Boss pressures employee to respond to clients while on paternity leave, employee refuses, boss forced to leave: 'I didn't check my email for seven weeks'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Nov 24, 2024 8:00 AM EST

It's not easy saying no to your employer, but every so often, it's more than necessary to stand your ground. This is crucial for several reasons, but most of all, one needs to make sure one's employer understands the limitations of their so-called "control" and jurisdiction. It's one thing to draw mental boundaries between work and life, but it's even more challenging to make those essential boundaries known to your boss.

This employee was leaving the company for seven weeks for paternity leave. This time off was approved and well-planned, but right before the period began, this horrible boss tried to pressure the Redditor to answer clients while he was absent. The employee refused to do so, and guess what? When he returned seven weeks later, there was not a single important client to respond and apologize to, proving that the boss was being irrationally strict. 

Keep scrolling below for the full story and to find out what happened to the boss next. For more stories like this, check out this post about an employee's revenge on an office lunch thief.

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    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)
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    When I went on paternity leave my old boss really pressured me to "keep on top of things". I left my work phone in the office, deleted all unread emails on the day I returned, and never regretted it once.
    via Grommulox
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    "I am on paternity leave from [x] until [y], a period of seven weeks. During this time my emails are not monitored, and when I return on [date] I will delete all unread emails. If your email is important, please get in touch after [date] or contact [my colleague]."
    via Grommulox
  • 04
    I promised my boss, in front of the other directors, that I would personally call and apologise to any customer or anyone else outside the business who took issue with my Out of Office message. Guess how many people I had to call?
    via Grommulox
  • 05
    This came to mind because I just found out he's left "to seek opportunities elsewhere" after half a dozen people accused him (accurately) of being a b. His golden handshake, for being a
    via Grommulox
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    bo, is approximately twice what my annual salary was when I worked for him. Life's a bi, but at least I didn't check my emails for seven weeks.
    via Grommulox
  • 07
    Midnight_heist 21 hr. ago CEO makes a thousand, you make a buck, So steal the catalytic converter off the company truck
    via Grommulox
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    UselessOldR 18 hr. ago at work CEO makes a thousand, I make a buck, that's why I learned to not give a f$&k
    via Grommulox
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    Ok-Panic-3940 - 22 hr. ago You did great. Set a boundary, and kept it. This should be an example.
    via Grommulox
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    sveeger 20 hr. ago My company deactivates email accounts for people that are on leave- you couldn't check it if you wanted. From their perspective it's a huge liability, and not worth it.
    via Grommulox
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    BraveInflation1098. 22 hr. ago BO of steel! I love this.
    via Grommulox
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    Grommulox OP. 22 hr. ago He hauled me into the board room to explain to the directors what I was planning and the rest of them were just "okay cool... see you when you get back." Gave me a lot of confidence to go through with it!
    via Grommulox
  • 13
    af_cheddarhead 20 hr. ago I am camping at Glacier NP/Voyagers NP, there is no cell phone or internet coverage where I am camping. I will return on XXXX. Please contact me then or contact XXXX if urgent.
    via Grommulox
  • 14
    Also the gate to my backyard says welcome to Glacier National Park.
    via Grommulox
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    Bumblebees2022. 21 hr. ago This is awesome. Good for you! I traveled internationally for vacation this year. Mine was, "I'm on vacation,
    via Grommulox
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    and I have zero access to emails. Please contact this person if it's an emergency." My boss wanted me to take my laptop. I told him that with the 7 hour difference, it wouldn't be worth it. He agreed.
    via Grommulox
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    Grommulox OP. 21 hr. ago My go-to phrase at my current job is "it's not like we work for the UN or anything."
    via Grommulox
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    What's absolutely the worst that could happen if I'm out of contact for a week or so? I'm really not that important.
    via Grommulox
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    svenska_aeroplan ⚫ 20 hr. ago My work was super serious about paternity leave. HR even used my personal email to contact me when needed so that I had no reason to log into anything work related.
    via Grommulox
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    Not a single other person was allowed to contact me for any reason.
    via Grommulox
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    BigResponsibility252. 16 hr. ago I did similar when I went away on honeymoon, because I just knew the sheer volume of emails would be insurmountable when I got back. "If you require
    via Grommulox
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    a response, please resend your email after 9AM on /, or forward it to our main inbox".
    via Grommulox
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    Well, there was one person determined not to get the message.
    via Grommulox
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    A few weeks beforehand I'd sent her a phone because her client needed precisely that model and they needed it yesterday, the only trouble was this was an ex-demo unit so had some bits missing, and the model was end-of-
    via Grommulox
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    life. I made it indisputably clear to her that that was the case and discounted it to match.
    via Grommulox
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    Well, the week before my honeymoon, she phoned back, complaining because it had bits missing. Well, yeah, you asked me to send it like that, knowing full well that was how it was!
    via Grommulox
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    A bit of testing and guesswork with some bits we had lying around the warehouse, and my colleague and I sorted. out a solution, so come the Friday I emailed her back saying "hey, we've done this this and this,
    via Grommulox
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    sent the parts out, etc. I'm going to be away for 2 weeks and won't be responding to emails in that time, so if you have. any queries, please contact my colleague, copied in."
    via Grommulox
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    You can already see where this is going, can't you? I got back to my desk, highlighted every single email I'd received during that period, and moved
    via Grommulox
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    them into a folder entitled "Not actioned - honeymoon". Then a few days later I get a call. She was chasing an update. Why hadn't I responded? She'd sent multiple emails and been ignored.
    via Grommulox
  • 31
    Reader, she had taken my colleague out of the CC and sent TWENTY- TWO emails.
    via Grommulox

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workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job work paternity Horrible Bosses reddit thread Reddit company job interview interview toxic-work-environment
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