Employee On Vacation Stumped After Discovering New Boss Still Expects Them To Keep Working

February 23, 2022, 6:44 am

Employers in certain parts of the world, but especially North America, have gotten so out of control when it comes to expecting their employees’ worlds to revolve around work that when you actually step back and look at some of the things they expect, it’s beyond outrageous.

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One Redditor reminded us of just how wild capitalist expectations are after sharing a post to the platform’s Am I The A**hole forum, anxious about an issue with their new boss.

The user noted that they had scheduled a single week of vacation to go visit their sister and her new baby, but shortly before they left, they wound up getting a promotion at the company where they have worked for the past two and a half years. They could already tell their new supervisor was irked at the upcoming time off, but they didn’t cancel their trip even when asked.

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“Monday when I got to the airport I turned off my work phone,” they wrote, adding that they spent the rest of the week busy and catching up with family. “Today we are having a lazy day and I decided to flip my work phone on to see if I had any emails to start prepping for next week. I had 20 voicemails and hundreds of messages and emails with over half of them being from my manager demanding [to know] why I hadn’t zoomed in for meetings and why I wasn’t reachable.”

According to the Redditor, their supervisor’s messages became more and more aggressive, flat out saying that the only reason they could possibly have for being so unavailable would be if they were in the hospital and threatening their job.

Ultimately, what the user wanted to know is if they were a jerk for keeping their work phone off and it was typical to be expected to work during vacation.

“When I was in the other department days off meant days off so I’m just scared I’m missing something and [being] a huge a**hole to my boss and team,” they concluded.

Commenters wasted zero time in blasting the boss and reassuring the Redditor that they should not be working on their vacation days — period.

Trying to make acquiescence to exploitation a positive personality trait is disgusting!

— Elle Em (@ellle_em) February 21, 2022

and you can imagine how much I got retaliated against for ignoring work calls when I’m not at work.
Legally they shouldn’t be able to, but it happens and how are you going to prove discrimination when the effects were slight?

— The Greatest Whoop (@mimesatwork) February 21, 2022

It eventually crossed a line with me and I had the conversations and put a stop to it. There’s a world of difference between “hey, can you tell me where this file is” and “we want you to sit in on this meeting and it will affect your career if you don’t” and the latter is poison.

— steve (@spsnomad) February 21, 2022

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The frustrated employee jumped back into the conversation to say they were turning their phone back off for their final day of vacation and would update everyone when they figured out how to deal with the issue at hand. But the fact that it’s an issue at all — and one far too many people in the comments could relate to — is definitely a problem that’s only going to get worse until there’s a safety net for employees to quit miserable jobs without immediately struggling to survive. 

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*First Published: February 23, 2022, 6:44 am