so a few weeks ago i said i’d do a few hours on xmas morning eve to provide an emergency service until 12pm, but then needed to get away as we have a 7 hour drive to get down to south to see my parents / brother / rest of family. Oh yes thats fine they all said.

Anyway last week i found out this had been misunderstood (hmm how convenient for my boss) and i was now having to provide cover until 5pm as no one else could do it. I asked my boss if she could do the 12-5 bit so i could get away at lunchtime and she said no she cant she’s working at the other office. She knows i want to get away early as we have a 2 yr old little girl and didnt want a late night journey.

so today i find out that the lying cow isn’t working at all but still wont do my afternoon cover, which she could do from home, and the chance of anything happening in the afternoon is basically zero as everyone with problems tends to call first thing in the morning. Now i’ve got a mega pissed off wife giving me grief as well as she doesnt want to be sitting in a car all night on xmas eve.

I hope father Christmas shoves a f’ing xmas tree up her backside and her turkey gives her food poisoning (my boss that is, not my wife.)

phone in sick.

really.

I had to do a BCP / DR test last year, worked the weekend before Xmas and up to 19:30 on Xmas Eve.

At my previous employer 😀

She’s a cow. Get Santa round to go out for a bike ride.

phone in sick.

really.
Boom. 😀

That was ment to say smash her doors in!

well, if someone’s not prepared to put themselves out a bit for an employee then they’re not worth the respect of that employee.

has she done this before? If she has then it might be worth a quiet word with her boss about lying to her staff

it’s a proper dick move and one i have unfortunately experienced myself. The consequences for me were that i got the pub later and not having to travel that far with a little one and a pee’d off wife

When i worked in the Civil Service it was usual for us to bunk off at noon on christmas leave and go to the pub. The order came down from on high that the office had to be manned until 5 pm in case our “customers” had a query. The fact that on Christmas eve the computers were offline and no help could be given anyway was irrelevant. We were told head office would ring in the afternoon to make sure the instructions were met. Therefore 1 volunteer sat in the office all afternoon to take this call from head office. When the call came it was from a mobile phone (call recognition ) and according to the volunteer it sounded like it came from a pub. Next year we didn’t bother.

i said i’d do a few hours on xmas morning eve to provide an emergency service until 12pm

So not contracted?

i was now having to provide cover until 5pm as no one else could do it

This is now compulsory? What sort of “emergency” cover are you doing/ Are we talking life threatening or just having someone on the end of the phone?

Just go home at 12 and tell her you couldn’t do any more.

Just tell them your original offer was for morning only and this is all you can do. Full stop.

Just rescind your offer to cover until 12. Sorry, I know I volunteered to do it as a favour but I can’t anymore. Bye. Merry Christmas.

You offered until 12 she misunderstood. Tell her this.

lying about her own actions is the petard I would hoist her by, tbh. Bet her boss would be interested to know it.

My boss is off today but coming in specially tomorrow to ensure that the rest of us can go home early as he will be covering the phones till 5. Fairly common in this corner of the civil service, I’ve done that for my teams in the past

And the good news is that the boss was originally working elsewhere in the afternoon but now isn’t and so can cover from home, job done 😉

i said i’d do a few hours on xmas morning eve

Quite frankly, I’m not surprised the confusion has arisen, ‘cos I haven’t a Scooby when you’re actually supposed to be working.

When is Xmas morning eve?

The eve of Xmas morning, Xmas eve morning? I’m lost :-/

😉

Merry Christmas!

My old boss used to do similiar, they’d say “can you work til x”, you said “Yep but that’s all”, then on the day it’d always become y instead. Did work with a lot of the staff, but my answer was “sorry, but I’ve made plans on that basis, I’m off”. And you know what, it’s amazing how often “there is nobody else to do it” turned out to be bobbins.

Just tell them your original offer was for morning only and this is all you can do. Full stop.

^This. Tell her you clearly stated that you would only be available in the morning. You cannot do the afternoon, and she will ahve to arrange cover. You are nt being unreasonable. If she holds it against you, then change jobs you can’t work for someone like that.

The best piece of advice I was given years ago was “never volunteer for **** all”

can you get calls diverted to your mobile? Cover needs to be provided, but what are the chances you’ll be doing anything other than looking at STW and the clock?

I would offer to divert to mobile and take emergency calls whilst travelling down to parents as planned. If thats not acceptable then I would say I’m sorry I cannot cover the afternoon.

In writing with boss of boss cc’d in. As previously stated I can work x.

damn, you’re meant to start telling me how you’re all working treble shifts on no pay and you wont even get to see xmas day at all, to make my situation sound ok!

I think DT78 may have it, i’ve emailed to say am leaving work at 12 so can get car packed up and i’ll take calls on the mobile then come back into the office if necessary. She’s replied and said this is ok…

i’ll hang around til 2 i think then head off, and maybe experience some patchy mobile coverage.

Cant really report my boss to anyone as she is the big boss / owner / money grabbing greedy scrooge of the business.

The lesson here then is to get everything agreed in email in future.

Also your boss sounds like a cow.

If its any consolation I’m at work tomorrow until an unspecified time. Hopefully we’ll be released at lunchtime, however we may need to stay until 3:30. Then we drive up north for hopefully an hour to get to the parents, assuming the traffic isn’t bad.

Has she suggested any alternatives ed?

You’re not in dentistry are you 😉

I think DT78 may have it, i’ve emailed to say am leaving work at 12 so can get car packed up and i’ll take calls on the mobile then come back into the office if necessary. She’s replied and said this is ok.

I heard on the weather forecast that mobile phone reception is due to get very intermittent tomorrow!

sicky!