I can imagine that it must be tricky being a boss if you truly care about your employees and want them to enjoy coming to work. You wouldn’t want your employees to feel like they’re not being treated fairly.

What would you do if you had two employees with the same job but one employee was more efficient at their work than the other? Would you pay them equally or would you give the more efficient employee a raise?

In this story, one boss is in this situation, and she chooses the second option. Now, the employee that’s less efficient is complaining that she’s not being treated fairly.

The boss tried to explain her reasoning, but she’s not sure if she got her point across. She’s also not sure if she made the right decision.

Keep reading for the whole story.

AITA for not honoring overtime over work?

I have a small business and employed my first two employees last summer. “E” (F/22), is a local “A” (F/27) is from america and moved here last summer (its her first job here).

Both are doing pretty much the same job.

I have a bit of a “i dont care”-mentality, as long as the work gets done and the hours match they can leave early or come later whenever they want.

Here’s the problem.

“Problem” is, “E” is far more efficient and productive, she gets about 28% more done (not hourly, in total).

“A” would work all day if i let her, while “E” does pretty much only the minimum hours. (I “only” allow 50h/week max., “A” would work the max. legal 60h)

This spring i gave both a raise again, but as “E” is more efficient and hardly gets paid overtime she gets a chunk more now. (After taking the overtime of “A” in consideration they both get about the same in the end again).

Yesterday after a bit of chitchat “A” complained that she now earns less per hour than “E” while “E” “hardly works at all” (her words). “E only works the bare minimum hours, goes out with the dog twice a day, goes on holiday twice a year, has her girlfriend in all the time,…. While i’m working my butt off, coming in every day, working overtime, hardly ever take sick-leave etc. and still E is getting more than me. Thats discrimination!”

She listened but also explained her perspective.

I off course listened and was concerned as she clearly was sitting with her anger for a bit now.

I tried to explain to her that she could do all this things too. Her taking the dog out for a short walk takes less time then the smoking of “A” and both do not have to clock out for either.

She goes on holiday twice a year because she has 30 days of paid leave a year (25 is the legal minimum, i give a week more because im happy with their work), and reminded her that she has to take the paid leave too, i told her this many times before and she will be 6 weeks at home this winter if she does not consume it beforehand.

And i know that her girlfriend is here, when she finished her day at university, to drive home with “E”. She is not really lowering her productivity so i dont care. (I even got them a cheap IKEA couch where she can wait)

She thinks she finally got her point across.

Finally i told her that she does not need to do so many hours, their contract is 40h/week, and i would not care if they work 35 as long as the work is done (i proposed that before that when after 3 months someone is a little bit in the negative with the hours the other one will receive the same amount in overtime, but it never was needed yet).

She got offended and yelled at me that “she works more so she should get more”.

I countered (a bit louder than i wanted in hindsight) that she only works longer, but “E” works more, and that they earn the same after keeping the overtime in mind.

I understand where she comes from, and i showed her the numbers today. She seems a bit less agitated (i hope she understands that i dont care about the fact that she is an immigrant)

I understand A’s frustration. She comes from the workaholic American mindset that wants everything to be fair. But really, it seems the OP just cares about the work getting done. Maybe A will relax and stop working so many hours if it bothers her that much.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who was facing serious accusations before retirement, but luckily had security footage that proved his innocence.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

One person points out the cultural differences.

Another person agrees that the problem is American culture.

This person suggests an experiment.

But this person thinks everything sounds fair.

I like the idea of temporarily eliminating overtime to see if the American employee starts working more efficiently. Maybe she’s stuck in an American workaholic mindset where it’s better to work more hours than to be more productive working fewer hours. If she’s able to be more productive in fewer hours, maybe that would change, and maybe then she would earn a raise and be paid the same as E.

I’m not 100% sure if I understood correctly or not, but it sounds like she’s not taking her vacation time. That needs to change. She might be burnt out from working so much. If she took a break, maybe she’d come back refreshed and able to work more efficiently.

Regardless, I think this boss sounds fair, reasonable and like a very caring person. She seems to want her employees to be happy and to feel like they are being treated fairly. That says a lot.