Listen, if bosses are only going to let their employees work a certain number of hours, they can’t expect them to work unlimited hours to get projects done.

That’s just the way it goes!

But this person’s employer didn’t the message…and they paid the price because of it!

Check out their story and see what you think!

Only work the allotted hours on the project? Okay, let’s watch it fail.

“Several years ago I worked at an organization where I managed several projects.

For most of these projects, I had a team to help meet deadlines. My time was split up between these projects in percentages that dictated how much time I could work on each.

On one of these projects, I was alone and was allotted 20% of my work week to work on it (8 hrs). I liked this project and my contract head from the contracting organization so I often worked much more than the 8 hours… pretty often it was around 20-30 hours extra a week for this project.

Yes I asked for help, yes I asked for more time on the project. Both requests were denied as we didn’t have the people for it or the money. No, I was never paid overtime.

They were getting worn out.

Seeing as I was working so many extra hours, often very late into the night, I occasionally asked my manager if I could come in a few hours late because I had been up until 3-4 am working on a deliverable.

At first this request was accepted and I would come in late and leave late. After the sixth or seventh time, my requests started to get declined with my manager saying ‘They don’t need the deliverable at 4 am so why are you working that late.’

About a month after the requests were first denied, my mental health started to worsen as I was barely sleeping.

It was time for a change.

I decided to listen to my manager.

I stopped working extra and stopped working until the early morning on all projects. I carefully marked down the times that I spent on each project on an Excel sheet and made sure to never go over my allotted hours.

I came in at 8 am and left at 4 pm. I didn’t answer my phone or work remotely after 4pm. I worked 8 hours a week on my individual project and as expected, the next deliverable was missed. Then the following one was missed and a meeting was held between the contract head at the contracting org, my boss and my bosses boss.

Needless to say the contract head was mad about how much time I was allotted onto the project (this was discussed internally without my say because my bosses know exactly how much time I need for the project/s) and requested for me to have more time on the project.

It was time to get out of this place.

My boss raised my hours to 16 a week and continued to decline my requests to have somebody else work on it with me. I put in my 2 weeks at the end of that week.

Fallout: I trained a buddy on the project during those two weeks.

There was no way that he could learn all of the small details that I had learned over the past couple of years in the time I had left there. I apologized to him and he understood and told me not to worry.

A month after I had left the contract was canceled as my buddy and my boss tried to meet the deadlines, but were not able to. I now work at a much better company where I’ve only worked extra if my manager requests it.”

Reddit users spoke up.

This person had a lot to say.

Another individual shared a story.

This reader didn’t hold back.

Another person weighed in.

This is what happens when you don’t let your employees work overtime!

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.