Making Call To Female Employee In Night - PDF Download

I agree with my friends that official matters should be dealt with during office hours.

In this particular case, when an employee has not met the deadline, it is the responsibility of the reporting manager to track it so that such a situation never arises.

I think if an organization works with strict deadlines, then it MUST have a review of work on a daily basis so that its employees can sort out all the issues during office hours instead of carrying the tension home.

Dear All,

It is quite an interesting discussion, and your opinions are required in huge numbers!

1) Nowadays, any employee (whether he or she) is not interested in attending a call after working hours from his/her office. The office people also have to follow a culture not to disturb any employee after working hours. They have to create an atmosphere where the office never asks me if it is a simple problem, and they will make a call only if it is a very urgent and unavoidable situation.

2) The timings of the global working hours are to be circulated to everyone around the world regarding their office if it is an MNC. This way, calls after working hours will be avoided.

3) If the female (as our discussion started) is superior and in a position of decision-making, office people may call at any point in time, even at night (in emergencies) after working hours for decisions. The responsibility itself will give her authorization to be called at any time. Of course, many HR people face situations where, at 12:00 midnight, office security personnel or others call to make decisions on emergency situations on-site.

4) Last but not least, we depend on the organization to satisfy or fulfill our needs in terms of salary. So, every employee is responsible for his office even after office hours. Personal needs will be satisfied only when we satisfy our office. When we are unable to attend a single telephone call after office hours, what is the need for our management to give us satisfaction (children welfare, family welfare, etc.)? If female, there is no gender difference they feel, so why do we create such a difference? But whatever the situation, the person who makes a call after working hours should handle the situation politely without hurting the employee.

With best regards,

Suneelkumar Gudipati

Well, I have read all the responses that have been posted here. Although I am not in favor of disturbing any employee - whether it's post office hours, weekends, holidays, etc. But for those who are absolutely against calling up employees post office hours - just one question - Don't we take our personal calls during office hours?

In today's modern work culture, which is heavily influenced by technology, the boundaries between personal and professional lives have diluted a lot. If employees can attend personal calls during office (pertaining to some urgency at home / personal life), why is it so wrong to call people post office hours in case of any issues at work.

Again, it's a topic which can have quite a few diverse opinions, and the key thing to be accounted for is the reason why the office had to resort to make a call to an employee post office hours.

Ankush

Hi,

Nowadays, office hours do get extended beyond the normal working hours. This entirely depends on the level at which the person is working. Companies provide mobile phones, internet connections, laptops, etc. Sometimes, by virtue of the position being handled, if the person is expected to reply to the management with the status of the assignment, then calling during the night is a normal practice.

I think the above issue might relate to some petty office chores like finding a file, questioning why an email was not sent, or why a cheque was not couriered today. These reasons are trivial and calling a person for such matters late at night, disrupting their family life, is unnecessary. If a task is not completed by the evening, it can always be done the next morning.

Prakash

I can make one suggestion which I follow. You can text message rather than making a call. The concerned person can respond either by a call or reply by text message.

Very good reply, Mr. Samvedan. This approach should be followed to respect individuals. 🙂

Regards,
Ramkishore

Dear Pravin,

There are two questions to be answered:

Should we call a female (I feel any employee - let's remove the gender biasness) after office hours? Ideally no, but as pointed out by Ankush, we do entertain our personal calls during office hours. So unless the reply is going to be an immediate solution, yes, the employee should be ready to take the call as part of his work ownership. The call should be placed at a decent hour. Also, check if the time is good to talk and finally keep it to the point and short.

What to do when an employee fails to deliver during the stipulated time? Create a mechanism to ensure that a work matrix is created for A B C type of jobs. "A" - very urgent, needs completion ASAP or by the end of the day. "B" - important but not so urgent, has a deadline attached, and will shortly be an "A" type. "C" - ongoing, routine, or a long assignment that can be broken into various small deadlines which are tracked every day. Before an employee leaves, he needs to update his seniors and take their consensus on the completion stage. Sounds ideal but difficult to implement as not everything and every time will work as planned. So create a realistic matrix giving significance to bottlenecks like sickness, meetings, any other important work, etc.

I would like to quote an example from my time management training where the busiest department of my organization - the Accounts team - was able to identify two hours of time wasters. Try and identify time wasters for your team and work on them. No work should stretch beyond our normal working hours, as identified by many researches.

All the best

I think Sunil Kumar, Ankush, and Jhuma have put the issue in proper perspective, keeping in tune with the modern business environment where women too shoulder key responsibilities and hold decision-making positions that have considerable bearing on the business of the organization. The modern working women also understand this contingency and respond positively. However, calls for routine matters or an excuse for indulging in gossip shall be strictly avoided.

B. Saikumar
HR & Labour Law Advisor
Mumbai

Hi, even though the whole society talks about equality and equal rights for men and women, in practice, it is very difficult to follow, especially the current subject we are discussing. The best thing, as rightly mentioned by Saikumar and other friends, is to call female employees only in emergencies, and the reasons for such calls are classifiable.

Thanks,
Prabhakar

Dear Sir,

The question was raised again because it was incomplete, although the answer was correct. However, I would like to reiterate that what if the individual didn't perform his/her duties and left the office without completing it, and it's one of the important daily deliverables that need to be sent to the client.

We work in the BPO industry, and many times we see that individuals are more concerned about completing their shift timings instead of finishing their work. The example you have mentioned could be a simple one, but there are many other instances where, as supervisors/leads, we are reliant on them. Therefore, it becomes necessary to contact them regardless of their shift timings.

Your suggestion is really good and can be implemented. If you have any further suggestions, please advise and share them with us.

Last but not least, I also agree that calling any employee at night is not justified. However, there are many occasions on which individuals fail to complete their tasks and simply provide the excuse of "forgetting" it. I appreciate everyone for their valuable advice and opinions on this matter.