Imagine working for a company where you’re often expected to work overtime with hardly any notice. Would you do it without complaint, or would you stand up for yourself?

In this story, one person is in that exact situation, and he passes the overtime onto a coworker. He also feels kind of guilty about it.

Let’s read all the details.

AITA? Employer told me last second to work overtime. I declined said I’m busy and made the guy with a kid work overtime.

I work in IT, I am the Team lead and senior tech. I was told last minute that IT needs to work a meeting that they failed to include us in on.

This is a consistent trend in the company people expect others to read minds when they don’t send invites.

I for the last two years have showed up at mostly every meeting last minute after hours. I am not the only tech in IT but i am the only one who is always able to support last minute meetings.

Enough is enough!

I have had enough of the last minute meetings after hours.

They let me know around 4:30 (i get off at 5) sometimes that there will be a 6 to 8 meeting you need to stay for. Which is insanely inconsiderate.

I decided enough is enough. I said nope and had another tech stay.

I support every single meeting, I have plans, I cannot cancel.

The CIO yelled at me saying my job is to be flexible.

He made a single dad stay instead.

I ended up making the tier one tech stay who has a kid he needed to pick up. Who is also a single father.

Part of me feels bad, but on the other hand the tier one tech i made stay usually doesn’t contribute to much and skips works for a week on end without telling a single person. He has also never stayed for a single meeting and always uses the excuse he’s a single father who needs to pick his child up to get out of everything.

Am I a jerk for making him stay or not supporting my office last minute?

I feel bad for the single dad. Really, the problem is the last minute notice that someone needs to stay.

Let’s see what Reddit had to say about this situation.

Everyone deserves work life balance.

The single dad could’ve said “no.”

Here’s a vote for boundaries.

Another person points out that the coworker could’ve refused to stay.

Here’s a suggestion to find another job.

Working late on short notice is less than ideal.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.