Entry-level jobs often come with unexpected grunt work, but some requests just go too far.

So when one young factory operator was told by his manager to stop running production and start washing years’ worth of filthy windows, he followed orders exactly.

But when the rest of the team began wondering why output suddenly dried up, it became clear the boss may have been a bit short sided.

Keep reading for the full story.

Excuse me? You want me to wash the windows?

This happened more than three decades ago, when I was at the beginning of my working career.

As a youth, I didn’t really know upwards from downwards, and I was just happy that I had a steady job and a salary.

The job itself didn’t matter. As long as I had a job, I was happy.

For the most part, he did his job and he did it well.

I was an operator of a production machine, which didn’t really need higher education to operate, but it required a person to watch over it in case of some production hiccup or another error happened.

Mostly the machine ran just fine, and the operator’s job was to put in material or parts into it every now and then and to watch over it.

And that was what I did.

All in all, a very simple entry-level job.

But then the boss went on a little power trip.

One day, one of my co-workers came to me and told me that our manager required me to wash the windows of the factory that day. I was kind of dumbfounded for a moment, and then I laughed and told him, “Sure.”

At first, I thought it was a joke. I told him that I had to watch over my own work there, so was he sure about this?

He told me that yes, that’s what he was told to tell me.

Well, I didn’t quite believe what I had heard, and at the next lunch break I went to look for the manager and asked if it was so. The manager told me that the windows were dirty and hadn’t been washed for years, so it was time to clean them.

So the employee stopped asking questions and just got to work.

And that I should start right away.

I was just, “Oh, OK.”

He was naturally being cheap since he didn’t want to hire someone from outside to do it. He wanted to use me as a youngster to do the extra work.

I went back to my work spot, thought a little about what to do and where to start. Where to get the equipment, etc.

Then I turned the machine I was operating off and began to work on the windows.

This was no small task, and he knew it would take up a good amount of his time.

The factory, while it wasn’t too large, wasn’t small either. And some of the windows were pretty high up, so it wasn’t quick work either in those cases.

But I was told what to do, and so I complied. My estimate was that it would take at least several days, if not a whole week, to finish the job.

But then his teammates started to notice other important tasks go uncompleted.

After the second day, someone noticed that the parts were beginning to pile up at my spot, which was of course because there was no one there doing the process and the machine was offline.

On the third day, someone found me washing the windows at one corner of the factory and asked what the heck I was doing. Everyone was worried about where I was and why the production line had stalled since no one was operating the machine where I was supposed to be.

So when the boss was informed, he was finally forced to confront reality.

They practically pulled me back to the manager and told him what had happened. I explained that I had been doing what I was told earlier, and I was about halfway done.

And that I couldn’t be in two places at once.

There were other managers present as well, and they all turned to look at the one who had instructed me in the first place.

We workers were told to leave, and I was told to go to my original job and start up the machine ASAP.

Luckily, this side quest ended up being quite lucrative for the worker.

They also said that if I wanted, I could do as much overtime as I wanted until the production quota had been reached again. I believe they had some discussion among the managers behind closed doors after we left.

It took a while, but I netted a nice overtime bonus from that in the end.

They also hired someone to wash the rest of the windows.

Sounds like everyone learned their lesson here.

Many managers have a bad reputation for doing just about anything to save a buck.

An emphatic “No” is a powerful tool to standing your ground in the workplace.

There’s at least one consolation in all of this.

What did this boss really expect to happen?

Let’s hope this boss keeps his unwanted requests to a minimum from now on.

Following orders really paid off this time!

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.