I once got called while on vacation for a bug in a library I owned. Pressure was coming down all the way from CEO and CIO to meet the "non-negotiable" deadline in 6 weeks. I just laughed at first. We were already 6 months late (my work, minus the bug) had been ready for 12 months at this point.
My boss was insistent that I return to the office immediately to fix the bug in development. Thing is, I'd driven over 2000 miles and was about 30 minutes from leaving the country (US into Canada).
Told my boss if he wanted me back in the office immediately, I'd hop on a flight in Vancouver with just my passport and laptop, the company was going to pay for my flight and I was flying first class. Also, I wanted all of my vacation time back, they'd have to reimburse me for my chartered fishing trip, then fly me back to my parents' so I could retrieve my car (I met up with my Dad and he was driving when I received the call). This all went down on a Thursday afternoon. Gave him an option: do all that I just laid out, or wait until Tuesday when I'm back online, and I'll fix the bug remotely, then return once it's fixed and ive exhausted the remaining scheduled vacation time.
He decided the 10s of thousands to get me back immediately wasn't worth it amd it could wait a few days. Ended up extending my vacation by a week. So, non-negotiable, my ass.
In the end, my big didnt hold up the release, and we slipped another 3 months. I was just a convenient scape goat as a back office developer by the front office devs at a hedge fund.
My boss was insistent that I return to the office immediately to fix the bug in development. Thing is, I'd driven over 2000 miles and was about 30 minutes from leaving the country (US into Canada).
Told my boss if he wanted me back in the office immediately, I'd hop on a flight in Vancouver with just my passport and laptop, the company was going to pay for my flight and I was flying first class. Also, I wanted all of my vacation time back, they'd have to reimburse me for my chartered fishing trip, then fly me back to my parents' so I could retrieve my car (I met up with my Dad and he was driving when I received the call). This all went down on a Thursday afternoon. Gave him an option: do all that I just laid out, or wait until Tuesday when I'm back online, and I'll fix the bug remotely, then return once it's fixed and ive exhausted the remaining scheduled vacation time.
He decided the 10s of thousands to get me back immediately wasn't worth it amd it could wait a few days. Ended up extending my vacation by a week. So, non-negotiable, my ass.
In the end, my big didnt hold up the release, and we slipped another 3 months. I was just a convenient scape goat as a back office developer by the front office devs at a hedge fund.