Boss forces manager to require that his assistant join team meetings during his vacation: '[We] need to attend meetings for free on our days off'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Dec 14, 2025 8:00 AM EST

Shout out to this manager for defending his assistant the whole time!

Nine times out of ten, when upper management enforces a bogus policy, middle management has no choice to swallow their pride and follow suit. However, in this instance, the manager in question refused to allow his boss to force those who were on vacation to join virtual team meetings.

This boss clearly developed an obsession with the idea that he was allowed to require everyone to sign onto team meetings, especially when work hours are over and regardless of time zones or paid time off. This was likely a means of control for him and something he refused to let go.

However, the hotheaded employer met his match when this author rejected his so-called "requirement." His assistant had been working non-stop for that already limited vacation time, and the author wasn't going to ruin that time off by making him attend a meeting that didn't seem to be very important to begin with. In fact, let's be real. It probably could have been an email!

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  • We all know that this boss probably could be spending his time and energy elsewhere. Why focus so much on attendance, especially when this assistant's attendance was excused for a legitimate reason? Our guess is that he was probably too focused on his own ego to even see what his priorities should be. Before he knows it, there won't be assistants working there to boss around anymore!

  • "Boss is telling us we need to accommodate and attend meetings for free on our days off"

    Title says it all. Basically I'm a manager and our DM told us only one person per location has to attend these meetings. They are on a day that I work but my assistant doesn't. My boss said my assistant needs to attend, I
    via cultleaver
  • said it's his day off, he said "he needs to accommodate and plan to attend." He insinuated he'd be punished if he didn't but that cannot be legal. I told him I can't
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  • be the one that makes him do something that I don't agree he needs to do because I work the day we have these meetings and the meeting pertains more to my duties than my assistant's. Also I
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  • feel like it should be my call since it's my department and I'm the manager of my department. My boss apparently told people in another department they also need to attend meetings virtually
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  • on their days off without pay, one of them broke down over it from stress. Boss says he's always answering work messages on his days off but he makes a salary, and more money than all of us.
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  • But if I go to HR he will absolutely retaliate in some way. Hate the culture of "be available at a moments notice to work" and to have work take up 99% of your life and energy. I feel like I can't
    via cultleaver
  • enjoy my life on the weekends because I'm stressed over work. And if you don't answer messages over the weekends you get an earful.
    via cultleaver
  • AngryMogwai420 • 4h ago • File a complaint with your local department of labor. Making people show up for work, and not paying them is illegal. Don't bother with HR, gather all the proof of this activity and go to the department of labor.
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  • Pony_Express1... 4h ago. Several years ago, I worked for Wal-Mart. During the Xmas holidays, I was scheduled off for Xmas eve. I came back in to work after the holiday, and a manager
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  • came up to me and asked where I was Xmas eve. I told him that I was scheduled off and I was at home. He said it was mandatory that I come in and work. I looked him in the eye and told him, there
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  • isn't a company in this country that has the right to tell me that I have to work on a scheduled day off. He just turned around and walked away.
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  • A professional businessman in a suit smiles awkwardly in front of his laptop.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Mr_Mojo_Risin_... . 4h ago "I'm just very concerned that you would expose the company to litigation like this. This could be very very expensive for the company of it went legal. Does the owner/shareholders know about this?"
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  • DryFly1975 •4h ago Don't go to HR. They serve the company, not you.
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  • • Roticap 4h ago Are you hourly? Clock in for those meetings. He'll change his tune when he starts having to pay overtime.
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  • MistressOfNecr... 3h ago In writing, say to him him "I just want some clarification on your request.
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  • You said an hourly employee, on a scheduled day off, needs to log in for a meeting unpaid. I wanted clarification as this breaks federal and state labor laws
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  • and could get the company in a lot of trouble. I want to make sure we aren't doing anything that puts the company at risk.
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  • Please let me know how to move forward in a way that respects our emoloyees' earned time off and doesn't break labor laws."
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  • Framing it like it is protecting the company helps if you have to escalate it to your supervisor's boss or HR. And it puts it in writing if you have to go to the Dept of Labor with a complaint.
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  • If he tries to call you in response to the email/text, don't answer. Get the answer in writing. If you can't, check if you're in a 1 or 2 party consent state. If you're in a 1 party state,
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  • record the conversation. If it's 2, you have to tell him you're recording if you want to record. But that could get him to backtrack and say
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  • you don't have to work unpaid so he isn't caught out trying to do something illegal. And then you have a recording of him saying it if he tries to go back on it.
    via cultleaver

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assistant salary remote work manager meeting PTO Horrible Bosses vacation
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