Background: Been at my current employer for around 5 years, but recently applied to a much higher paying position doing similar work and accepted the offer. My anticipated start date that I set is the 22nd but got a text from my new boss today.
“I wish you were starting on the 15th. I am taking the entire team to the [redacted] campus that week and we are going to do some team building.”
I purposefully set my start date to allow a 1 week employment gap mostly to take time for myself and mentally prepare for the new position, but I see this obvious coercion as somewhat of a red flag. Don't too much mind the team building opportunity but don't want to set a precedent of submitting to these sudden changes in plans. What should I do and how should I respond to the message? I know the wording he's using here is tricky.