Personal Phone Call at Work???

jiaqi518 on 17/02/2016 - 07:44
Last edited 17/02/2016 - 19:37

I have a office job and going through some personal issues at the moment which required making phone calls at business hours:

  1. Mum is having a knee surgery in public hospital - need to call and arrange appointments.

  2. Two year old son just went to childcare and cry near 2 hours before he goes.- need to call and check how is he going

  3. Mother in law 's house got flooded - she have mental issue and forgets who she is, however she can always remember me. I am a bit worried if she call me from a mobile as she might got lost.

  4. Car accident not at fault - need to organize my car to get fix also rental car so I can go to work

  5. Part of house need to be fix through insurance and they play up on some items.

I have seen colleague making long phone calls or working from home, however my manager asked me to sort out personal issues at personal time and can not work from home even after I have told him the hardship that I have been through.

I am being paid extremely low salary compare to market rate, however it is 5 min to home and childcare is next door to work. Most important thing is I do love the nature of our business and the personality of our director.Also, I have stay back at work and work on one Saturday recently. I have worked late sometimes until 9pm previously before I got family issues.

Any suggestions? Should I change my full time job to part time?

Education & Work

Comments

  • ankor on 20/02/2016 - 19:37

    You should be able to sort out points 1, 4, and 5 with simple telephone calls and/or emails as well as followup emails.
    This should take no longer than 5minutes per email, or 10-15minutes per call. I don't see why these calls would need to be made outside of your lunch time hours. A lot of it isn't such a big deal, but you are making them out to be.

    1. Mum is having a knee surgery in public hospital - need to call and arrange appointments.
    2. Two year old son just went to childcare and cry near 2 hours before he goes.- need to call and check how is he going
    3. Mother in law 's house got flooded - she have mental issue and forgets who she is, however she can always remember me. I am a bit worried if she call me from a mobile as she might got lost.
    4. Car accident not at fault - need to organize my car to get fix also rental car so I can go to work
    5. Part of house need to be fix through insurance and they play up on some items.
  • onetwothreefour on 20/02/2016 - 20:21

    Don't you have anyone else who can help you with any of this? What about your husband or maybe his job is more important so he wouldn't even try to make personal calls during work time?

  • lousy on 20/02/2016 - 22:57

    Your manager is a slave driver who also get off on his on authority. He won't be flexible with you because he likes to make the rules and punish those who break it. I would follow it to a t. 9-5 or whatever hours you are required to work. Full break at lunch = your private time to make calls. If something comes up urgently you do have a mobile and step outside to make a discreet call or message to sort it out. Don't let them have anything to use against you. Meanwhile I would be looking for another job.

  • yoonibear on 23/02/2016 - 12:44

    1.Mum is having a knee surgery in public hospital - need to call and arrange appointments.
    Can be done during lunch time - if there's not enough time, perhaps skip your breaks and have an extended lunch? Make a plan during downtime at work eg. write on a list the number you'll call, which department what time ..etc.. that way you'll spend less time umming and erring over the phone.

    2.Two year old son just went to childcare and cry near 2 hours before he goes.- need to call and check how is he going
    Let your son adjust - I'm sure the childcare will call you if anything happens and they'll probably appreciate not being called every hour or two; they're not call centres.

    3.Mother in law 's house got flooded - she have mental issue and forgets who she is, however she can always remember me. I am a bit worried if she call me from a mobile as she might got lost.
    Exactly what do you need to do with you MIL? If it's a quick 5 minute call to check up on her every few hours, perhaps consider calling during toilet breaks?

    4.Car accident not at fault - need to organize my car to get fix also rental car so I can go to work
    Check to see if the car insurers and rental companies have live chat so you can organise this during work time or see if you can correspond via email. Or see number 1.

    5.Part of house need to be fix through insurance and they play up on some items.
    Again, see number 1.

    You're not going to sort everything out in the one hit so might as well plan it and try to be as efficient as possible.

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