She Sent Her Managers A Detailed Summary Of Everything She’d Finished Before Vacation, But They Called Her Hours Before Her Flight To Complain One Task Wasn’t Done
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Nothing ruins the countdown to a vacation quite like a boss who discovers one unchecked box.
An employee spent a week working ten- and eleven-hour days to cover for an absent team, working diligently so she could leave on time.
Before heading out, she emailed both of her managers a thorough summary of what she’d finished, what remained, and where to go next, complete with timestamps for anything needing follow-up.
Instead of a thank-you, she got phone calls hours before her flight. They were disappointed that one task was left unfinished and wanted to know why she hadn’t prioritized it.
When she explained she’d prioritized the others, they simply informed her everything was a priority.
Keep reading — this is a real head scratcher.
My manager and his manager are on leave and I’ve been carrying out all my department’s work for a full week
Now I’m going on leave, and I send them both a summary of what I’ve done, what remains, and where to go from there. I even added the email timestamps for the ones that require escalation/follow-up.
But instead of focusing on what she did accomplish, management decides to zero in on the negative.
Now that they’ve seen my summary emails, surprise, surprise, they both call me asking about one task that I did not complete.
They express disappointment and ask me why I didn’t prioritize it.
There seemed to be a clear misunderstanding here.
I tell them I prioritized the other ones. They respond, one with “But this is also a priority,” and the other with “They’re all priorities.”
Do they not understand what prioritization means??
She’s growing tired of the goal posts constantly moving.
Anyway, I was gonna tell them I’ll be reachable via text only, but since they did this stupid thing, I didn’t, and if they text me, I will not respond.
I swear I’d beg them to sign a form for weeks, and they would say “I didn’t have the time,” and now they’re “disappointed” that I didn’t finish a full team’s work while alone and had to leave one task only half done instead of fully completed?
It’s making her question how much longer she’s willing to tough this all out.
I hate corporate. My vacation flight is in a few hours, and they managed to upset me when I was just getting excited after a week of 10-11 hour work days just to cover for them.
I’m really sad right now.
This sounds like a horrible experience.
What did Reddit have to say?
Corporate often gets the concept of “priority” wrong.
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It’s likely this work will be waiting for her when she returns.
This employee deserves to feel proud of what she’s accomplished.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who alerted their manager after seeing a customer sign the wrong name on a credit card slip.
Sometimes the hardest tasks are the most unexpected tasks.
This employee did the work of a whole team in a week and got a guilt trip for the one thing she couldn’t squeeze in. That’s corporate in a nutshell, for ya.
A handoff email with timestamps and next steps is about as responsible as a person can be on the way out the door. Her bosses should really focus on the good instead of just remaining laser-focused on the bad.
If her bosses are so unhappy, then they can figure it out for themselves. Out of office means out of reach.
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