Imagine relaxing on your day off when your supervisor calls asking you to come in to work. Would you go to work or refuse?

In this story, one man was in this situation, and he did not want to go to work. However, he had a better plan than saying no. He knew how to get out of working but how to still get paid for it.

He was actually really clever and tipped off his friend and coworker to do the same thing.

Let’s read all about it.

3 Hours Pay for 0 Minutes Work? Yes Please.

Cast:

Paul: our hero. Why Paul? That’s his name.

Dave: Paul’s sidekick.

Supervisor: Paul and Dave’s direct supervisor (Team Lead)

Manager: Supervisor’s manager (Ops Manager)

Here’s some context about Paul’s job.

Paul worked for a Canadian branch of an India-based call centre company, on the tech support contract for an American based electronics company (based in Cupertino, CA). Got that? Whew.

This particular call centre (at the time) had an issue with fulfilling the “Agents available” criteria of their contract, and was “offering” lots of overtime.

“Offering”, as in “Hey! It’s your day off! How much overtime can I put you down for?”

“That’s not so bad”, I hear you say.

But actually it is pretty bad.

True, if ”No” was an acceptable answer, and if “overtime” actually involved additional pay. Or additional time off. Or…any sort of compensation.

“But that’s illegal!”, I hear you cry.

I do believe you are correct, but I Am Not A LawyerTM. From Paul’s information, the company was playing fast and loose with “banked” overtime, storing it up for future days off, but then would never approve the time off requests, until agents simply quit (or were fired).

On to our story!

He thought he had the day off.

Our hero was relaxing over breakfast one morning on his day off, when the phone rang. Work? Le sigh. But wait… lightbulb!

Paul: …Y’ello?

Supervisor: Paul, we need you for overtime. What time can you come in?

Paul: Ahhhhh….

Paul went along with what his supervisor suggested.

Supervisor: I’ve got you set up for 30 minutes from now.

Paul: ….OK…..shure……

Supervisor: OK. See you soon.

One call to Dave later….

But Paul didn’t actually plan to do much work that day.

Paul: Davo!! We’re going to punk Supervisor!!

Dave: Dude!

Paul: Dude!

Dave: Du-ude!!

Dave went along with it.

Paul: Supervisor is going to call for overtime. Trust me; just accept it, and say as little as possible. We’re going to pretend we’re drunk!

Dave: Pretend. Drunk. Got it. Cya.

{{A little while later}}

Paul and Dave “sneak” in to work, and log in to the phones to “start work”.

Let’s see how you “pretend to be drunk.”

Now, let me paint a picture for you. They are (apparently) wearing the same clothes as the previous day, but now wrinkled. Unshaven, they smell like they have been bathing in beer, and gargling with whiskey.

And when I say “sneak”, I mean that their progress would not have been out of character for Bugs Bunny at his most outrageous.

Within minutes of taking a seat, Manager comes scurrying over, possibly alerted by the aroma surrounding our intrepid heroes.

Manager: Why are you here?

The manager knew they couldn’t work like this.

Paul and Dave: We’re doing overtime!

Manager: But you can’t work drunk! How can you already be drunk?? It’s not even 9AM!

Paul: We’re not already drunk, we’re still drunk.

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Manager: Who authorized this??

Paul and Dave: Supervisor.

The manager sent them home.

Manager: Fine! I’ll deal with this. You guys, go home!

Paul: But you’re going to pay us our 3 hours[1], right?

Manager: Buh…buh…buh…. Yes.

Note for non-Canadians: Canadian (or at least Ontario) labour law has a 3 hour minimum shift length, to protect part-time workers from getting by their employers.

That worked out well!

So our valiant heroes galloped off into the sunset, secure in the knowledge they had made the world a better place.

Actually, they wandered off home, and were never, ever called for overtime again.

And yes, they did get their 3 hours standard pay.

I love it! Well played!

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

I’m confused about the same thing.

Someone who works at a hospital shares how overtime works there.

This person shared their favorite part.

I don’t think this person understood the story correctly.

To correct the comment above, if I understood the story correctly, OP and his friend were not pretending they had been working all night. The pretended they had been drinking all night and were just now coming into work drunk on their day off, so they got sent home. But since the minimum amount you can pay someone overtime in Canada is 3 hours, they got 3 hours of pay for the inconvenience of going to work.

It was good revenge for trying to force the employees to work on their day off.