Some managers think the system is always right, even when it clearly isn’t.

What would you do if your boss insisted a glitchy time clock was infallible and used it to dock your pay?

Would you take the hit and move on?

Or would you find a way to make that same system work in your favor?

In the following article, one baker faces this same dilemma and turns the tables around.

Here’s what happened.

Boss says the time reported by the punch system is law, watch me use the law to my advantage

8 or 9 years ago, I was a baker at a popular fast food chain in my country.

I have always been a model employee, so one day I was surprised when the manager asked me into her office.

She reprimanded me because I had taken a 45-minute (instead of 30) break one day the previous week.

I remembered that day, and indeed I had taken more than 30 minutes, 31 minutes to be exact, and that was because on my way back, someone had a concern that I took the time to resolve.

He tried to explain it to her, but she wasn’t listening.

I explained that to her, but she was adamant that the system rounded to the nearest 15 minutes and that if it said 45 minutes, then there was no way I could have only been 1 minute late.

She made it clear that it was my fault and that the punch system is law since it can’t lie.

On my next shift, I looked into it.

On the punch system, there is a way to see when you punched.

I realized that the system was not rounding the amount of time you worked/were on break, but rather the time at which you punched.

That day, I punched out at 10h22, rounding to 10h15, and got back 31 minutes later at 10h53, rounding to 11h, hence the 45 minutes break.

Here’s where he used this info to his advantage.

Now, in my position, I had the luxury of choosing when to go on break as long as I didn’t run out of anything during that time.

From that day till the day I switched jobs a few months later, I made sure to go on break just after the cut-off, and back just before the next one.

For instance, I punch out at 10h08, rounding to 10h15, and back in at 10h52, rounding to 10h45.

Thus, I ended up with 44 minutes of break, which, according to the system, was only 30 minutes long.

One time, a supervisor told me that it seemed like I was gone for a bit longer than usual.

I replied that she saw me punching in and out and that she could go confirm in the system if she wanted to.

I never heard about it again after that.

Ugh! There’s nothing worse than someone who won’t listen!

Let’s see how the people over at Reddit relate to this story.

It’s good to know that some companies do care.

This person thinks these systems should be illegal.

As this comment points out, we’re way too advanced to have systems like that still.

Here’s someone who dealt with this system before.

That was well-played!

The manager should’ve had the system fixed when he brought it up to her.

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.