I am in a job that isn’t in the realm of health care (I’m not an on call doctor or surgeon) or in the realm of law enforcement. My contract stipulates that I work 2 days a week 9-5 but nowhere in my contract does it mention anything about being on call for out of office text messages, phone calls or emails. I am also not paid for engaging in these out of office communications. So I only respond to my boss on the days that I am working between 9-5 . My phone is always on during work hours and I’ll always respond. When my boss texts me outside of my work days and/or work hours I do not respond until the next time I’m at work. The days I don’t work I’m at university where I’m not on my phone so I rarely check my messages . I’m there all day and quite busy. My boss has also called whilst I’ve been in class and I stupidly called her back once because I thought it was something serious enough to call me during class. And she knows that I’m at uni all day on all other days of the week so unless it’s something serious (which it never is) she can wait to text me during my work hours. Well on a work day but after hours (like 7 hours after I finished work she texted me and I didn’t reply. She then texted me again the night before work to say that I needed to reply even outside of my hours. I responded and explained that I was actually at the hospital and specialists most of the day due to an ill family member and due to the stress I had my head elsewhere and didn’t have any thought to text people. She then responded and said ok but it only takes 2 minutes to respond, which yes is true but I thought was pretty cold. I then come into work today and she explains to me that she is not happy about the communication issue. She said if you’re at the hospital or doctor with your mum you have to tell me and you have to answer my messages and calls when they come through because if that’s the only time I can text you it’s the only time I’m free to engage so I need you to respond to me even on days off.
I was pretty shocked. I was tempted to say: So if I’m in hospital because I’ve had an accident or someone died I have to let you know so you won’t bother me?
I’ve tried to set a boundary but not responding but obviously she isn’t respecting it and I don’t know what to do.