A good relationship with a boss matters. As do the relationships with all your other colleagues. After all, these are the people we usually spend most of our day with. If not, we still have to regularly talk or correspond with them. So when the person that you have to answer to is a jerk, it can make your life difficult. Especially if they don’t respect your personal time off work.
This Redditor shared a story of how they were laid off because they refused to come in to work on a weekend off. The OP and the said boss had disagreements in the past, but this time, the OP stood their ground and refused to budge. What followed was an awkward conversation and a subsequent, possibly illegal, firing.
Bored Panda reached out to the author of this unfortunate story, and they were kind enough to tell us a bit more about it. Read our conversation with u/TylPlas26 below!
Drivers in the retail industry might sometimes need to go through company-organized courses
Image credits: Rawpixel / envatoelements (not the actual photo)
But this boss organized it on the weekend for some reason, and when an employee said they couldn’t come, decided to fire them
Image credits: LightFieldStudios / envatoelements (not the actual photo)
Image credits: sedrik2007 / envatoelements (not the actual photo)
Image credits: TylPlas26
The author of this story told Bored Panda more about how his previous workplace didn’t have a friendly environment
Image credits: Yan Krukau / pexels (not the actual photo)
The OP tells Bored Panda that he shared this story partly out of frustration and just wanted to vent. But he also wanted to make sure that he didn’t make the wrong next step. “I also hope my story can help be a warning to people,” the Redditor tells us. “That despite how hard of a worker you are, and how much they claim they value you, you are replaceable to them.”
The OP also told us more about what the unpleasant work environment at his last job was like. “[It] was up and down a lot,” the employee admits. “I had workers who I got along with and others who I butted heads with.” According to the Redditor, one colleague would “throw tantrums all the time,” and u/TylPlas26 has recounted these stories on other subreddits before.
“Another worker acted like a know-it-all,” the Redditor goes on. This individual would boss the OP around despite not having the same government training. “Luckily, I [ignored] him on that because a few things he suggested would actually be against the law [or were things] that would get me into a lot of trouble.”
“Another worker gave me the silent treatment a lot and was insulting me behind my back,” the Redditor tells us. There’s also a longer story with this individual, which the OP recounted for us as well.
“Last year, I had to have minor surgery. And there was a miscommunication on when I would return. So he was called in on the day they thought I was returning, which was his day off. After that, he started the silent treatments.”
“I don’t know where the miscommunication was. I suffer from a TBI (traumatic brain injury), so my memory can be off. So I don’t know if it was me who miscommunicated or [if] the staff heard me wrong.”
“But because of my TBI, I suffer from frequent and intense headaches that would keep me in bed the whole day. Every time I would call out [of] work sick because of one, this coworker would go back to giving me the silent treatment for a week or so,” the Redditor shares.
According to the OP, the boss was also not a dream manager
Image credits: RDNE Stock project / pexels (not the actual photo)
As for the OP’s boss, the Redditor says that he lacked communication skills. He had many more similar stories and shared one about a stolen day off. “He crossed out one of my vacation days without consulting me in any way within a week of my vacation starting, saying, ‘I didn’t realize how [short-staffed] we would be when I approved it. So I figured if you were still home, you could work it.'”
The boss also repeatedly demonstrated how he didn’t respect OP’s time and personal life. He tried to get the OP to make deliveries past his shift. “When I refused, he said he could do what I was gonna do that night while I do the delivery.” When the OP’s grandma went into surgery, the boss apparently wanted him back on the job the next day.
“He would always promise customer or friends deliveries from where I worked, without first checking to make sure it was possible,” the OP goes on. For some time, the author was also the only driver doing deliveries, but the boss didn’t have a problem assigning him more, even if his day was full.
A lot of these deliveries were also to the boss’ friends or family members – not sketchy at all. “He lacks any kind of leadership skills that a boss needs to possess,” the Redditor believes.
So, as a person working in retail for 15 years, the OP also has some wise words for people whose bosses take advantage of them. “Don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself,” he says. “If they demand for you to give up your regular time off, don’t.”
“If they don’t value your time off, it means they don’t value you as a person. They only see you as a body that’s helping [bring] money for them. Money comes first, employee lives and wellbeing are so far down their list, [it’s] virtually nonexistent to them,” the OP concludes.
The OP provided more context to the story in the comments
The commenters agreed that the boss was wrong, and they had some advice for the OP
