A man has claimed he was sent home from work after a colleague told his boss she saw him sleeping on the job when in fact he was just “trying to figure out a complicated problem.”
The employee took to Reddit’s r/antiwork forum share his story earlier this week.
‘Sent home from work to ‘sleep’. “I was basically just sitting back in my chair, with my eyes closed, trying to solve a complicated problem,” he wrote.
The original poster – OP for short – initially admitted that he was “a little tired” in the morning, but that he made himself three cups of coffee and that “I was fine.”
A man took to Reddit to vent that he had been sent home for sleeping on the job – when in fact, he claimed, he had just been trying to think (stock image)
He also added that while he was on “drugs that could make him drowsy,” he was “fighting it pretty well.”
The employee further explained that he had to “solve a problem” during the workday.
In the “open office” floor plan of his workplace, his coworkers can easily see each other from their desks – but OP still felt it would be okay to temporarily close his eyes and lean back in his chair while he talked about this “problem” thought. .’
At the same time, one of his colleagues noticed that he looked as if he were asleep – and “threw an object in (his) general direction.”
“But she apparently ‘didn’t get the reaction’ she wanted, probably because I’m wide awake,” OP speculated.
The next thing he knew, his operations manager sent him home after his co-worker talked him out of his boss.
Regarding the other co-worker who rudely threw something at him, OP continued, “If I had been asleep, she would have most likely triggered a PTSD episode (I was once almost killed in an attempted murder x3 with a gun at a previous job.) ‘
He concluded: ‘I’m now scared I’m going to lose my job because I just leaned back in my damn chair.’
He further explained that another colleague noticed him closing his eyes for a moment and decided to report him to his manager
When asked by a user how long his eyes were closed, OP clarified: “Maybe 2-3 minutes max. Nothing crazy.’
Other users flocked to the comments with surprised views of the man’s plight.
“I’m surprised you agreed to leave. Someone threw an object at you, you ignored their tricks, and somehow you did something wrong,” said one Redditor.
OP replied, “I’m sure if I had stayed I would have made the situation worse. Moreover, I was asked to leave in front of some colleagues, which is embarrassing.”
Another gave a tip about overcoming the habit of closing your eyes to think ahead: “You should massage your temples or do something that moves you forward. I kept getting this complaint, when in reality I had to close my eyes and use my mental whiteboard to find errors.”
Many more were quick to sympathize with OP and share that they had experienced similar situations.
‘That happened to me and I got so much sex for it, I closed my eyes with my hands in my head waiting for something to finish uploading and someone chatted to me and I was accused of sleeping. Apparently it’s wrong for someone to just close your eyes and not look at a screen 24/7,” someone said angrily.
‘Hahaha! That’s actually happened to me before (I worked in Tech Support) and I meditated while dealing with the most technically illiterate people in our workforce. Let the bullshit flow and wait until they stop blaming you for their printer problems,” a second echoed.
The comment went on to describe the anecdote: “Just sitting with my eyes closed, in my happy place. One day they brought someone in to supervise me and he told my boss to leave me alone after that.
Users took to the comments, many expressing sympathy for OP and sharing similar situations they’ve encountered on the job
“One day that same boss tried to talk nonsense and I told him that the work is so easy. I do it with my eyes closed and my helpdesk mates rofl’d – the boss just walked away.’
A third person offered a different story – in which a colleague was also overly rude when checking to see if they were awake.
“You reminded me of an old memory,” they wrote.
“At one of my ‘first office jobs,’ a call center, I was having a bad day and sat back to close my eyes and think.”
‘The lady running the office (call center manager) leaned over INTO MY FACE as I leaned back in my chair, and when I opened my eyes a second later I was shocked. She made some comments that I don’t remember, but I do remember thinking she had no right to assume I was asleep. “I also remember thinking that I could have fallen,” they concluded.
A fourth recalled a time when they ‘rested’ their eyes and took the exact same position as OP.
‘Looking at a computer screen all day always gave me eyestrain. One day I had to rest my eyes. “I was in exactly the same position as you: leaning back in my chair with my eyes closed,” they said.
‘One of the managers happened to come by my desk and was about to say something to me when my phone rang. He was surprised when I picked him up at the first ring and began my greeting without a trace of drowsiness in my voice.
‘I quickly handled the call and hung up.
‘He thought I was asleep. No. I just rest my eyes because of eye strain.”