Manager schedules ‘mandatory’ staff meeting during the day, night shift employee shows up in sleepwear to send him a message: ’[It] cut into my sleep schedule’

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Mar 2, 2025 7:00 AM EST

Night shift employees are (obviously) on the opposite schedule to folk who work your typical 9-5s. When we're grabbing an iced coffee pick-me-up and clocking in for the day, night workers are on their way home and ready to hop into their flannel-clas pajamas. In hospitality, there's always going to be a day-shift crew and a night-shift crew because hotel guests might need something in the middle of the night. Where does management find the time to schedule meetings so both crews can touch base about important action items? Well, it could always just be an email.

The night shift employee who posted this story tells the tale of his malicious compliance when their manager forced them to attend a meeting during the day after having worked the night shift hours prior. Instead of throwing a fit and refusing to show up, they decide to attend the meeting sporting a bathrobe, plaid pajamas, and adorable bunny slippers. Scroll to see the manager's reaction.

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  • What's better than refusing to be inconvenienced? Well, you can instead inconvenience others right back. This employee, who does the night audit, did not have to attend the meeting they were forced to attend. None of the action items applied to them or their position, save for the fact that their circadian rhythm is offbeat and ready for sleep. I'd be angry, too. Would I muster up the courage to attend a meeting in sleepwear? I'm not so sure… but this employee sure did.

  • "I pointed out that for me, this was effectively three in the morning, so his presentation had better be worth it."
    via Mart Production for Pexels

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "'Mandatory', you say?"

    Meetings. Arguably a waste of everyone's time, a worthless imposition upon our finite existence. But doubly so when one works nights.
    via SkwrlTail
  • Tonight gentle readers, I have a small tale of mismanagement and begrudging compliance with absurd requirements. The fallout isn't much, but I consider it a personal win.
    via SkwrlTail
  • So it came to pass many many years ago, when I was still less than a year working nights at this hotel, that the manager called a great and mighty meeting. All
    via SkwrlTail
  • hands on deck! A mandatory meeting of great importance! New policies and practices! Lunch to be provided! All quite urgent, and very very mandatory.
    via SkwrlTail
  • I read the notice, and informed the manager that none of the topics to be discussed were anything I had to deal with during the night shift. Maintenance. Housekeeping. A Night Auditor cares not for these things. Could I in fact just skip the whole thing? Nope.
    via SkwrlTail
  • Pleas that this would cut into my sleep schedule fell on deaf ears. Even if the meeting was functionally useless to me, it would be seen as unfair if everyone else had to show up, and I didn't. Be there tomorrow at noon or be written up.
    via SkwrlTail
  • Fine then. This was before store inventories were easily searched online, so it took a while to make a few calls, but I finally found what I needed, twenty miles away. A quick shopping trip, then after work I went home for a short nap before the meeting.
    via SkwrlTail
  • My manager bounced into the meeting, ready to dazzle us with whatever speech he had prepared, only to notice all his employees stealing glances at the back corner.
    via SkwrlTail
  • There I was. Plaid pajamas. Dark blue bathrobe. Bed-rumpled hair. Dark bags under my eyes (I might have touched them up a little with makeup...) And upon my feet were a set of brand-new fuzzy bunny slippers that I had dashed to get for this very occasion.
    via SkwrlTail
  • The boss sputtered protest, but I pointed out that for me, this was effectively three in the morning, so his presentation had better be worth it. Spoilers; it was not worth it.
    via SkwrlTail
  • Not one item of the meeting had anything whatsoever to do with what I did during the night shift. None of it.
    via SkwrlTail
  • Cheezburger Image 10472949760
    via Annie Spratt for Unsplash
  • Furthermore, the lunch he'd - provided an admittely lovely sort of fried rice chicken casserole thing - hit almost all the items on my (admittedly rather long) digestive naughty list. Onions, heavy cheese,
    via SkwrlTail
  • jalapeños and bell peppers, with enough fats that my comparatively recent gall bladder removal would have noped out after one bite. So not even the free lunch.
    via SkwrlTail
  • As the event wound down, with everyone else eating, I went to my manager, looked him ded in the eyes (more or less, I was tired), and told him exactly what a colossal waste of my time this
    via SkwrlTail
  • whole thing had been, and that I would not be attending any further 'mandatory' meetings. If there was something I needed to know, a memo would suffice, thank you.
    via SkwrlTail
  • And that was how Skwrl got out of attending meetings forever. There have been other meetings. I have not been invited to attend them. I did attend the manager's going away party though. That was nice.
    via SkwrlTail
  • Teal Deer; Manager schedules mandatory meeting during my sleeping hours, so I show up in sleepwear.
    via SkwrlTail
  • Huntingcat I wonder how a hotel functions if all staff are at a lunchtime meeting. Where are the reception people to assist people checking in/out? The housekeeping and kitchen staff to deal with those inevitable customer room service calls? The kitchen staff to handle customer meals? Hope you charged them overtime.
    via Huntingcat
  • SkwrlTail That's where the Assistant Manager comes in. They cover the desk while the meeting is going on, having already been told what's going on. And yes, but an hour of time and a half really isn't worth the loss of about three or four hours of sleep. It's hard to sleep during the day, and once you're up, you're up.
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  • PN_Guin The slippers were a nice touch.
    via PN_Guin
  • HMS_Slartibartfast Only thing better would have been to show up also having a beard with a bone stuck in it, but I may be partial to that look...
    via HMS_Slartibartfast
  • SkwrlTail The trick there is then it becomes deliberately absurd, clear evidence that this is just a costume, to mock the manager. This is not a wise thing to do. But showing up bedraggled and straight out of bed? That's not your fault, really.
    via SkwrlTail
  • NthngToSeeHere I hope you were clocked in and you should've complained that they didn't check for any dietary restrictions and made no effort to accommodate them.
    via NthngToSeeHere

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boss workplace-stories malicious malicious compliance bosses work malicious-compliance-reddit tales from the front desk reddit story horrible-management workplace Horrible Bosses Reddit malicious compliance reddit entitled people compliance
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