Imagine working at a business that is short staffed. Would you be willing to work overtime to help out, or would you refuse?

In this story, one employee refuses to work overtime. She doesn’t see any way that working overtime would benefit her, but she wonders if she should agree to work overtime anyway.

Let’s read all the details to decide.

AITA for refusing to work overtime resulting in my other coworkers not getting any days off?

I (20sF if it matters) have been working at the same place for 2 years.

In the beginning I went above and beyond. Worked extra days, covered shifts, came in early and left late, the whole nine yards.

Eventually I realized there wasn’t much of a point.

It’s not like there’s a ladder to climb.

I haven’t received a raise in two years (no one else has either they just don’t give them) and promotion is literally impossible as there are only two higher positions (manager and assistant manager) and those are likely to never become available.

I was made a “shift supervisor” but it came with no added bonuses and more responsibility.

Being here this long I have come to see that this job is not one worth putting extra work in for as you will never be rewarded for it or even acknowledged for it.

Management openly talks badly about employees behind their backs and fires or writes up anyone who disagrees with them.

There’s a lot of turnover.

Needless to say I’m planning on leaving soon as I finally accept this place for what it is.

However with such a high turn over rate newer employees don’t quite understand all of this.

My shift specially has been short staffed since I’ve been here. Even more so since they fired someone on my shift months ago and never replaced them like they said they would.

Other shifts are starting to become just as short staffed as well.

She’s not willing to do any extra work.

Recently a few people have been out of work and management has been scrambling to cover their spots.

They have specially been depending on people (3 people including myself) from my shift.

Why they ask the most over worked and under staffed shift to help cover is beyond me.

But I’ve said no every time. And at this point I don’t even bother trying to explain or justify it. I just say no.

She kind of feels bad for her coworkers.

But my other coworkers haven’t been.

They’ve been covering when asked and working upwards of 6 days straight on 12 hour shifts.

I do feel bad that anytime they try to talk to me about us “splitting” the days that need covered I say no making one or both of them cover them instead.

But to me that’s on them for agreeing. They could be saying no as well but don’t (although management did say something along the lines of if we don’t cover the shifts they’ll be angry but imo not my problem).

They don’t even get overtime pay!

AITA for not helping cover shifts and essentially “forcing” other coworkers to do it instead?

Also worth noting that we don’t get paid over time for it.

We get comp time at the rate of one hour for every hour over we work and even then we can never use the comp time because we’re so under staffed and all of my requests for time off get ignored or denied.

She absolutely should not work overtime, especially since she’s not even getting paid for it. It’s not her fault they’re understaffed.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

It’s not her problem or her coworkers’ problem to solve.

Guilty is not mandatory.

This person encourages her to stick to her boundaries.

Her coworkers are the reason the problem has yet to be resolved.

She’s doing the right thing.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.