When He Told His Boss That He Was Not Going To Make Their Corporate Dinner Because He Preferred To Spend Time With His Wife, His Boss Said He Had To Go Or He Could Suffer The Consequences
Are you someone who prefers working remotely?
Some people are more introverted and enjoy remote work because they don’t have to interact with coworkers and office culture as much.
One man recently had to attend an in-person conference for his job, which he usually works remotely, and got a lot of grief from his coworkers when he said he didn’t want to go out with them on the final night.
He’s 47-years-old, married, and works remotely. He loves the remote work lifestyle, as he’s never been very “buddy-buddy” with his coworkers or boss.
However, he recently had to attend an in-person, week-long work conference with everybody at his company.
He dreaded it from the start but went because it was mandatory, especially because he had to participate in the presentation his company was doing.
He didn’t mind attending the actual conference that much. But he couldn’t stand how he was expected to spend a lot of extra time with his coworkers at the end of the day.
During the first three nights of the conference, he was told he had to stick around and attend three dinners after the work events.
“In my opinion, if I’ve spent 8:30 am [to] 5:00 pm at a work conference with coworkers attending work-related sessions and giving a work-related presentation, past five o’clock, I am no longer at work,” he explained.
Yakobchuk Olena – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
“I was already rather peeved that this was not the expectation at the start.”
The first three nights of dinners were slightly bearable as he had at least been told about them in advance.
On the fourth and final night, he was missing his wife, so he reached out to her, and they made plans to have dinner together over Skype when the conference was over.
However, at the end of the conference, he found out that his boss and coworkers had different plans.
“Unfortunately, at lunch on the final day of the conference, my coworkers mentioned going to a specific restaurant,” he recalled.
“They asked if I was excited to go, and I said I was not going, but I hoped they enjoyed themselves. They acted like I smacked them and asked what I meant. I told them I’d made plans to call my wife and eat dinner with her.”
Then, his boss and coworkers started telling him that it was a tradition for everyone to get dinner together on the last night of the conference, and he began to feel some pressure but wanted to hold his ground and not go.
He tried telling them one last time that he already had plans and that he wasn’t informed of this dinner in advance, unlike the other ones.
“My boss then said it was something I had to attend, then some of my coworkers agreed and said it was an important part of the conference,” he said.
“I told my boss and coworkers that it was outside work hours, unpaid, and not scheduled, plus I prefer my wife’s company to theirs, so I was not going.”
Everyone started getting very upset with him and told him he was being rude. Finally, his boss began implying that if he didn’t attend the final dinner, there would be repercussions, which eventually made him give in and cancel his plans with his wife.
Looking back on the situation, he’s wondering if he really was being rude at that moment.
Should he have agreed to go to dinner from the start, or was he valid to want to skip?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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