Standing up for oneself at workplace.
I always receive calls from client outside of my working hours, during which it might be difficult for me to take their calls, because I will have other things to do. Have you heard work-life balance? I wanted to ask them always, but I refrain and politely answer every call. One day I couldnt pick the call when my client called at 7 PM as I was in GYM. He mailed me around 7:30 PM with my supervisor and boss in cc saying he tried reaching out to me, but I was not available. I decided to address this issue and called him to mention please call me during working hours. This irked him, he argued for a bit saying so if you are not available who should I call your supervisor, so I politely said to him “No, you have to call me only but in the working hours”. Then I sent a mail mentioning the same. He had sent a mail earlier asking for a discussion call at 2 PM, I dropped off the mail on top of it to clear the misunderstanding regarding the first line he wrote “ I was not available when he reached out” but he manipulated the mail and wrote back 2 PM is within the working hours, in reality I mentioned non working hour regarding the 7 PM call he made to me. My Boss however sent a mail to me with my supervisor in cc questioning my behaviour, I cleared it by mentioning the client was twisting my words, I asked him to not call me during non working hours cause he called me the day before at 7 PM, and that I was available all time during the working hours. I also pointed out that I used to take his calls earlier during non working hours and always we cannot do that because we will be engaged in other things. I mentioned to my boss and supervisor that even though I called the client and explained everything before sending the mail, still he twisted my words in reply mail. And lastly I told my supervisor and boss , I only addressed this issue because he mailed us saying I was not reachable, and that I was available all during working hours. After reading my explanation my boss told whenever from the client side they write you were not reachable and all, just ignore it. The Indian work culture has taught me that, when we address any wrong scenarios we would be questioned, and will be suggested to not address the issue just simply ignore it . The general way society deals with any issue is ignore instead of address. But I am happy that I stood for myself and my truth.
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