Imagine working at a job where you can easily get all of your work done before your work day is over. What would you do if the boss told you to stay late? Would you explain that you don’t have anything to work on, simply refuse to stay late, or stay and find something to keep you occupied?

In this story, one employee was in this situation, and he decided to play along and agree to stay late. The boss was shocked when he later realized how the employee had been using his time.

This is a pretty funny story, but it worked out well for the employee.

Keep reading for all the details.

boss demands overtime pay for zero work?? Okay!!

So, this happened a while back, but the memory still brings a smirk to my face whenever I think about it.

I used to work for a company where the boss had this habit of demanding that we stay late, even when there was absolutely no work left to be done.

It was one of those toxic environments where productivity was measured by the hours you spent at your desk rather than the actual output of your work.

Sometimes, it’s easier to agree than argue.

One day, after wrapping up all my tasks well before the end of the day, my boss came over and told me that I needed to stay late because “that’s just how things are done around here.” Mind you, there was literally nothing left for me to do.

Now, instead of arguing or trying to reason with him, I decided to play along with his ridiculous demand for overtime pay.

I nodded, grabbed a book I had been meaning to read, and settled back into my chair.

For the next two hours, I sat at my desk, flipping through pages, occasionally pretending to jot down notes, and looking as busy as possible.

The boss was confused.

At the end of those two hours, my boss came by to check on me, expecting to see me toiling away at some imaginary task.

Instead, he found me reading a novel.

He looked puzzled and asked, “What are you doing?”

With a straight face, I replied, “Well, you asked me to stay late, so I figured I might as well put in some overtime. This book has been on my reading list for a while.”

The boss learned his lesson.

Needless to say, my boss was speechless.

He couldn’t really argue with me since he had asked me to stay late, and I was technically still on the clock.

From that day forward, he never asked me to stay late unless there was actual work to be done.

Malicious compliance at its finest.

Good thing OP happened to have a book handy!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee whose dietary restrictions caused the whole office to turn against her.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

One person reminisces about reading in the military.

Y2K definitely wasn’t what people worried it would be.

Another person explains why they often don’t go to their office at all.

Here’s a story about another guy who didn’t have much to do at work.

Some employees have way too much on their plate, and they have no choice but to work overtime to get all of their work done. That was definitely not the case in this story. The boss shouldn’t have assumed OP would need to work overtime to get his work done. He could’ve asked what he had left to do and told him it was okay to stay late to finish working, but demanding overtime without even understanding the situation was uncalled for.

I love how the employee handled the situation though. He got paid to read a book. It doesn’t get better than that!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an IT department who keeps receiving tickets for a company that was previously spun off.