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26
Colleague Can’t Take No For An Answer So Man Pettily Answers His Video Call From The Hospital
Over the past decades, our work has entered deeper and deeper into our lives. Email, smartphones, and expansive intranets have made it much easier to stay connected to our jobs even when we’re not physically there. This can be great for people who don’t want to rot in traffic jams and for companies that are disappointed with the size of the local talent pool.
However, the downside is that it can interfere with parts of our day we’d rather keep private—like doctor appointments. A few days ago, Reddit user Changeurblinkerfluid uploaded a story on r/traumatizeThemBack about an annoying colleague who insisted on calling him despite the clear out-of-office alerts. So, he answered and turned the camera on at the oncologist’s to make sure the guy realized what he was doing. And it was effective!
RELATED:
When this employee accompanied his wife to her cancer treatment appointment, he set a clear out-of-office alert at work
Image credits: Tiger Lily (not the actual photo)
However, one colleague from the sales department didn’t care about it
Image credits: Tima Miroshnichenko (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Changeurblinkerfluid
Many of us remain “on demand” outside of our work hours
In other countries, the numbers might be different, but in the United States, people are often on their corporate emails and messages when they’re off the clock.
According to a survey by Zimbra and OnePoll of 2,000 office employees, 70 percent are okay with receiving work notifications at any hour of the day. Maybe this also explains why the average person answers work emails 12 minutes faster than personal ones.
When asked to name their ideal schedule, respondents provided a variety of arrangements, like working “remotely with full flexibility of my work,” “whenever I want to meet my production,” or as specific as “8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday.”
They stay connected during their free time to feel good about being on top of their responsibilities (48 percent), because they’re hoping to move up within the company (47 percent), or because they don’t like leaving things unfinished (45 percent).
Because of this, it’s vital to maintain boundaries. Luckily, the majority seem to manage and don’t view their additional effort as a sacrifice. Seventy-two percent still rate their work-life balance as either “good” or “excellent.”
Sadly, though, a 2024 poll of almost 3,000 employees discovered that irritating colleagues are even more common. Its numbers showed that 85% of people have dealt with an annoying coworker, with 58% saying their behaviors significantly affect their productivity. The research categorized five main groups:
- Credit Stealer (33%);
- Micromanager (32%);
- Chronic Complainer (30%);
- Personal Space Intruder (30);
- Lunch Thief (27%).
As we can see, the salesperson belongs to the list as well. Hopefully, for both his and his company’s sake, he can improve.
Image credits: Campaign Creators (not the actual photo)
As the story went viral, it has received a lot of different reactions
Some people also shared their own similar experiences
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What do you think ?
Tams21 1 day ago (edited)
Op said later in the comments that he usually gets along with the sales guy and think he actually did him a favour in the long run. I can't think of a better way to teach somebody to respect boundaries and I don't think he'll ever do anything like that again.
MorticiaRS 1 day ago
This happened to me once with an outside client. I worked for the county and a realtor called me repeatedly while I was out for my father in law’s death/funeral, and left a VERY detailed message as to what was going on. He left a nasty voicemail threatening to call my boss. I returned his call when I got back to the office and asked if he had listened to the announcement, and reiterated the circumstances. After that, he only had his secretary call me when he wanted something.😄
Beth Wheeler 1 day ago
I would have only replied that I was out of the office for a family emergency and that would be it. If he still kept pushing I would ignore everything until I got back to work then go full blast on him.
Ruth Watry 3 hours ago
Text, unless this is more important than treating a life threatening illness, respect my boundaries
Kristen Woehlke 20 hours ago
Worked in a printing department at this big RF microwave company. Did the job of 3 people all by my lonesome. My boss (f*****g racist b***h!) I know didn't like me, made it even worse when she heard that I told her brother that I wasn't Interested. Well, I had a car accident, broke, shattered or cracked everything except my spine & right arm. Well, the chick I tried to train was a serious pot head and could hardly tie her own shoes! I was in a major hospital, having been airlifted there to the shock trauma dept. This c**t has the nerve to call me and say "I need you here! Pot head needs to take some time off and I can't take no for an answer, you need to be here in the next few minutes!". So, with whatever energy I had left I screamed at her that I just flipped my car a few dozen times and I'm going to be heading into surgery for titanium rods and pins everywhere, oh and by the way, I died three times last night!". How she didn't hear about my accident, I don't know!
Lee Gilliland 23 hours ago
I'm assuming everyone read the post about the doctor called out of surgery.
Verena 1 day ago
In a non-emergency business people can survive two or three hours without input from colleagues. In an emergency business back-up people are available in case of planned absences, however long they are. I don't get why OP just didn't ignore and muted that sales guy.
Mike F 1 day ago
Shouldn't the higher-ups have handled this ahead of time? If OP's wife had been dealing with this and the brass knew, shouldn't they have maybe stepped up with something like "OP is dealing with some issues so you may get the "out of office" reply but will get back to you ASAP "? They wouldn't have to disclose anything personal but at the same time using their influence to head this kind of thing off before it became what it did.
Tams21 1 day ago (edited)
Op said later in the comments that he usually gets along with the sales guy and think he actually did him a favour in the long run. I can't think of a better way to teach somebody to respect boundaries and I don't think he'll ever do anything like that again.
MorticiaRS 1 day ago
This happened to me once with an outside client. I worked for the county and a realtor called me repeatedly while I was out for my father in law’s death/funeral, and left a VERY detailed message as to what was going on. He left a nasty voicemail threatening to call my boss. I returned his call when I got back to the office and asked if he had listened to the announcement, and reiterated the circumstances. After that, he only had his secretary call me when he wanted something.😄
Beth Wheeler 1 day ago
I would have only replied that I was out of the office for a family emergency and that would be it. If he still kept pushing I would ignore everything until I got back to work then go full blast on him.
Ruth Watry 3 hours ago
Text, unless this is more important than treating a life threatening illness, respect my boundaries
Kristen Woehlke 20 hours ago
Worked in a printing department at this big RF microwave company. Did the job of 3 people all by my lonesome. My boss (f*****g racist b***h!) I know didn't like me, made it even worse when she heard that I told her brother that I wasn't Interested. Well, I had a car accident, broke, shattered or cracked everything except my spine & right arm. Well, the chick I tried to train was a serious pot head and could hardly tie her own shoes! I was in a major hospital, having been airlifted there to the shock trauma dept. This c**t has the nerve to call me and say "I need you here! Pot head needs to take some time off and I can't take no for an answer, you need to be here in the next few minutes!". So, with whatever energy I had left I screamed at her that I just flipped my car a few dozen times and I'm going to be heading into surgery for titanium rods and pins everywhere, oh and by the way, I died three times last night!". How she didn't hear about my accident, I don't know!
Lee Gilliland 23 hours ago
I'm assuming everyone read the post about the doctor called out of surgery.
Verena 1 day ago
In a non-emergency business people can survive two or three hours without input from colleagues. In an emergency business back-up people are available in case of planned absences, however long they are. I don't get why OP just didn't ignore and muted that sales guy.
Mike F 1 day ago
Shouldn't the higher-ups have handled this ahead of time? If OP's wife had been dealing with this and the brass knew, shouldn't they have maybe stepped up with something like "OP is dealing with some issues so you may get the "out of office" reply but will get back to you ASAP "? They wouldn't have to disclose anything personal but at the same time using their influence to head this kind of thing off before it became what it did.
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