Banned from the office for travelling to the States

My manager has given me a work-from-home sentence for travelling to the States. The way in which he did it wasn't nice.

To put things into content, I returned home from the States last Tuesday. I then got food poisoning. I worked from home last Wednesday, and took last Thursday and Friday off as sick days.

My first day back in the office was on Monday. I was tired from all the throwing up and not eating much, but I was fine otherwise.

Yesterday, I worked from home. I received an e-mail from my manager with two questions:

• Did I travel abroad while I was on vacation?
• Where did I go?

Without any context, getting personal questions about where I went on vacation was odd and really none of his business. Without having a chance to respond to this e-mail, he pinged me on our company instant messaging app to reply to his e-mail. I didn't like that approach, either.

I asked him whether his line of questioning was due to COVID-19. He said yes and that it was travel policy. Interesting. Our travel policy has not listed the States as being a place where you need to self-isolate immediately when you arrive back in Canada.

So, I let him know that I was in the States. He wrote back saying that I was to remain at home for fourteen days from the day that I returned. He actually wrote, "DO NOT come to the office."

What annoyed me more was his tons of questions about who I came in contact with and for how long. I wrote back and asked whether this was truly policy. I then had lunch at 2 pm.

He wrote back and said that it wasn't a formal policy. It made me think that he was being cautious and paranoid simultaneously. He saw my car parked in the lot at work and put this association together.

He then pinged me on my instant messaging app and said that I needed to respond to his e-mail immediately. I'm sorry, but I had a ton of work that needed attention. He claimed that his request was top priority and a response would take "a minute" after I said that I needed some time. I finally put my foot down and said, "Not, it does not. Again, I need some time."

He is a jerk who has no compassion. I wrote back an hour later, indicating that having some context would have been nice.

I talk to a lot of people at work. It comes with the job. He decided well before my response to send my intern home. My intern and I had lunch together on Monday. I frankly think that my manager took things too far. I don't have any symptoms of COVID-19 and he made me feel like crap.

I let my intern and a friend at work know about this situation just after it happened. I'm glad that I did. My intern figured it out and let me know that he was sent home. My friend has been there for support since this situation occurred, which I appreciate.

I don't mind working from home. I get to save time and gas. I just don't like how this decision was delivered to me and his approach.

Patching up things and booking a hotel for next month

In general, my guy and I don't have too many disagreements, but we did last week. It has been a series of things that has built up, which caused us to both unload our feelings and talk things through.

The talk was good and much needed. We both felt relieved and less stressed.

My guy can get pretty paranoid, which puts a damper on things. Although we are pretty good at not putting our hands on each other in the office, he ends up putting unnecessary restrictions on various details.

Next month, my guy and I will be in Turkey. He will be there for two weeks for work. I will come join him a week later. I will be on vacation for a week. He always likes when I keep him company. It gives us more time together after work to dine, talk, shop, and be tourists together.

My guy tends to stay at the closest hotel to the office. It makes logical, perfect sense. However, he wanted me to initially stay at a different hotel, in case colleagues recognize both of us at the hotel and spread some sort of vicious rumours about us.

So, I had it. I told him that a lot of people know that we're an item, but the likelihood that colleagues in Turkey would know who I am is slim. It also isn't cost-effective for us to be staying at two different hotels, commuting between the two to meet up. And, how about quality time? It may seem exciting to have two places to cuddle and be intimate, but the setup is an unnecessary inconvenience.

I told him flat out that we need to stay in the same hotel. We compromised. He agreed that the hotel closest to the office didn't have much around there.

Today, he wrote me an e-mail and said that he booked us at a hotel close to the downtown area where there is tons of shopping. I looked at this hotel and its location. He did a mighty good job. The view is spectacular. The hotel looks posh. I am not used to staying at such a place.

He is making up for his errors in judgment. I accept. Next month can't come any sooner!