Your work questions answered: ‘I’m getting bombarded with out-of-hours requests. Can I expect retribution if I quietly quit?’

I work in pharma for a woman who spends her entire working hours in back-to-back meetings and is rarely available for guidance or response from 9 to 5, yet she logs back on in the evenings when it suits her and will bombard me with emails or texts with questions or requests.
It’s as if her day starts at 9pm and I am expected to be there too, despite me logging on and being available from 7am. I feel I am expected to respond asap, before her next meeting with someone else.
It’s stressful and exhausting and has a significant impact on my mental and physical health. I’m considering “quiet quitting”, and essentially doing what is expected of me under my contract/hours only. Is there any potential retribution for me doing this, or could I be prevented from advancement because I am not considered engaged enough in the business?
From a legal point of view, employees only have to work their contracted hours, and any retribution for refusing to work beyond those hours is illegal, says Damien McCarthy, founder and chief executive of consultancy firm HR Buddy.
Given that working practices and hours vary among employees and employers more than ever before, McCarthy advises confirming with the manager if messages outside of 9am-5pm must be responded to, as there could be a misunderstanding at play.
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“Because if they do have to reply and be available [outside those hours], clearly this is unreasonable. It does not provide them with their right to disconnect and possibly breaks the Organisation of Working Time Act,” he says.
When employees are contacted out of hours, they may feel obligated to reply, which creates an “unhealthy cycle”, he says, adding that it becomes an “unfair expectation on everyone’s part”.
He advises seeking a more positive situation with management, rather than going about quiet quitting, which “is not the best solution for anyone”, and looking to set boundaries in terms of working hours through a conversation.
“The much more reasonable scenario is that the manager can drop work queries to them at any given time, but they will address them during their working hours.
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“I would hope that their manager would see sense and realise that this practice is wrong and unfair to this individual, and seek to remedy the situation,” he says.
Quiet quitting can run through an organisation “like a disease”, affecting teams and leading to “toxic” employment relationships, and eventually affecting creativity, engagement and productivity, he says.
“If individuals in your organisation are thinking about quiet quitting, the first thing you need to do is admit that there is something wrong and then seek to address it and remedy it,” McCarthy says.
Although coined quiet quitting, Niamh Delmar, a counselling psychologist who provides workplace psychological support workshops to organisations, described the phrase as “unfair”, as it does not take into account the full picture.
Slowing down and doing the “bare minimum” is often the result of being overworked, demotivated or having challenges within an employee’s personal life, she says, leading to employees simply no longer having “much left to give”.
“If they are burnt out, it could be seen as quiet quitting, but really it’s just that they’re reaching the end of their tether,” she says.
Regular meetings, effective communication and flexible working conditions can help prevent burnout, which can be debilitating.
Among other warning signs, it can affect sleep and personal relationships and lead to low mood and general dissatisfaction with work.
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Burnout can also be caused by employees feeling as though they must go above and beyond at work to make a good impression, she says, which can be “detrimental”.
“There’s only so long that they can keep that pace up – and then the expectations are always going to be there that they’re at that pace, so if you drop it at all, it will be noticed,” she says.
In this reader’s case, Delmar advises setting healthy boundaries if requests outside of working hours are “relentless and ongoing”, adding that if this situation goes unchecked, employees going above and beyond can be taken advantage of.
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