Working overtime usually means getting paid accordingly. But what would you do if your company claimed to really need the extra hours but couldn’t pay you overtime (allegedly)?

In this case, a man shares that he did the math and was baffled to learn how much overtime he had actually worked without being paid.

He felt betrayed.

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.

The Stats:

Contract: 40 hours/week.

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

And he wasn’t compensated for any of it.

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

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.”

But their excuses get worse.

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).

I looked at his calendar for this week. It is 90% empty.

He has 3 meetings.

He’s finally had it.

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.

He needs to stand up for himself ASAP.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this.

This person thinks he shouldn’t have worked the overtime for free.

He was probably tricked into it.

They took advantage of his kindness.

Something to consider.

Yup.

Exactly.

They are exploiting him and will continue to do so unless he sets boundaries or leaves.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.