Woman Backed for Reporting Boss Blowing Up Her Phone on Vacation: 'Blocked'

A woman has been praised for standing up to her boss after he flooded her phone with work-based queries while she was on vacation.

The Great Resignation saw record numbers depart jobs in 2021. Multiple factors have been cited in the aftermath of the mass exodus, but one common complaint among those who exited roles during that time was a lack of respect in the workplace.

In fact, a 2022 Pew Research Center survey of workers who quit their job over the previous year saw 59 percent say that they "felt disrespected at work." To put that in context, low pay and lack of advancement were the only two factors to feature more frequently among those responding in the research.

Yet despite this, it would appear some workplaces clearly haven't got the memo when it comes to respect, or rather respecting boundaries. And for one woman posting to Reddit as Pinkyrye, the situation got so extreme, she was forced to lodge a formal complaint.

According to her post, which has been upvoted over 18,000 times, she recently took a well-earned vacation from her job of six years to go and see her boyfriend, who lives hundreds of miles away.

Yet things got off to the worst possible start when, at the end of her final shift, she was heading out to go and pick up her boyfriend from the airport, her "boss of 2 weeks" suddenly asked her to cover another shift as a co-worker had "called in sick."

Having already worked 10 hours, she told him: "No, I'm sorry, but I'm unable to, and I can't stay late." Her boss refused to take no for an answer, telling her instead her boyfriend could "take an Uber."

She stood her ground, though, recalling countless times she had picked up extra shifts, at which point her boss lashed out, calling her "a lousy worker" and "not a team player." Ignoring his criticism, she finished her shift and told him she would see him in five days.

He began calling her again during the drive to the airport. "I kept getting calls and texts from him," she said. "It got so bad that I had to pull over to turn off my phone. My boss wanted to come back to work."

Eventually, she realized she would have to turn her phone on, in case her boyfriend was trying to get in touch. "My phone was flooded with text messages," she wrote. "Ding after ding I think I got close to 15 texts. I blocked his number."

While that took care of the texts, the messages continued to come in throughout her vacation. "I was getting emails from him constantly when it was supposed to be my time off," she said. Ignoring his messages even then, she proceeded to have an enjoyable enough holiday with her partner.

Looking for a New Job

Things took an ugly turn when she returned to work and was immediately hauled into her boss's office. "He blew up at me for being unprofessional," she said. "I should've helped or at least replied to the emails... It's not my responsibility when it's my vacation time."

Having been handed her first "write-up" ever over her behavior, the woman decided to strike back by contacting HR with all of the call and email logs. In the meantime, she said she is now reassessing her options. "I decided that I'm gonna look for a new job," she said. "I'm just gonna move on."

An encounter evidently all-too-familiar to many on social media, the woman's response was applauded by the majority of those commenting online.

Consectariana said: "You were on vacation. You are not obligated IN ANY WAY to work on your vacation." Electrical-Date-3951 commented: "What your boss did was highly problematic. Tell HR about him calling you a 'lousy' employee too, simply because you declined his demands to work late. He was harassing you."

Snowberrie34 added: "It is not an employee's obligation to take on extra shifts. In the future, a 'NO' is a complete sentence and you do not have to offer a reason."

HR 'Field Day'

Elsewhere, goodmorningsunshines predicted the company's HR department would have a "field day" over the incident. "Not being a team player by underperforming your job duties is cause for a write-up, but your job duties do not include staying late at a moment's notice," they wrote. "Especially if once you're off the clock you're also on vacation time."

Sigh_ko, meanwhile, wondered: "The way you described it sounded more than a boss not getting their way, but a scorned admirer not getting their way. Is it possible that your boss has a crush on you?"

Pinkyrye confirmed in an updated version of the post that her new boss had previously asked her out on a date and she had turned him down on account of her boyfriend.

Newsweek has contacted Pinkyrye for comment.