Nothing says “I don’t respect your time” like calling a freelancer on weekends and then acting offended when they ask to get paid for it.

A European freelancer tried to set boundaries with a pushy American boss who kept piling on extra work during off-hours without compensation.

But when she pushed back, the outcome wasn’t pretty.

Keep reading for the full story.

American boss (who came to Europe for work-life balance) fired me because I wasn’t willing to work for free on weekends

I live in Europe and work on a freelance contract that’s paid hourly.

I have a verrry pushy American supervisor who likes to call on weekends and off-days and request unrelated, extra work.

The irony isn’t lost on this employee at all.

(Keep in mind this person was always dunking on US work culture)

I wanted to set some limits, but stupid me not wanting to embarrass them by pointing the excessive call logs, thought they’d get the hint if I asked to bill the extra hours instead.

Oh boy.

The boss proceeds to blame this freelancer for his own unrealistic expectations.

I got a text stating that the reason I must be working during off-days is my poor time-management skills, and that I shouldn’t mistake my “overwhelm” for having a large workload. (??)

When I asked for an instance when they felt that my organization skills were lacking, they ghosted me for an entire week.

Pushing back against the boss led to some big consequences.

Then today I got a termination email claiming disrespectful conduct.

Oh and they waited until the last possible second of the two-week notice to send it.

I don’t know the details of freelance labor protection laws but I’m pretty sure you can’t just fire someone for asking extra work to be paid?

This behavior is completely unfair to the freelancer.

Redditors are sure to have some strong opinions on this one.

It’s important that freelancers pay close attention to the contents of their contracts.

This commenter has quite a few things to say about the state of the American workplace.

This commenter seems to suggest this freelancer shouldn’t have answered the phone at all.

Perhaps this freelancer isn’t fully aware of the implications of this situation.

This boss was bad news from the very start.

Asking to be paid for your work is the absolute bare minimum.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a job-hunter who was shocked when the recruiting company told them too turn down a job because the salary was too low.