Current Events > Scenario: You are an IT worker caught between your child and your job.

(+) Yeah! (+)

You do IT deskside support for a rather large corporation in your city, making a decent-enough income to live comfortably and is located in a convenient part of town. You are also a single parent to your 10-year-old child.

Your relationship with your child has been strained for years, but you have been making attempts at mending/strengthening your bond. They are very slowly coming around, and one instance that you know will go far towards accomplishing that goal is a sort of social function/performance that is occurring that Friday from 6pm to 8pm. However, this will be its last occurrence ever; your child has been looking forward to it for weeks and you promised them that you would take them to it and enjoy it alongside them.

The day of, at your job at 4:15pm, you get a call from one of your company's VIPs; they are not at the top of the ladder, but they are pretty high up. They suddenly inform you that they have a teleconference scheduled from 5pm to 8pm, and wants you to set it up for them. This person is not tech-savvy at all and makes no attempt at learning the technology that they use on a daily basis, so they also want you to be onsite for its entire duration in case any issues arise. Knowing that this puts their meeting right in conflict with your planned outing with your child, you bring this up to them, but they merely say "This is more important."

You know that missing this event will undo just about everything you've worked for with your child, and there is no one else available to take them to it. However, if you refuse to provide support for this VIP, then your employment at the organization will be in jeopardy, especially if this meeting is as important as the VIP says it is. There is also no one else available to cover for you for the meeting, especially with such late notice.

Given this circumstance, what do you decide to do?

(You work the typical hours of 8am - 4:30pm, with overtime)
(In case anyone tries to bring up social distancing for the event, let's say this this is in a pre-COVID society; or one where the virus never took off.)

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Solar_Crimson posted...

Knowing that this puts their meeting right in conflict with your planned outing with your child, you bring this up to them, but they merely say "This is more important."

I say "No it's not" and hang up.

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Time for a new job, baby.

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Solar_Crimson posted...

"This is more important."

"Nothing is more important than a healthy work-life balance. I'll set it up for you, but I'm not staying around. If you have any complaints, direct it to my supervisor."
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pick kid.

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Solar_Crimson posted...

The day of, at your job at 4:15pm, you get a call from one of your company's VIPs; They suddenly inform you that they have a teleconference scheduled from 5pm to 8pm, and wants you to set it up for them.

"Per our agreed upon IT policy, all telecom setup should be requested a minimum of two days prior to the meeting."

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Tote_All_y posted...

Can they really force you to work overtime, or fire you for refusing?

Sure, they can...if they want a lawsuit.

I would take my kid to the thing.

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I work IT and my boss would never give anyone outside of IT our cell #s, so no VIP can force us to work outside our hours.

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EmbraceOfDeath posted...

Sure, they can...if they want a lawsuit.

I would take my kid to the thing.

They can fire yiu for no reason.

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