'[I told] my boss I won't be staying overtime... [Not even] 5 minutes': Employee lets boss have it after he gets reprimanded for not staying past work hours for unpaid overtime

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Jul 8, 2023 6:00 PM EDT

Is it really that difficult of a concept to grasp that you should pay your employees for their work? The whole "get this bread" mentality that has you working over time for no extra pay is completely whack and millennials and Gen Z are starting to shine light on that. However, there are still employers out there telling you to "show initiative" by staying late and giving up more hours of your life for free. How do these types of employers not see how soul sucking and entitled that is?

A guy who is new to the office workplace recently was brought face-to-face with this disrespect of work/life balance issue. He posted on Reddit that he has been working at this office for 9 months now. He had two evaluations and took all the constructive criticism to heart because he was still learning the ropes. However, now, at his third evaluation, he got a comment that didn't sit right with him. You see, he lives far from the city his office is in, so every morning he commutes with a few other friends who also work in the city at that same time and leave at the same time. If he didn't carpool, he would have to take the train and that is an extra hour and a half wait. However, he is act the mercy of that carpool, so cannot stay later at work, or else he would miss his ride and have to wait an extra hour and a half to go home. His boss, however, seemed that this "attitude" would not get him anywhere in his career and reprimanded him for not wanting to stay at work longer for no extra pay. 

Well, the employee let him have it and the discussion seemed to end on a "agree to disagree" mentality. What would you do? Read the entire reddit thread and comments about the situation below!  

Advertisement
  • 01
    Product - Posted by u/TheDavinci 1998 22 hours ago Boss feels I am lacking, because I leave at 4pm flat. Hi, I've been through irritating conversation with my boss today at work and I want to share.
    via u/TheDavinci1998

    Photo via u/pexels-SoraShimazaki

  • 02
    Font - First of all, the company I'm working for doesn't pay the overtime. I'm actually fine with that, because we're really rarely asked to stay longer and when we do, we always have an option to deny if we have some plans. Also, if we actually do stay longer, we count by how much and leave earlier by the same time another day, so it all evens out. They don't make problems about leaving early in those cases.
    via u/TheDavinci1998
  • 03
    Font - Second of all, I'm commuting to work with two other coworkers. We all live in a town around 30km from the company so it's cheaper to share the car and save the gas money. Result of this is, if I leave even 15 minutes later, I have to go for a train, for which I have to wait almost an hour - I'd be home 1.5 hours later than normally.
    via u/TheDavinci1998
  • 04
    Font - So, today I was having a 3month evaluation of my work. It was going quite good, but then my boss said that one area I'm lacking in is the willingness to "show myself" as I have the mindset of "they pay me until 4pm so I'm here until 4pm and not a minute longer".
    via u/TheDavinci1998
  • 05
    Font - And then he said I need to change that as I'm not going to prosper as well as I can with that attitude. He finished by saying he's really happy with how I've been reacting to previous complaints he had towards me, so he trusts I will take this one seriously.
    via u/TheDavinci1998
  • 06
    Font - And then he said I need to change that as I'm not going to prosper as well as I can with that attitude. He finished by saying he's really happy with how I've been reacting to previous complaints he had towards me, so he trusts I will take this one seriously.
    via u/TheDavinci1998
  • 07
    Font - See, I've been there for 9 months so this is my 3rd evaluation. It is also my first office job and I was learning the ropes at the beginning, so his previous complaints were valid, hence I followed his guidelines, guy was right then. Now, however, I couldn't quite believed it.
    via u/TheDavinci1998
  • 08
    Font - I told him that we may have a problem with this one, because they do really pay me until 4pm, so that's when my engagement ends. I also said that it wouldn't be a problem for me to stay up to 20-30 minutes longer occasionally if it wasn't for my commute, but since I travel with others it is a big deal even if I stay 5 minutes
    via u/TheDavinci1998
  • 09
    Font - longer. He acted surprised, told me that he always watches how much overtime people have and makes sure everyone breaks even (which is true tbf to him), but I said it account for my 3x longer commute, the price of a train ticket etc.
    via u/TheDavinci1998
  • 10
    Font - We kinda left the convo in a slight disagreement. He wasn't quite happy with me and I was definitely not happy with him. To make it a little crossover - AITA for telling him all that, even though he's been fair with dealing with overtime?
    via u/TheDavinci1998
  • 11
    Font - FoldintheCh33se 21 hr. ago "They pay me until 4pm, so that's when my engagement ends." Any response your boss makes to this, other than "ok," is just asking you to work for free. Your boss is the asshole in this scenario: if you want/expect employees to work PAY THEM FOR THEIR TIME. It is so damn simple.
    via u/FoldintheCh33se
  • 12
    Font - HisShadow_X 1 point · 6 hours ago So basically ask him if he agrees with wage theft. In your situation you can't work overtime. Is over time a condition if your employment. I worked for JC PENNY back in 2004. What they used to do is after closing we would have to stay and count the money and then wait to go upstairs and wait to hand in our money. We didn't get paid overtime. (I quit same year) So years later I believe in 2017 we finally got our checks of back pay since we sued
    via u/HisShadow_X
  • 13
    Font - Fuzzy-Constant Pooperintendant [55] Score hidden · 22 hours ago Obviously NTA. Why is your attitude of working only the hours you're paid for worse then their attitude of only paying you your agreed-upon salary? TheDavinci1998 OP Score hidden · 22 hours ago I feel like it might be worse, because I won't really work longer even if stay longer - I would work shorter another day to make up for it and they will let me no questions asked. Hence the post. If they just asked me to stay longer wi
    via u/Fuzzy-Constant
  • 14
    Font - Zackp3242 19 hr. ago At my current place overtime is pretty typical. I've stayed as long as 2-3 hours over without issue the past 5 years. This last December my manager decided to get up and move across the country to work fully 100% remote so he can't exactly see what everyone is working on at any given time.
    via u/Zackp3242
  • 15
    Font - Now I'm not sure what was up with him on this particular day but during a meeting I was asked; "You had 10 minutes of overtime, would you say you were being productive and actually working during that time? Can you prove what you were working on?"
    via u/Zackp3242
  • 16
    Font - Of course I couldn't exactly prove it so I just stood my ground and said yes I was "being productive" (air quotes with my fingers and all) Since then I have not clocked in a single second earlier than 9:00:00AM nor clocked out a second later than 6:00:00PM.
    via u/Zackp3242
  • 17
    Font - (Out clock in/out is digital and goes down to the second) No matter what it is I'm doing I drop it, get up and leave. Now projects won't get finished until the next day and it has a big effect on timelines. Clients aren't exactly happy that their sole contact isn't available all the time anymore. I feel no remorse.
    via u/Zackp3242

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

bad-manager aita employee work-evaluation bad-management r-antiwork millennial-employee toxic-boss workplace gen-z-employee bad bosses Reddit toxic-work-culture
Scroll Down For The Next Article