Boss drives to pick up employees who were planning to call out due to blizzard and sparks debate

Natural calamities hit us without warning at times. Take a snowstorm, for example. The weather department of a region might alert the public about it, but still, if they would be required to step out of their houses to carry on with their business, then the snowstorm isn't stopping anyone. Amirraa Ruffin (@pixieamirraa on TikTok) gave us a glimpse of her dutiful boss, who paid no heed to the snowstorm alert and personally drove to every employee's house so he could pick them up for work.

In her recent video, which has garnered a lot of popularity, a 21-year-old Portland resident along with her other coworkers thought that the store they worked in would be kept closed due to the blizzard alert in the area. But she ended up filming herself and her coworkers standing at the parking lot of their workplace that was covered in snow. The overlay text on her video read: "When everyone tried to call out, but your boss drives and picks each of you up.”

Surprisingly enough, Ruffin wasn't completely mad at her boss for taking the initiative of picking up his employees from their homes and driving them to work. She mentioned in one of her replies to a comment on her post that she is "not even upset and she respects the hustle of her boss." Though she preferred sleeping in her bed during the blizzard, she was happy she did not have to drive amid the snowstorm to the office. Her clip garnered mixed reactions on the platform.

Some users commented about how they also tried to call off but were offered to be picked up instead. @gabzillatl wrote: "I remember calling out for a flat tire and my boss was on his way to pick me up. I did not have a flat tire." @angelv8585 commented: "Nah, cause back in the day, I tried calling off and my boss offered to give me a ride...like sir! I am calling off! I don’t wanna go!" @stupidgem quipped: "Honestly I wouldn’t even be mad as long as I don’t have to drive." Ruffin answered to this joyfully and wrote: "That’s what I’m saying, I’ve been water and feed, free boss Uber. I need this treatment every day."

@xndecisive shared their story which was slightly different: "This happened to me once. I worked at a pizza place and my boss drove a Prius in a foot of snow, then wasn't even able to take me back home after that." @liitlink recalled: "Nah because my work said we could carpool once and someone who could drive would get me and I'm like nah I'm not trusting a random coworker with my life in this weather bye." A few opined that they would have quit if they were denied off. "I would’ve quit, commented @stephantoniaa and @promi_love wrote: "I’d be so mad." @horsegirlvintage added: "When I was a nanny, my boss did this to me I was so mad."

According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, an ice storm warning was issued for the Portland metro, Southwest Washington and the Willamette Valley area from 1 p.m. Tuesday to 4 a.m. this Wednesday. The National Weather Service warned of significant ice and up to 8 inches of snow at elevations above 2,500 feet.

Tens of thousands of Oregon homes and businesses were still without electricity on Tuesday morning, as they were warned of more challenging conditions to come, prompting numerous school districts large and small to cancel Tuesday classes. Well, Ruffin might have been blessed with an understanding and responsible boss who took care of driving his employees from their homes to work and back but not everyone is as fortunate as her.

In a similar story, u/Plunky-juju on Reddit shared how their boss lied that he would drive them home safely during a snowstorm but instead left them stranded in the middle of it. "I made the mistake of assuming he was telling the truth. I've been here at the store waiting, power flickering as the snow gets worse, my cell coverage diminishing and looking at other stores and folk, in general, getting the heck out of here as now the forecast is calling for increasing intensity. But my boss never came back," the employee wrote. The boss picked up the call for the first time and said he would call the employee back, but then he stopped answering his phone. The employee, with the help of a few Reddit users, reached a hotel safely and decided to file a legal action against his boss.