Any employee knows that you don’t just ignore a direct request from your boss.

But sometimes bosses can be a bit confused about what it is they actually want, especially if they aren’t particularly competent in the first place!

It’s a tale as old as time, a boss thinks they know better, tells you to do something their way, then gets mad at you when their way doesn’t work!

But as frustrating as that can be, this user actually got to leave work hours early on Friday after their boss struck a bizarre deal with them to avoid paying them overtime!

Check it out!

Weird overtime, Boss, but okay

Some years back I worked for a billing company doing an absolute ton of different things. I had a mix of daily tasks, which had to be done first, and other tasks with assorted deadlines.

Because of this, relatively quickly after I was done with training, I was working overtime constantly.

The daily tasks tended to chew up most of the day, and I needed overtime to work on the other tasks.

My boss (Chad fits what he thought of himself) was a big penny pincher, though. So after I’d had consistent overtime for a week I get pulled into the office.

In a complete surprise, OP’s cheap boss didn’t like having to pay extra for his overtime!

Chad: OP, I see you’ve been doing a lot of overtime. From now on I want no more overtime whatsoever.

Me: But Chad, I won’t be able to get all of the work done without overtime.

Chad: We can’t afford to pay overtime right now, so just do your best.

I shrugged and went back to work. Chad had a bad habit of under-valuing the work of others so I figured his tune would change fairly quickly.

A little over one week later and I’m back in the office. At the time I had assumed malicious compliance complete, but things got strange.

But OP’s boss had a very unusual request of him, one that involved him getting to leave early at the end of the week!

Chad: Pant, I’ve been told you don’t have the coding done for the upcoming project.

Me: Well, you told me no overtime and my daily tasks take up too much of my work hours. I don’t have enough time to do those projects.

Chad: Well you need to get these things done. So work whatever hours you need to, but make sure that at the end of the week you’re still only working 40 hours.

Me: (After a brief pause of shock) So … you want me to work however long I need to and then leave early on Fridays.

Chad: (Barely paying attention) Yes, just get the work done.

And OP made sure to take full advantage of their little deal…

A strange policy to be sure, but a welcome one. Chad didn’t realize the box he had opened.

Working overtime Monday-Thursday did allow me to get the other projects on my plate done. But it also meant that every Friday I would leave early, very early.

Some weeks I only worked 1 or 2 hours. This meant that sometimes the daily tasks didn’t get done, and had to be lumped into Monday’s.

It took a few months for Chad to notice.

Suddenly Chad was extremely unhappy with the terms of the deal that HE had laid out!

Chad: Pant, I’ve heard you’ve been leaving early on Fridays. You can’t just leave when you want: it makes the other employees jealous and it’s delaying tasks over the weekend.

Chad: You can’t just make your own hours, who okayed this?

Me: Well … you did Chad. I’m working the schedule you told me to work. I needed the overtime to get all of my tasks done, and this was your solution.

Chad: Well I don’t remember that (a flush of color indicated he did, indeed, remember that). Look, just email me for approval every time you need overtime.

And email Chad OP did, every single time he needed overtime! Much to Chad’s chagrin of course…

Now, at this point, I thought the malicious compliance was over. But, unknown to me, the saga was continuing without me even intending to do so.

Because I listened to my boss. I emailed every time I needed to work overtime. Which was every day.

Like clockwork, I had an alarm, 1 hour before my shift ended I would draft a fresh email with the fresh reason for that particular day and send it.

I, foolishly, thought nothing was wrong. Chad approved every time, request fulfilled. But then a month later, back into the office.

In true Chad fashion, the meeting was to tell OP to ignore a direct order from himself!

Chad: Pant, I’ve decided that I can trust you to handle your own overtime. So you don’t need to email me for approval any more.

Me: Oh, well thanks! I’ll make a note of that.

I was later told by the HR staff in charge of time sheets that Chad only told me that because he was sick of dealing with my emails every day.

And that’s the tale of how I got to, essentially, set my own schedule. As long as it was over 40 hours a week.

I’m very happy to no longer be working for Chad.

Don’t you hate when people do exactly what you ask them to do? Apparently Chad does, and he didn’t seem to learn his lesson the first 3 times he did it!

Reddit was just as shocked it took Chad so long to stop making the same mistake…

This user said that if a company doesn’t want to pay overtime, then they need to get someone to pick up the slack!

Finally, this user actually gave Chad some credit, saying at least he didn’t try to deny his own words!

What’s that about being careful what you wish for?

Something about you might just get it?