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RE: On leave but working

in Galenkp's Stuff10 months ago

I am always the first when something needs to be done in emergency situations, on weekends or when I am on vacation, to do work that is within the competence of the part of the sector that I manage, but also for work that is not within my competence, to provide my experience as a senior colleague and knowledge... But for emergencies.
Not for everyday activities.
The situation a few years ago:
I went on summer vacation and turned off my office phone (I use two numbers, private and official).
When I turned on the official number after returning from abroad, I received messages of missed calls from the owner of the company. I sent him a message explaining that I am on vacation until Monday and that he should write to me if I can solve something for him before returning to the office. He wrote to me: "Everything is OK", but on Monday he called me and asked: "Why do you turn off your phone when you are on vacation?".
My integrity helped me to answer: "I'm turning off the phone because I don't want my phone to ring endlessly while I'm taking a bath. I don't want my colleagues to call me expecting me to answer them, while I'm weighing from the outside whether is it worth returning the call and incurring big expenses or not... Your secretary knows I'm away, and my superior director, as well as my team colleagues, have my private number that they can call me 24/7 in case of really urgent situations. For some non-urgent questions, they can wait 10 days". He agreed with me and my decision.

I had a situation when I got corona, that my superior director asked me when I went on sick leave, if I would work from home.
"Boss, in the 15 years I've been working at the company, I've come to work with a fever, so now that I've taken sick leave, it means I'm so broken that I can't see with my eyes."

And he agreed with my decision, so for now I was not sanctioned in those moments 😀
I always make my own decisions about priorities and, like you @galenkp , I always work if necessary, even when no one expects it from me...

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Sometimes it's difficult to be the dependable person because people always turn to those who are and expect them to step up. I guess people get to feel comfortable and confident that the dependable ones will pick up the slack, fill the gap and because they're reliable, they do!

It can be a little draining and annoying but I'll be honest and say I'm ok with it because I think it shows character. Clearly you have it.