Heartless Owners Pile Work On Injured Worker And Berate Them For Working Overtime, So They Get Revenge And Make Them Work Instead

The tug-of-war between boss and employee can be exhausting.

When you have two bosses it can be even more so. Then when those two bosses are married?

This story and the miscommunication is epic levels of headache-inducing.

I was working remotely for a staffing agency, organizing and managing events.

When I was initially hired on it was due to the fact that 3 employees were quitting. They all seemed to be leaving amicably to pursue other ventures, so I didn’t think anything of it.

They had hired myself and 1 other person to replace them and everything was going fine. Over time I started to notice little things here and there, like issues due to miscommunication between the owners (married couple), and a heavy workload.

Outside of work, OP was assaulted? You would hope your employer is nothing but understanding in a situation like that.

A few months in, I was assaulted and had been injured pretty badly. It was really difficult obviously but I worked remotely so I was still able to work.

I told my bosses I had an emergency and was injured, and needed to take time off. Almost immediately one of the owners called and left an angry sounding voicemail.

I called him back and ended up having to tell him I had been assaulted and went to the hospital and all that.

He seemed sympathetic, but near the end of the conversation he noted that I was supposed to be managing an event that weekend (Fri-Sun) and that they had no one else to manage it.

Then out of guilt, they attempted to work while also recovering.

He didn’t do any of that but his wife did, however we always had at least 5 events we were organizing and managing at a time.

I was afraid I would get fired so I ended up having to work that weekend.

It wasn’t so bad but I was in an incredible amount of pain, and due to my injuries the doctor said they couldn’t prescribe me any strong pain medication due to complications that may arise.

I worked that weekend and pushed through.

Then a workplace tale as old as time: doubling the workload because of turnover.

Shortly after that, they fired another employee, and gave me her workload.

THEN they chose me to do a very long running (2+ months) event taking place in 2 different time zones.

They initially decided the event would be split between myself and another employee (she was pregnant, it matters for context), due to the size of the program.

So while I was dealing with the assault and healing (took 1 month for my injuries to heal), I was also doing the majority of the workload of this event.

OP explains the incredible circumstances that were going on; the incredible mounting pressure.

I was also having to plan a move, put my stuff in a storage unit, and living in a longterm sublet while I looked for a place.

I was also organizing other events on top of that, so there were days where I would easily work 10+ hours.

Then all the work landed on their shoulders!

Eventually the employee who was helping me went on maternity leave, so the whole program landed on my shoulders.

One day I got reprimanded for working overtime.

I explained that the workload was heavy and since I was managing events in 2 time zones, I was having to wake up super early in the morning (4am), work during the day, take a long lunch, work some more, then wrap up the other event which ended in the evening (10:30-11pm).

They basically told me I needed to manage my time better. Well, I was not doing well mentally or physically, so my cognitive abilities weren’t the best.

The mounting stress was taking its toll on everyone.

I was making small (easily fixable) mistakes here and there, but nothing that was damaging or severely detrimental to the business.

There were days I would just sit there crying at my desk. It was awful.

Another employee had also been reprimanded for working overtime, and she was as swamped as I was.

Finally, some resolution. A schedule was set. Woohoo!

Eventually one of my bosses emailed me and said I was still working too much overtime, and that he wanted me to work only 5 hours on days where I wasn’t managing the big event.

I was relieved, honestly. I was looking forward to having more time for myself so I could heal. I made sure to email him back to confirm the non-show management days he wanted me to work 5 hours for the following week.

Cue: managerial miscommunication.

Well, he didn’t tell his wife (the other owner) about my new hours, and she had a tendency to ramble about stuff during meetings, making them last way longer than they needed to be.

One day we had a meeting in the morning that lasted 3 hours, and it was the first day I was to only work 5 hours. I didn’t even need to be in that meeting, but they forced me to stay and would get irritated if they knew myself or other employees were quietly working while listening to the meeting.

After that meeting, the wife sends me messages on asking the progress of some things I was working on. She then added more things for me to do. The back and forth with her took about 20 minutes.

OP seems to finally set their foot down, and do exactly as they were told.

I told her that I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to finish those things that day, because I only had a little over an hour and a half to complete the other tasks I had already been assigned.

She had no idea what I was talking about, so I told her that her husband had reduced my hours on non-management days, and forwarded her our email exchanges where he confirmed I was only to work 5 hours that day.

And even still, OP was asked to work in conflict with their initial orders.

She got an attitude with me and said “well, these are high priority things and we need you to work on them. You can go ahead and work longer today.”

I told her I couldn’t because I had confirmed a week prior and had made arrangements and was not able to work.

So once I hit my 5 hours, I clocked out, and put my phone on “do not disturb”, ignoring all the messages she was sending me.

She ended up having to work on all the tasks she had given me, late into the night.

I continued to follow the new schedule and they just dumped my workload onto other employees or had to do it themselves.

Sometimes the only relief? Being fired!

I eventually got fired because they said that was basically the “last straw”, but I was so relieved and also got unemployment benefits, even though they tried to fight it.

It doesn’t get much more frustrating than that.

Let’s see what other folks thought of the chaos.

One person noticed the first major issue.

Another Redditor saw the situation exactly for what it was.

While another commenter seemed pleased with the outcome.

This person sends their well wishes for making it through such an insane experience.

Getting out of a toxic workplace is a feeling as good as gold.

They definitely gained some work experience there!

Want to read another story where somebody got satisfying revenge? Check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.