Cutting overtime always sounds smart until it costs more than it saves.

What would you do if your boss cut overtime to “save money,” even though you were the one who could keep the machines running?

Would you try to reason with them?

Or would you let them learn the hard way that some decisions cost more than they’re worth?

In today’s story, a machinist finds himself in this exact situation and teaches his bosses a lesson.

Here’s how it all played out.

Overtime Wastes Money

My husband is a middle manager in a factory.

His company gets new upper management every few months, with each one more of an idiot than the last.

My husband had been doing at least one day of overtime, sometimes two, each week because the machines go down a lot, and he’s a pro at fixing them.

Apparently, what’s basically the equivalent of throwing some duct tape on it is less expensive than actually sending a machine out to get fixed, but that’s another story.

Anyway, his new boss has been there a month and decides that overtime is no longer allowed to “save money.”

It took the company losing money to change the policy.

My husband is mad because that overtime had slowly but surely been getting us out of debt. Well, last week, they called him on his day off; a main machine had gone down fairly early into the shift.

He said, “Sorry, I can’t come in. I’m not allowed overtime anymore.”

The machine stays down all night. These machines produce a ton of product per hour. They lost more money by not running the machine than they would have spent paying my husband to come in.

This Monday, overtime is now approved again.

Yikes! But this sounds about right for many companies.

Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit have to say about situations like these.

There’s always only one reason, and it has nothing to do with overworking someone.

This reader compares upper management to children.

For this person, they go through this daily.

Great question.

That’s how you do it!

It’s funny how fast something changes when a company loses money.

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.