Manager contacts employee's personal phone number while she's on her honeymoon, she feels her boundaries have been violated: 'I'm not trying to escalate. I just want boundaries respected'

When you're on vacation, you should not be bothered. This is why it's called vacation. You get a break from all the little notifications on your phone. It's for the better. Think about how many times in a day you have to do something you don't want to do? There are too many to count. Think about all the times you want to do something you don't want to do… and you're on vacation. That's what I thought. Zero. Part of the reason we need time off is to unplug. It's hard to unplug at work. You're constantly having to respond to messages, keep up with tasks, and keep everyone abreast of your goings-on. Part of being in the workplace is constant communication. We expect each other to return Slack messages at a moment's notice. And this is fair enough to expect while you're all at work… but what about when we're not working?

Nobody likes to be bothered on their day off. We wouldn't have taken a day off if we were around and available to answer questions and solve problems. No, on our day off, we want to do our own thing. We want to watch TV all day, catch up on chores, travel to another country, make a complicated dinner, and order delivery. Who cares? The point is, our time is ours to use however we'd like to. It's not our boss's time to use when they want to, just as if we were on the clock. But some managers don't understand that.

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The boss in this story went above and beyond the regular expectations of paid time off. As a rule, we should expect never to be bothered during our paid time off. That means we don't have to answer any messages that come in. Heck, we don't even have to look at our work phones. But what would happen if a manager tried to contact you on your personal phone? Should you even be required to hand out that kind of information? Does that cross any sort of boundaries? Those are the questions that came up in this story. Read on for the full picture.
Is it normal for a manager to contact you during approved leave on your personal number?

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