Your day off.

[Chippy_Tea]

How do companies get away with this, it has been discussed on 5 live before and its not as uncommon as i would have thought thank god we have a union.

We have work phones but its not compulsory to answer them on days off.

"voluntary mandatory"

"Go Team" - Go **** Yourself

 

[starseeker]

Looking at the terminology , E.g cellphone ,is this in America ? As if this was the UK ,you would have a quite clear case of unfair dismissal,

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Looking at the terminology , E.g cellphone ,is this in America ? As if this was the UK ,you would have a quite clear case of unfair dismissal,

This is America but this practice is becoming widespread here, they had this debate on 5 live fairly recently lots of people phoned in saying bosses wanted to be able to contact them at any time via phone or email and it didn't go down well if they kicked back, lots of places have no unions and zero hours contracts so i guess they have to agree, i am glad we have a union and no zero hours contracts.

 

[Clint]

I would get my company pen and write "go xxxx yourself!" On that.
If everyone refused they'd soon crawl back under the stone they came from. Trouble is there's berks who would think this a great idea.

 

[Agentgonzo]

"voluntary mandatory"

 

[JockyBrewer]

How do companies get away with this, it has been discussed on 5 live before and its not as uncommon as i would have thought thank god we have a union.

We have work phones but its not compulsory to answer them on days off.

"voluntary mandatory"

"Go Team" - Go **** Yourself




View attachment 100011

Sorry @Chippy_Tea but that picture is very much fake ragebait from social media.

I don't think it's even slightly news or discussion worthy.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I don't think it's even slightly news or discussion worthy

I couldn't disagree more.

I dont know if its bait but as i said in my post it was discussed on 5 live recently and its more widespread than you would think in the UK people are expected to answer the phone and emails at the weekend or when on holiday its wrong but when people have no union and work in a small place what can they do.

 

[Stu]

As above, this is 'Murica. "Written up" is a phrase well used there.

Very easy to fire people over there too. As long as you don't fire people based on their discrimination act (which is similar to ours), then you're good to go.

Whereas we have disciplinary processes.

Once someone starts annual leave, they do not have to answer the phone.

I used to manage a shift team. We used to be clear that we would text them on their rest day and they had no obligation to respond, although they always did - I would only ever contact them if overtime was available and usually I got a "yes" or "no" reply.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

we would text them on their rest day and they had no obligation to respond, although they always did

The problem is if you are the new employee or the sort of person who worries about job security you are going to answer the phone or message even if you don't want to, your employees were lucky if you made it obvious it was not compulsory the problem is there are a lot of bosses out there who want them to be contactable on days off.

 

[Stu]

The problem is if you are the new employee or the sort of person who worries about job security you are going to answer the phone or message even if you don't want to, your employees were lucky if you made it obvious it was not compulsory the problem is there are a lot of bosses out there who want them to be contactable on days off.

Always made it absolutely clear when they started.

In fairness, as a people manager, I've always been a communicative boss. I never sat with the other managers, always my team.

Communication is absolutely key, especially with a team that does shift patterns. I would only actually see them for 5 days in a 28 day shift pattern, so I'd often join early morning / evening changeover calls.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Once someone starts annual leave, they do not have to answer the phone.

In France I believe it's illegal for a boss to phone people on the weekend/evening/holiday.

Be like France

 

[MickDundee]

 

[Clint]

We have a thing in work when there was overtime you got a call to make sure you were asked as people complained about not getting a chance of it!
I stopped answered "work" calls many years ago as I'm not important so why on earth would they want to speak to me?
There are those though who consider themselves VERY important and have their emails sent home!
On my days off I really need to know that if anyone finds some hay-fever tablets please call extension...or that someone has parked facing the wrong way...or even been evacuating their bowels in the upstairs STAFF facilities (which everyone knows was a disgusting shift worker and its just not on).
I kid you not! FFS!

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I get work calls out of hours but then many US folk can’t quite get it that the whole world isn’t in EST .
I always let the calls go to voicemail out of hours. If the caller thinks it’s important they’ll leave a message and if I listen to it and I think it is important also I’ll deal with it.

 

[Stu]

In France I believe it's illegal for a boss to phone people on the weekend/evening/holiday.

Be like France

So here's the problem.
Because of the long shifts, my team did 14/28, giving them a lot of time off.

Many of them were very appreciative of the texts when they could do a 12 hour shift at time and a half (or double time on Sundays and Bank Holidays).

The only other reason I'd ever text would be to let the team leaders know that someone on their shift was sick etc.
I expected no response. It was just courtesy.

 

[dad_of_jon]

I've never had a problem with being contactable when out of work and yet have very rarely been contacted. I guess that's a side effect with sharing my knowledge so if I'm not around someone knows how to carry on with the work i'd normally do. Hording knowledge and not sharing would have the opposite effect. I've never really been bothered about job security so when a pretender thought with my knowledge they could get a job at a higher grade and rule over me..... I left them and the company to crack on.

He quit his position shortly after not realizing I was no longer around to fix his ****-ups and the company took years to get a half decent replacement. (who incidentally took a previous job I used to do in another company years ago) - I had a £££ payoff thank you very much and am now sharing what I know elsewhere.

As a manager I would never call my staff o-o-h unless they said it was ok but they were allowed to call me. Managers should be there to enable their staff to fulfill their duties by helping them to do so, not expecting them to support me. To think I could do the work of 3-4 talented individuals myself is arrogant.

 

[Leon103]

I couldn't disagree more.

I dont know if its bait but as i said in my post it was discussed on 5 live recently and its more widespread than you would think in the UK people are expected to answer the phone and emails at the weekend or when on holiday its wrong but when people have no union and work in a small place what can they do.

Just because you have no union or work for a small place doesn't mean you have no rights.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Just because you have no union or work for a small place doesn't mean you have no rights.

You only have rights to claim unfair dismissal after 2 years employment (the length of time may have changed) the people phoning 5 live were mainly new employees who thought it was probably better to answer than ignore calls or email.

Edit to add - it is still 2 years -

You must have been continuously employed by your employer for a minimum of two years in order to be legally protected against unfair dismissal. However, there are some instances of unfair dismissal where you're protected from your first day.

 

[Leon103]

You only have rights to claim unfair dismissal after 2 years employment (the length of time may have changed) the people phoning 5 live were mainly new employees who thought it was probably better to answer than ignore calls or email.

Edit to add - it is still 2 years -

You must have been continuously employed by your employer for a minimum of two years in order to be legally protected against unfair dismissal. However, there are some instances of unfair dismissal where you're protected from your first day.

So nothing a Union could do then.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

So nothing a Union could do then.

No but it does say "there are some instances of unfair dismissal where you're protected from your first day" i bet there are not many of those.