People That Ignore Out Of Office

[Anonymous]

Help me shame them or get them fired.

I got back from an 8 day trip yesterday that was the first time I'd taken more than two work days off in a row since 2020. Office was given 11 months notice. Alert was sent to contacts a month before with an 'instruction' sheet on what to do without me.

And I set an out of office to the effect of "I am on vacation and without access to work email and work phone. Please contact XXX in my absence and be sure to reply all for team visibilty. Otherwise, I will respond to your note ~ July 7th/8th"


Two people called our main number a half dozen times claiming emergency and our front desk gave them my cell. They then called me a combined 13 times while I was on vacation. This was after I sternly told them they were out of bounds and I'd speak with thm in a week. But they kept up with the "but this will just take a second..."

Would you just not take PTO for those days?

[Anonymous]

Why did you answer the phone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Help me shame them or get them fired.

I got back from an 8 day trip yesterday that was the first time I'd taken more than two work days off in a row since 2020. Office was given 11 months notice. Alert was sent to contacts a month before with an 'instruction' sheet on what to do without me.

And I set an out of office to the effect of "I am on vacation and without access to work email and work phone. Please contact XXX in my absence and be sure to reply all for team visibilty. Otherwise, I will respond to your note ~ July 7th/8th"


Two people called our main number a half dozen times claiming emergency and our front desk gave them my cell. They then called me a combined 13 times while I was on vacation. This was after I sternly told them they were out of bounds and I'd speak with thm in a week. But they kept up with the "but this will just take a second..."

People suck. No one respects out of office any more. And frankly, I feel like if I don't answer, I'll get upbraided by my boss. There are no real "emergencies" - if there was an actual emergency, a manager above you would just make a decision.

[Anonymous]

I would have sent everyone to voice mail and claimed no cell service. We teach people how to treat us. And you're teaching them that they can do whatever they want.

Then again, I might keep two phones, one for work and one for personal use. And the work one stays home.

(yes old school. works like a charm.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why did you answer the phone?

Because I thought it was an emergency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Help me shame them or get them fired.

I got back from an 8 day trip yesterday that was the first time I'd taken more than two work days off in a row since 2020. Office was given 11 months notice. Alert was sent to contacts a month before with an 'instruction' sheet on what to do without me.

And I set an out of office to the effect of "I am on vacation and without access to work email and work phone. Please contact XXX in my absence and be sure to reply all for team visibilty. Otherwise, I will respond to your note ~ July 7th/8th"


Two people called our main number a half dozen times claiming emergency and our front desk gave them my cell. They then called me a combined 13 times while I was on vacation. This was after I sternly told them they were out of bounds and I'd speak with thm in a week. But they kept up with the "but this will just take a second..."

People suck. No one respects out of office any more. And frankly, I feel like if I don't answer, I'll get upbraided by my boss. There are no real "emergencies" - if there was an actual emergency, a manager above you would just make a decision.

This. It used to be this is how you trained succession roles. Your boss handles big things and the person directly under you did everything else and let the person above you know what's going on. JFC, we all (well, the olds among us) all managed to make this work prior to Blackberries, WAH, laptops, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did you answer the phone?

Because I thought it was an emergency.

If it wasn't on the news and they didn't call 7x in five minutes, it wasn't.

[Anonymous]

OP that's horrendous but you're company culture senses as messed up a these individuals. My manager and a few other coworkers have my personal cell but no front desk is giving it out! What a privacy violation. And no one in my workplace would behave this way because they would be embarrassed and probably disciplined.

[Anonymous]

You need to make like a European and go completely off grid. Even if an emergency comes through they ignore it. Your problem for answering the phone

[Anonymous]

Then again, I might keep two phones, one for work and one for personal use. And the work one stays home.

This is the way.

No one should be calling you when you are on vacation, and no one should ever be giving out employees' personal phone numbers.

If your office cannot handle an emergency or perceived emergency while you are away, then your employer has a management issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did you answer the phone?

Because I thought it was an emergency.

You just need to learn not to pick up the phone. Your back up can handle emergencies.

You can set a boundary that you will only receive phone calls from your back up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why did you answer the phone?

+1.

[Anonymous]

I’m not understanding who these people are.

I’m a lawyer and we’re basically never totally off grid. I would want someone to call me if there was a quick question or an issue with a client. Are these subordinates? If they are abusing your good will, I would make sure their evaluation reflects that. If they are clients, that is more tricky. If they are bosses, that’s challenging and maybe time to consider a new job.

[Anonymous]

100 percent you claw back some of your leave-bare minimum of one full day or two hours per day each day they called. More if you had to interrupt your vacation for more than a few minutes.

[Anonymous]

I thought this was going to be a huff about how people are sending you asynch chats on Teams when your status is purple. Easy enough to ignore.

The problem is the front desk giving your cell. Your instructions said to contact XXX. Did XXX not handle it? You need to speak to them and the front desk. I just finished a security training and OOO messaging should be vague (give a contact) and never contain a cell. Next level violation is front desk giving your cell out anyway. Can you escalate to a security officer?