An Aussie woman who quit her 9-5 job to become a digital nomad has warned job hunters to be wary of employers offering flexible working hours.
Cassie, 31, recalled a conversation she had with another WFH worker about ‘boomer bosses’ holding younger workers back in a TikTok uploaded September 30.
The two talked about how ‘flexible working hours’ typically meant workers were given the option to start at either 8am or 9am.
Cassie quit her office job in Queensland after finding out she was being undervalued when her manager would not let her work from home.
Flexible and remote working arrangements exploded in popularity during the coronavirus lockdowns, where many staff were forced to work remotely from home.
Cassie, who now works as a virtual assistant, told her followers that jobs touting flexible options are ‘red flags’ which don’t offer true work-life balance.
In the final days of her office job, her boss asking Cassie to stick around for one final assignment ,which she asked to complete remotely.
When the boss told her it had to be done from the office, Cassie quit on the spot and started travelling the world while working from her laptop.
Cassie, 31, warned job hunters to avoid applying for positions advertising ‘flexible working hours’ because they are most likely misleading
Cassie said the conversation with the other remote worker made her realise that boomer bosses are holding young workers back.
‘It just got me thinking about how out of touch these Boomer bosses are. They are just so against you working from your laptop,’ she said.
‘We live in such a digital world and it is so easy to be able to work from anywhere but they are just so against it.’
When her former boss told her that the ‘business doesn’t allow’ her to WFH, Cassie said it was a turning point in her relationship with work.
‘You are the one that needs my help. I am not going to change my plans and stick around here longer to come into the office. If you’re not going to give me the flexibility to be able to work from my laptop then bye,’ she said.
On the way out she also learned that some of her less experienced colleagues were getting paid more than her, which she told news.com was the ‘final straw’.
Cassie now conducts work tasks from the comfort of Thailand, where she works remotely throughout the day.
The Queenslander had a chat with another remote worker about flexible work and they agreed that most of the time it means workers have the option to start at either 8am or 9am
Cassie now works remotely after quitting her old office job when her ‘boomer boss’ refused to let her work from home (stock pictured)
The self-employed entrepreneur, who also travelled to Singapore, Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia this year, said she would never go back to a 9-5 job.
‘Depending on where I’m travelling and what I have going on, I either smash out some work in the mornings or evenings so I can get outside and enjoy the best part of the day,’ she told the publication.
A corporate leader commented on Cassie’s video and they were among the many who agreed.
‘I tell my team to work from wherever they want, whenever they want. If an employer is not like this, I would encourage anyone to find a new one,’ one employer wrote.
But several workers warned that it’s not always boomer bosses who limit a worker’s right to a flexible arrangement.
‘My boss isn’t a boomer he’s Gen Y, like me, and he is exactly like this,’ one woman commented.
‘I have to make a sacrifice to the gods and schedule it in a month in advance for one WFH day.’
A second said: ‘I had a fellow millennial boss that was exactly the same as a boomer boss.
A third wrote: ‘Bosses do that to feel like they still have a purpose for their job.’
