Lindsey Weedston
A manager at some mystery establishment has become anonymously internet famous after having a full meltdown in texts to a worker who refused to come in to work on their day off. The worker immortalized their text conversations on Reddit’s “Antiwork” forum in a series of posts following said meltdown, continuing a new but well-loved tradition of exposing bad managers who try to throw their meager levels of power around to get what they want and failing.
The interaction started as it often does, with the manager having to desperately find someone to cover another worker after they called out sick because management chronically understaffs workplaces to save money. Then they wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, saying they couldn’t possible get through the day without the employee’s help.
After refusing an offer to come in for double the pay for the night, the manager offered only to “discuss how we can thank you in the future.” How it was any surprise that this counter-offer was refused remains a mystery.
The worker then informed the manager that they were heading into a late-night showing of the new Batman movie and wouldn’t be available. This, predictably, set their boss off and they called it “unacceptable,” continued to demand they call, and then offered a paltry $20 extra for coming in. The worker refused and gave them 10 minutes to provide a decent offer.
“I’m not coming over for $20 extra, [t]he film’s about to start you have 10 minutes before I buy a ticket and turn my phone off,” the worker wrote back. “It’s no reasonable to demand this from me.”
But the manager had no intention of being reasonable, threatening to have a meeting with someone, presumably a higher manager, about the worker’s “standard of behavior.” The employee then switched off their phone, only to turn it on later to find out that the manager did in fact find someone else to cover for the person who called out sick.
“[Redacted] put me on to cover your job all night and you know I absolutely hate doing it,” the manager wrote.
As it turns out, they were able to do the job all along. They just felt it was beneath them, claiming the job belonged to the worker they were harassing despite the fact that the schedule said otherwise.
It got even better after the manager checked the Batman showings for the previous night, finding that the worker was lying to them. Not that it mattered, because while the manager was angry enough to fire them over it, the worker had already taken care of their hours.
“You’re fire,” wrote the manager. “Don’t come in tomorrow, [y]ou don’t show me complete disrespect and force the managers to do the low-level work.”
Oh, but they did.
“I couldn’t give a s–t if you fire me,” the employee responded. “[I]’ve just got off the phone with my boss from my second job who’s agreed to extend my hours. You can shove your threats up your a–.”
This likely made the manager even angrier, but no more so than when they found the Reddit posts.
To be clear, it’s very difficult for an employer to sue a worker for lost revenue, and essentially impossible to successfully do so just because a they refused to come in and then “quit” after already being fired.
The whole saga was so incredible that many Reddit commenters have accused it of being fake, as some Reddit users will do in order to farm karma. However, it’s not so far off from other manager tantrums we’ve seen, and if it was all only for entertainment, then mission accomplished.
