I’m a Brit working in the US and I’m going back to UK for the first time in a couple of years.
I work in finance; last week my manager called us in to a team meeting and told us that my company is shutting down for 2 weeks.
However, I booked vacation time at exactly the same time a couple of weeks beforehand; I had no idea that the company would be shut down at that time.
He said that there’s some stuff which needs to be tied up during the shut down, so he asks everybody if they’re willing to work from home during the enforced shutdown. They all say yes, cos they would have been at work anyway. Then he says SomeBodyUK, “I know you’re going to UK, but you can also do some work right?”. I said “no - cos I booked off a personal holiday and I’m gonna be really busy my family”. Then he said to make sure somebody covers for me whilst I’m away and I said “sure”.
Later he comes to my cubicle and asks me if I’m taking my laptop to UK again, I said no again.
The way I see it, if I’m not in the office, then that’s my personal time, and he’s got no business even talking to me about what I do when I’m not in the office
BTW 2 of my coworkers recently took 2 week breaks off work within the last month, and they were not contacted by anybody in those 2 weeks. They’ve made quite plain that their vacation time is their vacation time, and they don’t want to hear from anybody from work.
He’s under stress to make sure everything is shut down correctly. You’re not obligated but if my company was in the crunch and needed me to step up I would probably do it. Being a non-team player in times of emergency is not a good career advancement move.
All of the above is predicated on the assumption that this is a job that you like and it is important to you. If it’s not, then the above advice does not apply.
If you bring your laptop to the U.K., you may have to pay import duty. You might also want to check up on rules about importing and exporting data. Laptops are also high-theft items over here.
Pretty much what astro said. I do however, have a hijack question, which is about your use of “taking the piss.” My Brit friends use that to mean making fun of someone/thing. Is it commonly used to mean out of line as well?
The UK makes you pay for your personal carry-on items? Cross that off the list of places I want to visit…
Yep taking the piss is “making fun of”, but what I think sombodyUK is asking is whether the manager is trying to wind him up or out of line…and yes I have had managers that would both use this opportunity as a wind up, but the even more cruel that would use it as a “test” of my commitment (ala Sarah Palin?)
This is highly unlikely. I have travelled all over with my work and personal laptops, on business and pleasure respectively, and have never encountered such a thing.
Ditto here. In fact I’ve travelled between France and the UK on a highly regular basis and have never had to do such a thing. Heck, I’ve even travelled between the US and UK, with my obviously French laptop and never had to pay duty. You may have to pay duty if you buy one from overseas, yes, but if its your own or your workplace’s in-use laptop then there is no such levy.
I’d agree if the OP hadn’t already requested and been approved for vacation. Sounds like the manager was soliciting volunteers to work from home, and everyone agreed simply because they had been planning to work anyway. The OP wasn’t planning to work for those two weeks, and unless the manager wants to cancel his approved vacation time, he has no business pressuring him to do any work for those two weeks.
There’s a difference between being a team player and letting work dictate your life. I can’t say whether I’d step up to help or not–but if I was planning to take two weeks to be out of the country, I’m leaning towards no. IMO, the manager was wrong to ask more than once.
I think it only applies if you’re bringing it to the UK for good. Import tax, same as everything else. Doesn’t count if you are taking it back to the US in two weeks.
In my experience, they rarely ask for proof of UK tax paid on laptops anyway, unless it’s very obviously brand new.
Many of my users have had to pay it, especially ones with top-end laptops. When taking expensive equipment - not just PCs - out of the U.K., you’re supposed to fill in this form (and get it stamped by Customs when you leave) so that Customs know to not charge import duty when you bring it back. I’m assuming the OP’s laptop is American. I didn’t wade through all of it but this may be relevant.
To elaborate further, to my understanding it’s actually the same thing - “my manager is taking the piss” means that my manager is metaphorically making fun of me by creating circumstances that are rubbish.
“I ent being funny or nuffink, but that’s takin’ the piss!” The circumstances are so absurd that they’re making fun of [something].
You’re on vacation so this is a load of crap. I take it the others are still being paid normal salary to work at home, if not it’s highly illegal to have them work.
From a management standpoint, short of an emergency I think that his boss should have just sucked it up and figured out another way to get the work done. Canceling pre-scheduled vacation or expecting someone to work through it is bad form and doesn’t make for good relationships with your staff. To some extent it reflects poor planning on his boss’s side because he should have factored things like vacations and unexpected sick time into the schedule.
That said, I agree with astro that if this job matters to you and you want to advance then the team player aspect is important. How much work is he expecting you to do?
**take the piss ** Vrb phrs. 1. To ridicule, to tease, to make fun off. Cf. ‘extract the urine’.
2. To take advantage of, to exploit. E.g."Just because they like looking after their grand children, doesn’t mean you can dump the kids on them every weekend whilst you go out clubbing. That’s just taking the piss
I don’t think that’s true if they’re salaried exempt. But if I were an employee and I wasn’t getting paid for those two weeks, no way in hell would I work.
You’re going on holiday. The manager was out of line to ask you to work.
Good grief! I read this thread twice thinking it said “shutting down in two weeks”, not “for two weeks”. It sounded like a truly dedicated group of employees, given those circumstances!
Now that I understand better, your manager was way out of line. Sometimes we work extra hours, I understand that, but formal vacation time is off limits, especially when it is booked and agreed upon in advance. He should not have asked you to do this.
Unfortunately, at our company it’s not in the least unusual for people to have to work during their vacations during critical periods. Last May my coworker went back to see his family in Illinois for a week – he spent the whole week over there working on an urgent problem that suddenly came up.
On the other hand we do get extensive recognition and comp time when that happens.
As astro mentioned above, it really depends on what your position in the company is and how important this job is to your career.