April 6, 2026 at 8:35 pm

Night Shift Employee Claims Overtime For Time Spent Drinking Coffee, So The Boss Changes The Employee’s Break Time From 30 Minutes To An Hour

by Jayne Elliott

woman drinking coffee

Shutterstock/Reddit

Imagine having an employee who takes advantage of overtime and claims overtime for ridiculous reasons. Would you pay the overtime or find a way to get the employee to stop slacking off?

In this story, one boss is in this situation, and they have a pretty clever and effective way of handling it. Keep reading for all the details.

Employee kept claiming an extra 15 – 30 minutes of overtime so I adjusted her schedule.

This was years ago.

I worked as a manager of a customer service place that stayed open till after midnight.

Occasionally, a shipment was late so the night person had to work later and claimed overtime.

One employee took advantage of the situation.

But this one employee decided to have a coffee and visit and then clock out and claimed 30 minutes of overtime almost every night shift.

This shift had a half hour lunch break at supper time which most people preferred.

So I changed this one person’s shift to a one hour lunch break and moved the end of the shift 30 minutes later.

The employee didn’t like that!

So when everyone else got to go home at 12:30am she had to stay until 1am every shift without any over time.

She said that was against the collective agreement but she’d never actually read it so I got to show here where I had the right to make the change.

After a few weeks she promised to stop claiming overtime if she could switch back to a 30 minute lunch break.

It’s not fair to claim overtime when you’re not actually working. This boss was pretty smart in how they handled the situation.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

It would be helpful to hear both sides of the story.

2026 03 06 at 12.52.23 PM Night Shift Employee Claims Overtime For Time Spent Drinking Coffee, So The Boss Changes The Employees Break Time From 30 Minutes To An Hour

This person thinks the manager did the right thing.

2026 03 06 at 12.52.36 PM Night Shift Employee Claims Overtime For Time Spent Drinking Coffee, So The Boss Changes The Employees Break Time From 30 Minutes To An Hour

But apparently, there’s more to the story.

2026 03 06 at 12.51.38 PM Night Shift Employee Claims Overtime For Time Spent Drinking Coffee, So The Boss Changes The Employees Break Time From 30 Minutes To An Hour

Maybe there’s actually a different problem.

2026 03 06 at 12.51.16 PM Night Shift Employee Claims Overtime For Time Spent Drinking Coffee, So The Boss Changes The Employees Break Time From 30 Minutes To An Hour

Whether or not the boss made the right decision depends on your perspective.

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.

Jayne Elliott | Contributing Writer, Life & Drama

Jayne Elliott is a contributing writer and editor for TwistedSifter specializing in human interest stories, internet culture, and family dynamics. With over 12 years of editorial experience in digital publishing, Jayne excels at analyzing complex online communities and transforming viral social debates into thoughtful, highly engaging narratives.

Rather than simply aggregating internet drama, Jayne brings a sharp, empathetic editorial eye to everyday dilemmas. She has a unique talent for unpacking the nuances of pop culture and online conflicts, providing readers with relatable, well-researched commentary.

Based in California, Jayne spends her free time outside the newsroom exploring theme parks with her family or beach-combing along the coast.

Follow Jayne's adventures and connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.