"I don't work 24/7": the reply of an employee harassed by a client during his breaks
Working hours must be respected, by both parties involved: the employee must clearly abide by their contract and with the work hours agreed upon; similarly, the employer should not take advantage of their position of power to ask the employee to work outside of the agreed hours. This is a delicate balance - especially for freelance workers, who, by not stamping a time card, can find themselves working "all the hours God sends" for their client employer (or the party they have contracted to). In reality, this is a common situation, even in some progressive companies, and young Iván Nava can testify to this with his story. Iván denounced and refused persistent requests from a client to work overtime sent via Twitter. The requests, and responses from the client were accompanied by insults and abuse - and, faced with this poor behaviour, the young employee did not remain silent.
One needs to know how to find the right compromise between work life and private life. One should try not to bring work home and neither should one bring one's personal problems to work. Of course, it's not always all black or white, but in general, a client or employer shouldn't feel they can speak rudely to an employee - especially if the requests they are making are for the employee to work overtime. A client named Francisco was evidently pestering Iván during a break, asking him to help him to clear up a business issue and overwhelming him with a flood of calls. Iván did not answer because he was on break, but when the messages from Francisco started to get abusive, Iván could not remain silent:
"Forgive me Francisco, but I don't work 24/7 and I ask you to please moderate your words and your tone. On some occasions we have had a problem because of your manner of treating people".
Iván then shared a screenshot of the messages he had had with Francisco on Twitter, garnering a large number of views and comments supporting him. He then added that following the incident, his boss also supported him in his resistance to the rude client and that he would drop him as a client: "A little while ago I spoke to the most important partner of the company I work for and he told me that I have his full support," he said in the updated post.
Ivan then wrote another statement about the incident: "I feel good about myself. I know that if I hadn't put an end to this person's behaviour, the rudeness and mistreatment would have increased, because it wasn't the first time he had done it. Nobody deserves to be treated like this".
It's hard not to fully support Ivan's approach, don't you think?
