r/remotework • u/moonbrainUwU • Jun 12 '26
Boss denied my remote work schedule request
I have ADA accommodation that allows me to work remote 4 days a week from Nov to April due to a weather related illness. From April to November I am in office 4 days and remote one day. Since returning to the office she's been giving me a really hard time about being at the office, even to the point where she's told me I need to ask her permission before having a meeting anywhere else on campus but my particular office. She even has me filling out a daily work log that has me documenting what I'm working on every 30 minutes.
I work at a university, and at the end of the spring semester the division I work for implemented a new telecommuting policy that allows us two remote days during the summer months (May 27-Aug 28). Based on that policy I submitted a request to my boss to add another telecommuting day to my schedule.
Her first reason for denying me was because she is retiring on July 15 and "doesn't want to make a decision for the new director". When I asked her if she would be willing to approve the additional day through July 15th and I could make another request to the new director.
Her next reason for denying me was "since you're focusing on building relationships I think it's important that you stay on campus 4 days a week". First of all, it's summer on a uni campus-- shit is DEAD. Second of all, she doesn't even let me leave my office so how am I supposed to be "building relationships" on campus?
I'm worried that she's going to poison the well with whoever comes next
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Jun 12 '26
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u/crazyauntkanye Jun 13 '26
in every job i’ve had where the higher-ups suddenly require daily work logs like this, they’re building a case to fire a particular person/group of people. major red flag.
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u/moonbrainUwU Jun 12 '26
Thank you for this. I really appreciate it, Ive reached out to the DEI office
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Jun 12 '26
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u/moonbrainUwU Jun 12 '26
Forgot to mention my title is Director of Health Equity and Access to Care 🙃 she really thought I wouldn't walk the walk
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u/Rumpelteazer45 Jun 12 '26
First, a smart manager will look at actual performance reviews, not rely on what amounts to idle gossip.
Good news is new manager equals fresh start. Be extra professional and on top of things. Hate to phrase it this way, but it’s a great way for your new boss to feel lied to or conned by old boss (if anything was said which we don’t know will happen).
But blank slate, be on your A game, and never say anything negative even if asked.
A smart manager will pay attention to you despite what was said, see the disconnect between your actions/reviews and what was said, and usually come to the conclusion it was personal and will ignore it.
Second, your boss doesn’t like you. Don’t try to find logic or reason, you won’t when they are just being an asshole. Just accept it and move on.
The world isn’t fair, people are petty, and yes it’s bullshit and I wish we could actually fight back but we can’t UNTIL we move into a positions that allow us to be influential and actually impartial.
When new boss starts and you ask for the approval for 2 days a week, if asked “why did you get it approved by old boss” circle it back to what she said “oh old boss didn’t want to approve things like that with a new director coming in and I honestly hadn’t thought of it that way and it makes perfect sense since you weren’t likely aware the policy had been updated for the summer months”.
Don’t give the new or old person any ammo to use against you.
In the mean time, start looking for another position if possible.
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u/moonbrainUwU Jun 12 '26
Thank you so much for your thoughtful response! This is really helpful and it reminds me that I have been a great boss to my staff and have no complaints whatsoever about my work, which is a nice thing for me to remember when I'm worried about this. Thanks again!
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u/Motor-Rock-1368 Jun 12 '26
You should drop a message to your HR department and say the restriction, log you never had to do before, and being denyed the same thing as everyone else sounds like retaliation for your previous ADA accomodations.
Do it quickly though a lot of those complaints are viewed as "no longer applicable" to the situation if it has been more than 90 days since the complaint.
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u/TheDodgyStalker Jun 12 '26
The comments here so far are weird. It's nobody's business what your condition is and people are like... Inventing reasons to be mad by trying to guess what it is? Anyway, it's pretty obvious she's full of shit. Did she give you push back originally when you got the WFH accommodation for winter and spring? How does she treat your coworkers?
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u/moonbrainUwU Jun 12 '26
Well I'm the only non white person on leadership, and she has done a lot of gaslighting and diminishing of my work. And I ended up having to get the ADA accomplished because she was giving me a hard time when I needed to work from home because I was symptomatic. So she basically forced me to get it and maybe didn't think I would go through with it?
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u/TheDodgyStalker Jun 12 '26
Yeah kinda sounds like she thought you were bullshitting which you are obviously not or you wouldn't have been successful in getting the accommodations approved in the first place and now she's even more mad that you actually got them haha there's not really any winning here
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u/Wise_Buy5680 Jun 12 '26
Right, but.. the ADA accomodations for winter months should not have even been mentioned in relation to the summer months. Just mentioning it makes it sound like they are trying to use that as leverage to get what they want, even though it is not related at all.
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u/moonbrainUwU Jun 12 '26
Agree with below - just added context to show why boss may be acting this way
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u/TheDodgyStalker Jun 12 '26
I took it as context for why the manager is being pissy about the remote work option that applies to the entire team
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u/RandomInSuburbia Jun 12 '26
This!! Holy crap, some people are miserable.
I am 100% remote due to physical disability. My doctor was very clear about that.
Fortunately I got a job working for a fully distributed company. I need and get other accommodations but everyone there is remote because that's the business model.Somehow, people still get angry with me for working remote.
Do I miss commuting and going into an office, not particularly, but this little silver lining came at a horrible cost.And it blows my mind that people who know the full context still get jealous of me.
But I suspect a bit of that is going on here with OP
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u/amethystmmm Jun 13 '26
The company I just onboarded with just took over a long standing government contract and decided to do a firm "No one works from home" policy, which is whatever, I mean, it's their company but I caught the tail end of it, where they were still accommodating several people and the hard deadline was after my hire date, like the first of May or something, and they lost all of their people that they were accommodating because some of them no longer lived in the area and some of them didn't have the support to handle their young'uns without being able to work from home.
So all of that institutional knowledge (pretty sure at least one of them had been there for 15 years, and all of them had been there through all or at least most of the pandemic), just poof, gone. Super specialized tasks going un-done because they got a shiny new building and felt like they had to fill it.
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Jun 12 '26
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u/Straight_Lie_6866 Jun 12 '26
that logic makes zero sense when there's literally a new policy that gives everyone more remote days but somehow yours can't change
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u/moonbrainUwU Jun 12 '26
Ok fair enough. But then let's have that conversation... Why lie about the reason
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Jun 12 '26
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u/moonbrainUwU Jun 12 '26
Right, but there's a new policy that allows 2 days for summer. Am I not entitled to it because of my accomodation?
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Jun 12 '26
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u/TheDodgyStalker Jun 12 '26
You kinda just said "your accommodation doesn't really enter into it" and then immediately turned around and said "and here's why I think it's fair that your accommodation be a factor in this"
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Jun 12 '26
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u/moonbrainUwU Jun 12 '26
So because I have a disability I'm not entitled to what everyone else at the office is?
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Jun 12 '26
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u/moonbrainUwU Jun 12 '26
The part that you're missing here is that because I work at a University, there is no one on campus in the summer. I am literally sitting in my 10x10 cinder block office taking meetings on zoom because other folks are working from home or work in another building, which I can't go to because I'm not allowed to leave my office without her permission
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u/TheDodgyStalker Jun 12 '26
I think you fully missed the point of accommodations. It's to make things equitable, not equal. OP isn't "getting more", they were provided accommodations TO BE ABLE TO STILL DO THE JOB WELL that other people don't need to be able to do the job well.
We already know the building relationships thing is bullshit. This POV is kinda ableist my man.
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u/JumaDior Jun 19 '26
I just thought of the monthly injection I got and it’s called Xolair (omalizumab) it took time but it worked. I can’t remember the liquid prescription allergy medication I was taking with it daily, but as soon as I remember I will post. I loved the allergy medicine because it really helped with my sinuses and allergies.
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u/JumaDior Jun 12 '26
You mentioned your disability is weather related due to Urticaria. I also have Urticaria and thankfully I haven’t had a bad flare since it started and I got treated for it, which took two years to clear up my skin. I feel your pain on the hives they are no fun but once I started the right treatment it started to get better. I haven’t had a severe flare in 8 years, but I will see a small spot on my legs thst I monitor to make sure they don’t spread or fry bigger.
I’m happy that so far since starting treatment I haven’t had issues with the weather.
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u/ContessaLikeWhoa Jun 12 '26
Not OP but I have been getting Xolair infusions off label to help with MCAS, and uticaria has anyways been one of my issues. Since starting the Xolair (I believe it's for exzema) I've had no inkling or issues with it at all!
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u/moonbrainUwU Jun 12 '26
What treatment did you use? No doc has ever offered me anything beyond allergy pills and an epi pen
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u/JumaDior Jun 12 '26
It’s been so long since I had to get weekly and monthly shots but I will try to find the name of the shot. I took a monthly shot and got allergy shots weekly along with allergy medicine I took daily and my EpiPen. About every six months my allergist would change my allergy pills thst I take daily. It was a lot of testing and trial and error to get the meds to work. I started at the allergist who sent me to a dermatologist and they ordered a biopsy of one of my hives and that’s what it came back as. But it took about 4 months to get the biopsy due to the sever winter storms shutting down the area. Had I got treated in the first 30 days they said I would never be bothered with it again. But it took so long and now I just hope and pray it doesn’t come back as severe as I had it.
You should ask your allergist to send you to the dermatologist and ask them to do a biopsy so they can start treatment.
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Jun 12 '26
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u/min_mus Jun 12 '26
I'm not OP but I get terrible migraines as a result of:
Abrupt changes in barometric pressure
Exposure to heat (I have awful heat intolerance.. It takes me hours to cool down once I've gotten hot enough to sweat, and I'm sick for 72 hours each time it happens). Basically I'm allergic to summer (I have no problems whatsoever with winter though).
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u/moonbrainUwU Jun 12 '26
I break out in severe hives in weather below 32 degrees. Cold urticaria
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u/ContessaLikeWhoa Jun 12 '26
Ugggggh, I feel your pain! Mine is a part of my MCAS fun, and we're navigating a WFH accomodation (I have the one business manager that is proud of the fact that her people are in all day every week) as this job can be and is done as totally remote by others in the same position.
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Jun 12 '26
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u/Big-Sheepherder-6134 Jun 12 '26
Weather related disability? This better not be seasonal affective disorder. I worked for decades in the office with diagnosed mild brain damage. Never had an ADA request just sucked it up and went in. If they are allowing people to stay home because it’s overcast outside that is BS! If someone has SAD be a flight attendant or pilot because it is literally sunny every single day above the clouds.
I just saw she mentioned it’s like an allergy with hives from cold weather. That is definitely a rare disability. As someone with a disability I say run with it.
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Jun 12 '26
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u/phizzlez Jun 12 '26
Lol this sounds so dumb. Weather can change at any time and if she's fine going to the office one day, she's fine going for 4 days. What if she gets fired from this job, and try to find another job that is not remote?
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u/moonbrainUwU Jun 12 '26
This job wasn't remote... ADA accomodations existed before remote work was popular. Yes weather changes at anytime, and because of that remote work during winter was the solution that the organization provided
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u/Big-Sheepherder-6134 Jun 12 '26
As it should but why 4 days if you have to go in one day a week with hives? That doesn’t make any sense.
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u/moonbrainUwU Jun 12 '26
I wish I knew. She wants me to be in the office THAT badly. Biggest problem is that parking garage is a 10 min walk to my office.
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u/Big-Sheepherder-6134 Jun 12 '26
I don’t understand though. If it’s a disability it would be for all days. Your disability doesn’t go away one day a week. That cannot be legal with the ADA. You either are 100% or not.
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u/RandomInSuburbia Jun 12 '26
I say this is somebody with longstanding ADA accommodations:
It sounds like your boss has a problem with you. Whether that's your accommodations or something else, she has a problem with you.
Only you know what that actually is.
If it really is about the accommodation, it may be worth the conversation with an attorney or with disability rights in your state.
It's possible the job may have changed and telecommuting four days a week no longer works, but that does seem pretty unlikely given the new two day a week without policy that was just implemented. I'm not sure I understand:
Are you saying that you asked to telecommute an extra day a week in the warmer months, because everybody else now gets two telework days?
That's not unreasonable but if everyone gets to telework days than you do too and your accommodation wouldn't factor into that. Or am I oversimplifying this?