he's back at work to say, good morning, didn't see it as not checking messages when not on shift, in line with the directive on x date, but Fred picked it up in my absence (assuming he did, DS doesn't know, but he should have)

Is that OK? If it was me in my current role, I'd probably check that Fred was on it, but in view iif the way he's been treated since he raised the grievance, the public chastisement over this matter and the directive only this week, I wouldn't be inclined to. But is that being difficult for difficult's sake?

I've said nothing now, but reply as soon as he's back at work to say, good morning, didn't see it as not checking messages when not on shift, in line with the directive on x date, but Fred picked it up in my absence (assuming he did, DS doesn't know, but he should have)

And then draw this latest behaviour to the area manager's attention, or whoever's responsible for dealing with the grievance.

Whilst the forty messages on his day off is clearly over the top, I think not responding to an important message such as product recall perhaps shows your son is not really cut out for the responsibility of management, which sometimes does require five minutes of extra time. Anyway to your question, no I would not send the bit about “in line with the directive”, maybe just say “I was offline” and no more.

It is the Area Manager who's chasing him, sorry if I wasn't clear.

He works in a coffee shop, he's not CEO at Amazon.

I don't think work messages should be sent on peoples personal devices at all, but I guess they don't have laptops at a coffee shop. Sadly the days are gone when people could say/pretend their devices weren't modern enough to receive this spam.

If I was DS in conjunction with continuing to ignore messages outside of working hours - is it possible to put an out of hours message on whatsapp or similar? - I'd be looking for another job.

Yes, he works in a coffee shop, but he'd still like to progress and wants to be professional.

He is looking for another job, as I said in OP

40 messages a day on his day off is unreasonable. Giving a thumbs up to a message about a product recall (which he obviously read as he knew what it was about) just to acknowledge you have seen it seems reasonable to expect of a manager.

Good lord unless your ds is the owner of the business and it is on fire, sending 40 messages on someone’s day off is disgusting.
At least he has looking for another job.
I think your advice is good.
Hope he finds another job soon.

"I am on my day off. As per the meeting with our area manager, I will not be responding until I am next scheduled to work. Please do not contact me again until this time".

Who has chastised him? Who else has responded in the group chat? Although I would think there are many messages you can ignore whilst not at work, if I had some sort of management role I would check that action had been taken in respect of product recall in the coffee shop I was responsible for.

He may be a junior manager but I'm guessing his salary won't be much above minimum wage. Do we honesty expect someone on low wages to be contactable 24/7 ?

And no it's not a question of a simple thumbs up. The area manager- the same one who told him not to pick up messages when not working- presumably sent this message so it could be communicated to the shop, so at the very least the DS would then need to send another message.

This is good advice and a good message.
Why would he need to act in a product recall on his days off? Presumably there are staff working with the capability to find a product and remove it from the shelves? If not then there are bigger problems at the workplace than WhatsApp

The expectation that someone attends to work stuff outside of works hours only benefits the massive companies making millions and paying people peanuts. We have been brainwashed to believe that the word 'manager' means something special that means you should be expected to work for free. He's right to ignore it. He's been told to ignore it!

I agree with not responding until he's back in work, and then send a message as you've suggested but I would add "I mute my work group chats when not in work"

Oh sorry, I misunderstood you.

That's really disappointing and extremely unprofessional of them.

It sounds like he's better off out of there.