Man answers persistent colleague's call during wife’s hospital visit and teaches him an invaluable lesson

No one likes it when a co-worker constantly pings outside of work hours, and at times, it can become extremely frustrating. To address this, many companies are increasingly encouraging a healthy work-life balance. However, some businesses still expect employees to always be available, no matter the time. This was the case for a man whose colleague decided to call him during a hospital visit, asking for an urgent quick fix. The project manager at a tech firm—who goes by u/Changeurblinkerfluid on Reddit—initially decided to ignore the calls. But eventually, he felt compelled to address the constant buzzing so he could get it over with and spend time with his sick wife. A widely circulated post highlighted how this dedicated manager taught his persistent co-worker an important life lesson.

It all began with the employee sharing how the nature of their work required them to be available on most occasions, barring a few exceptions. “It can be pretty fast-paced, and we deal with really big-dollar multinational projects all the time, so I am frequently called on at wild hours of the day,” he explained. He then shared the difficult moment when his wife was diagnosed with a serious illness. “Two years ago, while in her late 30s, my wife discovered, in perhaps the most horrifying way possible, that she has a rare and serious form of lymphoma,” the man said, adding that the treatment required surgery, several rounds of in-patient chemotherapy and an allogeneic bone marrow stem cell transplant. As a result, he took on the responsibilities of being the sole breadwinner for his family and his wife’s primary caretaker. On top of that, he also looked after the couple’s three young kids as their primary parent.

The man explained that he received support from his employer throughout the challenging time. “Almost everybody I work with has been incredibly supportive through this process. My boss and immediate leadership basically granted me as much paid time away from work as I needed,” he wrote, emphasizing that his co-workers were well aware of his dedication and hard work. The man continued working throughout his wife’s treatment, often taking 2-3 hours off when she had appointments or infusions. “I would just put an ‘out of office’ on my email and messaging apps and be there for my wife,” the post stated. However, on one occasion, a salesman from the company showed little consideration when he began texting the man while he was tending to his wife. “I guess his commission check was too big for him to let something like an alert that I am out of the office to keep him from blowing up my messages about how he needs something urgently," the man wrote. In response, he told his colleague that he was out of the office and would call him back later.

However, the salesperson was unwilling to back down, forcing the man to answer his call on Teams with the camera on from the infusion room. He was at the oncologist's office with his wife, “where she was sitting, bald and curled up in a ball, dealing with a combination of chemo sickness and exhaustion from the BMT.” Despite seeing this, the colleague still asked the man where he was. After being briefed on the situation, the colleague quickly backpedaled and admitted that the call was not urgent after all. The man ended the story by sharing that his wife was responding well to the treatment. “She said I should post this here because she thought it was so funny," he shared. The post managed to draw widespread attention on social media, including from u/Professional-Egg5073, who pointed out, “Some people don't see the difference between want and need.” “I was once screamed at over the phone for not being on-site and the GC wanted to ‘hear my excuse’ for not being there immediately. ‘Well, sir, I'm with my father at his Cancer Care appointment but I could probably leave him here alone,’” u/seriousjoker72 recalled.