Going the extra mile is oftentimes valued in the workplace.

But when this worker goes above and beyond, they’re reprimanded for working overtime.

This Reddit post below shows exactly what happens when companies get too focused on cost-effective measures.

Let’s see what happens.

You want me to “stay in my lane?” You got it, boss!

Some time ago, I used to work in a medical specialty office (it was ID, or Infectious Disease) as a medical assistant.

Sidebar: I used to work in the food industry and was always told that I wouldn’t ever contribute to society or do anything meaningful with my life.

That must be a terrible feeling.

While I absolutely loved working as a chef and baker at the time, I wanted to do more with my life and prove to myself that I’m not as useless as people made me out to be.

Not that I believe that for one second, but in my culture if you aren’t a businessman or a doctor, you’re “lower” than everyone else.

It’s pretty terrible, but that’s how the culture is. I now live in the U.S., and it’s been pretty good. Back to the story.

That’s good. Things seem to have taken a positive turn.

I had graduated top 3 in my class and was certified through the AAMA and scored in the 90th percentile, so I knew my stuff.

But I’ve never worked a white collar job in my life, so I was afraid that I would seem out of place.

I did my externship at this ID Clinic in my town, and they loved my interpersonal skills. They loved my work and stated that I would be offered a job at the end of my externship.

I was elated! I was so happy to have a job secured and have a foot in the door to the medical field.

Wow! That’s a major accomplishment.

It turns out my blue collar experience helped me relate with a lot of our patients and they appreciated my work more for it.

As my time went on, my experience working in the medical field became less about the money, and more about the people I can help with my direct patient care.

They weren’t just charts, MRNs (Medical Record Number for those non-medical folk), and diagnoses.

They were “Jeff” who ran the local farmer’s market, or “Meg” who worked with kids at the Y.

This person seems like they actually love their job.

I cared for my patients and our repeats would always look forward to coming back to see me and chat.

I loved working with my patients.

So at the end of my externship, I was extended an offer of employment for a decent amount of money (it was more than my other classmates were offered at their practices, but still not a whole lot) and I took it.

A promotion?! This is big news!

I was to be the Medical Assistant in charge of direct patient care.

This meant checking-in, rooming, dealing with prescriptions, performing and searching for labs, packing wounds, and doing dressing changes.

Being officially a part of the office now, I was determined to work my ass off and show myself and my colleagues that I could do it.

I continued to do my work and care for patients. However, over time I would notice certain things that weren’t in my job duties that I could do that would help care for the patients.

Wow, this person really goes above and beyond for their patients.

Certain things like calling their doctors for updated orders or checking for records from local hospitals.

Also, helping patients find good Home Health or SNFs (Skilled Nursing Facilities, generally the Medical Scheduler’s job.)

This also included looking into insurance coverage (Billing) and checking referral statuses (Referral Coordinators), among other things.

Doing these tasks meant a bit more work on my end, but also meant the best care that I could offer for my patients.

You don’t meet people like this every day. True dedication.

This went on for a year, and my patients were happy and willing to come to appointments.

Apparently, not a whole lot of people like to come to a building that has the words “INFECTIOUS DISEASES” in big print on it’s side.

Then one day, out of the blue, I’m called into my supervisor.

Young, naive me though “oh great, they see how hard I’m working and I’m finally getting recognized! Maybe they’ll promote me to lead!”

Nope.

Uh, oh. But it seems like everything is going so well!

My boss, “Shelly” told me that I’m working too hard and sticking my fingers into too many pots.

I asked where this was coming from, she stated that I was staying more than 5 minutes late too many times and it’s because I’m doing too much work.

She said “we can’t keep paying you all this overtime.”

I think I was maybe making 30 minutes OT at MOST.

She said that’s still too much, I’m doing too much work.

Surprise, surprise. This is about money.

I was baffled. Absolutely stunned.

I thought I was doing the practice a service, but she undermined the entirety of the last year’s hard work I put in.

I was frustrated and a bit upset, but tried my best to remain professional.

So I asked her what she would like me to do, and the next words out of her mouth were ones she would come to regret.

“Well, I see you’re doing a lot of tasks that are meant for other positions. Maybe you should stop doing those and just “stay in your lane.”

She then proceeded to write me up for trying to abuse the time clock.

Wait, so this person got in trouble for being good at their job and more?

*Insert Jim Carrey “Alrighty Then!” and Cue Malicious Compliance*

I asked her to send me a list of exactly what my job duties are, which she was happy to do.

It listed most of what I was originally meant to do, except it didn’t include “dressing changes” and “packing wounds.” I saw this and immediately knew this would be trouble — for my boss.

You see, she was the only other Medical Assistant on our end of the office that was certified to deal with minor wound care and dressings.

At that point, since I was the main contact for patients, that would fall on to her plate.

So I told each of my patients that I won’t be doing any of that extra work because it goes against the practice’s wishes, and I was told not to.

All of them understood, but it’s tough to get patients to keep appointments when things are delayed.

I bet the patients were not happy with this update.

Not long after the order was issued, I got my first page for a wound pack.

Excellent.

One thing to note about my boss is that she absolutely abhors feet.

And one thing to note about Infectious Disease clinics is that we dealt with A LOT of Diabetic Foot Infections. At least 2 or 3 a day.

Wow, the things you learn on Reddit, right?

Doc wants to see how it’s healing, so he removes the wrap and unpacks the foot. Spent a little extra time with the patient and now has to get to his next appointment.

I’m paged by the doc to pack the foot, wet to dry. “No problem doc, let me get Shelly for you.”

He gives me kind of an odd look, but continues to his next appointment.

Shelly gloves up and as soon as she passes the threshold of the room and notices it’s a Diabetic Food, is holding back her gags and immediately sweating.

I pass by the room and she asks for my help.

As calmly as I could, I turned and said “sorry boss, packing wounds isn’t on my list. Can’t do it, just staying in my lane. By the way, the 2 o’clock in 3 is a through-and-through foot infection, probably should get that packed soon too.”

I’m glad we were wearing masks because she couldn’t see the massive ****-eating grin I had on my face throughout that whole encounter.

This person definitely got some sweet revenge.

She tried to write me up about disobeying superiors, but I had spoken with my GM and she was behind me.

Instead, she ended up getting written up for trying to put wound packs back on my list after she told me I did too much work!

She ended up having to do part of the Medical Scheduler’s job, part of the Referral Coordinator’s job, and part of the Billing office’s job, as she had let go one of our front desk staff because there was “not enough work to go around.”

There was plenty of work, I was doing it.

Sounds like she finally saw how much this person brought to the table.

She didn’t last long after that, the burnout got to her and she stepped down from her supervisor position 4 months after that.

They ended up hiring another super, and I left the practice shortly after I got the Vid.

They told me to come back in to work after 3 days and still very symptomatic, so I told them I wouldn’t endanger my patients like that and to shove it.

Last I heard, they have an entirely new front office staff and they’re perpetually shorthanded.

Yep, sounds about right, considering the past.

Should have let me drive my own path instead of staying in your silly lanes!

Not all employees go the extra mile like this.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about their dedication.

One Reddit poster vouched for their support for the hard worker.

Another user commented how sometimes the money isn’t worth it.

And then there were those who noted working hard might not be best.

Hard work is often praised, so this employee was definitely in a complicated situation.

Ultimately, the business suffered because of its leader’s money-saving tactics.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.