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Temp employee works until 3:00 AM, asks if he can finish work from home, boss refuses, sparking malicious compliance: 'Temps are not allowed to work from home'

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  • 01

    "No working from home you say?"

    A man breathes into a paper bag with the words "WORK" written on it.
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  • 02
    I was a lead technician on a computer upgrade project for a large University (at the time I was a temp employee -- in other words, no benefits) and worked a relatively flexible schedule. It was supposed to be Monday - Thursday from 1pm-11pm. If we finished a day's upgrade at say 8pm my day would end then, if we finished. at 3am well, that's when my day ended.
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  • 03
    One of my duties was to write a report of the evening's upgrades and how they went. When everything went well the report would take a minute or two to give a few sentences of information. BUT, when things went -up sometimes the report would take 45- 60 minutes to write/edit etc.
  • 04
    I lived about 45 minutes away and asked my boss if I could (when all but the report was finished) clock out, make the drive home, clock back in and write the report from home. Not only would it get me home earlier, but I could think about how things went and write the report from the comfort of my own home.
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  • 05
    Answer: "Temps are not allowed to work from home". The night team would replace/upgrade people's computers and the day team would meet with each user in the morning and make sure all was well. On
  • 06
    a particular morning and particularly finicky faculty member had some issues with what had occurred with their upgrade so the Day team called. me as the info wasn't in my report and they needed clarification.
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  • 07
    Forget about the fact that I didn't end. up getting home that morning until near 3am but when I was awoken by my phone after about 5 hours of sleep and saw that it was work I gently hit ignore and rolled over and went back to sleep.
  • 08
    When I got into work that day there were several semi-angry emails, none of which specifically mentioned me by name but had a general "We need to all be here for each other" vibe.
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  • 09
    My boss called me in to his office and said I'd put the Day team in a bad situation by not being available. Me: But I thought you said I wasn't supposed to work from home.
  • 10
    Boss: This isn't about working from home, it's about answering the phone. Me: If the issue isn't about "working" why is it any concern of anybody else?
  • 11
    Boss: ..... We still weren't allowed to work from home but I can say that was the last phone call from the day team.
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  • 12
    A professional man screams into a telephone.
  • 13
    Wonderful-Seesaw6214.9m ago Employers don't want to pay you when you are at home, but they do want you to be on call 24/7. Excellent job calling out your boss like that.

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