There’s nothing more frustrating than working with someone who takes advantage of every system except the one that requires effort.

So, what would you do if your coworker consistently stretched his long-shift lunch break by an extra half hour, leaving you to handle the heavier workload every time?

Would you just deal with it? Or would you finally give him a taste of what it’s like?

In the following story, one woman finds herself in this exact situation and chooses the latter.

Here’s what she did.

Taking my break

I work in a small care home with 6 residents, and at least 2 staff are to be present at all times to make sure they are safe.

I work with a very lazy man called Brian, who does the absolute bare minimum when on shift and will often pick up overtime.

The usual shift is 8 hours, but with overtime, it’s a 13-hour day, and you are then entitled to an unpaid hour break. The breaks have to be coordinated when more than one member of staff is working the full 13-hour shift to make sure staffing levels remain safe.

All 6 of our residents take afternoon bed rest as they are wheelchair users, and it helps to combat the risk of pressure sores and gives them the opportunity to stretch out and take a break.

For some reason, Brian always took hour-and-a-half-long breaks.

Lunch breaks are supposed to be scheduled at this time.

I have worked these long shifts alongside Brian for the last couple of months, and on at least 6 separate occasions, he has returned from his hour lunch break after 1 hour and 30 minutes, meaning that I could only take 30 minutes before it was time to support residents with getting up, having a freshen up, making them drinks and cooking their dinner.

Yesterday, I was working alongside Brian, and as expected, he took his hour and 30-minute break.

She returned the favor, and he didn’t like it.

As soon as he returned, I went to let my manager know that I was going on break, and he asked what time I’d be returning, since there were only 20 minutes left before wake-up time, and who would be preparing the evening meal, since I would usually be doing the cooking when on shift.

I smiled and told him that Brian would be there to do the work, and I would be back in an hour, then left, knowing that Brian would have to complete two people’s work while I took my entire unpaid break, returning once all of the more labour-intensive tasks had been completed.

Very satisfying to return from my break to see that Brian had a sweat on after having to work so hard and was having a breakdown while trying to prepare dinner. I’ll be interested to see how long a break he’ll take when I work with him again tomorrow.

Yikes! It’s unfortunate that Brian created that situation.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit feel about how Brian acts.

This could work.

Great question.

This reader doesn’t think Brian will learn from this.

Brian should be in trouble.

Safety rules are put in place for a reason.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.