I went to a concert last night for the first time since the pandemic started. I was super excited about it. A week prior I had let half my team (the ones me not being available would affect) know that if anything were to come up after work hours I wouldn’t be available.
So in our team meeting yesterday morning I reminded the whole team that I wouldn’t be available for any overtime should something come up. No one said anything about it. Come this morning one of my team members video chatted me and told me that the way I went about telling the rest of the team wasn’t the best and I can’t just say I have a hard out without asking anyone to cover since I’m the only one who really knows how to do my job. I asked if this was an fyi this is how it came across for the future just looking out for you talk or if boss and said something and she said that boss had asked her to talk to me and that she’s had to cancel plans or arrive late due to work and “the job comes first”.
I was very confused because the concert did not affect my work hours, I just wasn’t available after my specified clock out time. Also another team member is always saying they aren’t available after specified times because they have errands to run or something and those times are actually during the work day. While I knew overtime was a requirement of the job, we haven’t had any need for it since December and nothing came up last night.
Now that I’ve reflected on the conversation more I feel I want to revisit it to clarify expectations and ask if I’m allowed to have a private personal life or if I have to run all my after work plans by them. Nothing in my contract says I am on call 24/7 and if that’s going to be the case I should be paid more. Of course these are ridiculous questions but I feel it would highlight how ridiculous it was to police me about not being available after work hours. You want someone available then hire a 2nd shift employee.