'I just smiled and got into my car': Management says "No overtime," so technician leaves mid-job

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Aug 3, 2023 6:00 PM EDT

Anyone who has had a job has probably, at some point, worked through their break—if you're working in certain industries, you've probably worked through many. The integrity of the organization and your manager will be determined when they find out that you've had to finish your breaks to keep up with the workload or a rush of customers. Chances are they quietly turned a blind eye and pretended that it wasn't happening; after all, the store has been understaffed for so long that it's basically the expectation at this point that you won't be taking breaks! The thing is, not only is this bad for stress and burnout, but those unpaid hours add up—fast.  

After being informed by management that the decision had been made that his overtime—earned by working through his lunch break in order to finish a job—would not be approved (classic), this technician had a simple problem to work through… He had already worked that time—and he certainly wasn't going to work that time for free—so if he couldn't take overtime, that just meant that he would have to leave early! So, once he hit his 40 hours on Friday, he packed up and left, leaving the frantic company to pick up the pieces of their silly decision. They really couldn't be too upset; after all, leaving early on Friday had been their suggestion!

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  • 01
    Font - Can't approve overtime? Ok I'll just leave early on Friday. M OC For background, this took place in the 1990's when a T1 (1.5 Mbps data connection) would run you over $500 a month and only the phone company and a few very large, data-centric companies would even dream of having a T3 (43 Mbps)
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  • 02
    Font - I was working for one of those telephone companies in the central office where we provisioned and trouble-shot those very lucrative services. There were 4 people in my department, making it one of the larger such office in the state. One day there was one person on vacation, and another one out of the office for some other reason, tech #3 called in sick. I was alone for 8 hours with the workload of 4 technicians. Well, as a good employee, I prioritized and got all the trouble tickets done
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  • 03
    Font - My supervisor came down at the end of the day to congratulate me for my good work, and he was watching me fill out my timesheet for 9 hours. He started to get a little panicky, and said he couldn't approve overtime. He would get in trouble. I reminded him that I had just spent 9 hours doing the work of 4 people (32 hours worth of work) But he said it wasn't approved. I said, what can we do then? I worked it, I need to get paid. He suggested I leave an hour early on Friday. So I agreed.
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  • 04
    Font - Come Friday, I decided to take full advantage and only take a half hour lunch so I could leave at 3:30 instead of 4:00. We'll guess what? The vacationer and the sick person had not returned so it was just two of us. The other person disappeared at 1:30 or so. I found out later she was interviewing for a management position. At 3:00 I got paged for a ticket on one of those very expensive T3's "down hard" I was to join a conference bridge to assist in troubleshooting. I joined the call, the
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  • 05
    Font - I hadn't even reached my car when the pager started blowing up. Overtime is approved, please stay on. But I had already clocked out and so I just smiled and got into my car. Drove home and took my wife out for a long overdue date night.
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  • 06
    Font - oteezy333 The best part about this entire story is you still clocking out even when they realized their grave mistake. Like nah, you made your bed, now fucking lie in it 43.3k VeganMuppetCannibal +2 S Reply Share With some people, you have to let them touch the stove before they will learn that it is hot. 1.4k Reply Share
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  • 07
    Font - MadRocketScientist 74 +1 "I can't approve overtime." Then I strongly suggest you raise this issue with your boss and get the ability to approve overtime, or this will bite you in the ass. 2.8k Reply Share Young-Grandpa OP He was always fighting that battle. To his credit, I worked for him 2 years or so after that and he never questioned my timesheet again. I even have some stories where I helped him overcome other techs' malicious compliance but those don't fit this sub. 1.5k Reply Share
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  • 08
    Font - buttgers Aside from not being miserly, they should've known an issue would arise. Something ALWAYS goes wrong towards the end of Friday. 2.2k Reply Share centstwo +1 Right? We leave at 5:00, so usually at 4:30 the fire starts. This one time, on a Friday, the fire started at 3:30. We're like WTF, it isn't even 4:00 yet? Is this a time change issue? Reply Share 735
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  • 09
    Font - Modular Persona he couldn't approve overtime +1 They always can't right up until they can. Reply Share 207 rbt321 Good chance they used this incident as an example of why they should be able to approve overtime. 61 Reply Share
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  • 10
    Font - StolidSentinel "People don't leave jobs, they leave bad management." 402 Reply Share Young-Grandpa OP The funny thing is, I really liked that manager. We were almost friends. We had a talk the following Monday, where I told him he could trust I wouldn't cheat him, but he had to have my back. I worked for him 2 more years and he never questioned my overtime again. Reply Share 308
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management malicious compliance technician workplace overtime
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