‘Dig your own grave I guess’: Boss forces specific employees to use PTO during a snowstorm instead of allowing them to work remotely

Workplaces managed to find a way to let their employees work remotely in the beginning of this decade. Now, that was necessary to ensure the safety of every employee that worked in close quarters with others. The explosion of remote work proved that a lot (if not all) of an employee's tasks could be completely remotely and be just as fruitful for the company they worked for.

Many offices initiated an RTO (return to office) mandate to boost company morale. I won't act like I know if that truly makes a difference, but it's obvious that remote work is sought after by many folks in the workforce. There are pros and cons to remote work for sure, but the biggest pro is employee safety. When bad weather breaks out and you really don't want to use a PTO day, you can open your laptop and go about your daily tasks without difficulty.

The southern US-based user who posted this next story doesn't particularly enjoy working from home, but they were hoping to get the green light from their manager when a freak snowstorm hit the area. Instead of getting the go-ahead, their boss told them if they don't want to come to the office, they are required to take a PTO day and the same goes for the rest of their department.

The funny thing, though, is that other departments at the same company are allowed to work from home. Baffled, the user can't believe the company is willing to have their entire department go MIA instead of simply allowing them to work remotely and keep themselves safe off the road. I guess the company would rather sabotage employee output instead…

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Author image for Lana DeGaetano Lana DeGaetano
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  • * B BEER "This has to be some kind of power tripping [nonsense].”
    via Unsplash+ (Lawrence Chismorie)
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  • "Boss refuses to let us work from home during snowstorm, making us use PTO"

    So I work for a promotional products and screen printing company in the art department. This company s ks in so many ways but this is the newest nonsensical thing my boss. is doing for no good reason other than to power trip over the office staff.
    via iiimperatrice
  • We're in the south and there's snow coming so a lot of us are already planning on not driving into work on the day the storm hits. This happens once or twice a year maximum. Last year I was
    via iiimperatrice
  • allowed to log my hours. from home and still do 80% of my job aside from the print production stuff. This year management is like nah you have to use PTO if you're not going to be in office. That's
    via iiimperatrice
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  • literally just for my department. CSR is allowed to WFH but not us for no reason. It literally costs the company the exact same amount of money if we work from home or use
    via iiimperatrice
  • PTO for those hours so I have no idea why it's such a big deal. This has to be some kind of power tripping [nonsense] where they're like yeah better make them use PTO so they have one less day for a vacation,
    via iiimperatrice
  • that'll show em. I don't understand it at all. I tried sending a very professional email asking. we could WFH so we can continue to assist with all the stuff we do on a regular basis via email
    via iiimperatrice
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  • with salespeople etc., but that doesn't seem to be important to them for whatever reason. It makes zero sense and I'm really mad. I don't
    via iiimperatrice
  • love working from home either, I just want things to run efficiently, and I don't want to use up all snow my PTO on days when I can do the vast majority of my job tasks and save those hours for an actual vacation.
    via iiimperatrice

  • At this point, the company is forcing the user's hand. If their entire department calls off on the same day, every other department that relies on them will suffer because of management's selfish choices. It's not like this employee is foaming at the mouth to work remotely—they even stated they don't really like being out of office! When their safety is at risk, though, they're willing to do what they have to. The same cannot be said for this company.

    PTO is like gold—once you have it, you want to hold onto it until you find some real use for it. The user is right to want to save up their vacation days for an actual vacation, rather than use it because they feel like they're being forced to. Even though what the company is doing is legal, it's unethical and illogical. Say the user's entire department decides to take the day off. For that entire day, they'll all be logged out of Microsoft Teams if daily company processes go awry… 

    The company prefers to lie down and wither on this anti-WFH hill instead of making the remote policy fair for all departments. Well, if the boss says to take PTO, the user must oblige…

  • Cheezburger Image 10452716544

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

    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)
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  • I tried explaining this verbally to the office manager lady and she said some S about "oh well when my son was sick I had to use PTO and couldn't work from home". Well what about
    via iiimperatrice
  • last year when me working from home was allowed and nothing went wrong and now suddenly it isn't allowed??? Everyone in management here is actively sabotaging the success of the company with stupid sh like this.
    via iiimperatrice
  • If we're open then the remote salespeople (aka all of them) will be emailing me asking for stuff like quotes, mockups, etc. If my department is forced to use PTO if we're open then the salespeople don't get what they need
    via iiimperatrice
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  • that day. So dig your own grave I guess and off all your salespeople because they don't have anyone in art getting them what they need to make a sale.
    via iiimperatrice
  • There's more I could [complain] about but I figured this would be a fun look into my personal h Il for you guys.
    via iiimperatrice
  • usa_reddit PTO = No Work From Home Day Off Tell boss OK, you will take PTO then change you email responder to "Out of the office and to call your boss."
    via usa_reddit
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  • justisme333 Time for malicious compliance, and the entire department takes PTO for the day and does ZERO work. Zip. Nada. Not even answering the phone.
    via justisme333
  • Firthy2002 Its ks for sure but I'd take the day as PTO, stock up on supplies and just hibernate. And definitely don't answer anything work related.
    via Firthy2002
  • Geoclasm Sounds like they're giving you permission to use your PTO and take a nice long winter break. So what's one day or seven? Tomorrow, Friday, and all next week. I mean, if you're gonna HAVE to take a day off because they're MAKING you take a day off, may as well make it worth your while, no?
    via Geoclasm
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  • So_Mota... Ugh I hate when they do this. But, I guess a day off is a day off. Good excuse to stockpile some hot cocoa and watch Netflix in a blanket fort.
    via So_Mo****ed

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management boss antiwork workplace-stories remote work work stories toxic-workplace terrible-bosses bosses work upper management reddit story horrible-management PTO wfh workplace Horrible Bosses reddit thread bad bosses snowstorm Reddit entitled people vacation toxic-work-environment
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