'I was told that I wouldn't get the increased pay': Employee gets written up while filling in for boss, boss gets upset when they "write them" back

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Aug 25, 2023 12:00 PM EDT

Filling in for your boss can be an enlightening experience and open you up to the opportunity for new growth, learning, and perspective. It shows you all of the administrative things that your boss might handle that help shape their own approach to things and that, while they have more oversight, they might not have as much insight into every detail you handle in your role.

Usually, this will be done as a favor to your boss, assuring them that at least someone is looking out for their role and tasks while they're away, providing continuity of operations. Besides, there's nothing worse than returning from leave to find that none of your tasks have been touched and piled up while you were gone.

Of course, there will always be tasks you might not be familiar with when doing something for the first time, and you might expect, especially if you've never been trained on them or even shown them before, that you'd receive some understanding when you don't do it perfectly or when things don't go exactly according to plan.

There's the added fact that, when you're doing someone a favor, you'd probably expect thanks for that favor and that the person you're doing the favor for would be willing to overlook the fact that you didn't do things exactly as they would have done them.

This worker's direct supervisor asked them to work a position they were not trained for, assuring them that it was fine for just one day. But, when they forgot something minor, they were written up and told they wouldn't receive the increased pay that they had been promised for the shift. The worker requested written confirmation of increased pay and formal training before working the position again but was told this was unreasonable—and to follow instructions without pushback.

They shared their experience with a popular online community for employment discussion, sharing their story with the popular community and getting reader's advice and feedback on the situation.

See screenshots of their original post below, along with a selection of responses.