'We took our sweet [...] time': Hospital manager refuses to allow OT, overworked nurses find loophole

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Sep 23, 2023 2:00 PM EDT

There's a special satisfaction that comes with finding a successful loophole to get around a silly workplace policy. Especially when it comes to getting paid fairly for all the work you do.

Now, you know that nurses have to put up with a ton of nonsense on the job that makes saving lives more challenging than it already must be. However, this bureaucratic silliness sounds like way too much. This Redditor shared their story via this thread on Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit, which detailed how their new manager started to enforce a strict "no overtime" policy. This meant that nurses could not work more than seven minutes after they clocked out. Now, it's not like these nurses want to stay longer, but saving lives takes time and they were encouraged to rush their work so they wouldn't have to request overtime pay. Imagine learning that the people responsible for your health and well-being were being told to rush on the job. Luckily, OP and their fellow nurses found a loophole: if they had to work, say, 45 minutes overtime, their manager had no choice but to pay them. So, you can just imagine what they chose to do.

Keep scrolling below for the full story. For more stories like this, here is one about an employee who was pressured into working overtime after 10-hour shifts.

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  • 01
    Hair - "Don't want to pay me 7 [minutes of overtime? Mmmkay, pay me an hour."
    via MedicAlert UK
  • 02
    Font - Don't want to pay me 7 minutes of overtime? Mmmkay, pay me an hour. S OC I'm a nurse and a hospital I worked at early on paid by tenths of an hour, as most do. They were cracking down on OT. They were more than happy for us to clock out up to 7:36 (quit time was 7:30 and this meant we didn't get OT)
    via u/damishkers
  • 03
    Font - but if we clocked out at 7:37 -0.1 hour late, it was a problem. The unit I was on got a new director and became O More and more people quit, they couldn't replace them, we became dangerously short staffed. We never took the 2 15m breaks. Ever. We usually clocked out for a lunch,
    via u/damishkers
  • 04
    Font - because you'd get in trouble if you didn't, never mind you didn't have time, but we had to clock out. About half the time we would have to work during that mandatory lunch, unpaid. What am I going to do? Sorry you're but my lunch is getting cold?
    via u/damishkers
  • 05
    Font - Anyway, big OT crackdown came. Our manager told us if we had more than 1 late clock out we'd get a verbal (not really verbal bc it's documented in file), another late clock out a written.
    via u/damishkers
  • 06
    Font - Then who knows. Now, I rarely clocked out late because I worked my tail off but about once every other week I may clock out 0.1-0.2h late but that's because I'd tried REALLY hard to get out on time. I didn't even want the OT,
    via u/damishkers
  • 07
    Font - I wanted to go home! About everyone got a verbal within 2 weeks. She then came back and said if you clock out 0.1-0.4h late then you would get the verbal. However, if it was >0.5h late then they knew something bad happened and would let it go. So all of us that did our best to get out within 0.1 late on bad days? No longer. We took our sweet time and we were all clocking out 45-60 minutes late. Our documentation was never so perfect. Suddenly they dropped they dropped the whole bs.
    via u/damishkers
  • 08
    Font - horsewoman1 23 hr. ago One of the most violated labor laws is, when you are clocked out for an unpaid lunch and you even get asked anything about the job, let alone get up to do work, you must be paid for the entire break.it is a serious fine.
    via u/damishkers
  • 09
    Font - JoeyJoeJoeJrShab 23 hr. ago What am I going to do? Sorry you're but my lunch is getting cold? That's simultaneously funny and incredibly depressing. Funny is the tone I assume you were writing with, and it makes me depressed that the system regularly exploits you and others in this way.
    via u/damishkers
  • 10
    Font - Archangel4500000 1 day ago Ferengi rule of Acquisition #144 "There's nothing wrong with charity... as long as it winds up in your pocket."
    via u/damishkers
  • 11
    Font - Grimmjow91 23 hr. ago Uuuuh working without pay is a massive labor law violation. Talk to a lawyer and get that bag
    via u/damishkers
  • 12
    Font - damishkers OP. 23 hr. ago At the time I should have but this was years ago and I was a newer nurse. I now have an amazing job, wfh with no direct patient care, salaried, and if I'm honest I am paid more than adequately for what I do. There is a reason I left that job and bedside altogether. This is not unusual.
    via u/damishkers
  • 13
    Gesture - MomOfMoe 23 hr. ago . Administrators will never learn. Don't with nurses.
    via u/damishkers
  • 14
    Font - Safe_Butterscotch239. 22 hr. ago This is why people dodge customers when it's five minutes to home time.
    via u/damishkers
  • 15
    Font - Squidking1000 · 21 hr. ago I've never worked medical but I've worked 'high stress" places that treated you like 'family" (i.e. expected everything for free and unearned devotion) and the trick to taking lunch in those places is clock out and physically leave. Even if it's just walk down the block you have to get out of contact range for that 30 minutes. If they are not paying you DO NOT work!
    via u/damishkers
  • 16
    Font - TopClock231 20 hr. ago Always take your breaks at any job. You arent doing the company any favors, they wont remember you for doing it and if anything you become a labor board liability to them.
    via u/damishkers
  • 17
    Font - bitwisewahoo - 23 hr. ago Lol yet another tale of "Manager just tells people to work without pay" That these idiot admin folks continue to try this is astounding.
    via u/damishkers
  • 18
    Font - Hour-Alive 17 hr. ago I just wanted to say thank you to all the nurses here (past, present, and future). I greatly appreciate everything you have done, currently do, and will do. I know you don't/won't hear and/or read that often. When I have been in the hospital, I try my hardest to be a good person and to be patient with you. I know I am not the only person you are helping and you are doing your best. I can't believe that despite everything how sweet every nurse has been. Some have come
    via u/damishkers

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Tags

nurses workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace malicious compliance hospital malicious-compliance-reddit toxic-boss Horrible Bosses reddit thread Reddit toxic-work-environment
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