Workplace communication often breaks down at the worst possible time.

So when a retail employee gave his doctor’s excuse to the assistant store manager after oral surgery, his department manager still expected him to show up and started blowing up his phone.

The situation quickly turned into a question of who dropped the ball.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for not letting my boss know I wouldn’t be there today

So I had oral surgery Monday. I planned ahead and asked off yesterday, thinking that would be enough.

When I went for my appointment, they recommended I miss today too because I work retail and I’m lifting stuff, not just sitting by a desk. They also gave me an excuse.

So he tries to be considerate and gives the store a heads up, and at first, everything seems to be in order.

I start at 6 a.m. and didn’t want to have to wake up at 4 a.m. to call in sick. So I took my excuse to work yesterday and talked to the assistant store manager.

All good—“feel better.”

But then his phone starts blowing up.

Then this morning my phone is going crazy at 6:30. It rings, I ignore it.

Then I get two texts. Then it rings again.

I figured it wasn’t going to stop, so I check the text.

So when he sees it’s his boss, he reminds her of their prior agreement.

My department manager was calling and texting me, wondering where I was.

I texted her back and said, “I’m not going to be in today. I talked to Kate yesterday, she has my doctor’s excuse.”

Turns out, his boss wasn’t as informed as she needed to be.

My department manager said, “Well it would’ve been nice if someone told me. Nobody ever tells me anything and now we’re going to be short-handed all day. I would have came in early if I knew. Are you coming in tomorrow?”

I said yeah, and that was it.

This employee had his reasons for doing things the way he did

I could have gone by the department and let her know yesterday, but I didn’t want to because:

A. my coworkers are nosey and would have been listening in, and

B. my boss tells everyone everyone else’s business.

He preferred to hold on to a little more of his privacy.

I don’t need random coworkers knowing about my medical stuff. I know it’s just having teeth pulled, but it’s none of their business.

I talked to the assistant store manager (who’s above my department manager) at like 11 a.m. yesterday, so if she thought the department manager should know, she had time to tell her.

AITA for not letting my department manager know I’d be out today?

What a mess.

What did Reddit think?

This employee did more than his due diligence.

This commenter agrees the employee wasn’t at fault.

This was really an issue between managers.

The assistant manager is who needs to take responsibility here.

The real problem here was bad communication.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.