Supervisor called him ‘unprofessional’ for ignoring Saturday emails. So he CC’ed the VP — whose ‘company will pay’ reply stunned him
The VP not only sided with him, but he also issued a strict warning against all other employees
A systems analyst (u/ITNW1993) finally stood up to their supervisor after he hassled them with a trivial task during non-working hours. It all started when the supervisor interrupted the worker by calling and texting multiple times on the weekend. At first, the employee kept ignoring him until he called them "unprofessional" for not responding to work calls. Pissed, the system analyst emailed the supervisor with the vice president in CC, and what happened next left him speechless. The VP not only sided with the employee, but he also issued a strict warning against all other senior employees. The post, shared on August 20, 2026, has received 12,000 upvotes on Reddit.
The boss kept calling
The event took place during the pandemic while the employee was working from home. Being a “main systems analyst” on non-exempt pay, they worked 40 hours from Monday to Friday. Their VP had informed them that nobody was allowed to contact them outside their working hours for free. However, a few weeks into the lockdown, the employee received an email from a supervisor on a Saturday morning. Since it was a weekend, they blissfully ignored it. The supervisor, however, seemed adamant. After the email about a specific report went unanswered, he called the employee. "They seemed pretty determined to reach out to me, and called me a second and third time before sending me a text demanding that I stop being unprofessional, get on my work PC, and answer their email," they recalled.
The VP steps in
Frustrated, the analyst finally drafted a response email, keeping the VP in CC. "Hi supervisor, per VP, I'm not supposed to be working or even answering emails on weekends. Waiting for approval from VP to run this report," the email said. Ten minutes later, the VP called the employee and asked them to dismiss the report and enjoy the weekend instead. Moreover, he said he would compensate them for answering the call on an off-day. Monday followed, and the employee noticed an email in the inbox. The VP emailed all the supervisors, cautioning them not to disturb the non-exempt employees outside working hours. If anyone needed their help, they had to reach out to the VP first, who would then decide the course of action.
"After that, no one ever tried calling me outside of working hours; only my VP did, and only ever in extenuating circumstances," the author said. Meanwhile, when payday arrived, they were surprised to know that the VP had added 3 hours of overtime to their salary for that Saturday, even though the call took only about an hour.
Work overflow
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Department of Labor prohibits managers from asking non-exempt (hourly) employees to work outside normal hours, about 40 hours a week. However, if they willingly choose to work outside working hours, they must be compensated for overtime. Still, a survey of 1,000 employees by SkyNova suggests that the United States is the most overworked developed nation in the world, where workers are made to contribute their services overtime. In fact, 6 in 10 (63.3%) employees believe that it should be illegal for employers to contact them outside of working hours. However, 69.7% of the employees reported receiving emails outside working hours, 50.2% text messages, and 47.5% phone calls.
‘You hit the VP jackpot’
Meanwhile, Reddit readers praised the VP for supporting the employee. For instance, u/OnlyPaperListens commented, “I would follow that VP from job to job.” Similarly, u/MysticScorpion183 said, “I would go to war for that VP. Good managers make work so much better.”
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