The New Boss Banned Overtime — Then the Email Server Crashed
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Imagine working in IT. It would seem pretty obvious that there would probably be slow days and busy days, but that didn’t seem obvious to the new boss in this story.
Many managers make the mistake of making big changes before really taking time to see what’s working well and what’s not working. This can really end up backfiring, and that’s exactly what happens when the new boss tells the IT workers they are not hourly instead of salary and are no longer allowed to work overtime.
Keep reading to see how that decision plays out.
The Case of the Hourly IT Workers
I worked in IT at a large, non-technical company.
As is normal in I.T., there were crises, patches and new software installs where it was all hands on deck for 16 hours, and other times when everything was humming along and there was not a lot of work to do.
The boss sounds pretty cool.
Old Boss understood this well.
When we had to work late into the evening, he was fine with us coming in late the next day, leaving early, or even if a couple people didn’t come in at all as long as we rotated who got to stay home so that there was some coverage.
We were all salaried exempt but, overall, the hours were fair despite the occasional very very long days.
But obviously if there’s an old boss, that means there’s also a new boss.
New boss comes in from a non-IT background and sees this system and decides everyone will be hourly and, worse, work set hours.
If we were 10 minutes late, we had to use 10 minutes of PTO or be docked pay for the time, rather than just staying 10 minutes late.
He also declared there would be ZERO overtime.
This worked for about a week. It was slow and the people who would normally leave an hour early had to just sit at their desks and wait to clock out.
Uh-oh!
Then the first major system issue happened where the email server crashed.
We all punched out at 5 and went home.
System stayed down until the following morning.
The boss wants answers.
Well, big boss comes down and wants to know why it took so long to bring the email system back and how it hurt the business.
New boss mumbles something about no staffing in the evening.
Big boss says it’s never been a problem before.
New boss tells us, from that point on, when something breaks we stay to fix it.
Being honest was the best idea they had.
Overtime starts piling up.
Bis boss asks about budget.
Several of us on the team decide to be brave and tell big boss what’s going on and ask if things could just return to the way they were.
Shortly after, an email is sent out saying new boss “has decided to leave to take on another opportunity,” i.e. was fired and that the I.T. dept was returning to salary exempt.
By complying, they got the big boss’s attention. That was the best way to get things to return to normal. Well done!
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Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.
This person knows how to decipher emails.
Another person thinks it worked out well for everyone.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a employee who airs every last grievance in his resignation letter.
Hiring from within could’ve been a better idea.
Another IT worker weighs in.
When will managers learn that they shouldn’t make major changes when they first walk into a new job? They might be the most successful if they don’t change anything.
I hope the next new boss was better.
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