A TikToker has gone viral after her plan to take a self-imposed vacation day went badly wrong. In the three-part series, which amassed a cumulative 839,400 views, Ashley Williams (@heyslim498) began by explaining how overwhelming her job as an at-home remote call service agent was. “No lying, I could not breathe,” she said. “From the minute I clock in, from the time I clock out, I’m getting calls, calls, calls, calls.”
Ashley claimed that the only time she didn’t get a call was when she was on her 30-minute lunch or two 15-minute breaks. She then went on to claim that every Saturday, when she was meant to be working 11am-8pm, she would unplug her Wi-Fi. She says when she would report the Wi-Fi “outage” to her boss, she had to send over proof. Ashley added that when the Wi-Fi was unplugged, her Wi-Fi app would typically say “offline,” which she sent to her boss as evidence.
What went wrong?
However, after choosing to take another Saturday off to go to CiCis Pizza with family, Ashley says her boss called her into a meeting the next working day. She says that during this meeting, her boss said she had called Mediacom and learned the screenshots Ashley was sending were from unplugging the router rather than a genuine internet issue. As a result, Ashley claims HR and her boss fired her. However, she told viewers she was so tired she didn’t really care.
@heyslim498 Storytimeee #storytimes #storytime #fyp #workfromhome #gettingfired ♬ original sound – Ashley Williams
Still, the situation at least provided commenters with some amusement. “Ya’ll risked your job for pizza,” one viewer quipped. “Your mistake was having a pattern,” another added.
Others were more concerned with the employer’s alleged actions. “I can’t believe your internet company told your boss anything,” one viewer said. “Did they pay the bill?” While another wrote, “I think calling your internet provider is so strange.”
Ashley didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via TikTok comment and email.
Can bosses track your internet use?
According to TechRound, there’s no rule against bosses tracking your internet use on company Wi-Fi and devices. In fact, this might be expected in some cases.
Equally, there don’t appear to be rules against employers tracking your personal internet use—but many agree that it’s unethical. For instance, in a forum post on the Workplace Stack Exchange, an employee asked whether his boss was allowed to contact his internet service provider after a two-day power outage at home.
The overall consensus seemed to be that this crossed a line. As one user put it, “If they do NOT pay for your internet, then they do NOT have the right to call your internet provider to ask about anything. They are wrong 100%.” So, just because there aren’t specific rules, that doesn’t mean people don’t frown upon the practice.
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