OP here.

I did ask her not to text me about work. A couple times, years ago, we got together outside of work on a weekend, so we texted to meet up for that.

I don’t have a work phone, so this is all on my personal phone. Can I block just this one person? I had it on DND last night and missed a call from my husband and texts from my neighbors, who were out of power.

I shouldn’t have to set all my notifications to DND just because my coworker has no respect for my personal life.

Turn her alerts off and don’t answer other than work hours and even then only answer like every 5th text. Like CIO for grownups

Your boss is spineless? Lolol

Anonymous wrote: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.

Ignore or report to HR or both. You do not need to respond to this leech.

I don't respond to texts outside of business hours, unless it is an emergency. If I feel I need to reply I let the person know I will look into it tomorrow. You need to stand up for yourself and do the same.

If the text notifications annoy you, look into what your device offers for focus time. You can configure notifications for apps and I think contracts to behave differently on a set schedule — for example, I have slack on my phone but I only get notifications 7-5 on weekdays. If someone contacts me overnight or on a weekend, I won’t know unless I open the app,

Just put her on DND and check your texts from nwe when you feel like it.

She’s probably not expecting a response but she’s shooting off messages as they occur to her. Some people are like this. Make a point of responding more quickly to messages sent during business hours. Those sent off hours get put on the back burner til midday the next day. And you say, “sorry, I can tell you’re a night owl but I turn my brain off after dinner. I’m finding that when I start my day, I look at my email inbox first and I get busy before I have time to go back and review your off hours messages. If something is important, try sending me a timed email so it hits my inbox at 9 am. I promise you you’ll hear back quicker!”

Anonymous wrote: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.

I agree.

This is why people should have separate work and personal phones.

At minimum, get a Google Voice number and make it your work line. You can set it to DND at certain times.

Mute her during non-work hours: https://www.tomsguide.com/how-to/how-to-silence-a-specific-contact-on-your-iphone

AND make sure you don’t reply to her during non-work hours. If you do reply it will only encourage the behavior.

Don't answer.

Does she actually expect you to respond right away?

Anonymous wrote:Only reply to her texts during work hours.

This. Just because she sent a text doesn’t mean you have to reply right away. Put your phone on DND and respond in the morning.

Anonymous wrote: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.

This.

I think you can set up an automatic response outside certain hours so you don’t actually have to text it.