I Refused to Join a Work Call From My Honeymoon—I Froze the Entire Office

We just received a deeply moving letter from Joan, an employee of a big company, who is a reminder of why compassion is the missing ingredient in so many modern workplaces. There’s a line between dedication and self-sacrifice, and expecting employees to give up personal milestones for work doesn’t cross it—it erases it.

Joan sent us a heartfelt letter.

Hey Bright Side,

Please, help me. When my father passed away last year, I was so afraid of letting the team down that I actually worked through the week of his funeral. I was answering emails between services and taking calls from the cemetery parking lot.

I thought that level of loyalty would earn me some workplace empathy when it finally came time for my honeymoon.

“I was wrong.”

I made it clear I would be completely offline for ten days. But on day three, while I was at dinner with my husband, my phone started vibrating off the table. It was my boss. I ignored it.

Then came the texts. Then another call. I finally picked up, thinking it was a genuine office emergency.

It wasn’t. He wanted to know where I had filed a specific slide deck from three months ago. When I told him I was at dinner and couldn’t look it up, he snapped.

He screamed, “Disgusting! You have no commitment! If you can’t be bothered to help the team, don’t bother coming back here ever again!” and then he abruptly hung up.

He thinks my loyalty died in that moment, but it was actually just my patience.

He didn’t realize that while he was busy screaming, I was already one step ahead. Before I even finished my dessert, I logged into my remote portal and revoked his administrative access to the proprietary client database I had built from scratch.

I didn’t delete anything (that would be unprofessional), but I moved the “keys” to an encrypted folder that only HR and the Board can access.

By the time I landed back home, HR was “reviewing” my contract, but they quickly realized that without my cooperation, the entire department’s workflow was frozen. My boss tried to fire me for “insubordination,” but he’s currently the one under investigation for creating a hostile environment.

So, Bright Side, was I wrong to lock him out of the database while I was still on leave?

Best,
Joan

What would you have done if you were in Joan’s shoes? We want to hear from you: did Joan handle this with the right amount of professional “fire,” or did she put her job at too much risk? Would you have an employee like her? Let us know in the comments!

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