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Imagine working at a job where you often work overtime but aren’t paid overtime. Would you accept that it is the way it is, refuse to work overtime, or insist on getting paid for overtime?

In this story, one irrigation tech is in this situation, and he simply accepts it until they do something that upsets him on his last day of work. Then, he’s out for revenge, and he knows just what to do.

He doesn’t just call them out on owing him overtime. He threatens to do something even bigger!

Let’s read all about it.

My employer tried to steal $38 from me so I made them pay $5,000.

Back in 1998 I moved from Michigan to Virginia and took a job as an irrigation tech for a large regional landscape company.

Within 6 months I learned my mistake as working as an irrigation tech for landscapers suck. You are treated as a necessary evil and always get the bad end of the stick.

I had heard through the grapevine that some area managers had screwed up a couple big maintenance contracts and that somehow they were going to try and make me the scapegoat.

So I promptly went to the second contractor I had interviewed for originally and got a job there and put in a one week notice.

He refused to work any longer than the one week.

My manager was really pressuring me to give them more notice until I told him that If he asked me one more time for more notice that he would notice the following morning that I didn’t work there anymore.

So at the end of the week I turned in my uniforms plus my reimbursement slip for $38 petty cash.

I was told that I was getting nothing back on my uniforms and they weren’t going to pay my $38.

I was mad but just moved on.

OP had a plan.

The following week I contacted my local labor board and filed a complaint saying that the entire time I had worked for them I was being paid salary while I was a non-exempt employee. I asked to be paid all of my overtime.

A few weeks go by and it works its way through the system and I get a call from the corporations Controller. We have a meeting and go over everything with a bunch of back and forth and he was trying to justify that I was really exempt and they didn’t owe me anything until I really had enough of his nonsense.

I told him straight up that we might disagree on how much they owe me but I’ll guarantee they owe me something. On top of that I would make a point on every payday going from branch to branch of the company with a sign standing outside the gate telling every single non-exempt employee that they were screwing out of overtime how they could sue the company.

I ended up signing an NDA and got a check for 5k the following day.

Now, things have changed.

Within 2 months that company and several others in the area began paying what they call Chinese overtime.

They take your weekly salary and divide it by 40 for an hourly rate and for every hour of overtime you work you got half your rate.

If you work your way through the math and what not and how the labor board determines your overtime in this case, it pretty much worked out correctly.

So in summary, my employer tried to screw me out of $38 and I made them pay me $5,000.

He certainly knew what he was doing! Good for him!

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person shares a part of the story they found really funny.

Another person also found the story funny.

Here’s how one person would’ve handled it.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post this story about a woman who reports her manager after they had zero compassion for a family tragedy.

This person feels inspired.

The company seemed to think they could bully him into doing what they wanted, first by pestering him about giving more notice and then by refusing to pay him the $38 for the uniform.

They pushed him too far, and he pushed back. Sometimes that’s the best thing that can happen.