'I wasn't going to sign something that wasn't my fault': Micromanager tries to shame barista for leaving work due to family emergency despite advanced warning

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Oct 31, 2024 4:00 PM EDT

It should come as no surprise to any manager that every once in a while, someone on your team is going to need to call out sick or miss work because of unforeseen circumstances. If the team is well-managed, things should be fine, nothing should implode, and it should be pretty easy to find another coworker to temporarily pick up the slack if necessary.

However, if the team is not well-managed, it's easy for everything to fall apart and for the flaws in management to become grossly apparent. Here, we have a barista who gave his manager plenty of advanced notice that they would need to be out of town for a few days to attend a family member's memorial service. Things seemed to be fine until the barista returned to work after those days off, only to receive a warning from their general manager for not finding a replacement. Of course, finding coverage was not expressly written in the barista's contract under these circumstances and, since he was told in advance that everything would be okay if he took the days off, the barista refused to sign the warning. This ultimately moved up the chain of command, and because the barista stood his ground the whole way through, it was the general manager who ended up taking the fall.

Keep scrolling below for the full story. For more, check out this post about a new employee who was ghosted on day one of the job.

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    AITA for not letting my boss give me a warning?
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    This happened this fall, I don't think am I the AH but my co-workers are telling me otherwise. So, I'm posting this to get an outside perspective on the whole situation.
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    Within the year we had seen three general store managers, in short, this store is a mess. My family is from out of country, thus when an emergency happens, we have make plans quickly. My uncle
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    passed away due to the vs, we found out late about 11:00 pm that night. The next day I told my GSM that my family had a passing, we didn't have a day for the funeral
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    yet, but I'll need to take some days off and I'll keep his updated. He thanked me, that was where we left it off for the next week.
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    As soon as my cousin told me when the funeral date was, my mother and I bought tickets and I told my GSM and the other managers at the café.
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    Even texted them the days I won't be available to work. When said week schedule was posted tell me why the exact days I asked off, I was scheduled? The first
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    thing I did was texted the GSM asking his why I was working on those days, he apologized and say it will be fixed and not to worry about it.
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    Thinking everything was ordered my mother and I went to our home country buried my uncle. Why on the first day I returned to work my GSM tried to write me up for the missing days and not
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    trying to find coverage, I refused to sign it. For two reasons I've given him the date weeks in advance, two you said 'I'll it'll be fixed and not to worry about'
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    Ever since that encounter the GSM and I haven't been in good standing with each others; the district manager had been coming to our café
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    more often. One day they called me into a meeting about my file, the DM asked me why I have an unsigned warning?
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    Looking straight at my GSM I told the DM I wasn't going to sign something that wasn't my fault. DM said it read 'employee missed several days without calling in or attempting to find coverage' calmly I told
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    the DM that I asked for those days off because of a family emergency. GSM seemed a bit smug seeing the DM about to chew me about, the DM asked if I had any proof I
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    said 'yes' and pulled out my phone with all the text between the GSM and me. The DM read the messages and turned to look at my GSM, I was sent back to work.
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    The next day everyone had to sign a printout of the employee handbook the section was about asking for time off.
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    Reading through it I stopped at one bullet point saying 'if the employee has a family or health emergency it was up to GSM to find coverage. But soon after
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    the some of my co- workers started to give me the cold shoulder, saying I should have just sucked it up and take the warning. Because now the DM is down our GSM back making his stress
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    thus making us stressed because he started to micromanage everything that's going on in the café. It's making our whole workplace toxic,
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    and no one is happy when GSM is on shift, I do feel bad and it's getting to me now.
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    cautiou... Absolutely NTA. The responsibility for a healthy work environment is on the GSM, not you. Good on you for saving those texts! 3.8K
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    Initial_... NTA. Your co workers are for saying you are. You are not making a "toxic" work environment, You're boss and staff are already toxic to begin with.
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    trjr102 NTA. Your GSM is just a stty manager trying to put the blame on you for not doing their job for them...
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    You had a family emergency, you went through all the procedures necessary, and even had proof of such. In
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    your handbook it even stated that it was the GSM'S responsibility. I completely agree that the warning was bs and you shouldn't have "sucked it up and taken it."
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terrible coworkers boss aita workplace-stories toxic-workplace work coworkers toxic-boss Horrible Bosses reddit thread Reddit toxic-work-environment
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