'Treated like criminal' at work for taking vacation, man takes to Reddit; sparks buzz

The Reddit post has since accumulated more than 15,000 upvotes and nearly 2,000 comments.

While accounts of workplace harassment regularly do the rounds on the internet, a Reddit post by a man who claims to have been "treated like a criminal" for refusing to check work emails on vacation has gone viral, sparking considerable chatter on the social media platform.

In the post, which has since accumulated more than 15,000 upvotes and nearly 2,000 comments, the man claimed that he had taken his first vacation in eight months after joining an unnamed company, but was pestered to check his emails during his one-and-a-half-week long vacation.

The man quoted what appeared to be an exchange between himself and his superiors, describing how he had been asked to complete a set of tasks on the day his vacation was slated to start.

"I am on vacation for 1.5 weeks from tomorrow onwards. My first vacation since 8 months," was the man's response to his boss's diktat, which was met with a "look of disgust and disbelief", he wrote on Reddit.

"They then wanted me to take my laptop and to check the emails daily (sic)," the man wrote on the post.

He went on to explain that he had struck a compromise—he would take his laptop on vacation and check mails every 4-5 days—but that too was met with "a look of anger, disgust, and disbelief" and a "recommendation to check them daily".

While the man himself did not lash out at his employers, other Reddit users flocked to the post to share their own experiences and/or advice.

"Don't take your laptop at all. Unless it's your personal device, in which case do as you please, but leave your out-of-office on, and try to avoid checking emails. Part of the purpose of a vacation is mental decompression from work, which won't happen if you allow them to join you on your vacation. If it's a work device, you can cite insurance and security concerns for not taking a company device containing sensitive documents on a personal holiday," suggested one user.

"I quit a job last year because they called and harassed me about 10 times a day while I was on vacation out of country. Came back, yelled at the gm and put my notice in. Then yelled at him some more. Told the guy that he was delusional as f**k if he expected me to continue work as usual if I’m on pto. F**k outta here with that nonsense (sic)," wrote another visibly incensed user.

Others suggested that the man bill his employers for the hours worked on vacation, adding that it was "illegal" to force someone to work unpaid.

Commenting on this disturbing trend of expecting employees to be available all the time, another wrote, "Caught flak the other day for saying I'm not putting Outlook on my personal phone. Some people wanna work right up until they die I swear (sic)."

Several other suggestions were also made: while one user advised the man to have a "default out of office reply" ready, another suggested outright lying to employers—"Tell them you're going sailing, so no internet. Enjoy your holiday and wash your armpits with their tears," wrote the user.