Even thirty minutes of unpaid labor daily can mean thousands of dollars stolen from the employee.

In this story, an employee worked long shifts, but his “working lunch” was unpaid.

So when he became a shift manager, he quietly made changes to his schedule and started reclaiming his “stolen” time.

Read the full story below to find out more…

My employer stole from us every shift, but I kept my mouth shut

We had 10 1/2 hour shifts. But we only got paid for 10.

The boss took off 30 minutes for our lunch breaks.

However, we were required to work during lunch.

He forced us to answer calls. He forced us to wait on customers during our unpaid lunch.

This is illegal. He must have saved over 100k on payroll in the 5 years I worked there doing this.

This man became a shift manager and made a huge change.

Anyway, when I became a shift manager, I made sure we took 2 hour lunch breaks.

We also took an hour break in the morning. We took an hour break in the afternoon.

On slow days, we would stand around and do nothing for hours at a time.

All the while, the job was being done.

The owner never found out what he was doing.

Mind you, the owner never found out.

He never worked alongside us.

He would drop in on Fridays to pay the bills.

He would occasionally call us to check in on things.

He racked up about 2000 hours doing nothing.

In the last year alone, I would sit in the break room on my phone for hours at a time.

I only answered calls and talked to customers as they came in.

I reckon in the last year, 15 of 40 hours a week were spent doing absolutely nothing.

Accumulatively, I must have racked up close to 2000 hours doing absolutely nothing in a 4 year period.

I always showed up on time. I stayed late if needed.

I made sure the job was done correctly. I always treated the customers with respect.

Even when he moved to a new job, he carried the lesson with him.

Anyway, he promised me health insurance when I turned 26.

But when it came time to do it, he mysteriously couldn’t afford it.

So I left. The next job I worked at was in a hospital billing department.

We had our work queue laid out on our screen every morning.

I would shred through the queue in the morning. Then, I would sit the rest of the shift.

I carry these lessons with me wherever I go. 🙂

Let’s check out the comments of other people on this story.

This user shares their personal thoughts.

It’s called wage theft, says this one.

This person makes a valid point.

Short and straightforward.

Finally, here’s a sarcastic comment.

If you steal minutes from employees, don’t be shocked when they quietly steal them back in bulk.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.