It’s Saturday night and you’re out with your friends when your phone rings… and it’s your boss. What do you do in this situation?
Personally, I’d silence the notification and worry about it on Monday morning, but recently u/shameoutrageous2169 took a different path. They wrote, “The Boss Lady called on Saturday night around 9 p.m. while I was out with a group of friends. She had issues with some files and needed help. I told her I wasn’t home, have no access to a computer to review the files, and I was also too drunk to help her with it and she hung up.”
And unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. They went on to say, “Just saw an email she sent soon after she hung up. Basically, she told me I was highly unprofessional and we will have a meeting about this on Monday. This is not a job that requires me to be on-call, nor was a request ever sent to me that I may need to do work on the weekend. Seriously, WTF? Monday is going to be fun!”
In an edit, the user added, “I was DRUNK, so normal social filter went out the window three old fashioneds ago. She also called my personal cell, not my work phone. I was not on call, and I was not driving. I am not some young kid who has no work or life experience.”
In the comments, people were quick to point out that the “Boss Lady’s” behavior wasn’t exactly professionalism at its finest. One user wrote, “It’s unprofessional to expect everyone to be at your beck and call 24/7. Unless you’re a first responder, and that still takes a state of emergency.”
And lots of folks agreed with me that it’s best to simply not pick up work calls when you’re on a good one. “Next time don’t answer calls when you are partying. It’s not your fault but this situation sucks,” one user replied.
Others shared how they handled similar situations in the past, like this person who wrote, “I had a boss who used to call me during my off hours. Next time I submitted payroll, I included those after hour work calls. Guess what? He never called me outside of work again.”
And there was plenty of advice in the thread that would almost certainly make an entitled boss’s head explode (but it could definitely also cost someone their job). One person suggested, “Just start the meeting by saying, ‘I’m so happy you wanted to set up this meeting to apologize for calling me on my personal number when I’m never supposed to be working on the weekend. It shows a lot of professionalism on your part that you recognized your lapse in judgment.'”
While others offered more practical (but far less funny) advice. One person wrote, “Despite what nearly everyone on this thread is telling you, don’t go into that meeting with guns blazing on Monday. ‘Hey, sorry I’m not available to help on weekends. I’m sure you were under some serious pressure or you wouldn’t have called me because I know you really want your employees to have a work/life balance. I’ve already taken a look at those files and everything checks out on my end. How else can I help?’ All I’m saying is, unless you have another job lined up, you need to be a bit delicate here. Once you’ve secured a new role, you can rip your boss a new one in the exit interview.”
And another person suggested a more proactive approach, writing, “Can you get out ahead of it by sending an email asking her to clarify expectations on your availability outside of business hours? You could phrase this in a non-threatening way like you’re legit seeking to understand the organization/culture to avoid future misalignment. I feel like that would make you look solution-oriented and force a written response from her. Get as much in writing as possible.”
And others suggested that this could be the perfect time to start looking for a new job. One person wrote, “The proper response is to get your résumé out there. In the future, block her number after work hours until you find a better job.”
Thankfully, the OP shared an update to let us all know how Monday morning went, and they also added some important context. They wrote, “I have been with this company for the past 12 years and personally manage a team of 16 people. The Boss Lady and I do hang out outside work after-hours and sometimes on the weekends with other team members, and I have personally driven her home after she had a few too many to drink… I was out on Saturday to celebrate a very close friend’s engagement, and the Boss Lady is very much aware of this.”
Here’s how Monday morning went down. “I got to the office at 7:30 a.m. and waited for her. She strolled in a quarter after 8 a.m. I knocked on her door and asked her what she wanted on Saturday night and if there was an issue, why not call the three guys who were on call that weekend? Apparently, her boss called her to update an account, but she has no idea how to navigate the new system and didn’t feel comfortable calling other employees to fix the issue for her because it’s all about the optics for her. I asked her what time she would like to have this meeting about my ‘unprofessionalism’ because I can get HR to sit in on this at 10 a.m. or 2 p.m.”
“She quickly said that was just a ‘joke,’ and she knew I was out with friends and didn’t know I would be so upset with her ‘joke’ and I was reading too much into the email. Since I am not in the mood to rock the boat, I let it go. Unfortunately, I will have to keep entertaining the BossLady’s mood and inability to do her own work as she is the CEO’s BFF.”
So the story has a somewhat happy ending (although TBH, I don’t think it’s very cool at all to “joke” about disciplining an employee), and I hope the OP will think twice in the future before answering their phone on a night out. What’s your opinion on the situation? Have you ever had a boss who behaved like this? Let’s talk about it in the comments!
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/meganeliscomb/weekend-work-calls-unprofessional
