There’s nothing quite so satisfying as following your boss’s orders to the letter, knowing that you’re going to benefit in a big way they’re never going to see coming.

That is, as long as you save your receipts.

OP works for an oil change company, and was recently converted from a salaried employee to an hourly one. He warned his bosses that his paychecks would likely increase, because he works more than 40 hours a week.

Little bit of backstory, I worked at the time in an oil change place. They had recently moved managers from salaried to hourly (because some managers in different cities were just lying and not going to work while getting the same cheque every payday).

I warned them that if anything, my pay was gonna go way up because I’m here a lot more than 40 hours a week.

They were good with that, they said.

One night after this happened, one of his employees was in the shop after hours and damaged one of the garage doors.

Well one night I get a call at 7 pm (2 hrs after close) from one of my guys who was in the shop after hours without permission, and crashed into a bay door (like a garage door, all auto shops have at least a few).

He got fired, that’s not the MC at all, just setup.

OP went in to inspect the damage, which was not catastrophic. He called the repair company but was told they wouldn’t be able to get to it until the following morning.

So I came in and investigated. The most relevant fact here was that he bent the door so there was a maybe 4 inch by 4 inch gap. A housecat could have squeezed through.

I called our door repair guys immediately, they said their folks were on an emergency after hours call already, to somewhere 5 hours away, they could be there in the morning.

I said ok, since this wasn’t a danger. The door was in a place not visible from the street, you’d have to be behind our building looking for this kind of this to find it. Alarn still sets, motion detectors still work.

Anyone that broke in through this metal door with a 4″ gap would have needed tools, and was gonna get in even without the gap. We don’t even keep more than a hundred bucks cash around, and anything expensive to steal was equipment bolted to the floor.

Deal with it tomorrow, right?

He called his boss to let him know everything was secure for the night and he was going to head home.

Obviously, no.

Called my boss to fill him in and he said to call the door guys. I told him I did already and tried to explain their situation.

The boss, angry at being disturbed, didn’t listen. Instead he just yelled at OP to handle it and not leave until it was done.

He interrupted and told me in super rude and loud words (this guy DID NOT like being called after work or having to do any work ever) just to call them and not bother him again about it.

Then texted me to rudely say that I better stay there until they arrive and finish the repair.

So, OP clocked in, got comfortable, and spent the night sleeping and surfing the internet.

So, since I was single, had no plans, and was now paid hourly,(I clocked in the instant I arrived initially), I decided this sounded like easy money.

Pulled up two comfy office chairs to make a bed/couch, watched youtube and did assorted internet scrolling, slept at normal times pretty comfortably all the way to 8 AM.

He worked his shift the next day, too, and when his boss realized what he’d done when checks went out, went ballistic on OP.

They showed up around 9 and fixed the problem pretty quickly. I was already on my regularly scheduled 8-5 shift that day, which I finished. So now let’s do the math.

That overnight waiting?

7pm-8am, 13 hours. All OT at time and a half.

Then my normal shift. 9 hours, all at time and a half.

So 22 hours * 1.5= 33 hours of pay for doing my normal shift + internet scrolling and napping that was barely even an inconvenience.

My boss sees it come payday and tries to give me a yelling over email for trying to rip off the company, cc-ing all the big bosses, HR, Payroll, etc.

OP, though, had the texts to prove he was just following orders.

I reply to all, explain the situation, include the text screenshot.

Suddenly I’m not the one getting yelled at anymore and I got every bit of that OT pay.

Oops.

The top comment says this is why you always get it in writing.

His boss really wanted it to be a misunderstanding.

You can afford DoorDash with that kind of cash.

Some managers are really bad at money, apparently.

Salaried isn’t always the best way to go.

I’m glad this kid didn’t argue.

No doubt he deserved a little extra.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.