Contractor has the most badass response after being ordered to attend office meetings: 'You can fire me'

Toxic workplaces and bosses became the center of discussions as thousands of Americans resigned from their jobs earlier this year. While poor pay was the key issue of the "Great Resignation," many people quit their jobs after refusing to put up with toxic workplaces. The sad reality for many is that their financial situation prevents them from quitting. One man, who was working as an independent contractor, decided to call out his employers in an emphatic fashion. Caleb, a freelancer who is currently developing his own PC game, urged his company to fire him after they tried to warn him for not turning up to office meetings and said it was a requirement, reported Bored Panda. Caleb calmly pointed out that it wasn't written into his contract, so he wasn't compelled to. Caleb shared the interaction with his boss on Twitter, where it went viral. "Being an independent contractor sucks for a lot of reasons, but it also affords you the unique ability to tell people to f*ck off in delightful ways," he captioned the tweet.

"Hi Caleb, I was just informed you weren't on the morning stand-up call this morning. How come?" asked his boss. Caleb replied, "Yeah, dude, I was asleep. I basically never join those." His boss tried to get all 'boss' on him. "Going forward, morning meetings are a requirement for employment, and I expect you to be on the next call tomorrow at 9 AM EST." If the boss thought typing out a very formal text message would work, they couldn't be more wrong. "Man that sucks for you guys, but I'm not an employee. My contract says nothing about required hours or daily meetings," Caleb coldly replied.

"You REALLY need an attitude adjustment! If you aren't on the next call, you're fired. Your choice," the boss replied. Caleb still wasn't moved. "You can fire me if you want, but you guys have to pay me through the 18th of next month, regardless so I'm definitely sleeping in tomorrow. Enjoy your meeting. You guys really ought to read the contracts you have us sign sometime. Pretty wild stuff in there," he replied. The boss immediately panicked at the prospect of losing a valuable employee. "Please call me." He replied, "No."

The boss responded by stating that they had no authority to fire him, but added that the contract was still valid and requested him to return to work. "I need you to finish the site installation by the end of this week, then we can mutually walk away from this," his boss messaged, but Caleb replied, "Incredible. I was just about to call and tell him I'd finish, then I saw this. According to them, my contract actually was terminated. So, in regards to finishing, absolutely not. Your department is a mess, and your employees have no clue what they're doing. I have no interest in discussing this further. Don't text me again," he ended the conversation.

Caleb later added that the person texting him was just a "middle management nerd trying to be a cop." He clarified that he had no intention of joining the next meeting. "I'm about 6 beers deep and have 0 intention of joining the meeting tomorrow, so if there are any fun updates I will post them," he wrote. Caleb then dished out advice to those who find themselves in similar situations at work. "If you're in a precarious situation at work, stand up for yourself. If you believe anything I've done today would preclude me from future employment, I've received tons of DMs like this. Advocate for yourselves, guys, you're worth it," he concluded.

There has been more demand from employees to disconnect from work after working hours, with some companies and countries entrenching the same in law.  Xavier Zunigo, a French workplace expert, spoke to The Guardian about the new French law that gave employees the legal right to avoid checking their email after work hours. “There’s a real expectation that companies will seize on the ‘right to disconnect’ as a protective measure,” said Zunigo. “At the same time, workers don’t want to lose the autonomy and flexibility that digital devices give them,” added Zunigo.

This article originally appeared 3 years ago.