Ignoring work calls on days off

Whiplashy

I work part time hours, but technically I am "on call" on my days off. I have been in this job for 6 months and have never been called in to cover a shift. I do however receive a LOT of calls on my days off. 99.9% of these calls are not urgent and could easily wait until I am in work. Would it be acceptable to ignore work calls on my days off?

Eoin

I don't think anyone here can answer if it's acceptable or not - it's really a case of what you agree with your employer.

How many people can contact you? If it's a small amount of people, then perhaps you can try and train them to learn when you should be called or not.

silja

Are you getting paid anything for being on-call?
I had a job where we were on call one weekend out of 5, but got a small amount paid for that, even if no calls were made, as we had to have the phone with us and be able to get into work within an hour if needed.

looksee

If you are on call to be available to work a shift, then the calls are not part of that arrangement and you need to do a bit of training. Something as simple as giving the answer then saying, 'of course that could have waited till I was in', or not answering the question, just saying 'I will have to check that out, I'll be in tomorrow morning and I'll let you know then'. Or 'John could answer that, is he in?'

You can't just not answer in case you are needed for a shift.

If people have been ringing and saying 'look I'm sorry to bother you, do you mind answering a question' and you reply, 'no, of course not, no problem, go ahead' then you have not been training them!

the_syco

Whiplashy wrote: »

I work part time hours, but technically I am "on call" on my days off

So you work full time, but get paid part-time? They seem to contact you for what you know, but don't pay you for the information.

Whiplashy

I'm getting the impression that it's my own fault! I do tend to say it's alright when people call me because I don't want to come across as unhelpful. I went away this weekend and made it absolutely clear I did not expect to receive any work calls and I didn't

haulagebasher

I know where your coming from. Is it your personal phone or a work phone? If you are not on call and not being paid perhaps you could give the hint by leaving your work phone in the office where people could hear it. Then when they ring you they hear it going off in the office. If you only have a personal phone, perhaps you could get another cheap phone for work and then tell them you have a new number. See how that goes.