Boss sparks fury over outrageous text message after employee is hit by a car: ‘He has to be kidding’

A boss has been criticized for his ‘ruthless’ response to his employee being hit by a car – with thousands of people left shocked by the shocking behaviour.

British career expert Ben Askins shared text messages between an employee and her boss discussing a co-worker’s unfortunate accident.

‘Where’s Stacey? I haven’t seen her today and she’s not responding to my messages,” the boss said.

‘Oh, you didn’t hear! Stacey was hit by a car, I think she’s okay. It wasn’t fast, but she was quite upset. Beth just took her to the hospital for a check-up.”

The boss showed no concern for the employee.

‘When will she come back? We have a pitch this afternoon and she was going to give a presentation,” they said.

The employee was unsure, but offered to help: “I’m not sure. I doubt she’ll be back today, but I have her deck and the notes, so I should be able to replace her if that’s okay?’

“This is the last thing we needed today,” the boss raged. “Would you mind just keeping in touch with Beth and Stacey and seeing if she can come back and present, we really need this win.”

Mr. Askins couldn’t believe how insensitive the boss was.

“If someone on your team gets hit by a car, your first reaction can’t be, ‘When is she going back to work?’

“On a basic human level you have to start with, ‘Oh my God, is she okay?’” Mr. Askins said.

The employee shared the sentiment.

“I don’t think we should bother them, but I promise I can cover for her if it comes down to it,” they said.

The boss finally relented, “Fine, yes, worst case scenario we’ll go with you.”

Mr. Askins also took issue with the boss’s treatment of their other employee.

“Well, I bet it feels great to hear that you’re in the worst case scenario. This is really terrible.

Mr. Askins couldn’t believe how insensitive the boss was

‘The employee tries to be helpful by offering to intervene, but how do you treat him so badly by saying that?

‘I shouldn’t do that [tell people] that if someone on your team is hit by a car, you should make sure everything is okay before asking when he can return to work,” he said.

Many others shared their experiences with uncaring bosses.

‘I was admitted to a drip with severe morning sickness – dehydration and having to keep an eye on the baby. The boss kept calling and eventually sent me an email saying, “I appreciate you being in the hospital, but you have a 5:30 PM deadline and you need to fill out the document,” one woman said. “I work in HR and she was my manager.”

Another said: ‘I fell to the floor with a bad back and literally couldn’t move or get up. Bedridden. My manager called and asked if I would come back the next day.”

A third wrote: ‘I was hit by a car while taking my kids to daycare before work. My manager was furious that this would make me late. I was afraid that if I took all of us to the hospital, I would be fired.”