Boss tells employee he can’t work from home, regrets it later

"I have my laptop with me, don’t have any work going on that I would need to be inside the power plant, and I’d mostly be reviewing paperwork anyway," the user wrote on Reddit.

Work from home became a norm after the Covid pandemic, but before 2020, most bosses and supervisors were yet to warm up to the concept. It was the same case for Reddit user @bowserdanger.

One day in 2018, the user -- who was working at a nuclear power plant in the mid-Atlantic -- woke up to find 10 inches of snow overnight. Since he had to drive for an hour to get to work, @bowserdanger requested his supervisor if he could work from home.

"I have my laptop with me, don’t have any work going on that I would need to be inside the power plant, and I’d mostly be reviewing paperwork anyway," he wrote on Reddit.

The supervisor, however, reminded @bowserdanger of the company “policy” for inclement weather according to which no matter how long it takes the employees to get to work if they make it in, they get paid for the day, otherwise they have to take the day off.

The supervisor also added that he was at work already and the roads “weren’t that bad”.

When persuasion didn't work, the Reddit user decided to take the day off. "I head to a local store about 0.8 km away and pick up some snow sleds. I’d like to note that the roads were bad, I was driving a 4x4 and had some trouble getting to/from the store," he wrote.

"The wife and I do some sledding in the neighborhood, have some hot chocolate, and other classic 'snow day' activities."

Around 11 am, however, he received a text from his supervisor: “OP, are you able to come in to work, hardly anyone showed up because of the snow. There is some document we need reviewed. And we really need you here in case we need someone to do something in the power plant”.

To this @bowserdanger responded with: "I tell him sorry, but I’m taking vacation today, per the 'policy'". The supervisor then told him that he would email the document for to @bowserdanger review but by then, the Reddit user had a perfect response ready. “I’d take a look at it if I could, by my supervisor told me I wasn’t allowed to work from home," he said.

"He never responded to that and I never heard anything else about it, but I didn’t have to work that day, which was nice,"@bowserdanger wrote on Reddit.