It’s always wild how some managers will ignore everything you do right, but will make a huge deal out of one little mistake.

So, what would you do if your manager made a big scene over a three-minute delay, then expected you to magically shorten a legally protected lunch break just to keep the schedule on track?

Would you go along with it? Or would you show her why that won’t work?

In the following story, one support staff member finds herself in this situation and chooses the latter.

Here’s how it played out.

Three minutes late.

I work in a school as support staff, but I’m not a teacher.

I generally get to work at 8:15. Start time is 8:30. I arrive, go to the staff room, make a coffee, and take it to my work station. My manager doesn’t bother with small talk, she’s straight into discussing work, asking me questions, etc. Often, before I even put my handbag away, I fire up my laptop.

I get a 45-minute unpaid lunch break, which is a bit long, so I’m usually back at my desk within 30-35 minutes.

She made up the three minutes.

A couple of months ago, I arrived at my workstation at 8:33 with my coffee.

My manager made a big production of lifting her arm up and reading her watch (which she can’t read without glasses on anyway, and she wasn’t wearing them, so it was for theatrical purposes) and remarked about me making my coffee after my start time.

I made up the three minutes at lunchtime by coming back sooner than my 45-minute break.

They tried to make it work better.

I take my lunch during the students’ lunch. Their lunch is 1-1:40.

The following day, I arrive back from lunch at 1:45, and the manager is hopping from foot to foot because we needed to start class.

I said my lunch is 45 minutes.

Maybe I should take lunch before 1 to ensure I’m here at 1:40. She looks at the timetable and says that doesn’t work, we have classes that go until 1, so you can’t take lunch until 1.

Eventually, she stopped giving them her time for free.

I firmly stated my lunch is 45 minutes, so that means I come back five minutes into lessons. She then noted that it doesn’t work and that she’ll get the school to pay me for those ten minutes.

I’m the union representative for my workplace. I said they can’t, my 45-minute break is in the award. (And in actual fact, if we don’t get our breaks, those minutes are paid at overtime rates).

I now take my entire 45-minute break. Even though I’m done with eating and smoking, I’ll fill in the 15 minutes checking Instagram.

I also still generally arrive at 8:15, and I now have my pre-work coffee in the staff room and don’t ever arrive at my desk until 8:28.

Yikes! It sounds like that woman messed with the wrong union rep.

Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit relate to this story.

This person has strong feelings.

So true.

Here’s someone who’s told bosses off for that.

They sure wouldn’t.

The manager asked for this.

She should’ve just been quiet and ignored those three minutes.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.