Getting called on your day off is annoying, but getting paid extra for it? That’s a totally different story.

So, what would you do if your boss kept texting and calling on your scheduled day off? Would you pick up out of obligation? Or would you make sure every second of your time was properly compensated?

In the following story, one unionized worker finds himself in this exact situation and turns an inconvenient phone call into a big win. Let’s see how it all played out.

Calling me on a day off? *cha-ching*

As a unionized employee, I get every third Friday off. On my day off, I am playing some video games when I get a text from the boss. “I know it’s your day off but…” Whatever, that’s easy to ignore. But then I get a second text. And after I ignore that, I get a call.

Boss: “I know it’s your day off but our phones are down!”

Me: “No worries, I’ll handle it!”

The call only took a few minutes.

We hang up and I call our phone provider. I’m the IT and the contact there, and this isn’t my first call ever to them so I literally have their service department saved in my phone.

I call, I register the problem, and they say they’ll look in to it. I provide them my boss’ name and extension, and to call him when it’s fixed. I then call my boss back and let him know that they’ll call him ASAP.

But now for the malicious compliance bit: our contract stipulates a minimum call in of 4 hours, meaning that you cannot pay me less than 4 hours for a day (unless it is by my own choosing). If you call me in for an hour and send me home, I get 4 hours of pay.

Thanks to his union contract he made out well on this deal.

But wait, there’s more!

We also have an overtime clause that pays OT at 150%.

Lastly, we have a clause that says all OT must be approved by the boss, or else it is 1:1 TOIL (Time off in lieu, which you can take at a 1:1 ration. I.E.: If I decide that the weekend is a good time for server updates, I don’t need to ask for approval, but my 2 hours of work only translate to 2 hours of paid time off elsewhere.)

The best part is that they never called him on a day off again.

Combine all this in one delightful batch and you get: a 10 minute call that results in 6 hours of banked time off.

I went right back to my videogames, filled out my time sheet the week after, and said “I know it’s your day off, but” is implied consent for overtime. Minimum callout of 4 hours at 150% is 6 hours. Almost an entire day off with pay in exchange for a 10 minute call? Thank You Very Much!

Bonus: Guess who has two thumbs and has never been called on his day off since then? This unionized guy!

Wow! That worked out well for him!

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit relate to his story.

Here’s a person with a similar story.

As this person points out, the manager probably knew the cost before calling.

Yet another person explaining that the manager likely knew how much the call would cost.

This is funny!

Now that’s a great day off! Nothing beats getting paid while enjoying some well-earned time to yourself.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.