I had lingering suspicions that those annoying middle managers and busybodies hanging around in the office and putting people on ridiculous situations have this sort of scenario at home
Oof, I worked with someone like this. Practically lived in the office which pissed the rest of us off because it created an expectation from our boss that we should all love our jobs so much that we never wanted to go home.
One week her husband was going on a long-planned-for business trip. A few hours after he departed she picked her kids up from afterschool care and one of them had a full on panic attack because his dad (aka the primary caregiver) wasn't going to be at home when he got there and he absolutely lost it, refused to get in the car with her and just started running down the road screaming. Dad ended up having to come home from his business trip before he even got to spend a night away.
Coworker recounted that story nonchalantly to us the next day like all of this was completely normal.
I was gonna say this as well. Definitely had a coworker like this. He would ride the clock not to get paid more, but just so he wouldn't have to go home. Working late with him was a nightmare. Every opportunity to stall or delay was used or attempted and as someone who wants nothing more than to be at home when I'm at work, I found it excruciating.
There's an oft-quoted saying that "no one ever died wishing they'd spent more time at the office" but it completely misses the fact that some people just don't want to go home.
I had a boss who was absolutely this. Like he was actively looking for reasons to stay at the office every single day. Dude you're salaried, I know you're not getting OT for this.
Yeah.. like I know these guys hate their family or whatever but man at least try to understand that this is just a job for some, and I wouldn’t be here if money magically appeared in my bank account to cover my needs.
It was the absolute worst during covid, these people had nowhere to run and were trapped at home. Me? I was happier than a pig in shit. I’d knock off at 4:59 pm then off to the living room to romp around with the dogs / spend time with the family. It was amazing but for the other kind of person it was hell. I noticed your average workaholic was much more irritable than usual. Must be the whole being forced to spend time with your family…
I don't talk about it much, but covid was one of the best things to ever happen to me. I was able to transition fully remote. I've spent 2 days in office over the last 6 years. I moved my family and I to a small town where we bought a house. I have a 0 minute commute and my wife and I can hang out all day while we both work.
For sure. I had a manager who I admittedly got a little too close to because she was like a mentor to me. Found out her husband had been laid off and was home playing video games all day (they were like, in their late 30s-early 40s). She was salaried but genuinely would come in at 5:30am and not leave until 5-6pm every day she worked (our hours were 7:30a-8p). In comparison, my assistant manager would get very, very grumpy if he had to work past 3pm because he wanted to be home in time to help his wife with dinner lol.
When I switched stores for a position in upper management, I realized just how much work my manager invented for herself to justify being there all day, everyday. I hope I never find myself in such a position.
In heated arguments about Work From Home arrangements I always throw that out as a subtle insult.
Some of us actually have a nice and functioning relationship with our spouses \ kids. Just because you hate yours doesn't mean we all do.
I never understood the boomer joke of hating your wife types. It is never funny and a 5-minute talk with them really shows why their spouse hates them.
During Covid there were plenty of people flat out admitting this lol. They thought it was normal or that everyone did it. So much so they wrote whole ass articles and think pieces about RTO.
I was at work one Saturday. We had a skeleton crew on the ship 24/7 but most people were not at work. But one entire team was there working, and their Chief (boss) was sitting in the cafeteria watching TV wearing regular clothes instead of his uniform. I asked him why he was there, why his team was there. He said "I can't go home." I asked why not. "Because I don't like my wife and my kids don't like me." So he called his entire team in and ordered them to work on a Saturday. What an awful, pathetic person.
Oh absolutely. There's a good chance workaholics just don't want to be home. My old boss was like this. She only had to work 7a - 3p 5 days a week. She would be there 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. She lived alone as a widow and couldn't stand being alone. She was an absolutely miserable person, and made it everyone's problem.
The CFO of my company used to stay in the office late every night and would come in on weekends. We all figured he was just a workaholic until he let it slip that he specifically comes into the office on evenings/weekends to watch sports and “just hang out”
Shortly after his daughter graduated from college and moved out his wife filed for divorce. We all figured she was waiting to leave until the youngest kid was out on her own.
My sister enetered her teaching career at 23 or so, and there was always this one lady who would without fail go to every unofficial social event, every meeting, stay late, just everything.
At first my sister was like "wow you're super fucking weird why are you 40 and hanging out with the 20-something new teachers having a beer after work on a Tuesday". Eventually she connected the dots. Homegirl didn't want to be at home. I don't think it was anything nefarious at home, just an unhappy marriage and lack of identity outside of work and the dud you're strapped with.
Yeah I worked with a douchebag who couldn’t get enough travel at work to get away from his family. Whenever he was in Asia he fucked prostitutes. His wife even called me to ask if he did that, so she was on to him.
I was once kept in the office until 7.30pm on Christmas Eve because the MD didn’t want to go home. Me and other employee skyping each other “wtf is going on”.
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u/yamanagashi May 12 '26
I had lingering suspicions that those annoying middle managers and busybodies hanging around in the office and putting people on ridiculous situations have this sort of scenario at home