For a manager, I understand that team bonding and having everyone working together + having good relationships is a dream goal. What better way to succeed in your position than having employees that like each other? It's okay sometimes to create activities that are going to force them to talk and get to know each other… but that doesn't mean you need to take away one of their weekend days to do this.
In this case, an employee found herself in a very complicated spot. Since she's tight on money, she has two jobs. During the week, she works full-time in customer support, and during the weekends she helps at a local café. Both managers are aware of the other roles, so they do their best not to schedule her if she has the other commitment going on.
Well, it seems that the manager from the corporate job decided that, to improve "team cohesion", she organized a 'mandatory fun day' on a Saturday, and every employee is forced to attend. As you can tell, our employee cannot make it, but she tried to reschedule her shift at the café, because it was going to be easier to work double another day than to skip the work event. Her boss told her that it was impossible… so now she doesn't know what to do.
Her corporate manager was not helpful either: she said this is a mandatory one-time thing, and if she doesn't show up, her absence will be written down in her file and that it absolutely shows a lack of commitment. And we all know that this can have major consequences in the future…
Her frustration is clearly noticeable, since companies sometimes force fun as a benefit, when in reality they're making life more complicated for some of their employees. For this one, is having her look bad in both jobs, but what about the people who have kids and need to sacrifice a whole day to do extra work stuff?