Companies do a lot of weird things to try to boost productivity, but many also don’t reward workers who have made changes that reduce labor and time.

See why this worker decided to stop boosting productivity for free.

I can’t leave 30 minutes early? Okay then, no more free labor

Fresh out of college, I got my dream job as a media buyer at an ad agency.

I was salaried and this was before laws that force employers to pay for overtime for salaried employees.

I was stoked, coming in early, leaving late. 45+ hours worked before Friday.

I ate lunch at my desk in 15 minutes instead of a full lunch break.

But this didn’t work in her favor.

Within a few months, I caught up on the previous person’s backlog.

And because I instituted some more efficient systems, the job that wasn’t being completed in 60 hours by the previous employee was getting done in 45 or 50.

After a month of straightening and cleaning, rearranging files on Friday afternoons, I literally had nothing to do. I asked for more work. Nothing to do.

So one week, my son had a school event and I asked if I could leave one hour early on Friday.

I was told by the office manager that, “You are paid to work at least 8 hours a day, even if you have 40 hours by noon Friday, you still need to work your full 8 hours on Friday. You can come in early on Friday so you can leave early, but you need 8 hours.”

I explained that I’d been working 10 hours a day every day and I didn’t think it was unreasonable to ask for 1 hour on a Friday, especially when my work was done by noon anyway. She didn’t care.

She changed her efforts accordingly.

So I came in early on Friday, and left early.

That was the last time I came in early. And after that, I never I stayed late.

I literally watched my clock and dropped everything when I reached 8 hours.

I took my full lunch break.

Within a few weeks, everything was late.

My boss called me in and I explained the situation and that it could be worse without all the efficiencies I instituted.

He agreed that the job was a 60-hour job that I could finish in 45, so I got a small raise, and the overtime solution ended up being that if I had to work extra hours, I would be compensated 2x my effective hourly wage.

If my job was done, I could leave early.

This also started the downfall of the manager.

A couple months later, the other 4 employees got fed up with her enough to call a group meeting with boss, resulting in the manager getting fired.

Here is what people are saying.

Always.

It’s funny that they don’t anticipate this.

I’m glad someone said this. You can’t be focused on time and also focused on value.

Wise words.

So many incompetent managers!

When will they learn?!

Apparently never.

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.