Imagine being so overworked that you work at least a couple hours of overtime every single day. Would you be annoyed by this, or would you happily give work your all?

In this story, one employee at a tech startup is in this exact situation, and she is not at all happy about it. She misses having free time.

To make it even worse, she’s comparing her work day to the work day of the newest employee.

Let’s read all about it.

I calculated my unpaid overtime for 2025. I worked 11 weeks for free while our “VP” of Sales works 2 hours a day.

I finally snapped today.

I’m the sole marketing person at a tech startup.

I’ve been feeling burnt out, so I audited my calendar and work logs for the last year to see if I was crazy.

She’s not crazy.

The Stats:

Contract: 40 hours/week.

Actual: I worked roughly 440 hours of overtime last year.

The Math: That is 11 full work weeks of donated, unpaid labor. I effectively worked a 15-month year in a 12-month period.

She’s really overworked.

Why?

Because we have 30 developers shipping features, and I am the only person responsible for marketing them.

I begged leadership for a junior hire ($40k/year) to help me with the grunt work so I could sleep on weekends.

The Response: “We don’t have the budget right now.”

That’s not entirely true.

The Reality: We do have the budget. We just spent it hiring a “Senior VP of Sales” on a massive six-figure salary. (and on a developer offsite in the UK)

Here is what this guy does:

Refuses to cold call because he’s “too senior.”

Refuses to update the CRM because “admin isn’t his job” (so I have to do it for him, or the board reporting breaks).

This is not fair at all!

I looked at his calendar for this week. It is 90% empty. He has 3 meetings.

I am working 10-hour days and weekends to generate leads for him, and he sits there waiting for the phone to ring.

The Cherry on Top: Instead of getting me help, HR just announced a new “Employee Appreciation” program. It’s a Slack plugin called “Tacos” where you can give digital tacos to colleagues to say thanks.

I don’t want digital tacos. I want my weekends back.

I’m currently updating my CV on company time.

She definitely needs a new job! That workload sounds impossible.

Let’s see if Reddit commiserates or offers advice.

It’s up to her to stop working overtime.

Here’s another vote for no longer working overtime.

One person rants about startups.

Another person explains what’s really happening.

Nobody can force her to work overtime.

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.