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Cutting costs as a boss is easy when you just make your employees absorb them.

One retail store got a new manager who announced that “labor hours were too high,” and he had quite the fix in mind.

He decreed that, at closing, employees would clock out at their scheduled time and then finish the checklist, which covered counting the register, wiping everything down, taking out the trash, and locking storage.

That added 15 to 25 minutes of unpaid work to every closing shift.

A few desperate coworkers kept quiet, but one employee decided she was going to fight this with every fiber of her being.

Keep reading for the full story.

My manager wants us to clock out before doing the closing checklist

We got a new store manager a few weeks ago, and he told everyone that labor hours are too high.

So the boss came up with a slimy approach to fix this.

His solution is that at closing, we clock out at our scheduled time, then finish the closing checklist.

Counting the register, wiping everything down, taking trash out, locking storage, all of it.

Usually takes another 15 to 25 minutes.

Of course, the boss tried to spin it.

I asked if he was seriously telling us to work after clocking out, and he said, “I’m telling you to manage your time better.”

A couple of coworkers really need the hours and don’t want to push back.

The boss is now going full speed ahead with this plan.

Today he printed the clock-out times and taped them next to the closing checklist, like that somehow makes this more normal.

I took a picture of it before he realizes what he just documented.

Is this even legal?

Reddit chimes in with their two cents.

Other employees have taken matters like these into court.

This commenter urges the employee to take this matter very seriously.

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The employee should get HR involved, but be strategic about the wording.

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.

How could this boss be so brazenly wrong?

This manager wanted lower labor numbers and found the cheapest way to get them, which was to stop paying for the work. That’s not really how it works.

Telling a closing crew to clock out and then finish the checklist is an order to work for free, not to simply “manage your time better.”

How could a boss be this careless?

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Author

Benjamin Cottrell

Benjamin Cottrell | Assistant Editor, Internet Culture

Benjamin Cottrell is an Assistant Editor and contributing writer at TwistedSifter, specializing in internet culture, viral social dynamics, and the moral complexities of online communities. He brings a highly analytical, editorial voice to his reporting on workplace conflicts, malicious compliance, and interpersonal drama, with a specific focus on nuanced stories that lack an obvious villain.

As a published author of rhetorical criticism, Benjamin leverages his academic background in human communication to dissect and elevate viral social media threads. Instead of simply summarizing events, he provides readers with balanced, deep-dive commentary into why the internet reacts the way it does. In addition to his cultural reporting, he is an experienced fine art photography essayist and video game reviewer.

When he isn’t analyzing the latest viral debates, Benjamin is usually chipping away at his extensive video game backlog, hunting down the best new restaurants, or out exploring the city with a camera in hand.

Connect with Benjamin on Instagram and read more of his essays on Substack.