'Put in a leave? Sure': Hybrid employee gets denied a WFH day while she's under-the-weather, scores a restful day off while the department scrambles

Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor

Jul 20, 2024 6:00 PM EDT

There are pros and cons to working from home.

For starters, when you work from home, your commute is far easier, shortening a 1-hour drive in bumper-to-bumper traffic to a very manageable, 5-second slipper shuffle down the hall. You can wear pajama pants all day and your managers will be none the wiser. And your favorite coworker just became your fur baby who gives you doggie cuddles and snoot boops in between meetings!

This all sounds lovely until the first time you get sick. The biggest downside of working from home is that sick days are a thing of the past. Although your brain may be fried from the NyQuil you've been sipping to lower your temperature, most managers won't accept your 103 fever as an excuse to get out of your workload. But then again, this is a single 'con' to a long list of 'pros'.

Unfortunately for hybrid employees, they're usually the workers caught in limbo, catching the 'cons' from everyone's workplace pro/con list. The Redditor in our next story recently shared a tale from her own workplace, lamenting over the absurdities of remote work and a hybrid schedule, while using company policy to her advantage. Looks like this employee created her own new list of 'pros', and a win for hybrid employees everywhere–not to mention the free day off that she enjoyed. Keep scrolling for all the details of this workplace's malicious compliance.