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As you may remember, I recently booked my first dental appointment in roughly a decade. The news wasn't good - over the next eight weeks, I'll be having three more extractions (plus the one wisdom that was yanked yesterday) and twelve (12) fillings!
Anyway, I thought that because I hadn't been in so long, it might have needed a bit of time to recover. With that in mind, I booked the afternoon off work - as holiday. I wasn't sure if I was entitled to do this as a sick day...
This morning, I came in to work and my boss immediately asked me where I'd been yesterday. I reminded him that I'd been to the dentist. He then said (in rather miffed tone) "your mobile was off all afternoon - I kept getting your voicemail". He then proceeded to check my number and make sure it worked.
Now there's nothing in my contract that says I have to be available on call even when I have booked holiday. Am I being unreasonable, or should I be pissed off that I'm expected to be available 24/7?
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posted
Tell him if he ever dials your mobile number again it'll be the last thing he ever does. Then throw a dagger at him so it sticks in the wall right next to his head, spin round and walk away.
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Can you not phone him at the weekend repeatedly, to remind him that you need more toner in the photocopier?
Also, isn't 12 fillings like 50% of your mouth? You may as well just get falsies.
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quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: Am I being unreasonable, or should I be pissed off that I'm expected to be available 24/7?
I get this, as well. I just ignore it, and if anything gets said back in the office I just say "I was on holiday." and leave it at that.
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posted
Good point. There's no obligation to have a mobile phone is there - it's just assumed that you have one. I wish I'd never given them my number. But I think phoning my boss at 3am and blocking my number might be quite amusing. Either that or Masky's dagger idea...
VP: Yeah - I'm tempted to get some cool false teeth. Perhaps brushed steel ones or some kind of glow-in-the-dark material. It's caught on for contact lenses, so why not teeth?
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If he keeps on about it suggest that if he wants you available out of work hours that you put something down in writing, i.e. an out of hours contractual agreement stating what degree of support he expects you to provide and what form/amount of remuneration you'll get, i.e. time off in lieu or cold hard cash, if the prospect of having to shell out for the privilege doesn't put him off then he's obviously fairly set on the idea so you might as well get paid for it. At the end of the day if your contract doesn't stipulate that you be reachable at all times then he has no right to expect you to give your time for free, I've been in the same situation myself and if you give an inch they really will take a mile (and the p*ss).
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Hang on... You told him you were going to the dentist and then he was surprised that your mobile was turned off? I'd have been more surprised if it had been turned on, what with you not being allowed to have your phone on in the dental surgery and everything...
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turbo
Gold..... What is it good for? You can't eat it, you can't smoke it, yet everybody wants it.
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quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: There's no obligation to have a mobile phone is there - it's just assumed that you have one. I wish I'd never given them my number.
It's your own private mobile??? Surely that's only for emergencies? If you really need to be reached when you're out of the office, they should supply you with a work mobile. My colleagues have my home/private mobile numbers and they've only ever been used in real emergencies. I think it's rude to phone people on a holiday when it's not a dire emergency.
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quote:Originally posted by Louise: not being allowed to have your phone on in the dental surgery and everything...
W-what actually happens if someone leaves their mobile switched on in the dentist's? Does the drill suddenly get a mind of its own and go straight through the patient's jaw while the big lamp spins round and decapitates the assistant and the x-ray machine repeatedly fires at the dentist's head until he's a radiation zombie with wild eyes and hair standing on end and a need to eat brains? Or does nothing at all actually happen and they just don't like mobiles? Out of interest.
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quote:Originally posted by dang65: W-what actually happens if someone leaves their mobile switched on in the dentist's? Does the drill suddenly get a mind of its own and go straight through the patient's jaw while the big lamp spins round and decapitates the assistant and the x-ray machine repeatedly fires at the dentist's head until he's a radiation zombie with wild eyes and hair standing on end and a need to eat brains? Or does nothing at all actually happen and they just don't like mobiles? Out of interest.
Ring me at 3:45pm tomorrow and I'll let you know. Edit: ...if I'm still alive.
quote:Originally posted by Louise: Hang on... You told him you were going to the dentist and then he was surprised that your mobile was turned off? I'd have been more surprised if it had been turned on, what with you not being allowed to have your phone on in the dental surgery and everything...
Louise's 'clever' sarcasm here was totally lost on me, as I haven't been to the dentist since mobile phone became commonplace.
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turbo
Gold..... What is it good for? You can't eat it, you can't smoke it, yet everybody wants it.
posted
Please post your findings on here as my GP's surgery also won't allow mobiles and I don't particularly want to be killed or maimed if I unwittingly forget to switch mine off one day...
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quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: ...I haven't been to the dentist since mobile phone became commonplace.
You really should, dude. I skipped the dentist for a decade and as a result, I was up for 4 (four) extractions and 12 (twelve) fillings. Also, dental nurses = worth the pain.
(I made the 'really' bold and italic to emphasize the point)
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I don't think any machinery will go berserk and try to kill and/or maim anyone within the vicinity, but sometimes the signal can interfere with some of the stuff and stop it functioning smoothly. It's not such a crisis in GP surgeries and dentist surgeries, but in hospitals they can cause bigger problems. If you've ever listened to a tape walkman (not sure whether it works with CDs or MDs) when someone gets a text message, you can always hear a disruption in the sound. Now imagine what happens if you try receiving a text next to a life support machine, and you can begin to get the picture.
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quote:Originally posted by Louise: Now imagine what happens if you try receiving a text next to a life support machine, and you can begin to get the picture.
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