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Imagine working at a company where you clock in and clock out. If your boss liked keeping everyone late for a meeting after your shift ended but you weren’t getting paid overtime, would you sit through the meetings anyway, or would you refuse to stay?

In this story, one employee was in this situation and didn’t think it was right not to get paid for the meetings. Instead of demanding to get paid, the employee refused to stay but did it in such a way that the boss didn’t complain.

I love how the employee handled this situation, and the result of this rebellion is very satisfying.

Let’s read all about it.

My manager always called for a 20 minute team meeting after work. Unpaid. So I finally had enough.

This is not in America, so US labor laws don’t apply here.

This was a small team of 10 people that the manager was assigned to. Myself included. I was the last person to be hired on the team. Everybody was my “senpai”.

And on the first day I worked there, they called a team meeting after work. We log off our computers at 4:55 PM, go to the meeting room, and we clocked out at 5:15 PM. Every day like clock work.

I said, “no problem. That’s an extra 2 and half hours on the biweekly paycheck. And we didn’t have to do any actual work except listen?”

This doesn’t seem right!

When my first pay day came, I saw my full 80 hours, but the extra 2.5 hours were nowhere to be found.

So I asked a couple of the guys if they only got paid 80 hours too.

They all confirmed it. We were not getting paid for these meetings.

The shift ends and once again the manager called for the daily team meeting and to log off at 4:55 PM then head to the meeting room. I do so.

I love this!

And so I sit there for 5 minutes. As soon as it hit 5:00 PM. I get up and say, I need to be somewhere important (with everyone’s eyes on me).

The manager says “OK”, I leave the room, clock out and go home.

The next day, I do the same. And again and again. The manager never stops me.

The manager eventually wondered what was going on.

Then the manager pulls me to the side one day and asks what’s this “important thing” that I need to get to after work every day.

And I tell him it’s a personal matter and he leaves it at that.

Pretty soon. It catches on. The other guys start leaving right after me. And eventually, within a matter of days of me starting to leave at 5, everyone else started doing it too.

The manager started scheduling the meetings for 4:40 PM. All it took was one person to not take this nonsense anymore.

That was a great way of handling the situation. I love that the other employees followed the example OP set and that the manager didn’t stop them from leaving or make a fuss about it. Instead, he simply changed the meeting time.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

One person gives a virtual high five.

Another person shares a similar story about skipping a meeting.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who is let go from a charity due to budget cuts, then gets blowback from the board over her severance.

Another person shares a conversation with a manager.

A meeting is not a lunch break.

I’m impressed that the manager rescheduled the meeting instead of yelling at the employees for leaving on time. It worked out really well.

Sometimes, all it takes is one person to stand up for what’s right. I love that everyone else followed OP’s lead.