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The fastest way to lose the right to text your employee is to tell them their texts don’t matter.

A retail worker who sent a single responsible message about a health code violation got a sharp reply from her boss laying out a strict new rule: unless the store is on fire or getting robbed, don’t contact her directly.

So when the boss started texting her on her days off, she started leaving the messages on read.

Then the company dropped a “no-phones-while-working” policy, and suddenly her boss had no way to reach her at all.

Keep reading for this tale of malicious compliance.

Respect time off and don’t ‘stress’ you on your days off? Sure. Works both ways.

I don’t work for the best company — it’s corporate and the higher-ups have little understanding of what goes on at ground level.

When I started, it was under a great manager who protected us from most of the “crap rolls downhill” politics.

He was promoted out of the store, and after a few misfires, we got a new manager.

Here’s where things really started to go downhill.

She is very loud. She will get into conversations with friends and loudly discuss controversial opinions and swear like a sailor.

I’ve had a few customers quietly ask me why I hadn’t reported her to the manager, then roll their eyes and express sympathy when I said she IS my manager.

This employee describes the current escalation path put in place for the job.

Anyway, there’s a system in place for who to call when no manager is available. We are a tiny team, and most of us work solo.

If the manager is coming in the morning, we call her the night before with concerns. If she’s not in and it’s the assistant, we call the assistant.

So when an issue arose, she found it her duty to inform her boss, even though she was the last person she wanted to talk to.

I found an issue I thought was important enough to inform her right away instead of waiting until the next day she worked. I took pictures and sent a short text explaining it — a food health code violation from one of our vendors.

I got back this exact text:

Her boss didn’t seem too receptive, though.

“I need you guys to understand that if the store is not on fire, you’re not being robbed, you need to be contacting [assistant manager’s name] not me unless it’s an emergency please.”

Four days later, she sends me a text scolding me for not “doing my job” when it was in fact a managerial-level task, not mine.

The boss soon walks back her mistake.

Then a few minutes later: “Oh, you DID do it. Sorry.” And she sent me some points in our store’s “good job” system.

I didn’t respond. I wasn’t on the clock.

The incessant texting continued.

Then she texted asking what my pay rate was, for my review. I decided to respond to this one, even though it’s kind of, you know, her job to know.

I started getting texts like “do you know where the scissors went?” — stuff that, according to the precedent she set, was not a store emergency and not my problem until I’m on the clock.

The employee starts losing patience with this.

I ended up deciding I will not be answering her if I’m not on the clock. She calls, I let it go to voicemail. She texts, I leave her on read until I’m clocked in.

Now, the company has made a “no phones while on the clock” policy as well. So I guess she can’t text or call me while I’m on the clock either, unless she calls the store phone.

So she decided to raise the issue further, and it had a ripple effect.

That’s a whole other can of worms — they want us to use a mandatory app for store communication, but not have our phones out. I asked for clarification on the welcome message on the new app, asking if they were lifting the phones-at-work ban or expected us to work off the clock.

Everyone in the company got to see my question and the answering “we’ll get back to you” that has yet to happen.

Now nobody is using the app because policy says we can’t. Woops.

Guess she’ll have to come in person on her days off if she wants to talk to me.

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Maybe she should not have chewed me out so hard when I just sent her one text.

Bet this boss wishes she could go back in time.

What did Reddit think?

There’s no sense in using work apps on a personal phone.

This employee has leadership in a tough spot.

Maybe smartphones cause too much extra drama.

It’s time to put a stop to the unpaid hours.

This boss wrote the rulebook but somehow still forgot she’d have to live under it too.

One sharp text about emergencies-only contact set everything in motion — the read receipts, the voicemails, the off-clock silence, and eventually the company-wide app confusion that nobody’s resolved yet.

Her boss should have thought a little harder about this.

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Author

Benjamin Cottrell

Benjamin Cottrell | Assistant Editor, Internet Culture

Benjamin Cottrell is an Assistant Editor and contributing writer at TwistedSifter, specializing in internet culture, viral social dynamics, and the moral complexities of online communities. He brings a highly analytical, editorial voice to his reporting on workplace conflicts, malicious compliance, and interpersonal drama, with a specific focus on nuanced stories that lack an obvious villain.

As a published author of rhetorical criticism, Benjamin leverages his academic background in human communication to dissect and elevate viral social media threads. Instead of simply summarizing events, he provides readers with balanced, deep-dive commentary into why the internet reacts the way it does. In addition to his cultural reporting, he is an experienced fine art photography essayist and video game reviewer.

When he isn’t analyzing the latest viral debates, Benjamin is usually chipping away at his extensive video game backlog, hunting down the best new restaurants, or out exploring the city with a camera in hand.

Connect with Benjamin on Instagram and read more of his essays on Substack.