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We witnessed a major shift in our work culture when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and upended our lives for over two years. During that time, we fully adopted the idea of working from home and for many, it was a surprise that everything could be managed remotely with just a few adjustments.
Indeed, after the COVID-19 pandemic, as normalcy returned and most offices required employees to work from the office, there was some resistance at the latter end, with some questioning whether it was necessary to force employees to come to the office when they could work from home.
The debate has continued since then, but a recent post from a Reddit user has sparked controversy once again, as he lamented that he was not allowed to work at all and was asked to come to the office during a snowstorm.
The IT professional added in his post that even though his job duties are carried out remotely, his employer requires him to work from the office.
Frustrated by this behavior from his admin, the user stated that he deleted the Teams app and email from his phone. You may wonder why he did that. His explanation was that since he wasn’t allowed to work from home, he took it literally and decided not to participate in any work-related activities when he was at home.
When his boss asked why he missed a call the other day, the user retorted that he wasn't allowed to work from home.
Some may find his response cruel, but some may actually question his honesty as an employee and his dedication to his job.
Take a look at this Reddit user's post:
To understand what experts think about user objections, we spoke to several people across industries to understand what they thought about the whole thing.
Priyanka, an HR professional at a major IT company, said, “Many companies prefer to call their employees to the office so that productivity and output is not compromised. In this case, I especially feel that the management has gone to an extreme step of calling employees to work during a snowstorm.”
Ritesh Jherawal, 38, an IT professional, believes Reddit users were right to attack their boss: “It will definitely make him revisit the incident. Somewhere in his mind, he will have realised that he was unnecessarily too strict on office work,” he said.
“In my opinion, the reaction from Reddit users is really hostile. After all, one cannot question the company rules. The arrogance of deliberately not answering a call from his boss when he knows it is an important one only suggests that he is not a dedicated worker. It definitely puts his reputation for work ethic at risk,” said Garima Sahni, a manager at a consulting firm.
Experts are sharply divided on the matter, with some praising the Reddit user for finally taking a stand and questioning company management's insistence on calling employees into the office during the crisis, while others feel that the employee has gone to such an extreme to make their point.
What do you think about the Reddit users' actions? Let us know in the comments section below.