This is what my boss told me the other day, after not being able to stay late two days in a row.
I'm mostly ranting because I am still heated over this exchange, but I'd love to hear what other people think. I'm trying to stay a bit vague for identification purposes.
For context, I am a salaried remote employee. Our typical business hours span from 8am – 5pm, and your breaks/lunch are supposed to be flexible. I made it very clear to my boss previously that I value separation between my personal life and work, but if it is really necessary, I can stay a little later. I firmly believe that nothing in this business can't wait until the next morning or next Monday after a weekend. It's not life-threatening, the world will not shut down, it's just capitalism.
The days my boss asked me to stay late I had prior commitments after work already. The first time they tried to nab me, I had a doctor's appointment immediately after work and they called me 10 minutes before the end of the workday. The second time I warned them early in the morning that I would not be able to stay that night because again, prior commitments.
I got called into a meeting a little later that day. My boss had a lot to say.
First of all, they were bothered that the only nights they asked me to stay late I wasn't able to, and they were suspicious of my reasoning and asked what was going on. I know it wasn't really any of their business, but I told them anyway about my un-cancellable events.
They went into an entire lecture about how they've constantly accommodated me (by not scheduling anything after work hours. What?), how my other team members wouldn't think twice about working late if something came up (emergency or someone was sick), and how members of other teams have been working weekends to get projects done. Man, these people need boundaries. Their additional reasoning was that because I received the benefits that I do (nothing novel or crazy), I was expected to work late sometimes. Um, no, those are my compensation for performing work during work hours. They were definitely trying to guilt trip me/manipulate me into staying late.
Apparently, this project that they need my help with is due at the end of the week. The week of Thanksgiving. When people don't work Thursday, and usually don't work Friday. And this request was put in by C-suite level people, on the Monday on the week of the holiday. I told them that it's an unreasonable request by management, and they responded with, “What, you want me to tell them that I can't have this done because [my name] doesn't want to work late?” Sure, boss, I'll even do it for you. My boss has also been “too busy” with other projects to check the related work I've done and sent to them for this project in the past month and half.
I was already contemplating finding a new job, but this just sped up my timeline. I endured an hour of listening to corporate bs (even though my boss had very important things to take care of) and it solidified that upper management has unreasonable expectations and have created a toxic environment that doesn't actually care about their employees wellbeing (as much as they advertise that they really really do care).
So I guess I'll be gritting my teeth and working late tonight, but by the end of the year, I'm out.