When a new boss takes over, a lot of times the boss tries to look for ways to cut costs.

Overtime is often something that comes to mind, but bosses really need to think things through before saying that overtime is not allowed.

In today’s story, an employee isn’t allowed to work overtime, and that creates a big, expensive problem.

Let’s read the whole story.

Pipe Exploded on the Weekend — But Hey, At Least We Saved on Overtime!”

In 2006, I worked as a maintenance technician in a small office building.

My job was to make sure everything works properly air conditioning, plumbing, electricity, all that stuff.

Then we got a new boss from some big corporate office, and he was obsessed with cutting costs.

First week he tells us all, in a very serious voice: “From now on, absolutely no overtime. No matter what. No exceptions.”

We all kind of looked at each other like, “Is he serious?”

This problem sounds urgent, but the boss disagreed.

So, Friday afternoon, around 4:30 PM, I get an alert from the boiler room.

Pressure is in one of the water pipes is very high.

I check it and pipe is vibrating like crazy. I know if we don’t release the pressure or fix it, it’s going to explode.

I go to the boss and tell him, “This pipe is dangerous. I need maybe 1-2 hours overtime to fix it tonight.”

He looks at the clock, and says, “It’s past 5 soon. No overtime. We’ll handle it Monday.”

Okay, boss. No problem.

So I go home.

Not fixing it led to a big problem.

Saturday morning, I get a call from the security guy who works weekends.

He’s freaking out. “Water is pouring out of the boiler room! It’s flooded the hallway! What do I do?!”

I laugh. I say, “Too late. Nothing we can do now, perhaps swim?”

On Monday, the boss walks in and smells wet carpet and disaster.

Half the ground floor is underwater.

Documents ruined. IT equipment drowned.

Rest in peace.

He comes to me angry: “Why didn’t you stop this?!”

He threw the boss’s words back in his face.

I just say, “You told me no overtime. Pipe didn’t want to wait till Monday.”

Cleanup cost thousands.

And guess what?

From that day, boss never said no to overtime again.

In fact, from then on when we reported just an inkling of a suspicion that something might be wrong, he simply said, “Do what you have to do. Just don’t tell me the hours.”

Sometimes, pipe is the best teacher.

I’m glad the boss learned his lesson. It doesn’t always work out that way.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person assumes the boss was fired from his previous job.

This is a very good point.

This person is surprised at how the story worked out.

This person loves one particular sentence.

Sometimes overtime is necessary.

Good managers know the difference.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.