Boss messages employee at 8 PM, laughs when employee says their contract says 9-5: 'You disregarded your own boundaries by replying to him'

Would you answer a work text outside of your regular working hours?

This probably depends on what your job is and how much you're invested in it. If you have an insane job that requires a lot out of you, you might be used to dropping what you're doing and attending to your job. But it's also important to have boundaries with your personal life. You have to know when not to answer the phone. It's not always your responsibility to be available all the time. Unless it's a life-threatening situation, which it rarely is, you should be able to clock out when you need to clock out.

Part of this boundary-setting is on your employer. They should know not to expect a response when their employees are off the clock. It's an overreaching of power and an invasion of privacy, but not all bosses understand that. A key part of protecting your peace is realizing that you cannot control the actions of others. You can only control your response to it. But this is much easier said than done. Sometimes you wish you could just make someone do what you'd like them to do. But this is not how the world works, and we're obviously better off that way. So what we're left with is just to manage our own expectations and the expectations of those around us. That's what this employee failed to do, and he paid the price for it. It's not an easy thing to do in the workplace, and he wasn't totally up to the challenge.

via Vitaly Gariev

_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
When someone pings you outside of work hours, you get to choose whether or not you respond. There is no written contract stating that you must answer all correspondence immediately… unless there is for your job. As far as the boss is concerned, you disappear when you're not there. What you do with your time is your own prerogative, and you should treat it as such. If you're interested in seeing what happens in this story and want to decide what you think about it, all the details are just a scroll away.
Boss messaged me at 8pm expecting a reply... said my contract says 9-5 and he laughed??

via u/MichaelWForbes
via u/MichaelWForbes
Commenters gave their takes on the situation.

via u/GoodGoodGoody
via u/starry_nite99
via u/Big_Celery2725
via u/Virtual-Ducks
via Cătălin Dumitrașcu

_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
via u/CSPN
via u/markjay6
via u/Contemplating_Prison
via u/Elegant_Elk_
via u/itsmelorinyc
via u/itsmelorinyc
via u/itsmelorinyc
via u/itsmelorinyc
via u/TheBestHawksFan
via u/TheBestHawksFan
via u/TheBestHawksFan
via u/TheBestHawksFan
via u/TheBestHawksFan
via u/Few-Painting-8096
via u/AmazingSpider-Fan
via u/mandarina2020
via u/Agreeable_Package880
via u/Big_Paper5873