Work takes up so much of your waking time, any time off should be cherished. However, it can feel like emergencies at work tend to happen when you aren’t there.
Redditor ironbandito is an underage high school student who works part time for a car wash. Despite this he only has one day a week he doesn’t work.
So when the original poster (OP)’s job tries to call him for some tasks on his day off, he ignores it. However, now he thinks his boss and another supervisor are upset with him.
Was he wrong to ignore their texts and calls? To find out he asks the “Am I the A**hole” (AITA) subReddit.
He asks:
“AITA for enjoying my only day off?”
This is what he says happened:
“AITA for enjoying my day off? You tell me. On mobile by the way.”
“For context, I work at carwash. I’m almost 18, and a senior in high school.”
“I worked my way up by taking over social media and building a website. I handle most customer relations for my location when I’m there. I also sell memberships. I’m the best one at my job, and I’m proud to make myself indispensable to the company.”
“But because my hours are short, conformed to the highest activity hours, I work six days a week. My only day off is Tuesday.”
“I value my day off greatly. I already had to stop by my work to make an instruction manual, because my supervisor decided to put his responsibilities on me, I was pissed but I got the job done.”
“My prom is this week, so I decided to use my day off to get a spray tan. (I have a farmers tan from working outside haha).”
“Before my appointment my boss (the Owner) called me. I ignored it, because I knew if I answered it he would give me a task that was to be finished right away. He sent a text saying to call him back, but I didn’t bother calling him back on my only day off.”
“I was irked but didn’t worry too much about it. It could wait until tomorrow.”
But his issues with work cutting into his time off doesn’t end there.
“Before I left for my appointment, a supervisor texted and called me. Upset, I decided to answer it so I wouldn’t be bothered during the rest of my day off.”
“He asked me if I could do a solid and boost an hiring ad for another location. I said sure, I can do it tomorrow and told him it would be the first thing I do when I arrive at work.”
“He seemed aggravated that I wasn’t going to do it today, off the clock, ON MY ONLY DAY OFF.”
“Then, after my tan appointment, a customer texted me, which means my boss or supervisor gave them my number without a heads up. I haven’t answered it.”
“I am a part-time hourly worker. I fully believe that my day off should have no work related activities. But I get the vibe the owner and supervisor mentioned earlier are mad I ignored them.”
“I’m mad that my day off was constantly interrupted by my work life. I understand that I am very good at what I do, but that does not mean I am available at beck and call.”
“So, AITA for trying to enjoy my only day off?”
On the AITA board, people are judged for how they respond to someone else.
This is done with one of the following comments:
- NTA – Not the A**hole
- YTA – You’re the A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everybody Sucks Here
The board voted that OP was NTA. It wasn’t just that it was OP’s only day off, but a lot of people have dealt with bad bosses and know how it feels to be called when you should be not working.
It’s more than understandable that OP ignored the calls, it was the right thing to do.
“NTA”
“Good for you for standing firm about not working when you’re not scheduled aka, not getting paid to do so. If your boss really wants you to do something, he needs to pay you for your time, that’s how running a business works.”
“Have fun at your prom! Enjoy!” – Inevitable_Evie
“NTA – your supervisors are taking advantage of you. I’d block their numbers on your day off – there’s nothing so important that they need to find you when you’re not scheduled to work.”
“If you were a supervisor/manager, it may be appropriate to occasionally be on call, but they’re just flat out taking advantage of you.”
“NTA at all – this is a valuable lesson in how *not* to be a good leader” – GrandpaJoeSloth
“NTA the fact that they cant go one day without you really shows how lazy they are or how valuable you are to the company.”
“You should ask for a raise or overtime (considering you’re technically working after your scheduled time) or at least set boundaries for when you’re off work with your bosses.” – fuckisthisbs
“NTA. You definitely need to establish and assert your boundaries. Your boss has no right to harass you on your days off. No work should be done off the clock. Period.”
“And giving out your number is unacceptable.” – [deleted]
Some of the other comments were worried about the precedent the bosses were trying to set. There are labor laws in place specifically to protect workers from this kind of abuse.
It’s literally illegal to try and force a worker to work without pay.
“‘-I’m proud to make myself indispensable to the company-’”
“Flush this attitude down the toilet asap. The company doesn’t give a rat’s ass about you. They will actively work to destroy your work-life balance whenever possible.”
“NTA you are doing good.” – plinky4
“I was going to say exactly this. OP, no matter how good of a job you do, this company will never see you as indispensable.”
“I have seen a LOT of ‘best at their job’ employees (selling the most memberships, surpassing every quota, completing every task, etc) get fired with no warning for the pettiest reasons. Companies are dumb like that.”
“You could be making three times the profit as another employee, but they won’t hesitate to send you packing if the order to ‘cut costs’ comes down the flagpole.”
“Someday the boss’s kid might need a job and you’ll find yourself pushed out of the way to make room. Or hell, you could just have one bad day where you show up late or piss off a customer or get on your supervisor’s bad side, and you’ll learn exactly how much loyalty your work got you.”
“Treasure your day off. Don’t lift a finger for them until you are on the clock as scheduled. They’ll suck you dry if they get half a chance – don’t give it to them.” – biwitchinghbee
“NTA- check out Fair Labor Standards act which legally requires companies to pay hourly non exempt employees for any work, calls, texts etc outside of the office or scheduled hours.”
“So you can go to your boss and say according to the FLSA you are required to pay me for working outside my scheduled hours. The minimum is in 15 minute increments. I will from now on be tracking all calls texts and emails and submitting to payroll for compensation.”
“Furthermore since you thought it was appropriate to give out my personal cell phone which was not a term required by hiring number to a customer I will be submitting a reimbursement claim for monthly billing. You can either provide a company phone if you want customers to be able to reach me outside of the office or we nip this in the bud right now and agree that it was inappropriate and won’t happen again in the future.” – Befub14435
OP’s bosses aren’t going to be happy, but if they really appreciate his work and want to keep him around, they’ll respect his time off.