If you have worked remotely for too long, you have perhaps forgotten all the “joys” of being around random people, from ceaseless sounds and noises to smells that make you long for the days of mandatory masking.
A woman was told to work from the office one day, despite being on medication that made her quite gassy. Despite her explaining the possible results, her manager was quite insistent, so she simply decided that there was nothing left to do but maliciously comply. We got reached out to AdventurousWave4721 via private message and we’ll update the article when she gets back to us.
Sometimes, working remotely isn’t done for your own comfort, but for the comfort of others
Image credits: Campaign Creators / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
A woman suffering from uncontrollable gas due to some medication was told to come into the office
Image credits: Sarah Chai / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Image credits: AdventurousWave4721
Despite employee preferences, some companies are pushing people back into the office
We are currently in a somewhat strange, transitionary period, where it’s ultimately unclear what the future of work will look like. Covid19 meant that many people transitioned to working from home, but as the pandemic started to wind down, many companies started telling their workers to come back in.
This might make sense for an organization that maintains a sizable campus somewhere, for example, Google. For those who are unfamiliar with how the search engine giant operates, it maintains a massive headquarters in San Francisco, with multiple restaurants, leisure facilities, and other amenities.
All of which are wasted, if everyone is working from home. Of course, no matter how much our managers might want us to forget it, commuting to work every single day is tiring. This is one of the many reasons why the hybrid model remains one of the most popular. The actual form this takes will vary from person to person and company to company. For example, OP has just one office day, others have a set amount of days in a month they can work from home.
Working from home is quite rightfully popular
Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Even though many managers dislike it, this sort of flexibility brings a lot of benefits. OP’s example is perfect for this, the side effects of her medication made office work difficult for both her and her coworkers. It would be absurd (although not unheard of) for a boss to ask someone to take a sick day because of medication or to just stop taking it in general. So, in theory, the hybrid model should have solved this problem.
However, as it so often happens, managers just don’t trust that people will do their jobs. It’s almost as if they lack an understanding of object permanence. Particularly in the 21st century, it has never been easier to check in if your employees are actually doing their job. Indeed, most companies have in-depth KPI measurement systems to assist in doing this.
So instead of verifying that workers are still doing their job, or, better yet, trusting them, many bosses simply insist that people come into the office. Unfortunately, while there are many factors at play, one, significant one is that, often enough, the people who are chosen to be managers are not necessarily actually the best suited for the job. Experience might not help either, as the types of personalities that manage to climb ladders often don’t learn the correct lessons.
Sometimes managers don’t learn from their mistakes
Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Researchers have observed a sort of negative feedback loop, where leaders pin the blame for mistakes and issues on external factors while taking all the credit for any success. This can lead to a steady decrease in employee satisfaction. Notice how in OP’s story, the boss didn’t apologize or even suggest that she made the wrong decision. She didn’t even talk to OP in person (perhaps understandable under the circumstances) to let her go home for the day.
But, as they say, all well that ends well. After all, OP listed this as a “malicious compliance story,” not some horrible tale of workplace mistreatment. We don’t exactly know how the new employees felt about the situation, but seeing as OP left by lunch, I probably wasn’t great. On the plus side, next time OP is feeling gassy, she has already laid some perfect groundwork.
Naturally, people had questions about the level of volume
Readers thought OP's story was hilarious
Others shared similar stories
