Working for family can sometimes be great, especially if it’s a career you’re passionate about. However, from the outside looking in, it can be easy to assume that family members who are hired by family members may be slacking off.

In this story, one man has worked for his uncle for two years. He was paid salary and worked inconsistent hours. Sometimes he would work very long days, but other times, he would only work a few hours.

Everything was great until his uncle was away and a business partner accused him of slacking off. Now, he has to clock in to prove that he’s actually working enough hours.

His uncle didn’t fight this change. In fact, he probably knew it would work out really well for his nephew. All he had to do was make sure they were on the same page about overtime.

Keep reading for all the details.

Want me to punch in on the work clock, fine now deal with overtime pay

I (31M) started working for my uncle two years ago. He has a company with some business partners of his. My work is now being directly under him, learning every perk of running the business and also being a personal assistant to him.

We settled on a contract in which I’d recieve a fixed montly amount with a bonus of an additional salary by the end of every year, and while I had no overtime pay, I had total control of my work schedule, and by total I meant TOTAL, where I could come to the job just 3 days a week as long as I delivered results.

My uncle knew my work ethic so is kinda of a win for him since when needed i’d work 60-65 hours a week, if needed to, also I could work during a holiday (we have around 10-12 festivities days that are non working days – if i were to put into an American perspective, is just as if we had over 10 july 4th holidays during the year), also I was available on call nearly 24/7 if anyone needed anything from me related to work.

When his uncle was away, another associate didn’t understand how much OP had been working.

Work was running great until september last year when my uncle took a couple days to travel to another state to meet new clients and one of his associates (let’s call him Gordon) took his role in the company for a those days to suport some of his roles.

due to having worked a 14 hour shift the day before the travel, and also having 2 12 hour shifts the week before I was dead tired, and since we had little to no work piled up i took a early leave the first day he was there and arrived way after lunch the day after, then started working normaly from the 3rd day until he came back a week later.

he was furious at my “attitude” berating my uncle for even contracting me in the first place, since i don’t even work full regular hours and demand among the other business partners (the company has in total 6 owners including my uncle), that I at least punch in my working hours and if i don’t meet the “quota”, those would be deducted from my monthly payment.

His uncle agreed with his associates but had one thing to add that will surely make a huge difference!

there’s a ton of labor laws were i live, employees have a certain amont of hours required to work each month, every hour short of that is deducted from the monthly payment, and every hour beyond is payed as overtime.

other partners backed up Gordon’s Claim stating that I needed more supervision on what I was doing, which my uncle was forced to comply, his only remark was “since we’re doing by law, it means that we also will pay him overtime acording to the law, right?”

They all agreed and from October foward I would start punching my hours on the job everyday.

It ended up working out really well for OP.

cue the malicious compliance, that was exactly what i did.

Gordon was expecting a decrease on my pay due to being in the company at my least busy week since I arrived, when in fact i usually pull a crapload of overtime, also, if they need to call me after I left they have to punch in the hours from the moment I left until the I finish the call, resulting in “free” overtime pay.

One more thing, by the law the rate of overtime pay increases the more overtime is done in a month, is a really weird formula, but to simplify my average overtime hours pays 1/3 higher than the average overtime hours of other employees that have the same monthly salary as me.

My monthly income is now 30% higher due to the overtime I started recieving and in a busy month that could get even close to 50% higher even though I am actually working a little less than before and Gordon can’t go back in the same situation as before, since my uncle made sure that once i started punching my hours there was no going back, and all partners approved

Wow! It’s kind of a good thing Gordon wanted to make that new rule. Now, OP gets paid a lot more without actually working more than before. His uncle definitely had his back.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who is told to work a holiday without overtime pay, and how they ended up getting their money.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

His uncle definitely knew what he was doing!

This is a funny suggestion, but maybe he should actually do it.

Another person has the same suggestion.

It definitely worked out well for OP.

If his uncle hadn’t left, he’d still be salary. It’s so much better now that he gets overtime pay. His uncle sounds like a really great guy!

I bet Gordon regrets complaining and insisting on this change!

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.