‘Is this a red flag?’: Boss asks about closing sale after employee’s mother is hospitalized | Today’s news
When an employee tells her boss that her mother was hospitalized for an emergency, most people would expect the conversation to stop—at least briefly—to take stock of the situation.
However, for one Reddit employee, the response she received was very different. After informing her manager that she would not be able to report to work because she had to travel home to see her mother, the employee was asked about closing the sale of the company at the end of the month.
She later took to Reddit to question whether she was overreacting or if the response was a real red flag.
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“What about Closure?”
According to the employee, she works for a small sister company of the software company and is basically the only person who works there. He has been with the company for about a year.
Her mother had been unwell for some time and the employee stated that she regularly traveled to her hometown to see her on weekends. Her principal was also aware of her mother’s health condition. The employee stated that she had lost her father several years ago and that her older sister was currently taking care of their mother.
The situation became urgent when her mother had to be hospitalized after a medical emergency. Around 3:00 a.m., as the employee was getting ready to go home, she reported to her manager:
“Ma’am, my mom was hospitalized for a medical emergency and I’m traveling to my home country now. I won’t be able to come to the office tomorrow.”
“Okay. But what about this month’s deadline?”
The employee said she was upset by the response. She acknowledged that closing the sale at the end of the month was important, but felt that the immediate concern, given the circumstances, should be her mother’s health.
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She questioned whether she was being overly sensitive because she was already under emotional stress, or whether the exchange reflected a deeper problem with the company’s workplace culture.
Delayed salary, unpaid incentives add to frustration
The Reddit post also revealed that the message wasn’t the employee’s only concern.
She said her pay was sometimes delayed and she did not receive sales incentives from the previous year. When she asked about the pending incentives, she said she was told there was no written agreement covering them.
The employee claimed that she was told that “verbal agreements will not be accepted” and that the company therefore did not have to pay incentives. The management subsequently informed her that a written contract would be prepared and the incentive would be provided in the coming year.
This history made her wonder if her anger was really over one insensitive message—or if the incident brought to the surface several existing frustrations.
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Reddit calls it Workplace Red Flag
The post attracted considerable attention from Reddit users, many of whom took the director’s response as a warning sign and advised the employee to consider transferring to another organization when possible.
“No.. These people above have sold their souls for money. They are all the same,” said the user.
Another commenter focused on the way the employee addressed her manager, writing: “The first red flag is that you have to call her ‘Ma’am.'”
“Leave bro this organization is no good. They don’t care about your emotions. Your family. They just want their money,” another individual commented.
