Avoiding phone calls from your boss

[Darcy03231]

I don't think its acceptable to ignore the calls. I think it is acceptable to say that you're very sorry but you made plans for the day and can't cover the shift.

 

[hereyago]

I would say the right thing to do is to respond, even if just to say "I'm sorry, I can't come in." Wish you could, but you can't.

Now if the boss is the type to never have adequate coverage in such situations and rely on the kindness (or spinelessness) of people to give up their days off regularly, then I can see ignoring the first couple of attempts in hope that he'd find somebody else.

But if he's left multiple messages and/or texts, it's wise to respond.

However, maybe that this person may be out of town, at a dr.s appointment or the like? they may have the phone on vibrate and not able to check?

I used to do retail and hotel hospitality. but you know if you are the boss, sometimes you have to do what you need to do, so if it means people can't come or have lives to where they aren't at their phones, you have to fill that position even if it means you have to put your plans on hold.
OP:
Is this assistant manager someone who has done this before? or not really fulfilled their duties in every day work situations?

 

[Scurvy]

Personally, I think that if you know the manager is trying to get in touch with you then the professional thing would be to answer the phone or to call back as soon as possible. However, I can think of lots of reasons why someone might be away from their phone or without a signal on their day off, so they wouldn't even know they were missing calls. They could be out fishing or hiking, or having a spa day, or sitting through several movies in a theater, or meeting with their kids' teachers . . . or lots of other things. If I knew for a fact that they were intentionally ignoring their ringing phone it would affect my impression of them. Otherwise I would just assume they couldn't take the calls and they would get in touch when they realized they had missed them.

 

[lillygator]

I would at least respond, even if you can't come in, that way they'd know...and wow, way to be a team player. Do you just not want to go in?

 

[Mickey527]

Definately not acceptable to avoid the calls, but it is acceptabele to say no you can't come in to work.
I had a boss once who called me to work a shift when one of the other nurses had called out. There were 8 other women who worked there but she called me to cover and I had made other plans, something liike going out to dinner or a party.
The next day I was scheduled she was waiting for me with a warning for not coming in when she needed me. You can bet I took that right to HR and got it tossed off my record. A few months later the boss was not given tenure and let go... She never called any of the other nurses, and none of them got a warning either. She wound uop having to cover the shift herself.

 

[leight]

My question to you, OP, would be is the assistant the type whose cell phone is hot glued to their hand? Do they use it incessantly? Were the calls within a short period of time that the phone may have been shut off- like for a movie or appt? Is it a work issued phone? Dh has one that is turned off as soon as he walks in the door and all weekend so he would never be reachable via that work phone.

I have a cell phone- it is for my convenience but I had texting blocked because I didn't use it but was getting nonsensical texts from my supervisor that I had to pay for. I rarely have my phone on anything but vibrate when I am at home or out with Dh & the kids. I do however have a home phone so my sup would have another phone to reach me on and has done so.

My point is that some people live on their phone and would probably be actively ignoring you but someone like me who checks their phone only a couple of times a day, may not even be aware of the calls.

 

[sam_gordon]

1) Unless you are "on call" or otherwise willing to drop whatever you are doing and solve a problem, let the phone go to VM.
2) Check the VM as soon as you can. Hopefully whoever called left a message on what the problem is ("Where's the file?", "How do I print?", "Can you come in?").
3) Once you know the question, you can decide how quick to call back. If it's something like 'where's the file?' or something that can be handled over the phone, call back as soon as possible (even if it means stepping out of the movie). If it's a "can you come in?", it's decision time. How important is what you're doing vs. helping the boss out of a jam.
4) I'd call back within an hour, even if I can't help. "My phone was on charge & vibrate, didn't hear it". Usually a problem will be handled in an hour. The main question is whether you want to be a part of the solution (which could benefit you down the road) or not.

My story... I (and two others) were trained on (very) technical piece of equipment. I was the "lead" operator you can say (knew it inside/out, fastest to operate, etc). Got tired of it, and requested and approved a transfer to another department in the same company that didn't have that equipment as part of my responsibilities. Fast forward 6 months.

On a Saturday, they need someone to operate this equipment in an emergency (no, it's not something you can talk someone through). They called the two people remaining in that depatment. Neither is available. They call me. It was DD's 4th Bday party. Family is all in, we're discussing what to have for dinner. I tell them 'no, my boss needs to approve the overtime.' 30 minutes later the GM calls me. He tells me he understands my family is in town, but they REALLY need me. So I go in. NOT happy.

On Monday I go talk to the GM and he repeatedly apologizes, AND gives me a $50 Gift Card to a local restaurant to take my wife out (on top of the OT I got for working). He said this would never happen again.

Turns out one of the other operators ducked the calls. I made points with the higher ups, he lost points.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Yes, it's acceptable. It's your day off.

 

[DaisyLynn]

In response to the pp, yes this person is always on top of all things phone, ie calls, texts, Facebook updates, etc.

No, this person has never not responded before...but has shown signs of not being a "team player".

I personally find it completely unacceptable to not respond, but can not assume that this person knows of these attempts of contact until actually hearing from them. It just made me shrug and got to thinking that I would never not respond to my boss if he were trying to get in touch. I value my job too much. I see that I am not in the minority here, which is definitely a good thing.

 

[LilyWDW]

Definately not acceptable to avoid the calls, but it is acceptabele to say no you can't come in to work.
I had a boss once who called me to work a shift when one of the other nurses had called out. There were 8 other women who worked there but she called me to cover and I had made other plans, something liike going out to dinner or a party.
The next day I was scheduled she was waiting for me with a warning for not coming in when she needed me. You can bet I took that right to HR and got it tossed off my record. A few months later the boss was not given tenure and let go... She never called any of the other nurses, and none of them got a warning either. She wound uop having to cover the shift herself.

Ugh, I had a situation like this when I was a retail assistant manager.

We had a manager from another store covering because I was out of town and another manager had a personal emergency. This was approved by our regional manager by the way so it wasn't like I just decided to leave town. I had left the night before and was staying the whole weekend at a friend's house with my boyfriend.

Anyway, that morning I get a call from the covering manager. Seems our opening associate called out sick. Now, she asked me to come in. I said, I can't, I am out of town (which, again, was approved and known). She kept begging and pleading because she had no one that could come in for about an 45 minutes... and I said there was simply nothing I could do, I am out of town.

Well, she called and complained to the regional manager. She then called me back and said "I talked to 'Sue' and she said as a manager you HAVE to be available at all times if you are needed." I said oh really...

Here is what I told her (in general):

"I am out of town. This was approved by the store manager and by the regional manager. I am not required to be on call as that is not part of my job. If I was in town I would be happy to help out, but by the time I could get back, everything would be covered. The soonest I could leave here would be in about 30 minutes, then I would have an hour and a half drive to drop my boyfriend off. Then 30 minutes to get to my house, get my stuff, and leave to head to the store. Then a 45 minute to get there. So, the soonest I could get there would be in 3 hours and 15 minutes, which I am not doing. I think you will have to go with the one who can get there in 45 minutes."

She wanted me to come in when it would take me over 3 hours to get there when she had someone who could get there in 45 minutes. 45 minutes was only HALF the main drive back!

Yea, never heard about it again and it was never put into my file. However, this was not the first or last time this sort of junk happened. It was as if they called me before anyone else no matter what happened. They even once tried to ask me to come in when I was 8 hours away (though I forgave him because it was an insane situation and he didn't have much management experience and was following the suggestion of another manager (who also knew I was out of town btw)... and as soon as he asked he remembered I was away for a wedding. We had a good laugh over that one.)

I got away from that job as soon as I could.

 

[RachaelA]

When I worked in retail, I hated when people didn't answer. I get its your day off, but answer your phone. If you are busy, fine just let me know. I can't tell you how many times I had someone call out at 5 freaking am and no one will answer their phone. I get that its early, but be a team player ESPECIALLY when you are a manager. No you don't have to come in EVERY time, but you can at least say no sorry I can't come in.

Let's just say come review time, the store manager at my job would have not given you a good review if you never answered your phone.

I can't tell you how many times I was called on my days off at 5am and I still came in.

 

[mamacatnv]

Depends: I need more information

If this was a common occurrence and I received a lot of distress calls on my days off or vacations then I would be more inclined to not respond. Sometimes, bosses need to learn to handle their own emergencies.

If this was an unusual occurrence, depending on the working relationship I might let it go to voice mail, listen and then respond accordingly.

The tricky part is that once you respond then you are in a situation of directly giving your boss an answer.

I have worked with bosses that have no respect for anyones time off and will call for the stupidest things and those are the ones I learned quickly to ignore.

I have also worked for bosses that unless it was a dire emergency truly respected my time off, not only would I respond asap I would also be inclined to come in since it obviously is urgent.

 

[tvguy]

My wife and I both have jobs where we are basically on call 24/7 365, and we're not managers. We always return the calls as soon as we get the message, and if we can't come in, we tell them so. Truth is always the best policy, but both our work places have a habit of calling on Saturday, on weekends where we headed out of town on Friday, and didn't get back and get the message until Sunday night, we even call back then. And one thing, neither of our employers has our cell phone numbers, just our home number.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Professional courtesy does not require that you cancel your plans for someone else, but it does require that you respond if you get the message. To do less is unacceptable, especially for someone in a management position. It might not be an offense that would get one fired, but it would certainly demonstrate a character trait that might prevent future promotion.

 

[hereyago]

I have worked with bosses that have no respect for anyones time off and will call for the stupidest things and those are the ones I learned quickly to ignore.

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This reminds me of one of my bosses: years ago I was an hourly employee, little team player, i was his go to girl for stuff,he had a guy assitant for maintenenance, but it just covered one area. he really didn't want to be boss but his boss quit suddenly. anyway, I had a pager while at work, I didnt take it home with me. and I had a walkie talkie, so there was no escape lol.

I worked all the holidays, summer time worked 2 pm to 11, help clean rooms that the cleaning company missed. doing what I needed to to help. I accrued a month's worth of vacation/days off from regular vacation time, holidays that I worked I chose days off instead of extra pay, christmas bonus days off. but i had to take them before a year lapsed and I couldn't take those days of during tourist season.


So I made up a schedule of the things I did every day,etc. and gave them to my co worker-who would cover me on my regular days off ,but if i was there she didn't mess with my duties and she didnt have many duties. so, I gave a copy to my boss, his boss and my co worker.

A couple days into my European bus tour trip. I call home. DF says your boss called and wants you to call him back about a lost and found item. now I wasn't about to call him back, 1) time difference 2) i was on a bus tour so i couldn't just say hey pull over so I can make a phone call, 3) my lost and found closet and log book were very organized, if you don't see it , it's not there. 4) i knew I wouldn't be reimbursed for a phone call and if i talked to him, he loved to talk.

I did fax him and say: if it's not in my log book, it's not there. i also explained nicely that I am on vacation and I won't be calling home every day.

I get home from vacation: my coworker leaves message: can you come back when you get home because I don't want to do all this

My boss calls and leaves message, not sure when you are coming home, but can you come back early, D is messing up stuff and not doing stuff i didn't call him back because he was the boss, he should have managed his workers.

I get back and my stuff is a hot mess and it made no sense. then the start of tourist season began

I will say that I don't think my boss was being disrespectful, he just wasn't really a common sense person. I had always been there for him, he had my co worker D was not really self motivated and I am surprsed they didn't kill each other before I got back.

I could drive him crazy as he would for me, but it was our thing. I would take "his" truck on sundays while he was at church, he would come back and say could you bring the truck back now? it wasn't really his official truck, he didn't want to drive his car. but i tell you that truck had to be replaced with a stick shift and he taught me how to drive the new one. I miss him, he passed away 2 years ago.
I

 

[arminnie]

No it is not acceptable to ignore those calls. A responsible person would at least give their boss the courtesy of answering the phone.

It is totally acceptable to ignore the messages. And I've been manager of worldwide operations for a major corporation that could not tolerate even 2 seconds of downtime. We could go YEARS without any downtime because we planned extremely well.

A competent manager will have pre-planned backup arrangements. If that involves the assitant manager being on call that should have been directly specified.

I managed ATM and credit card terminals where uptime is absolutely mandatory. I totally ignored messages from one co-worker (peer not boss) who loved to call me repeatedly on weekends where she knew I had plans. She used to leave messages like "call me the minute you get in" - so I would at 3 am. (hours after the message) The problem had always been resolved (wasn't part of my group's responsiblities anyway or I would have been called not her).

Don't let anyone make you feel guilty. I have worked more overtime in the middle of the night than I thought possible and have never shirked my responsibilities - but I also knew when to draw the line or I'd have been working 24/7 all the time.

I turn my phone off in many situations - movie, theatre, doctor, lunch with friends, etc. If I haven't specifically agreed to be on call then I'm not. I was very, very successful in my career because of what I accomplished not because I let myself get walked all over.

 

[lpereira]

In the normal course of business it is common courtesy to answer your bosses calls. However i once had a regional manager who decided that if you answered a call and declined to come in to work he would dock you a tenth of a point on your yearly evaluation for each occurrence. If you didn't get the call you didn't get docked. This is on a 24/48 ambulance work schedule so either way you are committing yourself to work 48 hours in a row on an ambulance. Not going to happen. Now if it was a shift supervisor i liked making the call i still wouldn't answer but i would call around and see if someone would some the shift with me but not until i had te other person on three way toclaim their half.

 

[bumbershoot]

In response to the pp, yes this person is always on top of all things phone, ie calls, texts, Facebook updates, etc.

No, this person has never not responded before...but has shown signs of not being a "team player".

I personally find it completely unacceptable to not respond, but can not assume that this person knows of these attempts of contact until actually hearing from them. It just made me shrug and got to thinking that I would never not respond to my boss if he were trying to get in touch. I value my job too much. I see that I am not in the minority here, which is definitely a good thing.

So they are normally responsible about this stuff.

And today is an anomaly.

I would go with...you don't know if they got the messages and are ignoring them, or if they just don't know about them. The messages are out there, waiting, and they will either get them and respond at some point, or continue to ignore.

Since they are responsible normally, I would give them the benefit of the doubt, and not just decide that they are ignoring you.


I've missed calls ALL day while at home in a relatively small condo b/c I managed to put my cellphone on mute then left it in the bedroom while DS did homeschool and I surfed and cleaned and whatnot in the rest of the place. I wasn't ignoring them, I just didn't know anything about them.

 

[Angelhalo]

So are you saying that it is acceptable to not respond?

Of course it is acceptable not to respond. As long as you aren't doing it on purpose. Maybe the employee is nowhere near the phone. Maybe the phone died. Maybe they have their own emergency going on. Who knows what their story is. If they have something else going on and don't even know they are being called, then they should not be expected to answer their phone. The boss needs to have a backup plan.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

Professional courtesy does not require that you cancel your plans for someone else, but it does require that you respond if you get the message. To do less is unacceptable, especially for someone in a management position. It might not be an offense that would get one fired, but it would certainly demonstrate a character trait that might prevent future promotion.

I completely agree - it speaks to an employee's work ethic, character etc.

There are always reasons you might not answer EVERY call - out of town, at the movies, etc. But if someone NEVER answers on their off day - bye bye!