I received a long e-mail message from my boss, asking me to prepare a list of who, out of my three students, will be handling a number of tasks while I am away.
I dislike when my manager gets in this mode. He only asks this task from me. It does not happen to anyone else on the team.
The kicker is this last request:
In case of emergency, how to contact you with a minimum (not maximum) 24-hour response time.What? I am on vacation. There is a reason why I am on vacation. I am not doing work.
I don't think that the mandatory course that we all took about work-life balance has properly register in his head. As someone who has worked from home for years, I am pretty good at distinguishing between doing work and then stopping to focus on my life.
How would you handle such a request? I am inclined to say that I am on vacation. I need to de-stress and recharge. Being contacted by my manager on vacation is not ideal. I should not be checking work e-mail or picking up work calls.
Last September, I took a Friday off as a vacation day. A contractor had quit after three days. My manager sent me two e-mails about this contractor's departure and then left me a voice message on my home phone. To me, this situation is not an emergency that warrants contacting me at home. I foresee a repeat, but amplified in a negative way.
Good gravy, CB...your manager is a piece of work. I would simply tell him that I'm going to be out of the country and am not enabling my phone for international travel as I want to totally disconnect and really enjoy the experience. Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteHugs and blessings...Cat
Thanks for your thoughts, Cat. They mean a ton! He is certainly something. He still feels that calling me about the contractor was an emergency. What am I supposed to do with that news? It's not like I can do anything.
DeleteHe told me today that I need to consider providing him with an emergency number, which I shot down. I told him that I will be unplugged from technology and that my health is far more important.
He even had the nerve to compare providing him with a contact number to be similar to my parents contacting me in case of an emergency. I flat out told him that he wasn't my father. Ugh!