Forced to take annual leave

[Dioxo]

Recently, I declined to attend the annual meeting held overseas. It was not compulsory to attend. The whole of my division went. My work is closely dependent on the sales people in my division. Given that all of them were away, I have not much to do during these 3 days. Thus, I did not come to work and work from home instead to look after my baby.

Someone from other division told my boss about my absence upon his return from the meeting. He then asked me to take 3 days annual leave to compensate for not turning up for work. Working from home in this case is not acceptable as I did not inform him beforehand.

The reason for not informing him beforehand is because I thought since the whole division except me is going for meeting and play, then why should I need to come to work? I helped my division to save cost by not attending (hotel + flight), donated 60 for company charity dinner even though I did not attend, and ended up having to deduct 3 days annual leave.

Of course, my boss will not view the matter in this way. He did not want to leave a bad impression on other division. But I feel upset on the way he handles this. Being his subordinate for 2 years, he should know me well. He could have stood by my side and gave me a gentle warning on working from home, instead of pleasing the other division by forcing me to take leave.

Does anyone has opinion on this matter?

 

[Peace & Happiness]

My work does allow me to work from home at times. Whenever I do that, even though I know my boss will approve but I'll still inform him beforehand.

 

[innocentwar]

Well, you should have inform your boss first beforehand. Basic respect.

Imagine you're away for a few days and your child stayed over at friend's place without informing you.

 

[FFT]

Think u should have informed him before hand and getting his approval before acting it out. It may not be in your company's policy to allow employees to work from home.

By asking u to deduct the 3 days from your AL does not mean he does not trust u. But think from his point of view, being the leader of the team, he has to set the practices right for everyone. What if the others in your team or company follow this practice (ie go missing from the office and work from home), it will be difficult for him to maintain discipline in the whole team. He still have a HR to account to also.

He actually has to right to terminate u right on the spot given that u have gone AWOLS without informing anyone (unless it is stated in your HR policy that u all r allowed to work from home without having the need to inform your management). Given that he requested u to apply for 3 days leave, i think it is already very nice of him to do that.

Sorry i know this may sound very harsh but try to think from him point of view as a leader of the team. It is not a matter whether he trusts u r working or not, but he has a lot of other factors to consider in this situation esp when someone from other department has already feedback to him about discipline of his own ppl.