WORK DYNAMICS

What Happens When a Surprise Work Email Triggers You

When messages from your boss cause genuine panic

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There was a time in my career when seeing an email from my boss made my stomach clench. Not in the “ooh, a fun surprise” kind of way but more in the “well, there goes my whole day” kind of way.

She rarely emailed. And when she did, it was never good.

Keep in mind, we were both fully grown women. Allegedly. But the way she handled power made it feel like middle school with an institutional budget.

One winter afternoon, the state declared an emergency. I’m talking “white-knuckle drive home while praying other cars don’t slide into you” kind of emergency. The university closed down. I was salaried, did my job well, usually worked through lunches, answered emails at night, and on the weekends.

I rarely left before my minimum agreed upon hours. That day, I did and thirty minutes — that was the scandal.

I made it home, still half-hunched over the steering wheel from tension. I grew up driving in this kind of weather, but I never fully got over the anxiety of dealing with it. Once I settled in, I checked my email on my phone. And there it was: a novel-length message from my boss demanding to know why I left…