In marriage, communication is important, even when that communication leads to arguing. While arguing is not ideal, it’s better than keeping feelings bottled up. Ideally, spouses will eventually feel heard and reach some sort of understanding or compromise.

In this story, one married couple got into an argument about overtime. The husband has a salary job, and he doesn’t get paid extra when he works overtime. In his wife’s eyes, that means he should never work overtime. He disagrees.

Keep reading to see how this disagreement led to an argument when the husband refused to take half a day off work.

AITA for being mad at my partner for working overtime?

My partner has just gotten his first ‘proper’ job as an undergraduate software engineer at a large company and he is loving the work.

Originally he was only supposed to be working 2-3 days a week as a casual but since it’s been uni holidays he was put on the full 5 days a week.

He is contracted for 7 hours a day which means if he works over time he doesn’t get paid. There’s been a few times he would stay back late to finish off work, and I understand working in his field that once his mind is in it it’s best to just keep working.

Hours are logged each week to make sure that he worked the minimum 35 hours (which is what is is payed for).

There was one particular day she really didn’t want him to work overtime.

Now for the problem… This week he had stayed back late two days.

I had asked him in the middle of the week to take a half day on Friday (today) since we have people coming over and I thought it would be polite to have him here when they come over.

As well as this, we barely see each other through the week so I thought it might be nice if he came home early and we could spend some time together.

He said he would see how it goes.

They ended up getting into an argument.

Skip to today and he has no plans on taking a half day.

I’m getting angry because it was important to me that he be here for the guests and I’m a little hurt that he would rather work unpaid hours then be here with me.

He is saying that this is how salary jobs are and I don’t understand anything about how it works. That I need to stop getting upset at him working unpaid hours because he just gets paid per day, no matter how late he stays back.

This breaks out into an argument where I’m in the wrong for saying he should only work the hours he is contracted for.

It sounds like they’re both upset.

He ended up leaving a little earlier than normal and guilting me over text while on the train home, saying he had to rush his work. He says that he will work to how he wants and I need to keep out of it.

AITA for being mad at him for working overtime and not being paid?

We live together and share a bank account so I felt like his pay was my business, but should I just keep out of it and let him keep working these extra hours without complaining?

Well, that didn’t work out well! She wanted them to both be present for their guests, but instead, they’re both mad at each other.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this overtime drama.

This person explains how salary jobs work…and don’t work.

Another person explains why it’s so important for her husband to work hard right now.

He’s probably thinking about his future.

Everyone is on her husband’s side.

I get that she’s annoyed that her husband isn’t getting paid extra for overtime, but he has a career, not just a job. This is a stepping stone to his future, and he needs to put in the work.

It doesn’t sound like he’s working an excessive amount of overtime, and it sounds like he enjoys his job. She needs to back off and let him do his job.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who doesn’t want to go to the amusement park with her friend anymore, because the friend can no longer ride most of the attractions.