Father gets fired after disappearing from work at 3 PM each day for an important reason

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  via Curated Lifestyle

  Father hugs his daughter after he picks her up from school during work hours. 

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

• This person who shared this story works with a father who has a strange habit. 

  We had a guy at work who would disappear everyday at 3pm. Laptop closed and he would be gone just like that. He would come back at 4:30. and would say nothing, it went on for six months. 

  Hmmm… It's one thing to leave early every now and then for a doctor's appointment, or to pick your kid up from school when they're not feeling well, or for some other family emergency. 

  But it's a whole other thing to be doing that every day. I mean, some teams have that level of flexibility: their team only works a few hours per day, allowing them to have a relaxed work environment. But those same employees are also aware that when it comes to hitting their targets and reaching their goals each quarter, they'd better have a laser focus on that goal. There's a level of permission to a relaxed workday: if the employees are taking advantage of it, and their work is slipping, it won't end well for them.

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  via Vitaly Gariev

  Employees wonder where their coworker is sneaking off to each afternoon. 

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

• This worker watched this all go on for a while. They share that they figured this worker was dealing with some kind of health issue or something, but they never pried into it. After all, that's private. 

  But for whatever reason, this employee was operating without any kind of permission. After all, there is FMLA, which can allow employees all types of accommodations to take care of family situations without their workplace penalizing them. But if you don't take that route, well, your employer certainly can punish you for choosing other priorities over your actual job. 

  Deadlines would slip, I remember one time he missed two client calls. Boss finally asked “Where are you going?" Brian: "Handling something personal." Boss: "On company time?" Brian: "It's 3pm." like that explained it.

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  via Getty Images

  Boss looks at statistics to see why her employee is underperforming.

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

• I mean, that's not the worst strategy ever. Sometimes your bosses are better off not knowing what you're doing every second of every day, because no one wants to be micromanaged! 

  But even his coworkers were starting to wonder where this dude was. Maybe that would've been a good time to say something like, “I have some personal matters to attend to, but I'll work on the presentation this evening,” or something like that. Even if he didn't end up doing the work, that might've bought him some more time and lessened that scrutiny. 

  But no. Instead, the coworkers were left scratching their heads…

  We assumed he had and affair or job interviews. We were wrong, he was picking his daughter up from school.

  Very innocent thing to miss out on work for! We can basically all relate to this. If school lets out at 3:15, you'd better be there at 3:15, ready to get your child. Many kids aren't allowed to just leave school, and a lot of them can't even leave unless one specific person has been pre-assigned to get them. You'd think that your coworkers could handle that knowledge! It's a good excuse. In addition, the coworker added that this guy's wife had left him the year prior. So single Dad here needs to meet his custody agreements, and get to school by 3:15 sharp every day. 

  No aftercare at her school and court won't budge.He tried to move the hours and HR said "sets precedent."

  Bummer. You can always tell which offices have a lot of parents running things behind the scenes, because they'd have sympathy for things like this. But nope! Sounds like they're focused on money-making as the first and foremost priority. 

  Here's what he decided to do in the end…

  So he chose his kid and a PIP. He told us during his exit interview.

  "Disappearing" sometimes means not everyone with a secret is stealing time, some are just out of options.

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  via Getty Images

  Father holds his office belongings in a plastic box after being fired from his job.

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

• A lot of people had sympathy for this worker and his family: 

  josiahjdp

  The real failure here wasn’t his 90 minute absences. It was HR’s rigid “no exceptions” policy that punished a single dad trying to honor his custody agreement.

  Opsylo_jay

  That’s so sad. We jump to conclusions way too fast without knowing someone’s reality. Single parents deserve real flexibility at work not rigid rules that force impossible choices.

  Other people faulted this employee for not telling his bosses and coworkers (and ideally, HR!) about the ongoing pickup situation:

  fallrise__

  But at least he could have explained and saved them time for assumptions

  Vyn_exe

  It’s 3pm sounds like he had mentally decided that was his unofficial end-of-day… and just never told anyone.

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  via Getty Images

  Daughter happily holds her Dad's hand while they play outside. 

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

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