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Heavy workloads require extra hours. Yet this boss demanded overtime while refusing to approve it.

The analyst obeyed the weekly limit exactly, but isn’t that funny – deadlines quickly felt the difference. Crazy!

Let’s unpack how this one went down.

Boss tells me not to work overtime anymore… until the work stops getting done

Another short but sweet, classic time sheet story.

I’m an analyst in a very specific field, working off “submissions” from various clients — meaning, my workload can fluctuate between a few weeks of minimal work, and a few months of having three times the workload one person can reasonably accomplish in a day.

We work relatively independently, with our boss assigning us various clients, and occasionally pulling us off our desks to work on his projects.

The amount of time OP spends at work varies widely.

My boss also has selective workload blindness, wherein he mysteriously forgets about all your existing clients as soon as he needs you to do his project work, which contributes to the bad work weeks being very bad.

Consequentially, sometimes I work 40 hours a week, sometimes I work 50+.

Our boss’ answer to our insane workload is to suggest we “sometimes come in an hour early” or “maybe stay an hour extra”, or “work through lunch”.

So, for a few weeks I did.

The boss had a problem with how many hours they were working.

After a week or two of submitting my accurate time sheets where I came in early, took no lunch, and stayed as long as I could after normal working hours, he came into my office and angrily told me that I needed to keep it under 43 hours a week, because anything over that requires special approval from HIS boss, and he didn’t think my “current workload justified those hours”.

In other words, he had to explain to his boss why our department is working 50 hour work weeks just to stay on top of everything.

So, I started coming into work exactly on time, taking my time through a luxurious hour lunch break, and leaving promptly at 6 PM.

The boss was surprised they were leaving without finishing the projects.

During that time he also pulled me into several projects of his, on top of my other clients.

Every night when I let him know I was leaving, he would look at me with disbelief and remind me of all the outstanding work left on his projects.

I cheerfully told him I was approaching my overtime limit, and would be happy to continue working on it the next day.

After a few weeks of angry client emails, he quietly told me not to worry about my overtime approvals, and to just get the work done.

I can’t wait to quit this hellscape of a job.

This boss found out the hard way that you can’t have it both ways.

You can’t force employees to cut back on their overtime and still expect them to get as much work done as they did while working overtime.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

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This person makes a good point.

This person no longer works overtime.

Yes, this is probably what the boss really meant.

Another person shared what their boss said.

OP began taking full lunches and leaving precisely on time, regardless of the unfinished assignments. After several weeks of angry client emails, the boss quietly approved whatever overtime was necessary.

Weird how urgency becomes real once the customers notice.

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Author

Chris Allen