If you loved your job, would you be willing to work overtime for free, or would you leave the second your shift was over?

In this story, one employee loved their job so much that they worked five hours a day of overtime for free. This went on for quiet awhile, but one comment from the manager was a real wakeup call.

Let’s read the whole story.

Before nine and after five don’t matter

I worked for a large brokerage firm in their mutual funds division.

My duties included working on special projects for the controller, coordinating with the users on any issues that needed to be addressed and working on automating all processes.

I loved my job and I was real good at it.

As I had these various tasks, I had two computers so that I could run the programs that I was modifying while still working on other tasks.

OP worked long hours.

As I stated I loved the work since I basically did what I wanted to do with minimal, if any supervision.

Due to this I regularly came in early, sometimes as early as 7:00 AM, and staying as late as 7:00 PM. I easily did two to three times the work of anyone else.

I was always the first one in and generally the last one to leave.

But the manager got upset about 10 minutes.

One day I took a lunch break, which was also rare as I brought my lunch and worked straight through.

Unfortunately, I had some errands to run and I ended up getting back after taking an extra ten minutes.

I was summoned to my managers office where he reamed for an hour over these ten minutes.

I had enough of this, and I asked him if he realized how early I got in and how late I stayed.

The manager’s answer completely changed his approach to work.

His answer totally blew me away.

He said it doesn’t matter how early you get in or how late you stay, only what happens between nine and five that counts.

Cue malicious compliance.

He never worked long hours again.

I stopped going in early, I would take a walk or read a book until 8:55 AM. I would take a break mid-morning, take exactly one hour for lunch and another break in the afternoon.

I would stop work at 4:45 PM and clean my work area. Exactly at 5:00 PM I would shut down my computers and leave for the day.

He never said anything about this at he knew he brought it on himself.

All that resulted from this is he lost over five hours of work a day from me.

He eventually moved on.

Not long after this I left for brighter pastures at an increase of total compensation of almost 100%. (It was possible as I went to a very high scale investment firm.)

Later on I found out that they had to hire three people to do my work.

Like they say, you don’t know how good you have until it disappears.

I think the manager did him a favor. He shouldn’t have been working all those extra hours for free.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

I completely agree.

Here’s a story about inefficient efficiency experts.

Managers just managing badly.

Even if you love your job, you shouldn’t work for free.

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