Boss sends a 4am email demanding employee attend a 7am conference, then blames them for not driving 2 hours and missing booth setup: ‘My boss is notorious for never reading an email’

Author image for Etai Eshet
Etai Eshet • Editor
Apr 18, 2025 7:00 AM EDT

The word "balance" in work-life balance is questionable at best. Most of the time, it feels less like balance and more like a battle between caffeine intake and sanity-keeping. Take the dedicated employee in today's story, who somehow manages both while working under a boss who treats this "balance" as an acrobatic rope stretched over a ring of fire. Ignoring emails, sending urgent ones at 4am, demanding last-minute miracles, this ringmaster has it all figured out. And with the level of respect shown for their employees' time and sleep, you'd be forgiven for debating whether you're a clown or a monkey.

Honestly, I would probably lose this job at 4:02am. I'd read the email, think I'm dreaming, go back to sleep for 20 seconds, then wake up laughing before answering with a very respectful:

HA! nope. 

 Please hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. 

Regardless,

Employee starting his day at 8

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  • These situations test patience, professionalism, and, as I said, your overall sanity. It’s less teamwork and more one-sided damage control, where survival depends on composure, said “balance,” and the ability to endure the circus without losing your mind.

  • 01

    "My boss sent me an email at 4am for an event I needed to attend by 7am. My workday starts at 8. Now she wants to meet with me tomorrow."

    "The conference is an hour drive for me. I wouldn't have time to go back to the office"
    via thecorgi

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

  • 02
    My boss is notorious for never reading an email. Over the past year, she has sent me multiple emails asking questions, when the answers could be found in the email she was already responding to. This all came to a head with a conference.
    via Rare_Medium3173
  • 03
    She asked me if I wanted to attend a conference and I responded yes. She then asked if I would register everyone for the event. I
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  • 04
    asked for details about the registration. She forwarded an email with these details, and that email also contained many questions. Knowing her,
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  • 05
    Cheezburger Image 10493707520
    via Khosro

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

  • 06
    I asked her if she had responded to those questions. She replied "what questions". Literally scroll up and look at the email.
    via Rare_Medium3173
  • 07
    Now, having been made aware of these questions by me, she asked me to respond to them. One question was if we wanted to host a booth at the conference, which she said yes. I responded with answers and checked it off my list.
    via Rare_Medium3173
  • 08
    She received an email late March stating they hadn't received our registration yet and that they needed it by April 1. She forwarded me this communication April 2nd
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  • 09
    Cheezburger Image 10493707008
    via Syda Productions

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

  • 10
    and asked me to handle it. No, I didn't forget. The conference had a tech issue and I cleared it up. But she sent me the email to handle this after it was already late.
    via Rare_Medium3173
  • 11
    This was the last communication I received about this conference until 4am day of the event. I logged on at the start of my workday at 8am to see two
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  • 12
    emails from her. One, a forward at 4am, dated over a week prior, with details for setup for the booth and how it started at 7am. Mind you,
    via Rare_Medium3173
  • 13
    the conference is an hour drive for me. At 6am, another email, asking if I had everything good to go for our booth. When I logged on at 8am, I replied and said due to
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  • 14
    not receiving this information until this morning, I would not have time to go back to the office and retrieve the
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  • 15
    booth materials and still arrive at the conference on time. I shut my computer and drove to the conference.
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  • 16
    When I arrived, I had a pretty nasty email from her stating she had asked me to handle the booth so of course we would be having one and that I needed to go back to the
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  • 17
    office and get it. I replied that I was driving and now arrived at the conference, and that there was a box at the other office, 10 mins away from the conference that she could grab on her way in. She did grab it and we had a booth.
    via Rare_Medium3173
  • 18
    She came up to me at the conference asking what had gone wrong and I told her simply that I did not have this information until this morning and planned my
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  • 19
    workday around the information I had. She has now asked for a meeting with me tomorrow morning. I feel as though she is going to try to place blame on me here
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  • 20
    and I don't know how to respectfully tell her this is her fault. She did not provide me the info, she did not ask me to bring anything, she asked me to respond to an email which I did.
    via Rare_Medium3173
  • 21
    I want to express my frustration in how her lack of reading an email has continuously created more work that either gets trashed because she didn't read the
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  • 22
    info and now has scrapped the project after the work was completely done, or makes me have to make last minute stressful adjustments for
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  • 23
    information she had weeks ago and never sent. But I also can't get fired in this job economy.
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  • 24
    What do I do when she inevitably places the blame of this on me tomorrow?
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  • 25
    Edit to add: this is an incredibly small company. 20- 25 people. We do not have an HR and there is no one above her.
    via Rare_Medium3173

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management boss workplace-stories hr toxic-workplace manager bosses work PTO managers supervisor workplace Horrible Bosses work-life balance
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