A man named Aaron Genest who is the president of a company in Canada wrote a thread on Twitter about why he denied the request of one of his employees to shift to working 80% of the time.

Let’s get the whole story before making any assumptions…

This is how Genest started his Twitter thread.

An employee came to me last week and asked to move to 80% time. Her husband, she said, was taking on some extra responsibility and they were having trouble keeping the kids on track during remote learning.

I said no.#sktech #skpoli #cdnpoli #COVID19SK #covid19

— Aaron Genest 🇺🇦🇨🇦 (@AaronGenest) January 11, 2021

Genest wrote this thread in January 2021 when the pandemic was still in full swing and the future was uncertain in regard to when or if people would be returning to work or to their offices. And, on top, of that, parents were dealing with their kids’ remote learning.

Genest added this information for people reading his thread.

Women in the workplace have been disproportionately affected by COVID, erasing decades of gains. And it’s easy to see why when women typically earn less (even for the same jobs) than their partners. https://t.co/2jObc3Ifn0

— Aaron Genest 🇺🇦🇨🇦 (@AaronGenest) January 11, 2021

But Genest believed his employee’s base assumption about work was wrong.

Every reason my employee gave was valid and rational (we hire great people), but the base assumption was wrong.

The assumption was that we should expect the same thing of our work lives now in terms of productivity and time commitment that we did with pre-COVID.

— Aaron Genest 🇺🇦🇨🇦 (@AaronGenest) January 11, 2021

He talked about how his team at work actually excelled during the COVID pandemic and all the challenges that came with it.

We shouldn’t.

I have a high-performing team who outperformed themselves again this year, outperforming almost every other team in my company in fact and winning awards for it.

They did it with kids at home, with COVID isolation, and with increased stress and loneliness.

— Aaron Genest 🇺🇦🇨🇦 (@AaronGenest) January 11, 2021

He added that they did it by supporting and working with each other.

They didn’t do it by working 9 to 5 or putting 40 hours of tracked time in during the week. They didn’t do it by shutting their door and not seeing their kids or by using every moment of Zoom calls for work.

They did it by being a supportive group and working together.

— Aaron Genest 🇺🇦🇨🇦 (@AaronGenest) January 11, 2021

And how they had each other’s backs.

When someone has to leave to pick up their kids, someone else covers. When a 2-year-old bounces into a business call, they smile and everyone understands. When a day is less productive because they can’t stand staring at the walls anymore, they get out so the next one is better.

— Aaron Genest 🇺🇦🇨🇦 (@AaronGenest) January 11, 2021

Genest then said that he had very specific reasons for turning down the woman’s request to work 80%.

So I said no. No, you can’t become one of the women earning less because of COVID. No, you can’t sacrifice your career advancement because of a perceived lack of productivity. No, you don’t need to feel guilty about taking the time to make sure your kids are learning.

— Aaron Genest 🇺🇦🇨🇦 (@AaronGenest) January 11, 2021

And he emphasized how his team would make sure she’d be able to perform her duties AND take time off when she needed it to attend to life matters.

Instead, we’re working together to make sure that she’s still productive and happy, that she feels comfortable blocking off whatever time she needs in her calendar to support her family, and that she and her family will be healthy and ready for when we come out the other side.

— Aaron Genest 🇺🇦🇨🇦 (@AaronGenest) January 11, 2021

Genest encouraged others in his position to do the same things he did to keep his team together.

It’s a small thing. I’m a single boss in a large company among many employers.

But let me encourage anyone with the power to do so to deny this change. Work with your team from within, above, or below to support the people struggling through this.

Please.

— Aaron Genest 🇺🇦🇨🇦 (@AaronGenest) January 11, 2021

And he added this at the end just so readers knew that he wasn’t doing this behind his employee’s back.

I should note that I spoke with my employee before posting this. 😉

— Aaron Genest 🇺🇦🇨🇦 (@AaronGenest) January 11, 2021