In the modern workforce, remote work is often treated like a privilege instead of a practical alternative.

One employee was refused a work-from-home day and told instead to take a sick day, but their boss later paid the price for their rigidity when an urgent request came up.

Read on for the full story!

Work from home only allowed on “approved” days or else put in a leave? Sure.

My company is very strict about having us work from the office (WFO), with only one designated WFH day during the week.

This policy doesn’t make much sense considering the nature of the work.

Honestly, it’s weird because it’s an advertising agency which deals with social media marketing — something that can be done remotely — but never mind.

They require us to use a vacation day if we want to work remotely on any other day.

This employee was prepared to be flexible and still work when they were sick, but the boss said no.

I wasn’t feeling well one day and requested to WFH, even though it was a WFO day.

I assured them I could complete all my tasks from home, but my request was denied.

Since it was a scheduled leave day according to company policy, I took the day off and rested.

Although the boss soon regretted it.

Later, when my workload became urgent, my manager messaged me asking me to get it done.

I politely reminded them that, per company policy, since I had requested a leave day, it meant I wouldn’t be working.

She played by the book!

What did Reddit make of all this?

Good managers go out of their way to accommodate their employee’s needs.

This user has some strong opinions about RTO versus WFH.

When companies are too rigid, they sometimes lose out on productivity.

Even employers need to be able to respect boundaries.

This employee stuck to the rules, and ironically, this is exactly what led to the boss’ headache!

A little flexibility goes a long way.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.