Time Will Tell… You Off
I work from home two days a week, usually starting around 6 AM and finishing around 8 PM. The office is only open from 7 AM to 4 PM, so obviously, I get a lot more done working from home. I’m salaried, so it costs nothing extra to the company to do this, but we are understaffed, so we all sacrifice to make ends meet.
My new manager, a twenty-something man fresh out of college, called me on one of my work-from-home days.
Manager: “Why am I getting emails from you in the middle of the night?”
This is obviously an exaggeration, but I ignore it.
Me: “Oh, I work longer when I’m home so we can reach our goals and get ahead of any problems that may arise.”
Manager: “You cannot email people early in the morning and expect an immediate response.”
Me: “I never expect an immediate response. I—”
Manager: “You work 7-4, that is it. Everybody knows this. Do you understand?”
Me: “Sure.”
So, I complied. I turned my computer on at 7 AM and off at 4 PM. I also turned off my work phone, so I was completely unreachable. I also set up an automatic reply stating that the enforced office hours were 7-4, and I would not be replying to anything outside of those hours.
Within two weeks, we were way behind; goals were not being met, customers were unhappy; it was chaos. [Manager] called a meeting.
Manager: “I don’t know what is going on around here. We were just fine not two weeks ago, and now everyone is slacking.”
Coworker #1: “We’re doing what we’re told.”
Manager: “There is no way someone told you to slow down.”
Coworker #1: “No, but you called a bunch of us and said we only work 7-4, so we are. The extra time we were putting in is because we’re understaffed and wanted to meet deadlines.”
Manager: “That is a lie!”
Me: “And yet everything was working fine until you told us to only work those hours.”
Manager: “That’s it. You’re all getting written up.”
Coworker #2: “Or we could all quit.”
[Manager] stared at [Coworker #2]. We all stared back.
Manager: “I will give you two weeks of working whatever schedule you want. If things get better, we can discuss a change. If they don’t, you’re all getting written up.”
We went back to the previous lax schedule, and things improved. [Manager] never brought up the second meeting to discuss change.
