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Employee Goes On Vacation And Doesn’t Take The Company Phone As Told, It Costs The Company $6K
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Employee Goes On Vacation And Doesn’t Take The Company Phone As Told, It Costs The Company $6K

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In many workplaces, the people in power make decisions that mostly exist to satisfy their ego, to the detriment of everyone else. Generally, there is very little anyone can do but grit their teeth and just survive through it. But sometimes an employee might see a perfect opportunity to comply with the new rule in a hilariously hostile way.

A worker shared a hilarious (and expensive) bit of malicious compliance when they were instructed to not take their company phone anywhere. We got in touch with the worker in the story to learn more.

Some workplace rules don’t actually make any sense

Image credits: Kamaji Ogino / pexels (not the actual photo)

One employee made their company spend thousands just by doing exactly as an IT manager told them

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Image credits: [deleted] / reddit.com (not the actual photo)

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Image credits: Prostock-studio / envato (not the actual photo)

The worker had some responses to initial comments

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Image credits: Ok-Pea3414

Normally, getting a call from your boss out of hours means something has gone very wrong

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Bored Panda got in touch with the employee in the story and they were kind enough to answer some questions. We wanted to hear their opinion on why the manager made such a strange decision. “I really don’t know. Company policy was to be reachable as much as possible, which includes carrying the phone with you, even on PTO, like 24×7.”

“As for the IT manager – maybe she wasn’t having a good day and she snapped? On Reddit or on the Internet – many users do not understand, in certain industries, at a certain level of seniority – you have to be able to be contacted by work anytime. And yes, you are paid handsomely for the sacrifice. Now, if you are a cook at a fast food place, this type of attitude doesn’t make sense. When you get paid in mid-to-high six figures, you have to understand that a portion of the pay is to compensate for sometimes the horrible work-life balance. As many posts claim in TrueUnpopularOpinions, and I tend to agree – many users who think it wasn’t a win, haven’t been a part of an industry or haven’t been high up enough in their positions where they are expected to be able to be contacted, AND are paid handsomely. Most would have experience with horrible managers in positions that pay $20 or below, expect to keep week free for unannounced shift changes, may or may not have a full 40 hours scheduled to save company on employee benefits and all the scummy things employers do. And I’m in no way denigrating them, I worked fast food for a year during college and it was horrible,” they shared with Bored Panda.

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“Maybe the IT manager went on a power trip? I really do not know. Before this incident, I didn’t even have any contact with her. Maybe she decided to show who’s the boss? I’m out of clues here, but I’m going to give her benefit of doubt and say she was having a bad day – BUT that doesn’t mean just trying to put me down in front of everyone, and throwing a few racial slurs along the way. And she wasn’t allowed to make the decision about where the phone goes – it is on leadership far above her – but she was two or three levels above me in hierarchy or seniority, so simply decided to follow what she said, after sending her an email and getting a response. Do I feel bad for her? Somewhat, but let’s hope this was a lesson for her to start improving herself and understand that it’s not okay to throw someone else fire for reasons beyond that someone.”

While this IT manager didn’t exactly have the best plan, many readers were a bit surprised to find a person “bragging” about now being more available for work calls while on vacation. They managed to effectively leverage this opportunity, but let’s face it, most of us would prefer to not spend a single minute of our time off wondering about “work stuff.”

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Indeed, many countries have even passed laws against this, although it is possible that in certain “critical” jobs, this law is overlooked. After all, this person did say that they need to be on call for government agencies regularly, so it could very well be a life or death issue. However, it can still be mentally uncomfortable to know that at any hour of the day, any day of the week, you might get a work call.

Image credits: Marjan Grabowski (not the actual photo)

Many places now have rules against after-work emails and calls

This is often the main (and often sole) complaint with work from home, as the feeling of being “off the clock” never truly shows up. If you can hear email notifications while cooking dinner, it might be hard to truly internalize that the workday is over. Calls are even worse, as they tend to mean something has gone very wrong. In general, most jobs are not actually worth the sort of stress they often end up causing.

A message or email can be ignored, or, at the very least, you can read its contents and then think a bit to formulate your answer. Calls are intrusive and stressful, particularly if it’s something that your boss feels like they need to do out of hours. This is why many countries actually have a “right to disconnect,” meaning that a worker can’t be penalized for refusing to answer calls or emails outside of working hours. This is necessary, as some companies might try to claim that it’s a normal part of their policy and not an exploitative practice.

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It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean that they can’t do it. If you feel like doing that work or simply don’t mind “out of hours” messages, feel free to answer them. But a right to disconnect gives people the opportunity to not do that. A healthy work-life balance is always important. Currently, the European Union is looking into making this a law, as they already define the right to disconnect as “a worker’s right to be able to disengage from work and refrain from engaging in work-related electronic communications, such as emails or other messages, during non-work hours.”

France, often a pioneer in worker’s rights, already passed laws against this in 2016 and required larger companies (defined as having fifty or more employees) to put working hours into writing. Of course, in this story, the employee seemed relatively ok with getting these calls, perhaps because it’s just part of the field they work in.

Instead, this is another classic story of a manager making a sweeping call based on personal preference that is neither well informed nor actually useful. After all, the entire point of a special phone like the one in this story is that the employee could be reached almost anywhere. This does mean that sometimes the phone will end up damaged, no matter how this IT manager feels about it. While this might be a tad expensive, these company phones don’t exist to be kept in a pristine state, they exist so that critical workers can be reached very quickly if needed.

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Image credits: Katerina Holmes (not the actual photo)

People thought this bit of malicious compliance was hilarious and chatted with the employee

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Others shared similar stories

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Justin Sandberg

Justin Sandberg

Writer, BoredPanda staff

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I am a writer at Bored Panda. Despite being born in the US, I ended up spending most of my life in Europe, from Latvia, Austria, and Georgia to finally settling in Lithuania. At Bored Panda, you’ll find me covering topics ranging from the cat meme of the day to red flags in the workplace and really anything else. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, beating other people at board games, cooking, good books, and bad films.

Read less »
Justin Sandberg

Justin Sandberg

Writer, BoredPanda staff

I am a writer at Bored Panda. Despite being born in the US, I ended up spending most of my life in Europe, from Latvia, Austria, and Georgia to finally settling in Lithuania. At Bored Panda, you’ll find me covering topics ranging from the cat meme of the day to red flags in the workplace and really anything else. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, beating other people at board games, cooking, good books, and bad films.

Gabija Palšytė

Gabija Palšytė

Author, BoredPanda staff

Read more »

Gabija is a photo editor at Bored Panda. Before joining the team, she achieved a Professional Bachelor degree in Photography and has been working as a freelance photographer since. She also has a special place in her heart for film photography, movies and nature.

Read less »

Gabija Palšytė

Gabija Palšytė

Author, BoredPanda staff

Gabija is a photo editor at Bored Panda. Before joining the team, she achieved a Professional Bachelor degree in Photography and has been working as a freelance photographer since. She also has a special place in her heart for film photography, movies and nature.

What do you think ?
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POST
James016
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My manager was away recently when we had a major issue. I didn’t feel the need to contact him and despite me working, it was half term so I was in a hotel (I worked while my wife and son went to the beach). A couple of days after the incident, my manager calls me from the Canary Islands checking in. Told him we had it under control and not to worry. He tells me our colleague was messaging him a lot so that why he called me. Then he relays a message from his fiancée: if your team calls you, don’t worry, if James calls you, something has gone horribly wrong. We have an understanding between the two of us. We don’t take holidays at the same time and we can call each other if there is a catastrophe of some sort. Other than that, holiday is holiday.

michele mbennett101044@yahoo.c
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

First of all, I'm not available for any work related stuff while on PTO, vacation or sick leave PERIOD! Nor am I going to have ANYONE enter my apartment, house or vehicle while I'm not there PERIOD! There is nothing so dire at work that can only be fixed by me, find someone else who is qualified and available, I'm not the only person in the company who can do this, end of conversation. If, for some unlikely reason, I am then the company is in deep s**t.

Sheena Leversedge Wood
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

it's not okay to expect people to be contactable when they are not either scheduled to work or on call.

Seadog
Community Member
3 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm in management where I work, to give you an idea, in 2020 when people were being furloughed, had things really gotten bad, I'd be the last person in the company to go. I also handle light IT work as needed as our actual IT person is about 70 miles away, I'm 2 miles away. Earlier this year they actually moved the server into a room (that I don't have a key to) that is environmentally controlled (we tried telling owners it needed to be there from day one). Not long ago it failed to come back online following a power outage. Called me in early to reboot the network (all behind a locked door that someone changed the lock on) and make sure server is up and gets online, reboot if necessary. Of course it was then revealed to those that matter, I can't do that now because of the recent changes. Owner told the only person with keys to get me copies. I can't wait until they suddenly need me to come see why things are down so I can tell them once again, I don't have keys to those rooms.

Seadog
Community Member
3 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

BTW, the person with the keys, knows nothing about IT and usually isn't here until 1 hour after most everyone else arrives. Like other people in many BP stories, she seems to think she's more important than she really is. She could use an a** chewin'.

Load More Replies...
Phoenix🇬🇧
Community Member
4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Surely using a tempered glass screen protector or shockproof case could help protect the phone a bit.

J N
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Are you telling me that phones in the US are only "locked" to one single network? Wtf. What do you do when you travel? And what happens if you put 2 sim cards in it?

john li
Community Member
4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Only if you buy the phone through the carrier. You can often times get a discount or 0% financing so a lot of people do. If you need to go somewhere you can usually tell your carrier and they would have an agreement with a carrier there to let you use their network. Most phones in the US don't have dual sims and a lot of newer phones have digital sims

Load More Replies...
J. Oliver Scott
Community Member
4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My last tech industry job the senior management tried to issue me a company mobile device and I declined it without a commensurate pay increase. Key people who had my personal number knew if they called me the fire department had better already be onsite (figuratively) and I'm NOT first line tech support, especially on PTO as opposed to just after hours or weekends. Mgmt knew if I drew that line in the sand I was willing to defend it and I'd be taking many of their best clients with me if I resigned/fired so they had to respect it. I know not everyone has the luxury of that position of power but if any employer starts expecting or demanding an employee's after work hours or even worse their vacation then there needs to be a serious appraisal of the job, it's compensation, and the corporate culture which has too much critical reliance on too few individuals.

Fight Hypocrites
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That woman seriously overstepped. IT rarely gets to make policy for other departments except for those which directly affect the network and it's security, etc. They certainly don't get to dictate how available employees are to their superiors.

zak
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's not malicious compliance, that's just regular compliance. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Steve Hall
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow, this all sounds like hush hush secret squirrel stuff that we shouldn't know about.

Alan Jay Weiner
Community Member
4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This sounds like the rare case of being available for emergency call-in 24/7/365 is ok. OP knew this going into the position, company was reasonable in staffing to avoid calling people in when they're on vacations/PTO/whatever, and compensated them when it did happen. I had a job where a project ended up taking both Christmas and family vacation from me. I was there for dinners and a few minutes off to socialize, but mostly working - they shipped a full Sun workstation to me each time. Bonus compensated as much as they could, although I said I didn't want it to happen again. That company was fun and wonderful to work for until 9/11 happened; every project came to a halt and the company went under.

James016
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My manager was away recently when we had a major issue. I didn’t feel the need to contact him and despite me working, it was half term so I was in a hotel (I worked while my wife and son went to the beach). A couple of days after the incident, my manager calls me from the Canary Islands checking in. Told him we had it under control and not to worry. He tells me our colleague was messaging him a lot so that why he called me. Then he relays a message from his fiancée: if your team calls you, don’t worry, if James calls you, something has gone horribly wrong. We have an understanding between the two of us. We don’t take holidays at the same time and we can call each other if there is a catastrophe of some sort. Other than that, holiday is holiday.

michele mbennett101044@yahoo.c
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

First of all, I'm not available for any work related stuff while on PTO, vacation or sick leave PERIOD! Nor am I going to have ANYONE enter my apartment, house or vehicle while I'm not there PERIOD! There is nothing so dire at work that can only be fixed by me, find someone else who is qualified and available, I'm not the only person in the company who can do this, end of conversation. If, for some unlikely reason, I am then the company is in deep s**t.

Sheena Leversedge Wood
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

it's not okay to expect people to be contactable when they are not either scheduled to work or on call.

Seadog
Community Member
3 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm in management where I work, to give you an idea, in 2020 when people were being furloughed, had things really gotten bad, I'd be the last person in the company to go. I also handle light IT work as needed as our actual IT person is about 70 miles away, I'm 2 miles away. Earlier this year they actually moved the server into a room (that I don't have a key to) that is environmentally controlled (we tried telling owners it needed to be there from day one). Not long ago it failed to come back online following a power outage. Called me in early to reboot the network (all behind a locked door that someone changed the lock on) and make sure server is up and gets online, reboot if necessary. Of course it was then revealed to those that matter, I can't do that now because of the recent changes. Owner told the only person with keys to get me copies. I can't wait until they suddenly need me to come see why things are down so I can tell them once again, I don't have keys to those rooms.

Seadog
Community Member
3 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

BTW, the person with the keys, knows nothing about IT and usually isn't here until 1 hour after most everyone else arrives. Like other people in many BP stories, she seems to think she's more important than she really is. She could use an a** chewin'.

Load More Replies...
Phoenix🇬🇧
Community Member
4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Surely using a tempered glass screen protector or shockproof case could help protect the phone a bit.

J N
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Are you telling me that phones in the US are only "locked" to one single network? Wtf. What do you do when you travel? And what happens if you put 2 sim cards in it?

john li
Community Member
4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Only if you buy the phone through the carrier. You can often times get a discount or 0% financing so a lot of people do. If you need to go somewhere you can usually tell your carrier and they would have an agreement with a carrier there to let you use their network. Most phones in the US don't have dual sims and a lot of newer phones have digital sims

Load More Replies...
J. Oliver Scott
Community Member
4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My last tech industry job the senior management tried to issue me a company mobile device and I declined it without a commensurate pay increase. Key people who had my personal number knew if they called me the fire department had better already be onsite (figuratively) and I'm NOT first line tech support, especially on PTO as opposed to just after hours or weekends. Mgmt knew if I drew that line in the sand I was willing to defend it and I'd be taking many of their best clients with me if I resigned/fired so they had to respect it. I know not everyone has the luxury of that position of power but if any employer starts expecting or demanding an employee's after work hours or even worse their vacation then there needs to be a serious appraisal of the job, it's compensation, and the corporate culture which has too much critical reliance on too few individuals.

Fight Hypocrites
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That woman seriously overstepped. IT rarely gets to make policy for other departments except for those which directly affect the network and it's security, etc. They certainly don't get to dictate how available employees are to their superiors.

zak
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's not malicious compliance, that's just regular compliance. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Steve Hall
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow, this all sounds like hush hush secret squirrel stuff that we shouldn't know about.

Alan Jay Weiner
Community Member
4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This sounds like the rare case of being available for emergency call-in 24/7/365 is ok. OP knew this going into the position, company was reasonable in staffing to avoid calling people in when they're on vacations/PTO/whatever, and compensated them when it did happen. I had a job where a project ended up taking both Christmas and family vacation from me. I was there for dinners and a few minutes off to socialize, but mostly working - they shipped a full Sun workstation to me each time. Bonus compensated as much as they could, although I said I didn't want it to happen again. That company was fun and wonderful to work for until 9/11 happened; every project came to a halt and the company went under.

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