Days off are supposed to mean days off, and this kitchen worker decided to start taking that seriously.

A minimum wage employee at a facility kitchen had been answering her toxic boss’ after hours calls for long enough to know it was a mistake every single time.

So when the employee finally wised up and started screening them, her boss wised up too and switched to more cryptic voicemails to get her to pick up.

So as the employee’s mental health continued to drain, she wondered how much more of her boss’ manipulation she could handle. And whether speaking up about it could cost her the job.

Keep reading for the full story.

Fed up with manager contacting me outside of work

On my off hours I set my phone to do not disturb and all my calls are forwarded to voicemail.

My manager calls me almost every week to pick up shifts.

So when the employee picks up, it seems to encourage her boss to continue the behavior.

I’ve made the mistake of picking up before and agreeing to come in when I really needed the extra hours.

Lately, it’s really starting to mess with her.

My mental health has been crap lately and I just want my peace on my days off now.

I think she realized I screen her calls, and now her voicemails are always very cryptic.

The boss continues to manipulate her into picking up.

Like this morning she called and just said, “____, I need you to call me back,” with zero follow-up.

I’m not an on-call employee — I literally work minimum wage in a facility kitchen.

This level of entitlement is something this employee has never seen before.

In all my years of working I’ve never had a manager try to contact me this often after hours.

The kicker is I found out she gets ticked whenever I don’t answer, but doesn’t reach out to my other coworkers who are trained to do the same things I do.

She’s starting to feel like someone really needs to stick up to this boss, but she doesn’t necessarily want it to be her.

Respectfully… figure that crap out and leave me alone.

On the other hand, I’m genuinely worried about her retaliating by cutting my hours or firing me.

But I’m trying not to be a pushover and be at her beck and call like I once was, which is clearly what burned me out in the first place.

Lesson learned.

This boss sounds like a complete and total nightmare.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a mom who homeschooled during the day and worked at night, only to have her employer try to change her schedule.

What did Reddit have to say?

“No” is a more powerful answer that many people think.

Technology has really made micromanagers feel emboldened in all the wrong ways.

Maybe if she starts ignoring it, her boss will finally give up.

It’s possible this employee may be unintentionally enabling her boss.

It’s possible that part of the reason this boss is acting so entitled is that everyone around her is too afraid to be honest with her or to tell her no.

Make no mistake, the employee’s hesitation is completely justified. A job is a job, and in this day and age, we all need one.

But if you dig below the surface, there’s also a deeper aspect to all this. In all likelihood, this boss knows full well there’s a power imbalance — and up until this point, she’s been counting on scare tactics to get her employees to capitulate.

But at a certain point, this employee has to make a choice — and that’s a choice between saving face or saving her mental health.