I'm not your mom

There were some recent internal changes at my job, and a couple of clients were reassigned to me. Not new clients, but new to me. Not a big deal. It took me some time to familiarize myself with the client expectations, plug the routine, high-priority follow-ups into my calendar, but I otherwise moved on with my normal day-to-day grind. For context, these particular clients have a small handful of people working for them through my company, and based on the file, they are low-maintenance, low-need contractors, which are nice to have when I normally deal with high-need, high-maintenance people on a regular basis.

Little did I know.

I was out of the office for several days around a holiday and received an email  about one of the contractors at one of these new clients. The contractor had called in to follow up on a voicemail she left in the early-morning hours regarding not being able to make it to work. Early-morning hours on a date when only she and a shall-remain-unnamed big guy with a beard and a herd of reindeer were awake, mind you.

[Sidebar: yes, I check my email on my time off because I don't like coming back to hundreds of emails that require “immediate” review upon return to work.]

Apparently, this woman was extremely upset that she never got a call back from anyone to follow up on her voicemail and check in on her to make sure she was okay. She's been a contractor for 10-plus years with us, and that has 'never happened.' Oh, by the way, she was also miffed that her account manager had changed and nobody informed her. She didn't request to be moved to another account manager. What if something happens to her? Who is she supposed to contact?

My coworker (poor soul) kindly informed her that her voicemail was, in fact, received, and her supervisor was notified that she would be out. The coworker went on to tell the contractor that it shouldn't much matter who her account manager is because nothing on her (the contractor's) end was changing at all. Her assignment was staying the same. The contact information that she had (phone number and email address) for our company was staying the same. Nothing was changing that she needed to specifically know. And, after her 10-plus years of being a contractor with us, she's had several account manager changes (at least three), most of which she probably never knew about, so there wasn't anything imperative of which she needed to be informed.

I gather the lady wasn't very happy with my coworker by the end of the call.

[Sidebar: who the heck just wants to be a contractor for 10+ years? I mean, good for her for not needing insurance, PTO, a pay raise, whatever, but still...Argh. I’m judging. I get it. Don’t leave a nasty comment. I’m done judging.]

Here's a thought: I'm not your mother. You called in to work? Ok. Do I care? Nope. Not beyond a vague thought that it was good you were a grown-up and let someone know you weren’t showing up that day, that is. Am I going to check in on you to see how you're doing? Nope. Am I concerned that you're upset about that fact? Not in the least.

I don’t get paid to be both your friend and your account manager. Have a good day.