Asking colleagues not to contact me on AL

[Sooverwork]

I’ve name changed for this post. I’m a manager in which I am almost on call 24/7 with no compensation . After 4.5 years I’m exhausted as have no respite. I am going on annual leave for less than 2 weeks . I do all the usual things - delegate work to the alleged 2 “ second in charge “, have an out of office reply on etc . However even with a “ Do Not Disturb” on my phone I still have the second in charge (s) texting me . This happens all the time even if I have a scheduled day off for doctors / elderly parent appt. I can’t go on like this anymore . How do I inform them NOT to contact me on my leave and not sound like a bitch . Please note that I never do this to either of them or any other member of my staff . With these two it’s a bit of a combination of laziness , not wanting to be responsible but for reasons I don’t want to go into I can’t sack or denote either of them . I just need to make it clear that I do not want to be contacted . Sorry for rant !

why do you need to be more polite, that is a perfectly reasonable thing to say.

Make sure you do a proper handover. Make the people you are handing over to make notes and confirm, by email, to you that they have understood your handover notes (that you have given to them by email and in person).

Tell them not to contact you on your private number. Then block all the numbers, and if anything gets through don't answer.

Nobody will die.

Edited for spellling.

I assume the reason they continue to contact you whilst you're away means that in the past you've replied to them? Why?

Just turn your phone off for 2 weeks.

No it isn’t out of my own making . I manage an area where people’s lives are at stake . I have a water tight management plan and a list of xyz / contacts/ contingencies but these 2 still see fit to contact me for the most trivial of things . It doesn’t help that my personal number was published within the entire area and had the resident sleaze calling me until I threatened them with action

Don't do any of the "i need this break" guff that people have suggested.

You are a manager. Manage. Delegate, make sure everyone involved knows who to contact when they would normally contact you. if they are usually asking you stuff when you are there that they should know themselves, they aren't properly trained. Address that too.

I would change my number in this circumstance.

Give out my work number to work colleagues and turn off that phone when on AL.

But it is of your own making because you are not managing them. You’re scared to even be firm and block them.

Send a firm message. Block them on your personal number while you’re on annual leave. You need to toughen up as a manager.

I have a water tight management plan and a list of xyz / contacts/ contingencies but these 2 still see fit to contact me for the most trivial of things

So why do you respond to them?

Smartphones are really clever, you can set all kinds of do not disturb rules and filters so only friends and family can get in touch.

Or you can demand a work phone which you leave at home during annual leave.

Or you can change your personal number.

Or you can ignire them, just stop replying.

So many solutions… it’s really that simple.

My team do the same and my boss gets really cross with me because I am just not tough enough!

You have to be really clear with people and not worry about upsetting them! I’m crap at doing that and I hate being manager anyway so I’m leaving but if you want to keep the job, time for some tough talking and don’t answer any calls!

Not answering calls is not the long term answer though as if you are anything like me, the things I think they could be calling about are normally worse than what it actually is so I talk myself in to panic anyway!

Yep. This is on you, not them.

Absolutely. This entire situation is bonkers.

I can't take
My work phone or laptop out of the country.

Why do they have your personal number and why are you responding?

What sort of issues are they coming to you with?

I'd always turn it back on them to sort and to make it even more work when I get back. So making them write a process/procedure for these issues which you can review with them when you get back. Then make them train everyone up on said process after that.

Do you have a work phone?

I remember locking my work phone in my office drawer and coming back from the USA with a gazillion messages about calling them back, on my home phone, about urgent stuff whilst I was gone. And then having to get to work, charge up the phone to even listen to the actual problem when I got back.

It was indeed quite an important emergency but what I was expected to do about it in whilst I was in the USA I have no idea.

Why are you replying to them? You're not responsible for what happens when you're off duty. They are.

If you tell them not to contact you but then reply when they do, of course they're going to continue contacting you. Stop.

Just block their numbers whenever you’re on annual leave

Yes I agree with @AlisonDonut . They are either doing this because they aren't confident with how to handle certain situations or they are lazy, or possibly a combination of both.

Therefore I would make a huge issue of each occasion they ring. Present them with a list when you come back, for anything already documented you point them to the training manual, for anything not documented get them to write up notes.

If it's mostly documented stuff and it keeps happening, it becomes part of their training plan. If it still keeps happening then they go on a performance improvement plan if managing the place in your absence is one of their objectives.

You basically have to make it less work for them to actually handle situations than it is to escalate to you. You also need to make it clear that provided they follow procedures you will always have their backs and they should still call if they genuinely can't resolve a situation ( purely because of the life or death part).Who knows they may actually grow in confidence through this.

I do set up a DND on my phone , however I don’t think it applies to say an Android user so their messages / calls still manage to get through even if I don’t respond to them. Im
actually fairly tech savvy my job depends on this.

Block the numbers until after your annual leave. Or mute the number and ignore it. Don’t open the messages. Don’t reply.

Maybe take a course for managing skills.

You just have to be firm and have clear boundaries.

I'm in the middle of my A/L, I was a bit stupid in how I planned my A/L for this summer as I was off last week (back Tuesday) then I'm off for most of the b/h week too. So I've had no choice but to quickly check my emails this week to see if there's anything I need to book into my diary for Tuesday (will be too late to do it on Tuesday annoyingly) as I won't be able to book much in for the following week.

Checked my emails/messages and there are emails from work colleagues, who know I'm on annual leave, asking me questions with the expectation I will respond to them! As in they are questions that needed a reply that day.
I've just ignored them, but as a new member of staff it's made me realise that I'm working somewhere with limited boundaries, so I'll have to be firm..

say to them for any things they need to speak to you about have some time set aside when you return and they can bring it up then

Not sure why so many posters are suggesting messing around with two phones. Dual SIM phones have been a thing for many years. Change the private number and shut off work SIM.

What am I missing here? Simply block their numbers for 2 weeks. Are you able to do that?

Yes to everything in the first paragraph . They don’t want to take any responsibility and therefore fallout + extreme laziness for both of them . Importantly one in particular disrespects all boundaries and messages staff on sick leave etc. I’ve reprimanded her on a number of occasions for this . I’ve also told them that occasionally as a manager we don’t always make the right decision , but do what we think is best in that time . During my leave I actually give zero shits about work , my father is dying and I really don’t care about the place burning down in my absence. I just wanted a polite way of wording it but there have been a few nasty responses on here so that’s it from me.

Definitely don't answer. Is there a senior manager above you? Could you ask them or HR to send out a general "please don't contact colleagues when they're on annual leave" type email?
Or if not I think a polite email to your team along the same lines "I will be on annual leave until x date, I'm really looking forward to having a break so please see me about any issues before I go because I won't be replying to messages when I'm off" can't offend anyone really