Snowpocalypse at the Front Desk: When Your Boss Wants You to Risk Life and Limb for $17 an Hour
Let’s set the scene: It’s a Monday night, and the Northeast is swaddled in a blanket of snow and ice thick enough to make a polar bear pack it in early. Somewhere in the middle of “buttfuck nowhere” (the author’s words, not mine), a dedicated front desk worker is chiseling their car out of a frozen tomb, desperate to make a 45-minute commute to a job that pays $17 an hour—and, let’s be honest, probably doesn’t even offer free coffee.
But what happens when Mother Nature and your manager both conspire to make your life miserable? That’s exactly the icy crossroads Reddit user u/Puzzled_Dress9590 found themselves at, and their tale lit up r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk faster than a plow truck hitting black ice.
Here’s the snow-packed drama: After two hours of scraping and shoveling just to get the car mobile, our hero attempts to hit the highway. The result? Tires spinning, a curb gets a little too friendly, and the realization dawns: “Is this job worth risking my life—and my $900/month car payment—for?” (Yes, you read that right. $900. For a car. On $17 an hour. More on that later.)
So, like any reasonable person, they call their coworker and manager to say, “Hey, the roads are a death trap—I’m not sure I can make it.” The coworker is understanding. The manager, on the other hand, goes full villain mode: “Not a valid excuse,” “You’re unreliable,” and the pièce de résistance, “If you’re not here by 8pm, you’ll be written up.”
Let’s pause and admire this management style, shall we? As u/ctsjohnz points out, “If you have a boss like that, it’s time to find a new job. If this is how she acts during dangerous road conditions, she’s going to do similarly with other things.” The community consensus is clear: No job is worth risking your neck on icy roads, especially when the people in charge are nowhere to be found.
And that’s the kicker. The manager, who lives just ten minutes away, smugly claims the roads are fine where she is. Commenters aren’t buying it. As u/measaqueen wryly notes, “Also the fact that your manager said that neither of them could come in hints that neither of them wanted to drive in those conditions either…” The hypocrisy is as thick as the snowdrifts outside.
But let’s talk about loyalty. Our OP isn’t some slacker. As they shared, “I come in 10 minutes early and leave 20+ minutes late, I pick up any shift they ask, I even came in and worked the day my DOG DIED, this is also the first time I ever called out.” If that’s not dedication, what is? Yet, one snowstorm later, they’re labeled “unreliable.”
The comments section quickly turned into group therapy for everyone who’s ever worked a customer service job in a blizzard. u/jus7_me, hailing from the Midwest, summed up the mood: “I have not worked for a manager yet that says you have to be there when the roads are shi7. If I did have a manager like that, they would only be my manager until I could find a replacement.” (And let’s face it, with managers like these, turnover is probably higher than the snowbanks.)
Other commenters took aim at the economics of the situation. “You pay $900 per month on a car so you can drive 45 minutes each way to a job that pays $17 an hour? Why?” asked u/TellThemISaidHi, channeling the collective bafflement of the internet. Even OP admits, “They don’t pay me enough for this shit and SHES the manager why am I as a front desk agent expected to come in in such horrendous weather??” The math is about as pretty as a salt-and-slush covered Camry.
And if you’re wondering whether management ever offered a hotel room so staff could stay safe and close by? Crickets. As u/Mammoth_Impress_2048 points out, “If they didn’t, that’s entirely on them, and your boss kinda sounds like a dick either way.” In the hospitality industry, you’d think this would be basic hospitality. Alas.
But perhaps the most important perspective comes from those who’ve been there. One sage commenter, u/amegirl24, drops the hard truth: “Do you think they would care if you got hurt or died in a car accident on the way to work? Hell no, they’d have you replaced by the next day. Don’t keep giving more of yourself to people who don’t have your back.” Ouch. But also, preach.
At the end of the day, the meeting with management was a mixed bag: “Manager apologized for the way she spoke and we called it a day,” OP reports. But the sting of being called “unreliable” after years of loyalty stuck harder than road salt on a wheel well.
So, what’s the takeaway? The overwhelming Reddit verdict: NTA, by a blizzard-sized margin. As u/ShadowDragon8685 so succinctly puts it, “I am not asking permission to be off, I am informing you that circumstances outside my control mean I will not be able to make it.” And that’s a mantra every underappreciated employee should memorize—especially when the forecast calls for freezing rain and management’s empathy is below zero.
If you’re ever torn between risking your life for a job or standing up for your safety, remember: No paycheck is worth a trip to the ER—or worse, the junkyard. And if your boss thinks otherwise, maybe it’s time to weatherproof your résumé.
Has your job ever expected you to risk it all for a paycheck? Drop your wildest work-in-a-storm stories in the comments below—because misery loves company, and so do we.
Original Reddit Post: AITA for calling out 20 minutes before my shift when they were already short staffed?