Work-life balance disappeared quickly when a boss refused to respect the clock.

So when one employee kept getting midnight calls from a workaholic boss who insisted he be available at all times, he adjusted his routine to make sure he never missed a call.

Before long, the consequences of those sleepless nights became impossible for HR to ignore.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

HR disciplined management

I was working for a decently sized construction company in the UK when I was about 18.

It was my first “real job” since leaving school. The pay wasn’t great, to be honest, but I was all in on doing my best.

The company was very particular about employees tracking their hours worked.

The company made a habit of not paying overtime.

In fact, it was a no-overtime company.

You work 9–5 and that’s it. This was clear in the contract.

But in practice, people did work extra.

My boss at the time must have not had much of a personal life, as he was the guy that sent emails at 01:00, etc.

He used to call out of hours all the time on our mobiles, and if I was available I’d answer.

No big shakes there. I would help if I could.

The thing is, these interruptions were usually a massive waste of time.

The calls were often completely nonsensical, such as “tomorrow I need you to do this and that” (everything was urgent!).

In reality, all of these calls could have waited until the morning.

After a few weeks of ignoring the calls, I got dragged in to see him.

The boss wasn’t happy this employee refused to be at his beck and call.

The conversation was pretty much one way and went: “You’re being paid enough to monitor your phone at all times.”

“It could be an emergency.”

“I don’t think you’re committed.”

“I can find someone else who is,” etc.

This is where I thought, forget it.

This employee decided to stage a scene, and soon enough, it caught HR’s attention.

I’d turn up to work in the daytime and purposely nod off in meetings.

I’d also try my best to look distant.

The inevitable happened and HR called me in to see if I was okay.

So he decided to let them know exactly what was leading to his exhaustion.

I explained that I had not been sleeping—maybe two or three hours a night—as I was monitoring the phone for calls from “the boss.”

They asked why I just didn’t turn the ringer really high or put it on vibrate.

So I explained I was a very heavy sleeper and had missed the phone on a few occasions, causing the boss to warn me.

HR put a stop to this immediately, which in turn improved his work life balance quite a bit.

This stopped immediately, and non-working hours were off limits to casual calls and generic emails.

I still work there now and am quite high up in the business.

I still get reminded on occasion that we work that way because I was falling asleep in meetings.

Not proud, but at least we all enjoy a good work-life balance and still perform as a business to the same standard.

I think I might have thrown him under the bus a bit, but I did try to discuss it once, and it was very much his way or nothing.

This employee only did what he had to do.

What did Reddit think?

No employee should be forced to work for free.

This employee became an unexpected hero for the whole company!

In workplaces like these, you have to look out for yourself.

This commenter is an expert at checking out of work.

For once, HR was the hero in this story!

If your employees are falling asleep in meetings, it means you’re doing something wrong as a company.

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.