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Ring ring! Here's me on your off day!
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I work part time hours, four days a week, always same days. It's stated in my work contract.

My boss is generally great. For example, she checks in about our workload and if it's too much, we agree on what to drop. She also understands that we all have a life besides the job. For example, I once had won opera tickets for the next week, and it was busy as hell at work. Nevertheless, she encouraged me to go and rearranged the schedule.

What she does not understand is that I never work for free. Don't check e-mails on my days off, don't answer quick questions etc. If there's an actual emergency (like if a patient of mine has gone suicidal), it's different, but in general, when I'm off, i'm off.

So, I have been working there for a month or so. It's my day off and my phone rings, it's my boss. I scramble to pick up, ask what happened. Turns out: nothing special, she just had the time to review some paperwork I had submitted and wanted to clarify a few details. Says herself that she knows I'm off and it probably could wait for Monday, but she would love to get it off her desk today, so maybe I could take a quick minute? I told her that yes, the info is correct, but to please not call me again on my day off unless it's both urgent and important. She apologised and said that of course, days off are off.

A few weeks later, my phone rings, it's boss. I scramble. Well, it's nothing special again, she just wanted to tell me that my requested vacation days for next year work fine and are hereby approved. Could've written an e-mail or waited for the next business day, but she thought a call was quicker, and since it's something positive for me, I surely wouldn't mind. I told her: No you're right, of course I don't mind, thank you for the info!

Then I waited for the right moment.

Well, two or so weeks after that, she asked the whole team during the team meeting if there are a few more people who could come work on a day between two holidays (when most would take the one day off and get three free days in a row), told us all to check our calendars and next team meeting, we would regroup and see if we have enough volunteers. I remembered the issue during breakfast with my boyfriend on Sunday, asked him about that date and turns out he was scheduled to work, so I thought you know what, I can work too if we can't do anything special over those days anyway.

And of course it could have waited until Monday or until our team meeting, and I could also have written a quick message if I wanted to get it out of my head, but I decided to call. My boss answered pretty much immediately and sounded a bit panicked when she asked what happened. So I told her "Oh nothing special, I was just talking with my boyfriend about day X and we have no plans, so I can come work". She went "Really? I thought something bad happened! Why do you call me on a Sunday for this? It could have waited!" and I sweetly answered "Yes I know that it's your day off, but since it's just a quick info, and it's also a good thing, you wouldn't mind a short call". She just said "Thank you. But next time, please wait for Monday".

After that, she never called on my day off again, any now I've been working there for two years.

Comments
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True. Can't have everything, I guess.

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Even at a place you volunteered at? Like, you were working for free and she decided to inconvenience you multiple times? Why?!?!

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Very petty! I love it!

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Wow, that's even worse than my situation was... Being disturbed in your free time is one thing, being woken up is entirely another...

I' surprised that you didn't simply put your phone on silent, though.

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That perspective is valid! Doesn't work for everyone, though.

First of all, only if it does not get abused.

Second, if the workload is not too much in general. Like if you work relatively few hours sometimes so that you get to decompress, then yeah, a phone call after hours is no problem. But if you work a lot of hours for weeks on end, then you desperately need to really plug off. If you're "on call", you will need a lot more time to truly relax and be ready to work again, so no problem if you don't work a lot, huge problem if you do. And trust me, this is a thing people underestimate. I often have patients with burnout symptoms and it's 70% the same old story, namely the one you're telling, but with a 40h hour week.

Third, depends on your preferences, personality etc. When I was in uni, I thought I could sometimes take a weekday off and then study on the weekend. And this, again, worked when the workload was low and I knew I would be able to complete my stuff in X hours- then it was no problem to say "oh I want to go to the lake with my friends the whole Thursday, I'll just take Sunday to summarise my material and do the assigned reading". But if a deadline was looming, I would usually end up working/studying both days, or if I carved out Thursday to study on Sunday, I would have a bad conscience the whole Thursday and wouldn't even have that much fun at the lake. So when I started to work, I knew that I had to make my system relatively rigid, and so far it worked really well.

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No, I don't expect special treatment. I just expect to get paid for work.

Personal favours are exactly that, personal favours, given freely. Just like me working a day when she needs more people.

If you think putting up healthy boundaries means burning a bridge, you've been groomed by capitalist propaganda. Let me guess, you're from the US?

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Yeah definitely! As I said, she's a really good boss. She's also human, so of course not perfect, as are all her colleagues, including me.

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Me pointing out the flaws in your opinion is not getting angry, nor is it insulting. Feel free to cite my supposed insult.

And about burning bridges: My boss gave my a nice bonus for my excellent work this year, along with a heartfelt speech about how valuable my contributions were.

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1 month ago