A woman who’s worked at the same job for more than seven years has noticed a frustrating new pattern. Her newer managers keep contacting her emergency contacts to ask about her availability for shifts.
Sometimes they even schedule her based on those messages without hearing back from her or her contacts. It’s happening so often now that she’s starting to wonder whether she’s being singled out.
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Seven Years at the Same Job
She’s been with her employer for over seven years. In that time, she’s built experience and knows how things run.
Her contact information has always been on file, and she’s careful about keeping it current. That’s why the recent situation feels so strange.
A Revolving Door of Managers
Over the past year, management has changed several times. At least three new managers have come in.
With each new manager, processes seem to shift. Lately, one of those changes has involved how they reach her.
Messages to the Wrong Person
Instead of contacting her directly, managers have started messaging her emergency contacts. They ask whether she’s available for a shift as if those people are her personal scheduling assistants.
It happened once or twice in the past. Now it’s becoming a regular habit, and she’s the only person at work it seems to be happening to.
A Night-Shift Contact Woken Up
One of her emergency contacts works overnight at a hospital, from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Managers have messaged that contact around 8 p.m., when they’re usually resting before a long shift.
For someone working nights, sleep is essential. Interruptions can make it harder to stay alert during demanding work that involves patient care.
Shifts Added Without Notice
In some cases, managers have scheduled her for shifts without hearing back from her or her emergency contact. She ends up rostered without any notice.
That can create real problems. If she doesn’t know about a shift, she could miss it, potentially facing discipline, lost pay, or damage to her reputation at work.
It can also affect her personal life. Unexpected shifts can interfere with other plans, appointments, or responsibilities, and changing them at the last minute may cost her time or money.
Up-to-Date Details Ignored
She made sure her information was correct. Just two days ago, she checked her employee portal to confirm her contact details and her emergency contacts were up to date.
Everything was accurate. Managers still chose to bypass her and reach out to her emergency contacts instead.
A Medical History That Matters
Having a reliable emergency contact is especially important to her. She has a medical history that makes it necessary for someone to be reachable if something serious happens.
She hasn’t had a related emergency in several years, but she still wants that safety net in place. That’s why misuse of her emergency contacts feels so frustrating.
Blocking Work or Pushing Back
She’s considered asking her hospital-working contact to block her employer’s number. But doing that could backfire if her workplace ever needs to reach someone during an actual emergency.
She believes there must be rules against using emergency contacts this way. For now, she’s trying to figure out how to stop it without losing the safety net she needs, and whether it’s time to push back on managers who seem to have forgotten what an emergency contact is for.
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