Boss Tried To Punish Employee For Working From Home Despite The Entire Office Being Empty
His request wasn't just annoying — it didn't make any sense.
fizkes / Shutterstock The debate over whether or not employees should be allowed to work remotely has been going on for years now.
While some situations may warrant in-person work, other cases of employers forcing their workers to come into the office seem downright ridiculous.
This was the case for one employee who was told he needed to work from the office despite the rest of the team being at an event in another country.
Ben Askins, who describes himself as a “champion of younger gens,” is known for posting TikToks in which he narrates and provides commentary on messages between workers and their bosses.
One recent installment in his “worst boss ever” series featured messages between an employee who was trying to work from home, and their boss, who was getting in their way.
The worker's boss began the interaction by questioning why the employee had not been going into the office this week. The employee logically explained that he thought an exception could be made as everyone else was in the U.S. for an event.
Unwilling to grant any leeway, the boss called attention to their company “policy” — “everyone must go in at least twice a week.”
“I get that," the worker responded, "but as I’m working on U.S. hours to support the team, it is a lot easier to just do it from home, especially as everything is on Teams anyway.”
Photo: MT-R / Shutterstock
The boss, however, was not moved. “The reason we have the office is to provide face-to-face time with everyone,” they wrote.
Askins was incredulous at this point. “I mean, this sounds like a ChatGPT bot,” he interjected. “Like, what is going on?”
For their part, the employee tried to remain calm, stating that it was impossible to work face-to-face this week, as everyone else was abroad. Yet, the boss did not accept this answer. “I am not here to discuss, I just wanted to make it clear that if you do this again it will be a warning,” they threatened.
“This is a joke right?” the employee asked, to which the boss replied, “Why would I be joking?”
“Because it sounds like you are giving me a warning for not going in to spend time in an empty office,” the worker said.
“Sarcasm is not necessary,” the boss responded. “I am going to send you a link so we can discuss this further.”
Then, the worker responded with one final jab. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come into the office for it?” they asked.
Askins called this response “actually brilliant” while laughing. He got serious quickly, though, to discuss the absurdity of the boss’s demands. “When companies are this inflexible, you just start treating people like children,” he said. “He’s got to commute to then do remote calls all day. It's so unnecessary."
Commenters were equally shocked by the boss’s behavior.
Fellow TikTok users who commented on Askins’ video were also baffled by the employer’s words.
“Face-to-face time with people who aren’t there!” one person pointed out.
“I’d only be available during local hours then, not U.S. hours,” another commenter wrote. “See how he likes it when [the] team isn’t being supported properly.”
A third user made what is perhaps the most important point here. “‘Apparently you haven’t been going into the office this week’ implies that the boss also has not been going in, and it doesn’t sound like the boss is in the U.S.”
It is certainly interesting that a boss not only reprimanded an employee for not going into the office but also attempted to discipline them.
This only creates more questions about what the future of remote work will be, and how employees will be able to hold on to it.
Not to mention, it has been proven that working from home actually makes employees more productive. So it seems this boss had no reason to demand the employee come into the office, other than to exert control.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.