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Lunch rules can get tricky.

New managers seem to love to make them trickier.

One plant operator is ordered to clock out every day.

Simple. He just chooses his timing carefully.

See how nuisance alarms ruin the new plan like…ahem…CLOCKwork.

New Manager Forces Me To Take Lunches, So I do.

So the place I work at had mandatory lunch hours we’re supposed to take between certain hours based on what hours we’re working.

I’m an operator, so it’s not like I can just walk away from the job if somethings going on. My duty is to keep the plant running, and make sure nothing bad is happening to the equipment.

So, after constantly having to call the old manager about missing my clock ins or clock outs because I got busy with something, he told me about this survey I could fill out whenever this happened that basically said “I took my lunch, I just didn’t clock out for it” and payroll would adjust it accordingly.

Here’s how that would work.

So, on that note, if you’re on an official clocked out lunch as an operator, and an alarm goes off or you’re interrupted for any reason, you have to clock back in and address the issue, and then either clock out again and retake your entire lunch, or just call a manager/fill out the survey and you’re basically paid for your lunch.

So, I filled out the survey every single morning, choosing to just skip the whole ordeal of trying to remember my lunches. That’s literally what the survey is for.

Now, onto the MC.

The new manager doesn’t like that OP is filling out a survey instead of clocking out.

New manager comes in, a month in he pulls me aside and says I haven’t been clocking out for lunches.

I inform him of the survey.

He tells me that’s only for the occasional missed lunch.

I disagree with him, the writing clearly states “I voluntarily choose to skip my meal”.

He basically orders me to start clocking out for lunch.

He’ll comply, but he’s going to time it just right!

Sneaky MC ensues.

So for the next two weeks, since I have a two hour window to take a half hour lunch I waited until about the last half hour and then specifically wait until I see a certain piece of equipment drawing close to a nuisance alarm level, and then clock out for lunch.

Somewhere between 5-10 minutes later the alarm goes off.

This creates a new problem.

Oops, guess I have to clock back in, and go silence that alarm.

Oh no! Not enough time left to restart my lunch!

I did that for two weeks straight, forcing the company to pay me for my half hour interrupted lunches.

New manager tried to ignore it. Until HIS boss (who was like..old old manager, but got promoted a few years back) comes down to ask me why I stopped filling out the survey.

He explained that situation.

I inform him of New Managers instructions, to which he rolls his eyes and tells me to go back to using the survey. Never heard another word about it.

And the cherry on top?

We just got all new time clocks a few weeks ago.

The survey lingo pops up when we clock out now, instead of just a name and a time. . So I STILL don’t have to clock out for lunch. Now I just click ‘Ok’, agreeing that I took my lunch at some point, and I’m good to go. *fist pump*

It’s too bad taking a lunch break is such an ordeal, but it sounds like the new time clock makes it easier than ever.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Seriously, this doesn’t sound like a win.

There are two scenarios, and neither one is a win.

Another person thinks the company is the only one who is winning.

OP should be paid for an interrupted lunch.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a customer who wants to argue about an item they chose not being on sale.

OP must not work in California.

He timed his lunches around predictable alarms, forcing interruptions that made the company pay for the entire break.

After two weeks, the new manager’s boss told him to return to the original survey system.

Turns out mandatory lunches work better when the machinery agrees.