Not all jobs reward effort — some only reward obedience.

When one star employee refused to continue clocking in overtime hours without pay, they finally stood up to their boss and threw in the towel for good.

Read on for the full story.

5 mins late is inexcusable?

This was from my first job in a family-run SME where the husband was the director and the wife was the GM.

It was a very toxic workplace, and I am very thankful I left the job 5 years ago now.

I dreaded every single day at that company.

Still, the employee worked hard to prove themselves at the job.

As it was my first job, naturally I tried to work harder and worked late into the night (without any OT compensation) very often.

One time we were working on a project, and I was trying to prepare everything ahead of time.

My official working hours were 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., but I usually found myself getting dinner and going home around 11+ p.m.

But when they made a minor slip up, the boss flipped out.

Those few days, I started to report for work a little late, about 5 to 10 minutes past 9, and my boss (the director) called me into the room and gave me flak for it.

Cue the malicious compliance.

Suddenly the boss cares about honoring a schedule? Interesting.

If the working hours meant so much to him, I should adhere to it STRICTLY.

From that day onwards, I stopped staying late past office hours and worked strictly from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The boss calls them out on it again, but that’s when the employee’s hard work paid off.

He clearly noticed it because he called me into his room for a chat a week later and told me he noticed I’ve been going home “early” recently.

I told him I’ve just been on time.

He couldn’t do anything to me because I’d been delivering results.

But it wasn’t enough to get the employee to stay.

The day I threw in my resignation letter, he called me into the office for an awkward conversation.

Boss: Have a seat. Fiddles with resignation letter on his desk

Me: Sits down with a very happy expression

An awkward standoff ensues.

10 minutes of awkward silence.

Boss: So there’s nothing I can do to make you stay?

Me: Nope.

10 minutes of awkward silence.

Looks like the boss is starting to regret their rigidity.

Boss: Just know that if you want to come back to this company anytime, we will have the door open for you.

Me: Okay.

10 minutes of awkward silence.

Boss: That is all.

Let’s hope the boss learned a valuable lesson not to micromanage your most valuable employee!

What did Reddit make of all this?

The world needs more bosses who look out for their employees.

This user describes the unfair balance that takes place at many workplaces.

No employee should feel like the fate of the company rests on their shoulders, especially an employee who’s already overworked.

Some people really shouldn’t be in charge of running a company.

In the end, this boss couldn’t see his employee’s value until they walked out the door.

All that micromanaging and they still didn’t see the resignation coming.

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.