Imagine being asked to work on the weekend to finish a project. Would you be willing to help out, or would you refuse?

In this story, one man is in this situation, and he’s happy to earn some extra overtime working all weekend. However, he’s not happy with the coworker who thinks she’s in charge. She may be the point person on the project, but she doesn’t make the rules.

The employees are given a project to complete in 2 12-hour shifts.

Keep reading to find out what happens when they realize they’re running out of time.

Colleague thinks she’s the big boss – But actual boss said no overtime no matter what!

One Friday evening I get a call from the CFO (this guy never called me before I didn’t even know he had my number) who liked playing at project management sometimes.

He tells me there has been a huge mess up in a project.

I asked him if it was a project I was involved in?

No no it had nothing to do with me and they desperately needed people to come in on Saturday and Sunday and work because this project needs to be delivered to the customer on Monday morning and would I be able to go?

OP was excited to work overtime.

I say sure! (In this company any work on Saturday and Sunday was overtime from the first minute and the overtime rate was very good),

He told me I would be joined by 5 of my colleagues – Almost all of them a delight to work with and one more person that is also a colleague but has all the information regarding this project so she would “lead” it and tell us what’s needed to be done – lets call her wannabe genius boss lady (In a cynical way of course, she is not in any way shape or form a genius) or genius in short.

Everybody working on this project has at least 3 years experience in the company, some have more than 10 so there wasn’t any need for a baby sitter, this fact matters for the rest of the story.

The “genius” made it clear that she’s in charge.

Saturday morning rolls around and I get to location, we all meet and have some coffee and home made cookies that my wife made for us.

genius comes in, asks us to gather around and explains that this project was done wrong from the get go, the company spent hundreds of man hours on it and it was all done wrong and we 5 have to in 2 days work not only disassemble everything that was done but re do it from scratch in the correct manner, which not only involved putting it back together but also re fabricating parts that were done wrong.

Then she goes on to say in these exact words: “I’m the boss, you do what I say, I have all the schematics in my head if you don’t know something ask me and I’ll tell you how to do it”.

We all look at each other with a puzzled look but just shrug our shoulders, then she quickly and i mean QUICKLY lay down some rules that she wants us to follow, stupid things that just interfere with our jobs but no one actually caught all of them.

But the CFO has a rule.

So we start working, like I said we are all experienced, we work in another facility that the company owns and were brought especially to fix this facility’s mess up.

All through the job genius does NOTHING, except get in our way, asking stupid questions,drinking coffee, taking smoking breaks, treating people badly and making up stupid rules as she goes.

At some point the CFO comes in and starts talking to me and in the conversation he says these words “No matter what, no one works overtime – no more than 12 hours a day NO MATTER WHAT” (Because its a Saturday the rules allows us to work up to 12 hours but more than that and the company can get fined).

Genius promises the CFO that the job will be done no matter what within those 2 days of 12 hours.

But it was a lot of work to do in 24 work hours.

Saturday’s work is done after 12 hours we all say goodbye and leave coming back the next day.

We get to work again with her making the atmosphere worse and worse by the minute, not trusting us when we say were gonna do something, hovering over us and generally being a nuisance.

As the day goes we can see that we are not going to make it on time. We try to tell her that but she is adamant that this will be done on time.

I tried to explain to her a few times that seeing how much work there is and her INSISTING we do not use automated tools – its not possible to finish this in the 5 or 6 hours we have left.

“Genius” won’t listen.

There was a lot more stuff that she pulled but I won’t name all of it to save time on this already long story and maybe try to keep a bit of anonymity just in case someone recognizes this story.

She won’t hear it, she says the job will be done.

I’m like whatever dude I’m just gonna do what I can since you won’t listen.

1 hour before end of day comes around, we have all been working for 11 hours – genius finally realizes this isn’t going to work, she calls a real project manager – her friend and starts talking to him.

They apparently came up with a plan.

I hear her talking on the phone and she is blaming us for not working fast enough or whatever and tells him she promised the CFO to have this done (I’m assuming she was betting on riding this success into a promotion or something) and she doesn’t know what to do.

Then she walks out of the building and continues talking out of earshot.

After a few minutes of conversation she comes back in all guns blazing telling us to round up again so she can talk to us, with fire in her eyes she goes “Ok, you (points at a guy) don’t leave until this (points at one part of the project) isn’t done, you (points at me) don’t leave until that (another part) is done, and continues doing this until she counted off everybody” and then she walks off, I’m assuming for a coffee or smoke break or whatever.

Cue malicious compliance.

She was not expecting this!

Exactly 12 hours after arriving we all put down our tools and start heading out the door – she is SHOCKED asking us “where are you going???”

We all say “Were going home, we have been here for 12 hours”.

She says: “I told you that none of you leave until your parts are finished and tested”

To which we reply: “No more than 12 hours no matter what!” and we leave.

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Here’s what ended up happening with the project…

Later on I found out that she stayed by herself until 04:00 in the morning to finish it all by herself.

She couldn’t do it and had to go home as well.

Her Project manager friend came in on Morning to help her finish the job.

The project was late, customer came in to pick it up and wasn’t happy to see it still not packaged and ready to go.

Maybe they could’ve finished in those two 12-hour shifts if “genius” had helped out. Or, maybe they needed more people to work on the project.

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

I completely agree!

Another person shares their experience with managers.

This person would’ve talked to the CFO.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who found a way around his company’s denial of company time to study for his Commercial Driver’s License.

If only the “genius” had helped out all weekend.

I’m guessing the job would’ve been completed in those 24 hours if the “genius” actually did something to help. It sounds like she was capable. It also sounds like she was lazy or thought that as the person in charge of the project she didn’t have to help.

Getting the project done on time was important. Hopefully, she learned her lesson and will be willing to help out the next time she’s in charge, if there is a next time.

At least there were cookies.