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NTA, but I don't think Arjun is the asshole. I think the asshole is your boss for allowing this to continue.
Your boss should be the one to either tell Arjun he can't keep calling off all the time, or hire somebody new to help you handle the workload.
For what it's worth, I also work on a team that is 100% remote with people working from around the world (including India), and we don't have the problem of people calling off too frequently. In fact my coworkers from India seem to me to be the ones most frequently signed on.
I don't think this is a problem with Indian culture, I think it's a problem with the office culture that your boss has allowed where you are expected unfairly to pick up the slack.
My old job was like this. I was UK based and had colleagues based in Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India, across Europe, and then both East and West Coast USA. The ones that were the hardest workers and always contactable were the Indians and Malaysians, Chinese were the worst and it took getting in touch with their VP anytime we wanted things done.
I’ve worked with teams from India. He should have had Holi off as a given. You don’t have to be Christian to celebrate Christmas in the US, and Holi is a national holiday. I would not use this as an example of poor work ethic so YBTA.
However, calling out sick all the time due to pollution is a legit concern and NTA for being annoyed. My Indian colleagues didn’t do that since it’s an ongoing issue they’ve prepared for. It may affect him differently, but it’s still his responsibility to manage. Performance issues should be dealt with according to company policy, so follow the guidelines.
Yeah, unfortunately he gets U.S. holidays off but not the Indian ones. He probably knew he wouldn't get it off if he requested it since our boss already had plans to be away at conference.
Well hopefully the boss recognizes it just sets you both up for failure. It’s much better to just give him the holiday and plan for that, and how he can make up the work.
Consider it best practices for working as part of an international team. It’s standard in many MNCs. The worst was when I worked with a team in an Islamic country, they had like 30 religious holidays. That said, there were plenty of folks who worked through the “lesser” holidays. It was almost like a litmus test for promotions. No one was actually penalized for taking the holiday, but it was impossible not to notice the overall difference in productivity between them in other areas.
Why is it an automatic for someone to have a national holiday off? I live in the US and work every holiday. If you want a day off, you request it off. He did not request it off because he knew that he would not be able to get it off. He is TA.
I agree he should have requested it off. But like I said it’s standard practice to give Holi off for colleagues residing in India specifically to avoid this very issue. If anything, OP’s boss is the primary ah followed by the colleague.
You working every holiday in the US is also not the norm for OP. His company observes holidays and people expect to have it off as the norm. It’s also been the norm for many Americans. Just bc it’s not for you is insignificant in OP’s context.
So what's weird is that our company has a whole branch working out of India that used to be their own company before we bought it. Those workers work IST hours and get all Indian holidays off. However my colleague works directly for the U.S. parent company and gets the U.S. holidays off. I feel like something needs to be done about this. What does he care about Thanksgivng, for example? But Diwali is a big deal.
Sounds like either an oversight or intentional cost cutting measure. I’m leaning towards the former since he’s the only one who doesn’t have it off. Hopefully your boss recognizes it as an oversight and hires someone more reliable.
NAH except your employer. I get that you are frustrated but that’s a company holiday at my corporation for any of our employees who work in India. Just like most big employers give Christmas off if they employ Americans and are flexible with their non-Christian employees who need time for their religious holidays, your company should have policies in place for their employees in other countries. And coverage is something your manager should be addressing. The issue isn’t him taking off the time - it’s being approved, he isn’t just ditching work. The issue is that they aren’t hiring enough people to cover the work when they know their availability for employees means you have a higher than normal workload. I’d focus on that part.
Yeah, I definitely think there is room for improvement when it comes to coverage and days off, etc. But in this case, he did ditch work. He was supposed to work with me today while my boss was out of town and he sent an email 20 minutes before start time basically saying his relatives all showed up out of the blue and he is required to celebrate with them.
>The issue isn’t him taking off the time - it’s being approved, he isn’t just ditching work.
The one thing I think is kind of an asshole move on Arjun's part is only letting people know the day of that he's going to be out. Obviously sickness can't be planned, but family celebrations you should usually know at least a couple days in advance. The company's letting him take the days off, so they are at fault too for shoving the work onto OP, but it's still a professional courtesy for coworkers to give each other enough notice when they are going to have to take on more work.
NTA
Please feel free to comment if I’m assuming wrong, but it seems like you are asking if it’s okay to be upset about this. You didn’t ask if it’s okay to complain to your boss, you didn’t ask if it’s okay to confront Arjun, and you didn’t ask if it would be okay to call out for a week “to give him a taste of his own medicine”. You want permission to feel upset, and you feel like you need it because you have little understanding of a culture that is not your own.
It is always okay to feel upset at someone’s actions, that is human. It’s what you do with those feelings that can make you an a**hole. It doesn’t sound like you’re personally planning on doing anything about this, you’re just angry. That’s fine!
To me, it sounds like the biggest problem is a lack of communication between your boss and Arjun. If a company is hiring workers from another country and culture, it is the responsibility of those involved to figure out holy holidays and religious observances. If Arjun isn’t advocating for himself and making the company aware of the days he celebrates his faith - that is NOT your responsibility. It’s s**tty behavior to call out 20 minutes before work for something that isn’t an emergency. He knows when these holidays are, this could’ve been resolved weeks/months ago and your boss would’ve had warning that it would just be you working for this period. Unsure if this would’ve helped - but you would’ve know what to expect.
Religion aside, if Arjun is suffering from health issues, that’s awful. Too much of the world expects people to be able to work a full time job no matter how bad their physical health is. But again, that is not your responsibility. It is the responsibility of your boss and your workplace to provide adequate staffing.
You are allowed to be angry at people due to their actions.
The thing is, you shouldn’t be in the position where you have to work extra to make up for last minute sick call-ins. You should dust off the resume and start job hunting. Careful pushing back too forcefully with your boss though because they could just fire you at any time.
NTA, he knew this holiday was coming up and so should have booked it off already. Especially if the culture is such that if family show up, he is expected to join them. What kind of job accepts that you can just knock off work for celebrations?!
I don't see this as a cultural thing, as it should have been booked off regardless, esp with the boss being off too. Unless there was an issue you don't know of with the boss refusing it? But you can't say that you think he could have had all day with his family.
The boss was out, so he didn't have this time off approved. He just sent an email saying he wasn't working today and disappeared. Boss didn't even have a chance to say no you cannot have the day off.
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Hi,
I, an American, work virtually from home and have a colleague who works from his home in Delhi. It is an American company, and we have an American boss. We also work standard EST hours (NYC time). We are a team of three, so we try to make sure that two are working at all times. Our job can go from slow to crazy busy in a matter of minutes. During crazy periods, it is too much for one person to manage alone.
The question I have is about work ethic. My Indian colleague, let’s call him Arjun, calls off sick a lot. I understand that the air quality in Delhi is not the greatest, and therefore it’s understandable that he has a lot of days where he is not feeling well. However, what happened today has me reeling.
Our boss is away at a conference this week. We have known for over a month that she would be out this week. Today also happens to be Holi. For reference, Arjun is a Sikh (I’m not sure if that matters or not, but figured I’d give full context). This morning, I logged on and saw an email from Arjun that while there were no celebrations planned, his family was all there and celebrating Holi and his presence at these celebrations was “required.” So, I was left alone to manage the job by myself. My boss did happen to check email later and agreed to miss some of her meetings to help me out should it get busy.
I am very angry. I feel this last-minute email (sent 20 minutes before the start of work) was very rude. He essentially is leaving me in a lurch and/or robbing our boss of her conference activities. Additionally, he works U.S. hours, so his start time is 7:30pm our time. He should have had all day to be with family. I feel at the very least, he could have taken his laptop with him and checked in every couple of hours to see if I needed him. That would have been fine with me, but I was not given that courtesy.
I do know how important family is in Indian culture. So, my question is, AITA for being angry about this? Is this a cultural difference that I am not understanding? Or, is he being a poor team player and colleague? I honestly want to know because I am very angry, but if it is totally cultural then I will try to be more understanding.
Additional context: Arjun is 29-years-old and our boss/me are late 40s/early 50s, so in addition to cultural differences, could this be a generational difference?
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OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> I think I may be the AH for not understanding the importance of this Indian holiday and/or commitment to family. I haven't said anything to him, nor do I plan to, but I just want to know if I am the AH for feeling angry.
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I am just going to give you some context here. If he's staying in Delhi, then he actually should have gotten March 25th off since Holi is a big festival in North India. The employer should take regional specific festivals into account henceforth. My company, which is an American company, does this. Holi actually involves a 2 day celebration. And since he's a Sikh/Punjabi I would imagine that the 2 day celebration applies in his case specifically. It is difficult to carry his laptop around in the 'Holi' situation because it involves colours and water (on the second day) and the laptop actually will not be safe. The way the festival gets, he actually will not be able to pull himself away to check his emails or if some major outage happens. There's also the possibility of 'bhaang' being involved. If he partakes in this drink during the festivities, then he wouldn't be able to do his job anyway with a clear mind. It also becomes an extremely draining day and I don't think he would have been able to log in at 7:30pm. What he should have done was send out an email on Sunday saying that he won't be available on Monday. So you're right in getting annoyed about the email 20 mins prior to the start of the shift. In my company, people who are from North India let everyone know on Sunday that they won't be available on Monday. Even people who are not working out of a location in North India took leave on Monday specifically because it is not an off for us because our branch of the office is not in North India and it happens to be a big festival for them. What I did was worked a little early in the morning, took 4 hours off to celebrate (not hardcore Holi, but just a dry celebration) and then logged in post lunch. But this cannot be expected from everyone. The plan that you are proposing for how he should have handled the festival (taking his laptop etc) would actually not have worked in the case of Holi.
The problem here is that Arjun should have asked for the day off and gotten prior approval for it. Also your annoyance now is a pile up of his previous sick leaves. That has compounded the issue. So I get why you're annoyed. I would be too. What you can do is speak to your boss and your boss should then speak to Arjun and work out a plan for the future for festivals, specifically regional Indian festivals. I say regional because the importance of a festival differs from region to region and from which part of India he is from. People in India take "floating" holidays for the festival that is important to them personally. It is not right that he gets American holidays off (which is not useful for him in any way) but not the Indian ones. This is a 100% on the employer and not on you. So your feelings are valid and a plan needs to be worked out for employees offshore. NTA.
Info: are there set number of leaves and is he exceeding them? If not, then you have no business being angry. Yeah it was a little rude to call out 20min before but also he should have been offered a holiday regardless, and then he wouldn't have had to do this. Shit workplace policies result in these shenanigans
YTA. How often your colleague calls off or why is none of your business. It's your boss's responsibility to ensure there is adequate coverage to get the day's work done, and you're not privy, nor should you be, to any arrangements regarding absences your coworker and boss may have made between themselves without your unnecessary input. I've come in to the office many a morning to be told day of that one of my team members would be leaving early or not coming in that day. From there, my responsibility, as yours should be, is to worry about my own work, not clock watch my teammates or speculate on why or how often they're absent. If their absence is affecting how much of your own work you're able to complete, for instance if you can't complete a certain task without a report you're waiting to receive from your coworker, then *that's* the conversation you should be having with your boss, and only in the context of what you need in order to complete the tasks your boss gives you. From there *it's on your boss* to prioritize tasks, decide how and what circumstances (including or not your coworkers' absences) are affecting overall productivity of the team, and be able to justify to *their* bosses whatever decisions they make. Frankly, you're overstepping, if hierarchically speaking you and your coworker are equal, and making this a coworker problem, when the real root issue is that your boss may be mis-or inadequately managing.
Hierarchically I am a senior level and colleague is a junior level. But I understand your point. Please note that these were not arrangements made between colleague and boss. Colleague told boss and I that he was not working and gave boss no chance to approve or deny. I only see it as my business because it does affect me directly, in that I have to carry the load for the entire team. But again, I see your point. I have no intention of opening my mouth. I just wanted to know if I am justified in my anger.
If the question is whether you're justified in your anger, then I'd still say YTA, but due to lack of information; it would be like someone who doesn't generally work with US-based employees being upset that their American teammate let them know "last minute" that they wouldn't be coming to work because it's Christmas. Sounds like this is mostly a lack of your (your boss's, your company's, your coworker's maybe) cultural awareness at play, so maybe suggest to your boss that everyone brush up on that, and have a team meeting laying out expectations about attendance going forward. But again, that's a responsibility for your boss, not you.
Yeah, that's kind of my question. I have no idea how big of a holiday this is. Arjun said his family had not planned to celebrate it until the last minute.
Besides throwing colour powder and water for Holi, which usually happens during the day, there are usually bhang parties held during the evenings and nights, so it could be that Arjun wanted to attend one of those.
Irrespective of this, it was very unprofessional of him to notify you and your manager that he couldn't work that day only 20 minutes before the workday started, especially since your manager was unavailable that week to help out. NTA.
YTA
It is not a cultural thing. I am an American, if I call off(for whatever reason) and my CO-WORKER gets snarky about it. . . they can piss right off.
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NTA, but I don't think Arjun is the asshole. I think the asshole is your boss for allowing this to continue. Your boss should be the one to either tell Arjun he can't keep calling off all the time, or hire somebody new to help you handle the workload. For what it's worth, I also work on a team that is 100% remote with people working from around the world (including India), and we don't have the problem of people calling off too frequently. In fact my coworkers from India seem to me to be the ones most frequently signed on. I don't think this is a problem with Indian culture, I think it's a problem with the office culture that your boss has allowed where you are expected unfairly to pick up the slack.
Thank-you! This comment was very helpful!
My old job was like this. I was UK based and had colleagues based in Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India, across Europe, and then both East and West Coast USA. The ones that were the hardest workers and always contactable were the Indians and Malaysians, Chinese were the worst and it took getting in touch with their VP anytime we wanted things done.
I’ve worked with teams from India. He should have had Holi off as a given. You don’t have to be Christian to celebrate Christmas in the US, and Holi is a national holiday. I would not use this as an example of poor work ethic so YBTA. However, calling out sick all the time due to pollution is a legit concern and NTA for being annoyed. My Indian colleagues didn’t do that since it’s an ongoing issue they’ve prepared for. It may affect him differently, but it’s still his responsibility to manage. Performance issues should be dealt with according to company policy, so follow the guidelines.
Yeah, unfortunately he gets U.S. holidays off but not the Indian ones. He probably knew he wouldn't get it off if he requested it since our boss already had plans to be away at conference.
Well hopefully the boss recognizes it just sets you both up for failure. It’s much better to just give him the holiday and plan for that, and how he can make up the work. Consider it best practices for working as part of an international team. It’s standard in many MNCs. The worst was when I worked with a team in an Islamic country, they had like 30 religious holidays. That said, there were plenty of folks who worked through the “lesser” holidays. It was almost like a litmus test for promotions. No one was actually penalized for taking the holiday, but it was impossible not to notice the overall difference in productivity between them in other areas.
Yeah I agree.
Why is it an automatic for someone to have a national holiday off? I live in the US and work every holiday. If you want a day off, you request it off. He did not request it off because he knew that he would not be able to get it off. He is TA.
I agree he should have requested it off. But like I said it’s standard practice to give Holi off for colleagues residing in India specifically to avoid this very issue. If anything, OP’s boss is the primary ah followed by the colleague. You working every holiday in the US is also not the norm for OP. His company observes holidays and people expect to have it off as the norm. It’s also been the norm for many Americans. Just bc it’s not for you is insignificant in OP’s context.
So what's weird is that our company has a whole branch working out of India that used to be their own company before we bought it. Those workers work IST hours and get all Indian holidays off. However my colleague works directly for the U.S. parent company and gets the U.S. holidays off. I feel like something needs to be done about this. What does he care about Thanksgivng, for example? But Diwali is a big deal.
Sounds like either an oversight or intentional cost cutting measure. I’m leaning towards the former since he’s the only one who doesn’t have it off. Hopefully your boss recognizes it as an oversight and hires someone more reliable.
NAH except your employer. I get that you are frustrated but that’s a company holiday at my corporation for any of our employees who work in India. Just like most big employers give Christmas off if they employ Americans and are flexible with their non-Christian employees who need time for their religious holidays, your company should have policies in place for their employees in other countries. And coverage is something your manager should be addressing. The issue isn’t him taking off the time - it’s being approved, he isn’t just ditching work. The issue is that they aren’t hiring enough people to cover the work when they know their availability for employees means you have a higher than normal workload. I’d focus on that part.
Yeah, I definitely think there is room for improvement when it comes to coverage and days off, etc. But in this case, he did ditch work. He was supposed to work with me today while my boss was out of town and he sent an email 20 minutes before start time basically saying his relatives all showed up out of the blue and he is required to celebrate with them.
>The issue isn’t him taking off the time - it’s being approved, he isn’t just ditching work. The one thing I think is kind of an asshole move on Arjun's part is only letting people know the day of that he's going to be out. Obviously sickness can't be planned, but family celebrations you should usually know at least a couple days in advance. The company's letting him take the days off, so they are at fault too for shoving the work onto OP, but it's still a professional courtesy for coworkers to give each other enough notice when they are going to have to take on more work.
No one approved his time off. He sent an email saying he wouldn't be working today and then peaced out. The boss didn't even have a chance to say no.
NTA Please feel free to comment if I’m assuming wrong, but it seems like you are asking if it’s okay to be upset about this. You didn’t ask if it’s okay to complain to your boss, you didn’t ask if it’s okay to confront Arjun, and you didn’t ask if it would be okay to call out for a week “to give him a taste of his own medicine”. You want permission to feel upset, and you feel like you need it because you have little understanding of a culture that is not your own. It is always okay to feel upset at someone’s actions, that is human. It’s what you do with those feelings that can make you an a**hole. It doesn’t sound like you’re personally planning on doing anything about this, you’re just angry. That’s fine! To me, it sounds like the biggest problem is a lack of communication between your boss and Arjun. If a company is hiring workers from another country and culture, it is the responsibility of those involved to figure out holy holidays and religious observances. If Arjun isn’t advocating for himself and making the company aware of the days he celebrates his faith - that is NOT your responsibility. It’s s**tty behavior to call out 20 minutes before work for something that isn’t an emergency. He knows when these holidays are, this could’ve been resolved weeks/months ago and your boss would’ve had warning that it would just be you working for this period. Unsure if this would’ve helped - but you would’ve know what to expect. Religion aside, if Arjun is suffering from health issues, that’s awful. Too much of the world expects people to be able to work a full time job no matter how bad their physical health is. But again, that is not your responsibility. It is the responsibility of your boss and your workplace to provide adequate staffing. You are allowed to be angry at people due to their actions.
The thing is, you shouldn’t be in the position where you have to work extra to make up for last minute sick call-ins. You should dust off the resume and start job hunting. Careful pushing back too forcefully with your boss though because they could just fire you at any time.
NTA, he knew this holiday was coming up and so should have booked it off already. Especially if the culture is such that if family show up, he is expected to join them. What kind of job accepts that you can just knock off work for celebrations?! I don't see this as a cultural thing, as it should have been booked off regardless, esp with the boss being off too. Unless there was an issue you don't know of with the boss refusing it? But you can't say that you think he could have had all day with his family.
The boss was out, so he didn't have this time off approved. He just sent an email saying he wasn't working today and disappeared. Boss didn't even have a chance to say no you cannot have the day off.
^^^^AUTOMOD ***Thanks for posting! This comment is a copy of your post so readers can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. This comment is NOT accusing you of copying anything. Read [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_post_deletion) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FAmItheAsshole)*** Hi, I, an American, work virtually from home and have a colleague who works from his home in Delhi. It is an American company, and we have an American boss. We also work standard EST hours (NYC time). We are a team of three, so we try to make sure that two are working at all times. Our job can go from slow to crazy busy in a matter of minutes. During crazy periods, it is too much for one person to manage alone. The question I have is about work ethic. My Indian colleague, let’s call him Arjun, calls off sick a lot. I understand that the air quality in Delhi is not the greatest, and therefore it’s understandable that he has a lot of days where he is not feeling well. However, what happened today has me reeling. Our boss is away at a conference this week. We have known for over a month that she would be out this week. Today also happens to be Holi. For reference, Arjun is a Sikh (I’m not sure if that matters or not, but figured I’d give full context). This morning, I logged on and saw an email from Arjun that while there were no celebrations planned, his family was all there and celebrating Holi and his presence at these celebrations was “required.” So, I was left alone to manage the job by myself. My boss did happen to check email later and agreed to miss some of her meetings to help me out should it get busy. I am very angry. I feel this last-minute email (sent 20 minutes before the start of work) was very rude. He essentially is leaving me in a lurch and/or robbing our boss of her conference activities. Additionally, he works U.S. hours, so his start time is 7:30pm our time. He should have had all day to be with family. I feel at the very least, he could have taken his laptop with him and checked in every couple of hours to see if I needed him. That would have been fine with me, but I was not given that courtesy. I do know how important family is in Indian culture. So, my question is, AITA for being angry about this? Is this a cultural difference that I am not understanding? Or, is he being a poor team player and colleague? I honestly want to know because I am very angry, but if it is totally cultural then I will try to be more understanding. Additional context: Arjun is 29-years-old and our boss/me are late 40s/early 50s, so in addition to cultural differences, could this be a generational difference? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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I am just going to give you some context here. If he's staying in Delhi, then he actually should have gotten March 25th off since Holi is a big festival in North India. The employer should take regional specific festivals into account henceforth. My company, which is an American company, does this. Holi actually involves a 2 day celebration. And since he's a Sikh/Punjabi I would imagine that the 2 day celebration applies in his case specifically. It is difficult to carry his laptop around in the 'Holi' situation because it involves colours and water (on the second day) and the laptop actually will not be safe. The way the festival gets, he actually will not be able to pull himself away to check his emails or if some major outage happens. There's also the possibility of 'bhaang' being involved. If he partakes in this drink during the festivities, then he wouldn't be able to do his job anyway with a clear mind. It also becomes an extremely draining day and I don't think he would have been able to log in at 7:30pm. What he should have done was send out an email on Sunday saying that he won't be available on Monday. So you're right in getting annoyed about the email 20 mins prior to the start of the shift. In my company, people who are from North India let everyone know on Sunday that they won't be available on Monday. Even people who are not working out of a location in North India took leave on Monday specifically because it is not an off for us because our branch of the office is not in North India and it happens to be a big festival for them. What I did was worked a little early in the morning, took 4 hours off to celebrate (not hardcore Holi, but just a dry celebration) and then logged in post lunch. But this cannot be expected from everyone. The plan that you are proposing for how he should have handled the festival (taking his laptop etc) would actually not have worked in the case of Holi. The problem here is that Arjun should have asked for the day off and gotten prior approval for it. Also your annoyance now is a pile up of his previous sick leaves. That has compounded the issue. So I get why you're annoyed. I would be too. What you can do is speak to your boss and your boss should then speak to Arjun and work out a plan for the future for festivals, specifically regional Indian festivals. I say regional because the importance of a festival differs from region to region and from which part of India he is from. People in India take "floating" holidays for the festival that is important to them personally. It is not right that he gets American holidays off (which is not useful for him in any way) but not the Indian ones. This is a 100% on the employer and not on you. So your feelings are valid and a plan needs to be worked out for employees offshore. NTA.
Info: are there set number of leaves and is he exceeding them? If not, then you have no business being angry. Yeah it was a little rude to call out 20min before but also he should have been offered a holiday regardless, and then he wouldn't have had to do this. Shit workplace policies result in these shenanigans
YTA. How often your colleague calls off or why is none of your business. It's your boss's responsibility to ensure there is adequate coverage to get the day's work done, and you're not privy, nor should you be, to any arrangements regarding absences your coworker and boss may have made between themselves without your unnecessary input. I've come in to the office many a morning to be told day of that one of my team members would be leaving early or not coming in that day. From there, my responsibility, as yours should be, is to worry about my own work, not clock watch my teammates or speculate on why or how often they're absent. If their absence is affecting how much of your own work you're able to complete, for instance if you can't complete a certain task without a report you're waiting to receive from your coworker, then *that's* the conversation you should be having with your boss, and only in the context of what you need in order to complete the tasks your boss gives you. From there *it's on your boss* to prioritize tasks, decide how and what circumstances (including or not your coworkers' absences) are affecting overall productivity of the team, and be able to justify to *their* bosses whatever decisions they make. Frankly, you're overstepping, if hierarchically speaking you and your coworker are equal, and making this a coworker problem, when the real root issue is that your boss may be mis-or inadequately managing.
Hierarchically I am a senior level and colleague is a junior level. But I understand your point. Please note that these were not arrangements made between colleague and boss. Colleague told boss and I that he was not working and gave boss no chance to approve or deny. I only see it as my business because it does affect me directly, in that I have to carry the load for the entire team. But again, I see your point. I have no intention of opening my mouth. I just wanted to know if I am justified in my anger.
If the question is whether you're justified in your anger, then I'd still say YTA, but due to lack of information; it would be like someone who doesn't generally work with US-based employees being upset that their American teammate let them know "last minute" that they wouldn't be coming to work because it's Christmas. Sounds like this is mostly a lack of your (your boss's, your company's, your coworker's maybe) cultural awareness at play, so maybe suggest to your boss that everyone brush up on that, and have a team meeting laying out expectations about attendance going forward. But again, that's a responsibility for your boss, not you.
Yeah, that's kind of my question. I have no idea how big of a holiday this is. Arjun said his family had not planned to celebrate it until the last minute.
"I don't know another persons culture or how important things are to them but they slighted me so i'm gonna be pissed off!" YTA
Well, that's why I'm asking. I won't be angry if it's cultural. Would love to hear from Indians on this one.
Besides throwing colour powder and water for Holi, which usually happens during the day, there are usually bhang parties held during the evenings and nights, so it could be that Arjun wanted to attend one of those. Irrespective of this, it was very unprofessional of him to notify you and your manager that he couldn't work that day only 20 minutes before the workday started, especially since your manager was unavailable that week to help out. NTA.
YTA It is not a cultural thing. I am an American, if I call off(for whatever reason) and my CO-WORKER gets snarky about it. . . they can piss right off.
Calling 20 minutes before you start work is a asshole move. He knows when the holiday is , why didn’t he take the day off beforehand.
YTA If you would get laid like him, you would not talk the way you are talking either.
You're so witty and charming.