If you’re not be treated the way you should be at your job, then it’s probably time to move on to greener pastures.

In today’s story, a worker talked about how they fought back when their manager tried to renege on time off that they’d earned.

Read on and find out what happened.

You want to take my holiday entitlements away?

“30 years ago when I was only about 20 I worked for a software company.

It was a pretty rubbish company, their software was rubbish because they’d employ trainees and get them to do the development on it without a senior first checking their work.

Needless to say, the app often had problems. Every other month a memo would go out to all programmers asking us to come and work the weekend, and that any time we work won’t be compensated with overtime but instead we can have the same amount of time off work later with pay (time in lieu).

I never used to take holidays, but due to undiagnosed depression I would often have a random day off as a sick day instead.

One month my manager called me in and told me that there were problems with the software that needed fixing urgently, and because we were approaching the end of the year he was talking to everyone who’d had too much time off sick and taking holiday entitlement off them.

I don’t recall the number of days entitlement I had, but after deducting my unauthorized illnesses from my holidays I had only about 3 days left.

I was told the aim was to stop people taking holiday they were entitled to (and would have to take before the year ended otherwise they lost it), thus giving them more work hours to fix the software.

They laid out their case.

I explained to my manager that I had no intentions of booking any of my holiday and would happily work those days + any additional required weekends (as I often did), but he insisted that this is what he had to do.

I explained to him that I don’t book holidays, I don’t claim my time in lieu, and I just have a day off when I am having a bad day.

Ultimately the company gains from this because I work more days than I am paid for and I don’t like them treating me like this way.

I asked him how many holiday days he was taking away, and how many days in lieu I was owed. So I let him take my holiday away, leaving me with 3.

I then asked to book those 3 days of holiday off + claimed about 7 days in lieu I otherwise wouldn’t have taken. Because the rules are that I use them or lose them, right?

So now they went from having their lead developer in every day to having to give me 2 weeks off.

Huh?

I remember now he refused to let me take the time off. He told me I can’t have off the days I was entitled to and that he would also be taking away the time in lieu days they owed me.

I told him if he didn’t also stick to the rules then I would never work overtime again. He said that’s just the way it had to be.

PART 2 – So NOW you want to pay overtime….kind of.

The directors weren’t happy with how their plan to get more work had backfired, so sent out a new memo.

“We will be opening the doors until 8 pm every work day and 8 am to 8 pm weekends. If anyone is willing to work more hours then clock in/out with Craig. If we meet our deadline, then there may be a reward for you based on how many extra hours you worked”

My boss asked “will you be coming in?”. I said “no”. He asked why not.

I told reminded him that I had said if they take away my days then I won’t work time in lieu again. He pointed out that it would be time in lieu PLUS a bonus!

This was sketchy.

I pointed out that not only does it not say how much the bonus is, but it only says we MAY get the bonus, and then only IF we meet the deadline. Far too conditional for overtime pay, so I declined.

Lots of people worked lots of hours over the next week or so, one guy worked an additional 60 hours.

They met the deadline, and there was indeed a bonus!

This is ridiculous!

For each hour they worked, each employee received a lottery ticket (at the time they cost £1).

The guy who you had to clock in/out with was working 12 hours per day, 7 days per week. He came over to gloat at how many lottery tickets he had, he said “potentially they’ve given me millions!”.

I told him “Not only have they paid you £1 per hour overtime, which is less than half of what I got as a child working in a supermarket, they’ve not even allowed you to choose what you want to spend your money on”.

One person won £10.

I am the only one who conformed to the requirements being forced on me, everyone else allowed them to take days away and still didn’t claim their remaining owed days in lieu, and I am the only one who didn’t get ripped off.

Yes, I did laugh at everyone.”

And here’s what folks had to say on Reddit.

This person weighed in.

Another individual shared their thoughts.

Another Reddit user spoke up.

And this person had a lot to say.

The people running this company were apparently completely clueless…

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.