Yesterday, my boss calls me to discuss things. Eventually, I’m asked if I turned off my notifications yesterday afternoon. I say no, but also question why that’s even relevant to me or my work. I’m told that I’m not allowed to do that on my company phone and I need to be available to respond to important questions, emails, ect.
For context – I’m salary. I work 8+ hrs daily and usually wrap up around 3-4pm daily. My one other coworker is a helpless, bootlicking boomer who has the same job as me – but needs me to hold their hand and do half of their job for them. They call, text, ect annoy me off of the clock with gossip, chatter, questions that can wait until I’m at work/I’ve already answered before.
I’ve already told management that I’m not comfortable with that. They assured me I’m right and don’t have to answer.
Yesterday, my boss tells me that coworker sent a screenshot of the new iPhone text alert that appears when someone has ‘Focus’ mode on – which says something like “OP will not be notified because they have Focus turned on”. Coworker complains to boss that I’m unavailable, neglecting my duties, ect – all because they wanted me to answer a redundant, work-related question (which I’ve already answered) when I have already finished my work for the day.
The boss tells me I cannot turn off my notifications on my work phone. Period.
I realized that ‘Focus’ mode turned on because I was driving home from work. So In actuality, I’m being told that my 40/hr week job is actually an on-call baby-sitting gig for someone with the same job as me.
I need advice on how to proceed. I’m literally doing 3/4 of the work and still helping coworker with their workload despite handling all of mine independently. And now I’m being harassed off of the clock because it’s apparently my job to do their job, too.
Management has known about this for months and nothing has changed, only worsened. What do?