Imagine working at a fast food restaurant. Some nights would be busier than others. Would you be willing to work overtime on busy nights? Would you think it would be okay to leave early on slow nights?

In this story, one employee is in this situation, and they would answer yes to both of those questions; however, that all changed when the boss reprimanded the employee for wanting to clock out early.

Keep reading for all the details.

don’t like me flexing my work hours?

Me, early 20’s, getting a job at McDonalds, flipping burgers.

I’ve always had high work ethics, always arrive early at work, and live and die by my saying “rather 10minutes early, than 10 seconds late.”

The thing is, not only do I always arrive early, I struggle with staying still for too long. So what happens when I get to work? I’m not exactly making myself a cup of coffee and sit and watch. I jump in and start working.

OP shares their approach to work hours.

On the other hand, if it is very calm at work and circumstances allow it, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to clock out a few minutes early.

And when the circumstances don’t allow it, I also don’t mind working a bit of overtime until the brunt of the workload eased up.

With this being McDonald’s, most of the time I clocked in early and clocked out late.

The coworkers don’t mind, the shift managers doesn’t mind.

The boss on the other hand is the type of person with a stick up his butt.

Here’s an example of a calm night.

One day its been calm for roughly 20 minutes and we’ve done everything one usually don’t have time for in the kitchen.

I have roughly 10 minutes left on my shift and ask my coworker(let’s call him Tim) if they can hold the fort until the next guy starts, and I can call it a night.

He laughs it off and tells me everything is A-OK.

I change clothes and get ready to clock out and see boss coming towards me.

The boss refused to let OP leave.

B: where are you going?

Me: Home?

B:you still have time left on your shift!

Me:I know, I came in earlier to help, it’s calm and we’ve done all the prep and clean we can. There’s nothing left to do unless a customer walks in. Tim can handle the kitchen no problem and next guy will be here in 10.

B: if you’re scheduled you are supposed to do your hours! You can still clean something!

OP wasn’t so flexible with their hours anymore.

Queue malicious compliance.

After that conversation I made sure to always clock in right on time. And then go change/wash hands etc, which resulted in me entering the kitchen a few minutes late every day, regardless how many customers there were.

And since the boss was explicit about sticking to my hours, I always made sure to clock out right on time.

Whenever the coworkers or managers asked me to stay I told them “Boss told me to stick to my schedule, sorry guys it’s out of my hands. Best of luck though!”

Seriously, OP ignored every reason to work overtime.

Line is stretched outside the restaurant? Ain’t my problem.

Just got a phone call of 3 busses with tourists coming in? Nope!

Boss asking me to help? Sorry boss, it is outside of my scheduled hours.

May I suggest you grab an apron, wash your hands and help the guys in the kitchen? They’ll get swamped otherwise.

See you Monday!

I can understand the boss not wanting the employees to leave early, but he should’ve clarified if he was okay with overtime.

Does Reddit think the employee took the compliance too far, or was it just right?

The employee gave the company exactly what they wanted.

Another person doesn’t think OP did anything malicious.

Nobody seems to think OP’s actions were malicious at all.

Here’s a fun fact about McDonald’s.

Going above and beyond isn’t always the right thing to do.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.