Many employees are excited to clock out and leave work.

This man worked at a manufacturing company with a strict new general manager.

She banned employees from waiting near the time clock.

So he and his coworkers found a creative and healthy way to adapt.

Read the full story below to find out.

Time clock compliance

I work at a manufacturing company.

The closest time clock to the employee parking lot is down in the machine shop.

Every day, about two dozen people can be seen standing around the clock.

Waiting for it to click over to 3:30 so they can punch out.

The new general manager implemented a policy.

But, about a year ago, we got a new general manager.

After she had been there for a couple of months, she decided that this should not be allowed.

A notice was posted in the workplace stating that:

“People may not congregate around the time clock anymore.”

This man and other employees download an exercise app.

At about the same time, there was a corporate-wide exercise campaign based on the Olympics.

Many people downloaded an exercise app.

This tracked their daily steps (along with other things).

There were possible prizes and locational honors.

They would still go to the machine shop to get their daily steps.

Now, the downstairs machine shop is a large, open, roughly square space.

With a marked aisle running around the periphery of the floor.

So, when the time-clock edict came around, people still headed to the clock.

But instead, they spent the time “getting their daily steps in.”

The GM saw what the people were doing.

By the end of the week, we had about 30 people spending the last 5 to 10 minutes of the shift.

They were circumambulating clockwise around the entire machining department.

They checked the clock each time they passed.

The GM saw this spectacle one day.

So she withdrew the policy about congregating around the time clock.

I guess it reminded her too much of that scene in Midnight Express.

She reversed the clock edict.

Funny thing, though, people still kept coming down to get their steps in for a few weeks afterward.

Well, until the contest was over.

Let’s read the responses of other people to this story.

This user shares their personal thoughts.

Indeed!

This one appreciates the new word they learned.

Here’s a valid point from this person.

And finally, short and simple.

Unreasonable workplace rules can lead to creative results.

Employees will always figure something out.

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.