Man 'Politely' Asks Boss Not to Contact Him After Work Hours, but Manager Fires Back
- - Man 'Politely' Asks Boss Not to Contact Him After Work Hours, but Manager Fires Back
Meredith WilshereNovember 2, 2025 at 9:00 PM
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Stock image of a man on the phone. -
One man is frustrated because his boss calls him every night after work
When the man asked his boss to stop, he was told, "if you want to grow here, you need to be available”
The man asked the Reddit community for advice
The boundaries between work life and home life sometimes start to blur.
One man is taking a stand against his boss, who doesn't respect his boundaries outside of work hours. In a Reddit post, the man shared that he works in marketing as a contract employee, with his work hours falling between 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. most days.
“My boss calls me almost every night around 8 or 9 p.m. ‘just to check something quickly,'" he wrote. "Sometimes it’s one question, sometimes a 30-minute brainstorming session."
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Stock image of a frustrated man.
The constant calls and work discussions made it so the poster could never fully decompress, so he asked his boss if he could limit their contact after 6 p.m. unless necessary.
"Last week, I told him, politely, that I’d rather keep work calls during office hours unless it’s urgent,” the man shared in his post. However, it didn't go as planned.
"He said, 'If you want to grow here, you need to be available,'" he recalled.
“Now I feel guilty, like I’m being lazy, but I also haven’t had a proper evening off in months," he wrote. "Am I overreacting for wanting an actual boundary, or is this just normal corporate culture now?”
People in the comments section were sympathetic to the man, agreeing that he should be allowed to set work boundaries.
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“Nah, after hours you shouldn’t have to answer calls/mails.. anything. Even if they come to your house, close the door in their face. Your contract goes from 9-6. If you want to, you can. But you don't have to. I hate bosses like that or colleagues," one person commented.
Another person pointed out that, in Australia, there's a "right to disconnect" law that prevents employers from contacting people off hours.
“I recommend against saying anything directly. Just don’t answer calls. When he asks, ‘Oh, sorry, I went to the movies last night. What was urgent?’ (Non-confrontational excuse: he can't get mad at the immediate pivot to the issue, which will change the subject from your lack of answer to the issue, and also subtly highlight how urgent it was or was not.) ‘Oh sorry, I was having dinner with friends and we put our phones away. What was urgent?’ ‘Oh, sorry, I had my phone charging in the other room. What was urgent?' Don’t give him anything to object to,” another person recommended.
“If your company has an HR department, report this behavior. Your work does not have to be, nor should it be, your whole life,” a third person suggested.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
