Sometimes managers confuse stubbornness with leadership.

So when one employee begged to switch stations because a pollen-heavy tree had turned him into a walking tissue commercial, his supervisor forced him to stay put and “tough it out.”

But when the employee went to the top boss with his illness, the story took a very different turn.

Keep reading for the full story.

You won’t let me leave when I’m obviously sick? Let’s see what YOUR boss has to say.

I was working the drive-through one fine fall morning, right across from a palo verde tree.

Anyone who has a palo verde tree near them knows just how bad the pollen from those things gets in the fall.

As you can imagine, after about an hour, my nose was already running something fierce.

So the employee decided he needed to let his boss know.

I saw where this was headed, and after blowing my nose, I went and found Jack, my old boss, to figure something out.

Having a runny nose in food service is a bad idea, so surely he’d be willing to work with me, right?

Nope. I’ve once again overestimated Jack.

The employee tried to suggest a reasonable solution, but Jack didn’t seem to care at all about his wellbeing.

I started by asking if I could simply move to another station to get away from the offending tree.

“No, we’ve got a full staff today and I’m not willing to move you around.”

Alright, then can I leave for just long enough to run to a corner store and pick up some over-the-counter antihistamines?

“No, it’s company policy not to let employees leave and come back for the same shift.”

The employee couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

By this point, I was getting confused.

I was quite obviously suffering from a runny nose, even while talking to Jack, so I thought even he wouldn’t be dumb enough to not throw me a bone.

I asked if I could go home then, since I can’t do anything else to alleviate my symptoms.

Nope.

Turns out, Jack would much rather him suffer on the job.

I needed to stick around, dripping snot all over the counter while I talked to customers.

Eventually, I realized he wasn’t going to give.

He wanted me to sit there and smile in spite of my visible symptoms?

Fine.

Cue malicious compliance.

This employee had quite the secret weapon of sorts.

Now, something I failed to mention earlier was that I was friendly with the franchise owner, Sam, who was the only person there who outranked Jack.

I also knew that part of Sam’s weekly routine was to stop by this restaurant to catch up on paperwork on that day of the week, during my shift.

This was information Jack had as well, but I suppose he didn’t consider that Sam could possibly disagree with his handling of the situation.

So the employee staged a dramatic scene.

So, I waited.

I snagged a box of tissues from the staff bathroom, set myself up at my station, and worked as best I could.

I made my way through that box, then a second, and half of a third before Sam got there about an hour before my shift was scheduled to end.

He was sure customers noticed his ailments by now.

My throat was sore from the mucus running down it, and my voice was hoarse from pushing through it.

I’m sure the customers must have thought I was coming down with the plague or something.

Finally, Sam arrives.

It takes a minute, but finally Sam notices too.

I wait patiently for him to make his rounds, checking in on all the staff, seeing how we’re doing and making small talk with the ones who weren’t busy.

Finally, he walks over to the drive-through and immediately notices my condition.

He immediately speaks up, so the employee is honest about what’s going on.

“OP, are you feeling okay? You don’t look well,” he says.

I responded, “I’m hanging in there. My allergies are acting up, no big deal.”

Sam frowns.

“You sure? This looks like more than allergies.”

“Oh, definitely. It’s that palo verde tree causing it. I get like this every year.”

He looks confused now.

Sam wonders why this employee is still being forced to work under these conditions.

“Why didn’t you move to a different station, or take something for it? You can’t work with food like this!”

Gotcha.

“I asked Jack. He said I couldn’t do either and refused to send me home. I’ve just been trying to tough it out.”

Boom.

Mission. Accomplished.

Sam’s face contorted for a moment before straightening out into a look of grim determination.

“Come with me,” he says.

“I’ll grab someone to cover your station while we go talk to Jack.”

Sam immediately does what Jack should have done.

Sam has me hand my headset to one of the aforementioned non-busy coworkers (guess it wasn’t that hard after all), then leads me to the back office where Jack is doing whatever it is he does.

Jack greets Sam, then notices me standing there and frowns.

“OP, what are you doing back here? You need to stay at your station,” Jack admonishes.

That’s when Sam steps in.

Before I can respond, Sam cuts in with a stern, “I had someone cover him. Why’d you keep him on the drive-through when the tree was making his allergies act up like this?”

Jack started in with the same excuses he gave me, but Sam cut him off.

“We’re not even that busy. You could’ve easily moved OP, or sent him home.”

Jack stammers with weak excuses.

Once again, Jack tried to justify his decision.

“Well, I asked the other employees, and none of them wanted to swap-”

At this, Sam turned to me.

With much more empathy than Jack, Sam finally gave this employee what he needed.

“I’m sending you home. You’re in no state to finish your shift. I’m sorry you even had to stay this long.”

I thanked him and turned to leave.

Unfortunately, Sam closed the office door, so I didn’t get to eavesdrop on the ensuing conversation.

I clocked out and immediately booked it to the corner store and slammed down some medicine to stop the runny nose.

When in doubt, go to the boss’ boss!

What did Reddit think?

This commenter thinks this employee may have only punished himself here.

When you have really bad allergies, you can’t afford to take any risks.

Sam likely had no idea he’d hired such a monster.

This user thinks a visit to the doctor is in order.

In the end, this employee knew how to play his boss like a fiddle.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.