Hi guys
Let me preface this by saying I have a lot of anxiety regarding my job due to prior conflicts which resulted in me taking medication and counselling and issues I am still dealing with today.
I work for a very small local business in the UK (5 employees total including boss). Due to this, it's one of them “we're like a family” places to work.
My boss brought up an open day that the building our business is hin is having on Saturday. It was only brought up very casually as in “oh by the way there's a thing on Saturday”. This was two weeks ago. Today I was told by my deputy boss that everyone would be in on Saturday to work this open day. When I asked him if we were being paid he became visibly annoyed and responded with “it's voluntary, no-one is forcing you to come”. Despite none of the staff being asked if they want to do it and instead it just being assumed that we would.
The problem is everyone else who works there is doing this voluntary shift and I simply don't want to. I suffer from chronic fatigue so to work for free seems ridiculous to me. I am fully expecting my boss to talk to me about this tomorrow and lay the guilt trip on thick. I guess I'm just looking for some comraderi and validation that I'm not an awful human being if I don't volunteer my Saturday. As well as any tips to how to handle my boss tomorrow.