If the rules were poorly written, sometimes, it can work in your favor.

This man worked a rotating shift that didn’t follow the usual 9 to 5 schedule.

His company tried to cut down on overtime and set new rules.

But they forgot to consider how his team operated.

So, thanks to this oversight, he and his team members suddenly got a big raise!

Check out the full story below for all the details.

Changing the definition of overtime? Great!

The company I used to work for changed their definition of overtime.

It’s now “Any hours worked over 40 per week.”

This was to avoid paying overtime to people who stayed later on any given day.

And tried to encourage them to take that time in lieu.

This man belongs to a team that works 24/7 on rotating shifts.

For example, if you worked 10 hours on Monday, you were encouraged to work 6 hours on Tuesday.

Instead of claiming 2 hours of overtime pay.

Here, overtime pays at 1.5x your normal hourly rate, even if you’re salaried.

When they changed these rules, they forgot about my team.

99% of the company worked regular 9-5 Monday-Friday shifts, but my team worked a 24/7 rotating shift.

Some of them would go up to 55 hours a week.

Just by the nature of working shifts like that, sometimes, you end up working up to 55 hours.

This was in a single calendar week, by doing normal 8 hour shifts with no overtime.

This was fine because it meant the next week you worked 25 hours or so.

It always averaged out to be 80 hours a fortnight.

So, they ended up getting an additional $6000 per year.

But, by the wording of this new rule, we were suddenly entitled to loads of overtime.

This was written into our contracts by the union, so they couldn’t go back on it.

It added up to about $6000 per year in extra pay from doing the exact same hours as before.

Wow! Let’s check out the comments of other people.

Rookie mistake on the part of the company, says this one.

This user shares their personal thoughts.

Here’s another honest opinion from this one.

Finally, short and simple.

Sometimes, the real raise comes from someone else’s mistake.

And we love to see it.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.