Virtue Rage

The amount of threads where people virtue rage and tell posters to report their bosses to HR, with only the most minimal context, truly continues to baffle me. You all know nothing except 1 side of the story, and that briefly told.

How many times have heard people complain about a call they received while on PTO and everyone jumps in to condemn the manager... Maybe the person complaining about being asked to work while on PTO takes lots of PTO, maybe their boss has only ever reached out off hours in very time sensitive instances, and maybe the only time they did that the person has now responded with a snotty dismissal that "they don't get paid enough for that" or some other passive aggressive excuse?

Maybe the person didn't give very good advance notice and/or didn't plan very well for coverage in their absence? (or maybe none of this is true, but mainly my point being none of us really KNOW, so wanting to bury the boss in an HR controversy is a disgusting overreaction)

Seriously, have y'all been in the bosses' shoes in this scenario? Ever had an employee that didn't follow basic etiquette re: accountability, or didn't seem to take any ownership/initiative? People saying you should NEVER work when you're off are being idealistic/unrealistic, this is true for ANY white collar industry and suggesting otherwise is just disingenuous IMHO. Personally I do take my laptop with me on vacation, and yes I do generally expect to work a few hours a week even if I'm on PTO.

This isn't demanded of me by anyone, it isn't because my firm is toxic or because I need to report my boss to HR or whatever.

I just care about my job, my team and projects, and want to stay on top of things as much as possible.And no, I don't demand of any team members to do this. I always tell people to take their PTO whenever they want, just give notice and plan appropriately for the items you're responsible for, and we'll work around it. I (almost) never ask anyone to work on weekends or PTO, but sure it has happened a few times, to a very limited extent, over the years.

If someone obstinately refused to help when we really needed them, of course I wouldn't retaliate, but yes that would make me question their work ethic and whether I could rely on them for increasing levels of responsibility in the future.Saying stuff like "this isn't open heart surgery", "nobody is gonna die", etc etc is just asinine and makes it quite obvious you aren't very invested in the team or your own career.

Which is fine, sure, work to live and all that, more power to you!... But this doesn't exactly scream "promote me into leadership positions".

If you don't think that's realistic, again I just think you may be comparatively inexperienced or naive....

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I'll put it to you this way:

Two resources go on week long Hawaii vacation, Mr. A and Mr. B, they are not vacationing together.

They both have skill X and are on project Y.

They both get an urgent call from Y to help by providing X. Let's say it's a few hours of work.

Mr. A rightly ignores the call, Mr. B eagerly picks up the call and resolves the problem.

Now, it's performance evaluation time.

Mr. A is not dinged, he was not supposed to pick up during the vacation, the call is not even discussed.

Mr. B is evaluated and someone mentions that he was a huge help during a crunch time and he was gracious to pick up while on vacation even though he did not have to do so.

Mr. A and Mr. B will have two different careers, you can bet on this. I am not saying one is better than other, I am not recommending that you follow this path or that path, I am just saying that A and B are different personalities, different in approach to work, how they draw boundaries and things will play out differently for them...

I am B, I just cannot help it, I want to be A but cannot help it... However, being B served me well careeerwise, the rise was quick and it was mostly because I was ready to do that bit of extra work. Again, not preaching and/or patronizing, everyone has a path...

On my last account I was the only US wintel admin and my co worker was the only unix admin. With no backups for either one of us in the US India had no choice but to call us for issues. The best we knew was to fight back was never being on our laptops when on vacation.

You (OP) are a company simp. I'm not.

OMG OP did you just get promoted out of your depth and realize how hard the job actually is?
My guess is you are being assessed the Ah-le tax by your team.

Having worked for many flavors of bosses over the decades, I have never once refused to help out in an true emergency. I have had bosses for whom the sky was always falling. One who texted and called me with “emergencies” when he knew I was at my fathers funeral. I did present those to HR due to the highly inappropriate and escalating nastiness of the texts and voicemails. His logic was I was the only person in the world who could answer his question. To that I presented a string of emails over the course of six months where I had presented a detailed cross training program to ensure he had coverage. Too bad for him that keeping his cronies on his team was more important than coverage for problems.

I have also been the boss. And I made sure that I only called in an true emergency (rare occurrence) and that workloads were equitably distributed.
It has been my experience that most emergencies are artificially created and show poor team management skills

Real shame that you can not get your work performed during routine working hours.
You are asked to do X amount of work in Y numbers of hours and you still need to work on your off hours.
You admitting that you do not meet requirements !

Just remember that HR exists as an organization to protect IBM, and to keep IBM from being sued. HR is NOT on your side, and solely represents the interests of IBM. That being said, if your Management does something so egregious that it puts IBM at risk ... AND you can prove it ... HR will deal with the situation. However, the only time HR will act on your behalf is if IBM's interests coincide with yours.

Pain and tenderness, for a rampant climber, an Hr (maybe) or a person at the height of his ego after a promotion or a hoped-for promotion, after selling this reprimand; full of the fideistic ideology that taking (only for a few) without giving is due. That the lives of others are worth less than their own and of an entity (I.b.M) that has betrayed all respect for those who work there or have done so, before being crushed like cockroaches. GL op.

Got cut off below The finish was that knowing IBM it probably won't be someone above My money is in you will say/do something completely out of line to someone under you And that will cook you quicker. Well done and well deserved

This OP just might be the most ridiculous EVER. Must be a newly promoted FLM. Get a clue dingbat! You literally have THE worst job at IBM. You can be f-d from both directions...and you will. I can already tell you won't make it to BUE. You think you will, but you're gonna f-up with your attitude and expectations. Hopefully someone above will see you for what you are and will think "I'm not going to subject my management team to this di

A-F-IN-MEN You want access to me off/out hours...pay for it. Cheap aholes won't even kick in for internet provider chargers never mind phone

@gkr+1dd1FaEB Do NOT call or text me unless you first provide a phone. IBM does not trust me to even have Slack on my phone. I do not trust IBM's malware. Therefore, my phone is NOT to be used for ANY IBM business. That includes calling or texting me. If IBM wants to play hardball, I'll play hardball. If my manager wants to phone or text me, it has to be on an IBM provided phone.

OP, you need to jerk off once in a while... that is for sure!

I agree that in certain urgent circumstances, work needs to be done off hours. What I don't agree with are managers who expect you to monitor email 7 days a week, in anticipation of an emergency. I'm not in a on- call or executive role and if I'm always checking email than I essentially do not have a day off work. I never have any time to truly get away from work. Be a manager, if there's an emergency, CALL or TEXT me. As an emergency, I'd understand. Don't weasel out of your managerial duties and tell me to monitor email 24/7. If you want me to do that, change my role to on-call or give me your job.

Years with IBM and I have yet to have anything happen over the weekend that was an emergency in my job roles. Imagine if I had wasted all those weekends checking work email.

what you've just said is one of the most insanely id--tic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now d-mber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Nice try HR…

What a rant.

tldr; this isn't rocket science. If I'm on PTO stay the F AWAY FROM ME.

Thread regarding IBM layoffs

Virtue Rage

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