boss phones when i'm off sick

Daytona_nev

Volcano wrote: »

Despite what employers may think, the majority of the UK's workforce are not medically qualified psychics.

A medically qualified Psychic ??

What's one of them?

dmg24

Daytona_nev wrote: »

A medically qualified Psychic ??

What's one of them?

You seem to have missed the irony in Volcano's post!

GrammarGirl

liney wrote: »

I have also been know to call someone on a day's holiday to ask them an informal question regarding work. The alternative would be to wait until they return, and have a formal meeting about the whereabouts of XYZ and not doing a proper hand over before their leave.

Unless it was a real emergency, this would REALLY annoy me. It's called 'booking holiday' for a reason - you're on holiday from work!

Bogof_Babe

But if someone else is having to cover your work, if they get stuck on something crucial what else are they meant to do?

Where I worked we had a "buddy" system, where each of us knew inside out our counterpart's job so holidays weren't a problem, except that one person was effectively doing two people's work, but there were parts that could be left as well as things that had to be done.

Anyway I digress - I always told my opposite number to ring me whatever the problem, as our jobs were quite involved and it was always possible that something might crop up that was unforeseen.

She was excellent and rarely did so, but on one occasion my boss couldn't remember what he had done with some airline tickets, so my colleague rang me to see if I knew. Luckily I remembered him putting them into a particular file, and the panic was resolved. If I'd told her to on no account ring me, there would have been a major problem.

It took me half a minute of my holiday to settle that query - what's the big deal?

NASA_2

I dont see it as a major problem for most 'illnesses' but where its known that it will be a long term illness then it should be left alone.

Too many people have one or two day sick periods and calling them isnt too much IMO.

liney

GrammarGirl wrote: »

Unless it was a real emergency, this would REALLY annoy me. It's called 'booking holiday' for a reason - you're on holiday from work!

I did explain the alternative. If issues crop up which should have been dealt with by a member of staff who failed to do a proper handover, or neglected their duties because they switched to holiday mode at 2pm then that can easily be a competency/performance issue. I would rather avoid that with a 1 minuite informal phone call, but if the employee wants to take the other route then that's fine too.

surreysaver

liney wrote: »

As i stated before, courtesy from both the employer and the employee would prevent these issues. Too many employees forget they have a duty to their employer as well as vis-versa. But if attempting to insult me makes you feel better, by all means carry on.

You ring in to say you are sick. You give an indication of how long you expect to be off for. If that changes, you ring again to advise your employer. You then ring back before you come back - day before, whatever. Is that not courteus enough? Why bother an employee while they're off?

surreysaver

liney wrote: »

I have also been know to call someone on a day's holiday to ask them an informal question regarding work. The alternative would be to wait until they return, and have a formal meeting about the whereabouts of XYZ and not doing a proper hand over before their leave.

You do that to me you would get an ear full of abuse. The formal meeting taking place upon return would be a grievence meeting against you.

LittleMissAspie

Just don't answer the phone? I never answer the phone at home because we don't have caller display, and the times I have picked up it's been sales calls, so I don't answer it now.

liney

surreysaver wrote: »

You do that to me you would get an ear full of abuse. The formal meeting taking place upon return would be a grievence meeting against you.

Followed by a performance/capability formal meeting. I would never call you again, and your minor errors which could have been dealt with amicably with a 1 min call, would all turn into formal disciplinaries because of your attitude.

Of course if you always do proper handovers before your holiday, and actually call in with a vague idea of how long your *sore thoat/insert random minor illness* might last for then i'd never have called you in the first place. Dead easy really. :rolleyes: