Ignoring work texts

[quandrea]

I think if you are off work you are under no obligation to respond. This business of being available 24/7 to our work via a phone is ridiculous. Unless he was on call, he was free to do whatever he wanted to with his phone.

 

[Kellykins1218]

So? He has every right to blow it off if he isn't on call.

 

[Hisgirl]

I own my own business so I can't speak for myself but I will for my husband. He values his job and watches as they change how they rank and evaluate workers. He wants to be seen as valuable, and he is.

A couple of years back, they asked him to run a plant in another state for ten months. He drove home (five hours) every weekend. One Sunday, we were heading to a historic theater in a big city to attend a movie premiere and he got a text that there was a big fire at the plant. He instantly left to go to the plant to oversee the situation. I wasn't surprised. He sees his role as part of his identity and it doesn't end Friday at 5pm. Sometimes the boss might send an email on the weekend and ask for some data calculations. It becomes his priority. His name has never been on the chopping block and he gets big bonuses and big raises...every year.

He considers himself blessed to have the work.

 

[ronandannette]

This exactly. But he is nototrious for "not getting" his texts. He blames the phone all the time. We could have used the extra person. But he just blew it off

You're mad at him for not coming in - we get it.

But unless his employment agreement requires him to do so - he was NOT wrong to disregard your attempts to contact him on his time off. If he is REQUIRED to do something different next time, make sure he is clearly instructed when he returns.

 

[Marchand63]

Do you? What are you're reasons if you do? Yesterday my boss and supervisor texted someone to come in and he totally ignored both. I feel like unless you are in a life or death situation you can respond.

What say you?

Not on call. But imo should have answered. We all text so we know he got it. I just think ignoring your boss is rude and unprofessional. But the guys had like 6 jobs in 4 years so it's not surprising

IMO he is under no obligation to respond. It is his day off and he has a right to do what he wants. I don't respond to every text, and if it was important enough - call him. Very judgemental to expect someone to behave like you do.

I am a very professional but do not respond to bosses texts on days off or vacation unless it is a 911 type situation.

 

[tvguy]

As a little side discussion to this, I would say it really depends on the situation. Is this an hourly job we are talking about? Perhaps from a common courtesy, do not upset the apple cart perspective, he should have responded. However, if he was hourly and not on call, I am not sure one should expect a response. Is this a company provided cell phone?

Note: I am not responding to this from my perspective. I do check work emails regularly and even worked some over the holiday weekend as this is a busier time for me. However, I know from supervising hourly employees, who receive overtime, there can be labor laws that do not require hourly people to be tethered to work email/texts during their off hours.

Exactly. When you are off, you are off. My mom was a nurse and when she was on call (she retired in 1985) you got a pager, and you got paid 1/4 your normal hourly rate for every hour you were on call.
At my place, officially they discourage checking work e-mail , but it does benefit the company for those of us who do. I can't imagine coming to work Monday morning if I didn't check my work e-mails over the weekend, I'd have 300+ e-mails to go through otherwise. However, when we had furloughs, remote access to e-mail was locked out, if you had a company cell phone or computer, you had to turn it for the duration of your furlough, and we were forbidden from contacting anyone on furlough. Some sort of legal issue with furloughs and Federal Law.

 

[Poohlove]

Not a group text. I was there when my boss texted him. He could have responded with no I can't I have plans. That's it.

Do you know for a fact that he didn't contact the boss later? And again, it is his day off he is under no obligation to respond to work. I see you are frustrated but different strokes for different folks. I can't tell you how many times I have received a text at a time that just was inappropriate to be texting and later I completely forgot to answer. I don't live and die by my phone.

 

[tzolkin]

My mom was a nurse and when she was on call (she retired in 1985) you got a pager, and you got paid 1/4 your normal hourly rate for every hour you were on call.

OT-- but that's interesting. Everywhere I have seen pays between $2 and $4/hr for being on call. 1/4 of the normal rate would probably make it much easier to get people to volunteer for call coverage.

 

[Poohlove]

I own my own business so I can't speak for myself but I will for my husband. He values his job and watches as they change how they rank and evaluate workers. He wants to be seen as valuable, and he is.

A couple of years back, they asked him to run a plant in another state for ten months. He drove home (five hours) every weekend. One Sunday, we were heading to a historic theater in a big city to attend a movie premiere and he got a text that there was a big fire at the plant. He instantly left to go to the plant to oversee the situation. I wasn't surprised. He sees his role as part of his identity and it doesn't end Friday at 5pm. Sometimes the boss might send an email on the weekend and ask for some data calculations. It becomes his priority. His name has never been on the chopping block and he gets big bonuses and big raises...every year.

He considers himself blessed to have the work.

This is a different scenario though, your husband was the manager it sounds like this guy is in the office pool. Where I work I get the phone calls from the alarm company, etc and am usually the one who goes to the facility when the alarm goes off. I am also a salaried management employee and it comes with the territory. If I were one of the warehouseman or an office worker and I had the day off the last thing I would be doing is checking my phone to see if I am needed at work.

 

[Hisgirl]

This is true.

 

[mom2rtk]

This exactly. But he is nototrious for "not getting" his texts. He blames the phone all the time. We could have used the extra person. But he just blew it off

So maybe from now on if he doesn't reply in X minutes, you just put him down as a no?

This is a whole other discussion if he is on call.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I refuse to respond to texts AND emails when I am off. If I am home with a sick child then I will respond. In any other case, NO.

 

[MIGrandma]

Maybe he truly didn't receive the text. I have had texts, both incoming and outgoing, that never made it to their destination for some reason.

Also, yesterday was Memorial Day, a holiday, maybe he turned his phone off for the day. I know I don't have my phone attached to me 24 hours a day, many times it's not in the same room with me and I wouldn't even hear it go off. If it was me and it was my scheduled day off and I didn't hear a text come in, sorry but I do have a life outside of work. If it was so important that this person should come in on his day off, a phone CALL should have been made, not simply a text.

I remember when I worked (waitress) I was at one time on a work 9 days in a row followed by 1 day off schedule. If my boss called me on my one day off, I generally didn't bother to answer (thank goodness for caller I.D.). She was notorious for guilting you into coming in when she needed someone to cover a shift. I didn't want to deal with that so just didn't answer. She'd get mad when people (it wasn't just me) wouldn't answer her calls, but we found it funny that SHE didn't even have a cell phone, she said she "didn't want to be that accessible." Yet she was the owner of the restaurant. Well, if SHE didn't want to be that accessible, neither did we!

 

[DopeyDame]

Yeah, I don't see why he was required or expected to respond. Clearly, if he could and was willing to come in, he would have responded. It wouldn't have changed anything if he had responded saying he couldn't come in.
You have no idea if or when he got the text and what else he was doing yesterday.
Frankly, barring an emergency, I'd be pretty pissed if my boss called and asked me to come in on a holiday just because they thought they could use a little more help.

 

[IAHFTPT]

Do you? What are you're reasons if you do? Yesterday my boss and supervisor texted someone to come in and he totally ignored both. I feel like unless you are in a life or death situation you can respond.

What say you?

I say yes and have and probably will continue to do so. Unless they were gonna pay me for texting on my day off I'm under no obligation to reply.

 

[Marchand63]

I own my own business so I can't speak for myself but I will for my husband. He values his job and watches as they change how they rank and evaluate workers. He wants to be seen as valuable, and he is.

A couple of years back, they asked him to run a plant in another state for ten months. He drove home (five hours) every weekend. One Sunday, we were heading to a historic theater in a big city to attend a movie premiere and he got a text that there was a big fire at the plant. He instantly left to go to the plant to oversee the situation. I wasn't surprised. He sees his role as part of his identity and it doesn't end Friday at 5pm. Sometimes the boss might send an email on the weekend and ask for some data calculations. It becomes his priority. His name has never been on the chopping block and he gets big bonuses and big raises...every year.

He considers himself blessed to have the work.

Under those circumstances of course you go to work. If I get a text or call that there has been an incident of course I go but barring that I am on my time, nope.

 

[DaisyJ]

Asking someone to come in on a holiday when they are already scheduled off? That would be a big ol' nope. Off the clock means exactly that. Some people aren't attached to their phones.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

A couple of years back, they asked him to run a plant in another state for ten months. He drove home (five hours) every weekend. One Sunday, we were heading to a historic theater in a big city to attend a movie premiere and he got a text that there was a big fire at the plant. He instantly left to go to the plant to oversee the situation. I wasn't surprised. He sees his role as part of his identity and it doesn't end Friday at 5pm.

I think there's a difference between "Hey, I know you are off today, but can you come in?" and "The plant you manage is ON FIRE".

That being said, I have worked on days off, but I knew in advance, and got rewarded for my inconvenience. For example, one year I had to work on the 4th of July to be on call for a customer. I got an extra vacation day to use later in the year.

But to be texted out of the blue and asked to come in to the office? There better be a good reason. And then only if I don't already have plans.

 

[mom2rtk]

Maybe he truly didn't receive the text. I have had texts, both incoming and outgoing, that never made it to their destination for some reason.

That's a fair point. There have been a few times I have gotten a text many hours late, even the next day. Just last week I got a text from a girlfriend asking if I was up. It was 5:50 AM. It was so unusual for her to text at that hour I was alarmed and texted back several times to see what was wrong. Nothing. Turns out she sent it the night before. Oops!

 

[soccerdad72]

I suppose it depends on what the manager's reaction would have been if the person responded to the text, but told them they couldn't come in? If the manager would understand, I would say that the polite thing to do would be to respond back, assuming that they got the text.

But guessing from the OP's continued replies, and response from this person that didn't include them coming in to fill in would have been viewed negatively, so maybe they just decided to ignore the request and avoid having to tell the manager no?