I work a fully autonomous night shift delivery job. They started having us work Sunday nights but all the places we deliver to are closed on Sundays so there’s really no reason to wait until the evening to start the shift. (It’d be nice to be home Sunday evening to have dinner with my partner which I don’t get to do during the week.)
My boss has never had issues with us coming in early to complete our deliveries and I’ve seen other people run their Sunday route earlier in the day so I didn’t think it would be a problem. A coworker who was already at work when I got there told me I should ask my boss before I left for my route because he had done it before and gotten yelled at. So, just to be cautious, I texted my boss to ask if I could run my shift early that day and he said “sure you can come in at noon.” I asked if I could come in sooner he said no. When I asked the reason (I said I would run the route at noon, but was just curious as to why I couldn’t start earlier) he replied with, “Because I said so.”
I literally cackled out loud. He said, “I’m not trying to be a jerk but I stand behind what I said.” Needless to say I am waiting to hear back from a job interview I had earlier this week so hopefully I don’t have to work there anymore. (This isn’t the first time he’s been an asshole)
So, have you ever had a boss say something like this to you? What are your thoughts on the appropriateness of saying this to an employee?
Personally, I amOutraged that he thought it would be appropriate to say something like this to me. I don’t work for him, I work for the organization I deliver the books for and I don’t work without a reason and certainly not because somebody else tells me too. I’m not a circus monkey. And even they have the reason of entertainment behind what they do.
TL;DR
Boss said, “because I said so” when I ask his reasoning behind not allowing me to run my delivery route early instead of giving me an actual reason. (I agreed not to and just wanted to know why)