A boss has been embroiled in a bitter feud after she contacted an employee’s mum when she couldn’t get in touch with him about work.
Manager Laura sent a series of angry text messages to her worker Sam after she noticed he wasn’t in the office to submit the ‘urgent’ report.
‘Morning Sam, where are you? I need a report done by noon,’ she texted, the first of six messages.
‘Sam? Are you there?’
‘This is urgent. Please respond.’
‘Okay this is getting ridiculous. Where are you?’
‘Sam, I’m calling again. Please pick up.’
After multiple messages went unanswered, she informed him that she would contact his emergency contact – his mum Linda.
Manager Laura sent a series of angry text messages to her worker Sam after she noticed he wasn’t in the office to submit the ‘urgent’ report
‘Calling your emergency contact,’ she texted.
The boss then started texting Sam’s mum after obtaining her mobile number from what was believed to be an HR file.
‘Hi Linda, this is Laura, Sam’s boss. I’ve been trying to reach Sam all morning but haven’t heard back. Do you know where they are?’ Laura texted.
Sam’s mum Linda replied: ‘Hello Laura, this is very unexpected. Sam is with me, we’re on holiday. What’s going on?’
Unbeknownst to Laura, she then informed Sam’s mum that she didn’t know anything about his annual leave.
‘Holiday? I wasn’t aware of any leave. I really need to get in touch with him,’ she said.
After multiple messages went unanswered, she informed him that she would contact his emergency contact – his mum Linda
His mum replied: ‘Sam told me you approved his leave. Is there a problem?’
The employee then replied to his boss directly, saying: ‘Laura, why are you texting my mum?? I’m on holiday. You approved it three months ago.’
However, the manager was still adamant that she was unaware of his family trip.
‘Sam, I don’t remember approving a leave. There’s a critical report due today,’ she responded.
The worker then clarified that he had previously flagged his holiday with Laura via email, to which she ‘confirmed’ his annual leave.
He then accused Laura of being ‘unprofessional’ for contacting him during his family holiday.
But Laura continued to deny ever seeing any email confirmation before standing firm, texting, ‘We really need this report done.’
Sam accused Laura of being ‘unprofessional’ for contacting him during his family holiday
Frustrated with his manager’s response, Sam replied: ‘Laura, I’m not available. I am on vacation! You should have planned for this.’
Refusing to back down, Laura responded: ‘This is unacceptable. You should have checked with me about this leave closer to the time.’
However, Sam wasn’t taking it, saying: ‘Forgetting about leave that you yourself approved does not give you the right to text my mum and try to force me to work.’
The boss then said they will ‘discuss’ the matter when he returns to the office.
‘I’m very disappointed,’ she continued, to which Sam replied: ‘Discuss all you want. I’ll be addressing this with HR too.’
Laura quickly responded, saying: ‘You do not need to message HR about this Sam.’
‘Feels like a waste of their time and ours. Lets just agree to disagree.’
Sam ended the text exchange with: ‘No you text my mum, when I’m on an approved holiday, by you! That’s appalling. I’m done talking now and will message HR later.’
Refusing to back down, the boss and employee didn’t agree with each other, which eventually escalated to HR
He then sent HR an email, with ‘Inappropriate contact during approved leave’ in the subject line.
‘Dear HR, I’m writing to formally complain about Laura contacting my mother and me during my approved holiday. Despite multiple notifications of my leave and an official confirmation from Laura, I was disturbed during my family vacation for a non-emergency matter,’ Sam’s email read.
‘This is a severe breach of professional boundaries and has caused unnecessary stress for both me and my family. I request a meeting to discuss this issue upon my return. Thank you for your attention. Best, Sam.’
However, the response he received was not what he expected.
‘Dear Sam, thank you for your message. Laura has messaged us as well about this and we are just collating information before coming back to both of you and requesting evidence,’ HR replied.
Sam responded: ‘Dear HR. That is crazy. Here are screenshots of our conversation approving my holiday as you can see Laura said, “No problem Sam, great work! Put it in the system”.
‘Then here are the screenshots of the holiday approval… and then here is the WhatsApp conversation between Laura and my phone, between my mum and Laura and then between myself and Laura.’
Their heated messages were re-shared by Chris Donnelly, who reads out real-life stories from employees with ‘toxic’ bosses, on his social media channels.
After talking to Sam directly, Chris confirmed that Laura was no longer with the company after experiencing a ‘separate issue that was quite similar to Sam’s’.