'Not happening, I'm going home': Senior employee quits, leaving company in the dust after manager writes him up for not working on day off

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
Mar 17, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

One dude named Steve was a hardworking employee who went above and beyond for his company. He ended up working there a long time… 10 years, in fact. After so much time, Steve was the most senior employee outside of management, and also the best at what he did. What happened? What always happens. A micromanager who couldn't appreciate a good employee, and had to make the office feel like detention. Even though Steve was training new hires, working extra hours, and helping out with other departments, his manager felt entitled to 'more'. What did that entail? Well, he expected Steve to work on his days off… Completely obliterating the meaning of having a day off.

One thing led to another, and before the manager knew what had hit him, Steve had quit, leaving the company and his manager, in the dust. From there, things got way, way worse. Check out what happened down below, and then for more stories like this, here is a manager who schooled their employee who was consistently 3 hours late due to getting her nails done…

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  • 01
    Boss: Get back out there and do your job! Employee: Not happening, I'm going home.
    via Canva
  • 02
    Guess what happens when you write up your best employee after he came in to help on his day off
    via u/Go-daddio
  • 03
    My buddy Steve has worked at a small business for over 10 years. Most of his time there has been pretty alright but recently it has become a remarkably worse place to work. Steve is the most senior employee outside of management and by far the most productive. He's always training new hires, working extra hours, helping other departments, you name it. Pretty often, Steve will come in for a couple hours on his day off to take care of backed up paperwork and general housekeeping of his department.
    via u/Go-daddio
  • 04
    Going into the holidays this year, they are absolutely slammed, as usual. Orders are backing up and it's all hands on deck, extra hours, full tilt. After another 60 hour work week, Steve has a couple days off. On his 2nd day off, he decides to go into work for a few hours. He knows his coworkers are likely too busy to be taking care of the side stuff, so he's being a team player and helping out. While he's finishing up and about to leave, Steve's manager comes up to him and they have the followi
    via u/Go-daddio
  • 05
    "Hey Steve, quit messing around, get back out there and do your job" Steve replies "Hey Manager, sorry, its my day off, I'm not scheduled to work this shift. I'm just helping out, leaving in like 5 min." Manager replies "The hell you are, get your there." out Steve says, "Nope, not happening. I'm going home."
    via u/Go-daddio
  • 06
    The next day, Steve is predictably brought into the office, dressed down, and written up for insubordination. But there's a few things about Steve that you should know, that his employers knew but either forgot or didn't care about. 1. Steve has been getting fed up with his employer for a while now. 2. Steve is quite financially stable, as he works in a high-demand industry, and his wife also has a fantastic well paying job. 3. Steve is about to become a dad. In fact, he is very very close to be
    via u/Go-daddio
  • 07
    So, Steve is in the manager's office, just finished getting talked down to, and handed his write up to sign. Steve signs his write up, and hands it back, along with an envelope with a short letter inside. "What's this?" manager asks. "My two weeks notice." Cue the backpeddling. Manager is apologetic, asks for Steve to at least finish the holiday rush, big boss comes in and offers a raise if he stays, the whole shebang. Steve turns it all down.
    via u/Go-daddio
  • 08
    Now Steve's former employer has to get through the holidays without their most reliable worker, which will take at least 2 or 3 new hires to cover. Meanwhile, Steve can enjoy the holidays without stress, help prepare for the arrival of their baby, and start looking for work again when they're good and ready. EDIT: Obligatory "Wow this post blew up" reaction. Some clarification: Steve's position is hourly, and he got overtime pay for the extra hours. The stuff he worked on during these extra hour
    via u/Go-daddio
  • 09
    did it. There used to be a good team vibe in the company from top to bottom, coworkers who were genuinely friends and good teammates, so going the extra mile made a good thing even better. Not so much towards the end. Also, giving his two weeks instead of quitting on the spot was a combination of professional courtesy and also giving his coworkers enough warning to not completely blindside and bury them.
    via u/Go-daddio
  • 10
    mamachonk 1 yr. ago I got written up at a job -10 years ago. I was one of their top 3 performers, and not particularly well paid for it already. I got put on a performance plan because they didn't think I was "on the phone enough"--I called people but I also used e-mail instead when I thought it was more appropriate. I was flabbergasted but signed it, went back to my desk, and had a realization: I could get another job pretty easily, they were going to be put out for a good while trying to repla
    via u/mamachonk
  • 11
    They lost a couple more people shortly thereafter and wound up changing/upping the commission calculations for that position. I got a much better job I stayed at for 6 years. 1.5k Reply Share dw796341 1 yr. ago Just yesterday I had a situation where I needed to prove I made a request. Naturally easy for me because I sent an email. I don't want my phone blowing up all day, I assume my clients don't either. That simple email proof saved us $2000 on a $5000 little job. 512 Reply Share
    via u/dw796431
  • 12
    a_Speck_o_Dust 1 yr. ago This makes me so happy. Good for Steve! 4.6k Reply Share they_are_out_there . 1 yr. ago Hire competent people, trust and respect them to do the job right, give them pay raises and bonuses to keep them happy and productive, and offer profit sharing as a partner when they hit 10 years. You are insane if you mistreat hard workers. You want to keep them and not lose them to your competition. You want to reward them so everyone can profit, which will keep your business shinin
    via u/a_Speck_o_Dust, u/they_are_out_there
  • 13
    Props to Steve, he'll go where he's wanted and needed. 1.1k Reply Share Nostrildu 9.1 yr. ago The true sign of good management is hire the right people who are smarter than you to do the job. 213 Reply Share Yoshi_XD 1 yr. ago Even better would be management knowing how to do the job well enough to recognize the right people who can do it better.
    via u/Nostrildu9, u/Yoshi_XD
  • 14
    tsg79nj 1 yr. ago Sometimes managers forget that "don't bite the hand that feeds you" works from the top down just as much as it does from the bottom up. 3.6k Reply Share Strix780 1 yr. ago Or, to paraphrase: loyalty works both ways. I've had bosses who never understood that. They were not good bosses. 2.1k Reply Share
    via u/tag70nj, u/Strix780
  • 15
    PRMan99 1 yr. ago I only got written up twice (2 different jobs), but the second time they were absolutely shocked when I quit a couple weeks later. I said, out loud in front of everyone, "Well, you made it really clear that my performance wasn't to your expectations when you wrote me up, so I'm just doing us both a favor." In the followup meeting where they asked what they could do to keep me, I said, "Nothing. Now that you have written me up, there's a mark on my record and that's just too uns
    via u/PRMan99
  • 16
    Claydameyer 1 yr. ago Yet another example that people don't quit jobs, they quit managers. 611 Reply Share vaporking23 1 yr. ago Bad managers make good employees leave. I left my last position cause of my manager as four people followed me within a year of leaving cause I wasn't there to compensate for how the manager was. 84 Reply Share ...
    via u/Claydameyer, u/vaporking23
  • 17
    zembriski 1 yr. ago I'll never forget the last shift I threw pizza. Saturday night in a college town and we were completely slammed. Gluten-free was in its most "fad" state at the time, but since we knew it was also a real thing, we treated it like any other allergy; this meant a new apron, full arm scrub to the elbows (because flour) new gloves, into the prep kitchen with ingredients specifically prepped for GF, etc. etc. It wasn't the end-all-be-all of extra work, but on a busy night, it reall
    via u/zembriski
  • 18
    regular, and with the added time to wash and everything, I was way behind in total pies made (which is apparently a metric they tracked... not that we were particularly aware of the fact at the time). Anyway, I'm set to open the next day, so I jump off the line a bit before close and make sure the dishes are caught up and clock out right as we close... just like every other turnaround. So the next day rolls around, I open up and get started opening up the kitchen to get ready for lunch, and our
    via u/zembriski
  • 19
    are good to go and he doesn't have anything to worry about helping with in the kitchen, which is usually what he'd be doing first thing. His response: "Yeah, you're king it on these openings, but we've really gotta get your throwing up to speed. You were way behind everyone else last night." This who stood on the same line throwing dough, who even commented about how crazy it was that all the GF orders were landing on me, now has the to walk in here and tell his second-best kitchen worker to tig
    via u/zembriski
  • 20
    like "Yeah, I guess so." Anyway, I finished my smoke, lit another, and when the other kitchen guy got there (old- timer who absolutely ran that place but had recently been threatening to quit over the same GM), I asked if he could handle it on his own that shift; when he said sure, I gave him my apron and told him to tell GM that I was gonna be shorter on my notice than I was on pies the night before. Found out old-timer quit later that day after GM lost it on him during that shift. We got toget
    via u/zembriski
  • 21
    Sure Income 1 yr. ago I just recently did something like this. A few days ago, my boss calls me, literally screaming at me for something that I had no idea about, and had no control over. She's carrying on, screaming and yelling over me, while I'm trying to figure out wtf is going on. Then she says "you need to do better!" So I did. I got a new job yesterday that pays more. I would come in and work OT on my days off. I trained new employees, and would stay late. I never called out, and would oft
    via u/Sure_Income

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management salary boss two weeks notice day off micromanager small business job workplace stories reddit best employee raise write up payment work shift senior employee quitting
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