Sometimes at work, all you can do is 40 and out!

And if you’re not getting paid for your time, it’s time to head out the door, baby!

Check out how this worker maliciously complied when they were told that overtime was a big no-no.

Take a look at what happened!

No Overtime? No Problem.

“I’m back again with another Malicious Compliance story from my Lovely Job as a Network Admin at a Food Processing Plant.

This will involve Me, Management, and Overtime.

I’ve seen a lot of stories in the subreddit regarding how their employers don’t want the respective OP’s to gain any additional overtime or any at all in order to save costs and whatnot.

Of course, that led to some hilarious ramifications and that reminded me of a similar situation that happened as well, with a similarly disastrous yet hilarious outcome.

This happened about a year ago but I can remember this clearly by how everything panned out.

So let me set the scene here:

I was by myself in the office (Boss was at a different plant and my buddy was on vacay), I was sitting in my office when I had, and I kid you not here, the HR Manager, Complex Manager and Plant Manager all stand by one of my doors wanting me to open it (Also keep in mind that my office has Cipher Locks on all the doors that Nobody has access to but the IT Department).

Here I am, a bit confused here but thought that they may need to ask me a question about a project or something.

Here we go…

Nope, not even Close. Here’s how the Convo went as best as I could remember:

HR: Why do you have 16 Hours of Overtime last week?

Me: ….Because of Issues that required me to stay after hours? Also the Calls I’ve gotten from 3rd Shift as well. Not to mention that I worked Saturday when the Plant was running.

HR: Even so, we found this to be a bit…excessive. You always seem to collect at least 6-8 hours of Overtime every week.

Me: It’s a bit excessive that I’m doing my job? I’m not understanding the problem here.

CM: Basically we’ve talked it over and thought it would be best that you just work for the hours your here and leave at 5 PM, no later than that.

Me: …You’re Kidding, right?

CM: No, no we’re not.

If that’s what they want…

So at this point, I decided to give my Boss a call to get him to weigh on this here.

Me: Boss, Management doesn’t want me to get anymore overtime

Boss: Is that right? They know you operate as a 24/7 tech right?

Me: Yep, they don’t want that apparently.

Boss: Alright, then don’t work after hours then. If that’s what they want, we will give them exactly what they want.

At that point, I knew exactly what he meant, agreed with him and got off the phone.

Me: Alright then, Boss approved, so let’s do it then.

After talking things over a bit more, we agreed that I would start at 7 AM and leave at 5 PM, no more than that. After about 3 weeks of just coming in, working and leaving, I finally got my Hilarious Disaster.

One day I left work at 5 and was going home as ordered when out of nowhere, I got this gem of a Convo from who else but the Complex Manager:

CM: Where are you?!

Me: Going home, like always

CM: We need you to come back! Half the Production floor somehow lost Network Connectivity and its put moving product to a grinding halt.

Nope!

Me: I can’t do that sir

CM: Why not?! Aren’t you always going on about being “24/7?”

Me: Yes, but that was before you all in Management felt I was getting paid waaaayyy too much for just “Doing my Job.” So I’m just doing what I’m told here and leaving at the time you all told me. No more, no less right?

CM: This isn’t the time to be a smart ***! We need you here now!!!

Me: Tell you what, clear things up with HR and my Boss first. In the meantime, I’ll be home.

I hung up afterwards and got home just waiting on that phone call. Not long after settling in, I get a call from the HR Manager telling me that they’ll “rescind the previous policy” and will “allow me to operate at normal capacities again.”

It was time to go back to work!

I geared up, strolled into the Plant with the most Poo eating grin as I walked in.

What ultimately happened is that the Core Switches that helps funnel the Connection to other Switches around the production floor was unplugged, how that happened I don’t know, but maaaaaaaan that was just the thing I needed to cap this all off.

Sure enough, everything came up and things proceeded smooth enough. Needless to say that since that Incident, no one really questioned why I or my Partner got overtime anymore.”

Reddit users spoke up.

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Another reader spoke up.

This Reddit user chimed in.

Another individual spoke up.

And this reader shared their thoughts.

Today’s lesson…only work the hours you get paid for!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.