What would you do if a coworker who worked the shift after you kept coming into work late?

You’d probably be upset about it especially if it meant you weren’t getting paid for working those extra minutes while you waited for your coworker to show up.

In today’s story, one college student finds himself in this situation, but he decides to use it to his advantage.

His late coworker is not happy about how he wants to make things right.

Let’s see what he does.

Let Me Know What I Owe You? I definitely will.

So this happened a while ago, back in college.

I was working at a gas station for cash-under-the-table, as well as doing some side gigs, paying my own way through school.

I worked with an irresponsible fellow we’ll call Dave.

Dave was also going to school, but on his parents’ dime, so wasn’t a busy, harried, or desperate as yours truly, just working for rent and beer money.

Working for free is not cool.

Dave worked the graveyard shift, 12am-8am, I worked the shift before, 4pm-12am.

We didn’t have a time clock or anything, and we just got paid for the shifts we were scheduled for.

Well….Dave started coming in late.

Just 5 or 10 minutes most nights, but it really annoyed me, because I WASN”T GETTING PAID for that time.

He was.

Dave had no idea what he was really saying.

Finally, one night when I called his house at 12:10 and his roommate said he was STILL playing video games (he lived about 15 minutes away) I had it.

I laid into him when he finally walked in the door – a full half-hour into his shift.

He put on the whole “reasonable guy being confronted by frothy-mouthed unhinged co-worker” routine, eyes wide hands up, etc, and told me to let him know on payday “what he owed” me.

I had considered going to the owner of the gas station, but then I had a better idea.

Dave thought he got away with it.

I started keeping track of every minute he was late.

Five minutes here, ten minutes there, sometimes 15 or 20.

Weeks went by, and I’m sure he thought he was off the hook.

I was being really nice, telling him to take his time getting in. No rush.

Dave was not expecting this!

Then, the week before finals, I walked into the store when he was covering a day shift for someone, pulled the schedule off the wall and handed it to him.

“Which two shifts do you want to take?” I asked.

He looked at me funny, and then realized what I was saying, rolled his eyes and reached for his wallet.

“No, no, no. Leave your wallet where it is. I don’t want your money. I want your TIME.”

Dave was not happy!

I handed him the graph where I had meticulously recorded every minute he had been late.

“You owe me 16 hours. Two shifts. Pick them.”

“DUDE, it’s the week before FINALS!”, he whined.

Dave gave in.

I told him I didn’t get to pick which nights he came in late, so he didn’t get to pick the week he paid me back. Unless he wanted me to hand the graph to our boss?

He didn’t.

I had plenty of time to study that week. Aced the finals.

Well played! Well played!

Sometimes time is really more valuable than money.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person racked up a lot of overtime!

I bet the coworker regretted not responding to this letter.

Yes, this was very satisfying!

This person thinks it’s partly the cheap owner’s fault.

Sometimes time is more valuable than money.

Most of the time, actually.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.