Coworker texts me nights and weekends WWYD?

[Anonymous]

My coworker keeps texting me off hours. She is texting me work questions right now. She texts me weekends, Saturday mornings, Sunday nights. I’ve told her I go to bed early, but she still texts me at 10 PM.

I need some text communication with her, so I can’t just block her, and it’s not practical for me to block and unblock her multiple times a day. She’s never in the office, so for quick questions, texting is ideal, but not outside of work time.

I’ve mentioned it to my boss, but he is spineless and never gets involved.

What can I do here? My DH says it’s harassment.

[Anonymous]

So if you tell her: please only text me M-F 9-5 she will ignore you?

[Anonymous]

That's so rude. Perhaps tell your coworker your work hours. Maybe they will get the hint.

[Anonymous]

^ Also do you have a separate office phone? Or does your company expect you to conduct business on your personal phone?

[Anonymous]

Have you told her not to text outside of office hours?

[Anonymous]

You need to lay some clear boundaries. You could tell her you want to separate your work time from your personal time and ask her not to contact you on weekends and before 9am and after 5pm M-F. She might not know you’re annoyed

[Anonymous]

I don't think it would be too hard for you to block her when you end your work day and unblock when you start your work day. She stays blocked from Friday at 5 until Monday at 9. Tell her you're blocking her during non-work hours.

[Anonymous]

Only reply to her texts during work hours.

[Anonymous]

I don't get why you have mentioned it to your boss, but apparently you haven't mentioned it to her?

It's not harassment, lol. She is probably texting you when she thinks of things, assuming you will look at it when you get to it, like an email. Just tell her you would appreciate it if she only texts during business hours.

[Anonymous]

Ask her to email you if it’s outside work time.

[Anonymous]

Just keep copying and pasting the same response:
“I am not responding to messages sent after 5pm and on weekends.”

Do it for every.single.message.

If she calls, it goes straight to voicemail.

You can handle this, OP. You just need to be clear and CONSISTENT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ask her to email you if it’s outside work time.

There you go!!

[Anonymous]

I hate it when people text me for work unless it is time pressing or they know I’m in a zoom (eg they are also in the zoom and want me to look at something). I have a system for managing my email but not for text so if you text me a question or task, it won’t get in my queue. I think it’s rude to use text for stuff like this. Should be used long dog stuff like we’re meeting in conference room now—can you join?” Or “call me for a quick sec when your meeting breaks” or “does bob not realize everyone can see he is sleeping?”

[Anonymous]

You can put on "do not disturb" during certain hours. I had to do with this a relative who would not stop calling me during work hours. They have a job where they can talk on the phone for two hours, but I do not.

"Do Not Disturb" has been working well. Eventually, your colleague will get the hint -- or not -- but you will be able to live your life again.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why you don't just ignore the text until work hours tomorrow am? If she wants to text, fine, but you'll respond when you get to it. No different than people sending emails after hours, right?

If that doesn't work, I would tell her: My preference is that, during non work hours, you email instead of text me.

That approach seems less aggressive and nutty than writing "I will not respond to this until office hours" responses to all her texts.

This doesn't seem like a hard thing to solve.