There’s a special kind of satisfaction in watching a power trip collapse under its own rules.

How would you handle it if your manager insisted that calling out sick required a phone call, even when they never answer? Would you just keep doing what you’ve been doing? Or would you adjust and give them what they want?

In the following story, one telecom employee finds himself in this situation and follows the rule. Here’s what happened.

Made up policy by the store managers

So I work a pretty cozy TeleCo job. I’ve been there for 2 years, and they have only tried to pull this “policy” stuff a few times. Below are two examples.

It’s common courtesy for an employee to give their manager notice if they are sick.

The only reason I say “made-up” policy is because the managers tried to enforce us to only get medical certificates in person, since an online doctor couldn’t properly assess our condition, so it’s not valid, apparently.

He called but never got an answer.

They received a bunch of pushback, and that “rule” silently just stopped being enforced.

With notice, my managers say that a text is not enough and that I HAVE to call even if they see the text. To clarify, I have one store manager and two assistant managers.

So my body clock forces me to wake up just before 6 am, still have gastro pains, and I call straight away, then again, and again. No answer, send a text saying I’ll call again in an hour.

I did this every time. They never pick up at 6 am.

Then, one of the managers decided to enforce the rule.

So I stopped calling altogether and would send a text around 6 am. Along the lines of “I’m not feeling well, please let me know you’ve seen this. I’ll call before 8 if not.”

Two of the managers found that fine since they had experienced my 3x calls at 6 am.

The third manager recently sent me a message around 9am (texted that I was sick, and he responded, “get well soon”). “Moving forward, I expect a phone call every time you call in sick, as that is the correct process and has been expressed to the entire team as well; it is an expectation, not an option.”

He called as early as possible.

So the next day I’m still sick. I wake up at 5 am (I particularly do not like this manager), call x5. Then send the text “I’ll call again in an hour, I’m still not feeling well.”

Call again in an hour. No answer, go to call again. He sends a text, “Okay, hope you feel better.”

Power trip shut down 🥱

Nice! It sounds like that manager is just trying to be a pain.

Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit feel about it.

This person’s job has a similar policy.

According to this reader, he should call the main boss one time.

Here’s an interesting point.

This would be the perfect policy to implement next.

That’s one dumb rule!

And it sounds like these managers need to get on the same page.

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.