“No Overtime Means No Overtime”: Employee Refuses After-Hours Crisis Call After Boss Banned Extra Hours
Shutterstock
Imagine working at a company where you often work overtime. What would you do if you were told to stop working overtime? Would you happily comply, or would you explain how important it is for you to work overtime?
There are multiple reasons for employees to work overtime. One might be that a company is short staffed. Another might be that only certain people are qualified for a certain type of work and are needed to help out at all times of day.
In this story, one employee falls in the second category, but the managers at the company were more concerned with how much overtime he was getting paid than they were with why he was working so much overtime.
When they told him to stop working overtime, he cleared it with his boss and agreed to go home at 5pm no matter what.
Keep reading to find out what happens when they realize they need his help after 5pm.
No Overtime? No Problem
I have a Malicious Compliance story from my Lovely Job as a Network Admin at a Food Processing Plant.
This will involve Me, Management, and Overtime.
This happened about a year ago but I can remember this clearly by how everything panned out.
So let me set the scene here: I was by myself in the office (Boss was at a different plant and my buddy was on vacay), I was sitting in my office when I had, and I kid you not here, the HR Manager, Complex Manager and Plant Manager all stand by one of my doors wanting me to open it (Also keep in mind that my office has Cipher Locks on all the doors that Nobody has access to but the IT Department).
His assumption about why they were there was completely wrong.
Here I am, a bit confused here but thought that they may need to ask me a question about a project or something.
Nope, not even Close. Here’s how the Convo went as best as I could remember:
HR: That1Guy141, why do you have 16 Hours of Overtime last week?
Me: ….Because of Issues that required me to stay after hours? Also the Calls I’ve gotten from 3rd Shift as well. Not to mention that I worked Saturday when the Plant was running.
They don’t want him to work overtime anymore.
HR: Even so, we found this to be a bit…excessive. You always seem to collect at least 6-8 hours of Overtime every week.
Me: It’s a bit excessive that I’m doing my job? I’m not understanding the problem here.
CM: Basically we’ve talked it over and thought it would be best that you just work for the hours your here and leave at 5 PM, no later than that.
Me: …Your Kidding, right?
He looped in his boss.
CM: No, no we’re not
So at this point, I decided to give my Boss a call to get him to weigh on this here.
Me: Boss, Management doesn’t want me to get anymore overtime
Boss: That right? They know you operate as a 24/7 tech right?
Me: Yep, they don’t want that apparently.
They reached an agreement.
Boss: Alright, then don’t work after hours then. If that’s what they want, we will give them exactly what they want.
At that point, I knew exactly what he meant, agreed with him and got off the phone.
Me: Alright then, Boss approved so let’s do it then.
After talking things over a bit more, we agreed that I would start at 7 AM and leave at 5 PM, no more than that.
But eventually there would be a reason they’d want him to work late.
After about 3 weeks of just coming in, working and leaving, I finally got my Hilarious Disaster.
One day I left work at 5 and was going home as ordered when out of nowhere, I got this gem of a Convo from who else but the Complex Manager:
CM: That1Guy141! Where are you?!
Me: Going home, like always
He reminded the CM of the agreement.
CM: We need you to come back! Half the Production floor somehow lost Network Connectivity and its put moving product to a grinding halt.
Me: I can’t do that sir
CM: Why not?! Aren’t you always going on about being “24/7?”
Me: Yes, but that was before you all in Management felt I was getting paid waaaayyy too much for just “Doing my Job.” So I’m just doing what I’m told here and leaving at the time you all told me. No more, no less right?
He insisted they’d have to change the policy first.
CM: This isn’t the time to be a Smart Alec! We need you here now!!!
Me: Tell you what, clear things up with HR and my Boss first. In the meantime, I’ll be home.
I hung up afterwards and got home just waiting on that phone call. Not long after settling in, I get a call from the HR Manager telling me that they’ll “rescind the previous policy” and will “allow me to operate at normal capacities again.”
Never Miss a StorySign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
I geared up, strolled into the Plant with the biggest grin as I walked in.
It was an easy fix.
What ultimately happened is that the Core Switches that helps funnel the Connection to other Switches around the production floor was unplugged.
How that happened, idk but maaaaaaaan that was just the thing I needed to cap this all off.
Sure enough, everything came up and things proceeded smooth enough.
Needless to say that since that Incident, no one really questioned why I or my Partner got overtime anymore.
Wow! His company certainly learned why they needed him to work overtime!
Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.
This person would’ve handled it differently.
The boss handled it well!
This does sound frustrating!
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 is a good point.
He really shouldn’t have even taken the phone call. HR could sort it out and change the policy the next day when he’s back at work.
I hope he also charged them overtime for the time he was on the phone and for driving back to work.
It’s fun when management has to eat their words!
Enjoyed this story?
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
