We all know those folk who are addicted to their jobs. Maybe it’s a parent or a partner, a friend – or perhaps it’s even you, but there is one of them in most people’s lives. Checking work emails even late at night, taking calls during social situations, dropping everything to deal with a work situation – and everyone else just watches on as those folk prove that work is more important to them than anyone or anything else.

Let’s be honest, some people don’t have a choice. In some workplaces, demanding bosses expect their staff to respond to them even when they’re off the clock, however unfair – and in some cases illegal – this might be. Other folk just want to go above and beyond to keep their business running 24/7 and prove their dedication to their clients or their superiors.

But the guy in this story was just trying to switch off form work and enjoy a meal with his family when his boss called requesting his assistance. His response, however, landed him in a lot of hot water.

Read on to find out what happened.

Put on an improvement plan right after refusing a 10pm work call

Today I got fired (well, not exactly fired – basically, I was put on a personal improvement plan, and I know what usually comes next).

So here’s what happened. I work as a QA Engineer in a service-based company and I’m currently posted at a client location in Delhi.

Yesterday, at around 10pm, my team lead called me and said, “Be ready for a Teams call within fifteen minutes.”

At that time, I was sitting in a restaurant having dinner with my parents and family members.

Read on to find out how he responded to that.

I told him that it would not be possible for me to attend because I was out with my family. I asked him what the urgency was.

He said that my involvement in the call was required, that’s all.

I told him that if it wasn’t urgent, he could reschedule the call.

Then he started arguing with me. I said, “Okay, but it is not possible for me to attend the call. Please go ahead and take the call without me.”

Quickly, the situation escalated.

Today, even though it was a weekend and my day off, I received a personal improvement plan email from HR.

I was shocked. For the last two years, I have received Best Achiever awards and have never had any serious concerns raised about my performance. Suddenly, I am being told that my performance needs improvement.

Maybe there are other reasons behind it, I don’t know. But the timing feels very strange.

So guys, this is what’s happening in some companies these days. Looks like my job might be gone within a month.

It really sucks that this guy is having to deal with this.

It would be one thing if he was consistently being pulled up on his work ethic, but this was one isolated incident.

This feels really unfair.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who stops speaking up in his Zoom meetings after getting constantly interrupted.

Let’s see what the Reddit community made of this.

This person gave him advice on how to deal with the situation.

While others thought it would have been better if he’d feigned ignorance.

Meanwhile, this Redditor encouraged him to use his previous awards in his favour.

The sheer fact that he’s been given awards for his hard work and is now being accused of not being a good worker after all really sucks. You don’t get to that place without actually putting in a load of time and effort, so the fact that all that is being ignored now just because he happened to not be available for one call? It’s so unfair.

It seems like his manager just doesn’t like to be told no. But unless he’s being paid to be on call 24/7, he really shouldn’t be penalised for this. After all, he has to have a life outside of work too, and when you’re at a restaurant or with others, you can’t necessarily just jump on a call with no notice. Whoever is on call should be dealing with this, not him. He also has a life to live – and non emergencies should be scheduled well in advance, for this exact reason.

He needs to find another employer who will really appreciate him. And with a solid work history and those awards, he shouldn’t struggle to find a workplace that sees his worth.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who just let clients complain after her boss refused to approve overtime.