Being overworked is upsetting, but it can work to your advantage if you’re asked to work inefficiently.

I’ve been there. It gave me the opportunity to show what can be done differently to save the company money.

That’s what happened in this story. Read it to see how this employee took an opportunity to out his manager’s illegal and expensive practices and get him into a better work situation.

“Boss” makes me rush my work, so I have other plans…

I used to work for a holiday company a few years ago, alright company but the management team I was working for left something to be desired. I worked in entertainment, but in a technical role. Essentially I was in charge of lighting and sound for a midsize (up to 2000 people) venue. Most of the year it was a 1 person job, with a few bits of help from the other entertainment staff, but there was one point in the year that was really challenging.

Sounds stressful!

The company I worked with produced 3 “finale” event weekends, where competitions that were run over the course of the year on the multiple sites would have their grand finals, a big celebration etc.

I’m not surprised. Misogyny is alive and well.

My job was the closest thing to manly in the department (think rigging , lifting things, technically heavy etc) so I was a target of my manager quite a few times.

Sounds like he wants to break OP.

Anyway just before this all kicks off he tells me that he’s not giving me anyone to help me this year set up. Not much I can do about this, so I realise I’ve basically got the work of 3 people to do within a week, with no room for error. So I spend about 20 minutes in our shared office working out a schedule for myself, so that I had enough time to do everything.

Of course he does. I’d be furious.

The one day I was taking my break at the same time was Wednesday. So Wednesday comes and I’m well ahead of schedule. My AM walks up to me and lets me know that he thinks I’m behind.

I like how smoothly she handles this.

When I brought up the whole “not having a break in 6 hours” thing he claimed that he would give me a break when the dancers returned in an hour or so, but until they started rehearsing I was to continue working.

I know exactly what OP means. I think some bosses feed on this.

I was young and slightly intimidated so I felt I didn’t have a choice, so reluctantly I agreed.

This is not okay. What is wrong with this guy?

He insisted that I stay around all day to get ready for the opening evening. I wasn’t allowed to leave site and he expected me to be either working on the events or in the office. When I asked about when I can have lunch (so I can plan my time) he told me he would tell me when, and if all the work was done.

Perfect timing.

The head of entertainment and the head of the business were coming around that afternoon so he wanted to make a good impression. I didn’t comment but made a plan.

I hope the chair was comfortable.

After doing my general safety checks and after making sure everything was working as it should be (a grand total of 30 minutes work) I sat in my office chair, grabbed his newspaper and read it. He doesn’t notice me for about 3 hours as he’s running around trying to do his job and the bits he forgot, that was until he heard the management team were on their way.

Hello, meet the consequences of your actions.

He comes over asking what I’m up to. I tell him that I’m doing as he asked me to stay in the office. He told me to get the venue ready or be in the office… so that’s what I’m doing. Starting to panic he told me to go and do something for the events (to essentially look busy).

Must have been exciting. OP’s moment has arrived!

A few minutes later the head of entertainment walks through the door.

It’s good to see the inner workings of your organization. Wasteful spending comes to light.

Seeing me watching TV he asks me what I’m doing. I fill him in on the situation with me being ahead of schedule earlier in the week, being ordered by AM to work extra time on the weds and working nearly 10 hours straight by order of the AM without an authorized break.

I bet this felt GREAT! It’s awesome that the head cares.

I fill him in the AM’s antics overall and I tell him that this put me well ahead of schedule, and that today the AM called me in earlier than everyone else and told me to be out there getting things ready or to be in the office. I wasn’t allowed to leave the office and had nothing left to do so I was waiting for instruction, essentially being on call for the AM if he found me any extra work to do.

Record keeping is so important for this reason.

I pointed out at that point the hours that I’d worked that week and that as I was effectively on call for the AM I was recording each and every one of the hours I was sitting in the office that morning as work (pushing at least 80 predicted hours for that week and rising if he kept me there till the end of that day without a break).

Good. I hope it was delicious.

Bob was annoyed. Really annoyed. Annoyed that the AM had broken various employment laws, forced me to work extra time and had me effectively now being paid to sit in the office and do nothing because the AM couldn’t manage his team right. He smiled at me and thanked me for my hard work and told me to grab a long lunch while he chatted with the AM.

That’s probably for the best.

The AM huffed and puffed and was clearly in a foul mood, but ignored me for the rest of the weekend (thank God!). Turns out he basically had his *** handed to him about the legality of what he had done, how I could theoretically have grounds to sue the company and how he needed to treat his staff better without costing the company a fortune in hours)

Another win! Now you can have a better life.

I must have done something right as a few months later the AM tried to threaten to leave the company if I wasn’t transferred to another site… he was told to quit… meanwhile I got a few cushy jobs and a nice manager afterwards.

Let’s see what people in the comments had to say.

Same here!

I’m assuming the commenter is a woman. I’m sorry this industry is hard for women.

Definitely. OP can see tell she made an impact, plus gets out of a toxic situation.

Ahem, SHE. And it’s not manly to stand up for yourself. Nothing to do with gender.

It feels great to take opportunities to achieve personal justice and improve your situation!

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.