‘I gave my answer and that’s that’: Employee refuses boss’s insulting request to stay late to paint the office

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Nov 4, 2024 8:00 AM EST

If it's not within your job description, you should have a right to say no. This employee was not a professional painter by any means, and yet, his boss seemed to have the audacity to ask him to stay late to paint the office before the owners came to visit. Now, at the very least, he offered overtime pay, but he even suggested that the Redditor bring his wife so she could be another set of hands as well (mind you, the original poster's wife is not an employee there).

Thankfully, OP had enough confidence to decline his boss's "generous offer," only to learn that it was not much of an offer and more of a demand. The good news is OP continued to stand his ground, as he understood the notion that his boss could enforce something like this out of nowhere was preposterous. 

Keep scrolling below to see the boss's reaction. For more stories like this, feel free to take a look at this post about a micromanager who tried to shame his employee for having to take off work due to a family emergency.

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    Cheezburger Image 10423359232
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    Boss tries to make me to work overtime to paint the office, even offered to let my wife help
    via samuraijak1337
  • 03
    Sunday morning my wife and I were chilling playing some video games. I get a text from my boss, keep in mind my wife also works in the same place. Also my job has absolutely nothing to do with painting, I work in tooling in a plastics factory.
    via samuraijak1337
  • 04
    "Just a heads up tomorrow and Tuesday they are going to need help painting so they are asking that if you could stay from 315 to 6. You can have the OT and help them paint before the owners come.
    via samuraijak1337
  • 05
    If your wife wants to paint and get overtime as well she can do that so she's not just waiting around on you."
    via samuraijak1337
  • 06
    I answered him: "I don't really need the overtime, so no thanks." Then it turns from a request to being mandatory.
    via samuraijak1337
  • 07
    "I don't think it's an option. I'm just saying they're not going to ask you to leave early. They need help before owners come. Plan on tomorrow and Tuesday painting. Sorry they don't ask very often"
    via samuraijak1337
  • 08
    I never even replied to the last text, I gave my answer and that's that. I get to work yesterday and get asked in the morning about the painting after work by the plant manager. I reply that I will not be staying to paint.
    via samuraijak1337
  • 09
    "What about tomorrow and Wednesday?" "I will not be staying to paint at all this week" "Can I ask why?" "Because I don't want to"
    via samuraijak1337
  • 10
    Manager has no idea how to handle this. His face gets all red and you can tell he wants to yell at me. But he can't find a real reason to, besides the fact that I said no to something that should not even have been asked of me.
    via samuraijak1337
  • 11
    They waited until the last minute to try to get the shop clean and painted before the owners show up. You guys f around and found out, deal with it.
    via samuraijak1337
  • 12
    Gayspacecrow 3 hr. ago Fhim, he can paint.
    via samuraijak1337
  • 13
    mikemojc 2 hr. ago I had a boss that wanted me to work overtime to hanging drywall and mudding/taping. Let me know it wasnt an option, would be 12 hours on Saturday, my day off. I
    via samuraijak1337
  • 14
    showed up, was me and one of my coworkers, no boss in sight. Neither of us knew how to do drywall.
    via samuraijak1337
  • 15
    He showed up 6 hours later, mad as once he saw the quality of our 'work'. F him.
    via samuraijak1337
  • 16
    quakietree 3 hr. ago Something similar to this was the final straw that made me quit my last job. We were moving locations, and my boss's husband sent an email to all staff abusing us for not spending more time renovating the new building.
    via samuraijak1337
  • 17
    (The "new" place is a total dump -- build over a century ago, falling apart, had to be decontaminated from ☐, has sagging floors, lead paint, etc.)
    via samuraijak1337
  • 18
    We're wildlife rehabilitators, FYI...we were spending our time taking care of the animal patients we still had. I don't know how to renovate a ...) building. But he said we
    via samuraijak1337
  • 19
    were sitting on our and weren't earning our paychecks, blah blah, so I told him to go ahead and use my wages to hire someone who could paint the f walls.
    via samuraijak1337
  • 20
    Danymity831 3 hr. ago Cheap, tight company needed to hire professionals to paint. smh....
    via samuraijak1337
  • 21
    samuraijak1337 OP 2 hr. ago Exactly, for one, you're too f cheap to hire the right people to do it.
    via samuraijak1337
  • 22
    But you waited until two days before the owners were coming in to try and get it done. Then tried to make it my problem. Nah I'm good
    via samuraijak1337
  • 23
    (日) massachrisone 2 hr. ago My old job made me do this cause the quote for painters was too high. I took my sweet time making sure I took 10x longer than it should and that they were paying me more than the painters.
    via samuraijak1337
  • 24
    When my manager got it took so much longer and the cost was so much more than hiring painters he asked what the problem was. Told him I wasn't a professional painter. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
    via samuraijak1337

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