Being familiar with company policy is a must. Otherwise, how will you know your benefits?

Imagine having an unusual work schedule and an unusual payment system to go along with it. If you knew your boss didn’t understand how much overtime pay you would be getting based on your schedule, would you use that to your advantage or insist on explaining the error to your boss?

One Redditor is so familiar with their company policies that they end up earning a big chunk of change because of it.

Read how it all goes down in the article below.

Triple Time?! How dare you LET ME schedule you for Triple time?!

Several years ago, I worked as a security guard for a large U.S. Defense Contractor.

The guards were company employees, not contractors. Guards protected several offices 24-7, so this meant shift work and weekend work. I worked evenings, 4 p.m. – midnight from Sunday through Thursday, with Friday-Saturday off.

I did some digging on company policy regarding non-standard work weeks.

The OP was going to become extremely familiar with the company policy…

The policy was confusing, but for me it worked like this:

Since my normal work week wasn’t the standard Monday through Friday, the company “shifted” my work days to appear like M-F. My Monday was Sunday, My Tuesday was Monday, etc.

This was important on U.S. Holiday weeks. Per policy, on weeks when Monday was a holiday I got paid holiday pay for “My Monday”, i.e.

To put it simply, it was a government benefit that they couldn’t pass up.

I was paid holiday pay on Sunday.

Two additional notes:

1) Overtime was paid at 1.5x normal pay for over 8 hours to 12 hours, and at 2x normal pay for anything over 12 hours. Holiday pay was paid at 1.5x normal pay on top of that.

2) We held our own time cards during the week and turned them in to the personnel office, so supervisors didn’t see them until after they were processed.

But the worker’s supervisor was flummoxed.

My supervisor understood the overtime bit, but couldn’t wrap his head around the “My Monday” part.

He’d had it explained, but it did not sink in.

One holiday week, my supervisor called me on Saturday and asked me to work double shift on Sunday.

And did the OP forget that company policy? Absolutely not.

Come in early, work the 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. shift and stay for my 4-12 shift.

I told him that’s “My Monday” and tried to explain the policy, but he didn’t understand and dismissed what I was saying.

I worked 16 hours on Sunday – “My Monday.”

I turned in my time card for the week, showing Sunday pay at 8 hours of 1.5x pay, 4 hours of 2.25x, 4 hours of 3x pay.

Did that math sit well with the supervisor? Ohhhh…

He freaked out!

He took me to the HR office, where HR gently told him that I was right.

He was quiet until we left, but when we were alone he basically said I had scammed him, and that he’d fire me next time I pulled anything like that.

But the supervisor still didn’t seem to comprehend the equation.

A few months later, the exact same holiday situation came up again. Supervisor called me Saturday and asked me to work a double shift on Sunday.

Supervisor: Can you work the day shift tomorrow? Come in at 8 and work through midnight?

Me: Sure. My Monday, right?

Supervisor: Huh?

Me: Sunday’s My Monday.

Supervisor: (Uncomprehending) Yeah, right, just be there on time.

Me: No problem.

So I worked 16 hours that Sunday. Before turning in my time card for the week I called the same HR rep who had handled our earlier incident. I told her about the Supervisor’s scheduling and said I was concerned.

She thanked me and said she’d be ready.

I turned in my time card for the week – Sunday with 8 hours at 1.5x, 4 hours at 2.25x, 4 hours at 3x pay.

This is where things get really crazy…

Next Monday morning, the Supervisor called me, ranted about me tricking him and fired me over the phone, effective immediately.

I called the HR rep, relayed what had just happened.

She said to stand by, and that she’d make some calls.

About noon, I got a call from the manager above my supervisor. We had a long, calm talk, and he told me to show up for work as scheduled.

And while the OP won’t ever know what fully went down — they have an idea.

No one ever explained things openly, but the rumor was that the supervisor was told that he’d be the one fired the next time he scheduled someone for 3x pay on a holiday.

I kept the job for another year before leaving for unrelated reasons.

The only change was that the supervisor had someone else schedule overtime. He still did my performance appraisals, no change in performance rating.

The holiday overtime incident was never again mentioned.

Does Reddit comprehend “My Monday”? Was the supervisor in the right for challenging this worker? Let’s read the comments below to find out more.

Redditors also had trouble understanding this worker’s schedule.

Others had their gripes.

People were skeptical that this was legal.

And finally, some sided with the OP, saying this supervisor needed to get it together.

This is a confusing system, but hey, at least the worker made bank!

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.