'I've worked here for 25 years... watch me tank the company': Boss dangles 'firing' over veteran employee who left 19-hour shift 3 minutes early, veteran leads rest of employees down path of compliance, leading to boss getting fired

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
Sep 24, 2023 7:00 AM EDT

One boss had to lie in the bed he made when he yapped at the wrong employee for leaving a shift just three minutes early. I would like to see the expression on his face when he looks in the mirror and has to answer the question that will hopefully bug him forever more… Was it worth it?

Before I get ahead of myself, I ought to start at the beginning. The OP, u/irritatingfarquar, was working at a water company for a whopping 25 years, when new management came into the picture. OP was good at his job, and one of the most productive employees in the entire company, but this new manager was on a power trip, and nobody was going to stop him. One day, OP finished a 19-hour shift a couple of minutes early. He was covered in mud and sweat, and extremely tired.

His boss noticed that on the vehicle tracker, it stated that OP had left three minutes early, so he called OP into his office, gave him a right shouting at, and told him that he could be fired for such a thing. This manager's exact words were, 'You were trying to defraud the company'.

Livid, OP decided that from then on, he would be extremely strict about company guidelines. No more coming in half an hour early. In fact, no more deviation from shifts whatsoever. Well, upper management did not like that, as it was costing them buckets of money. Moreover, the other employees were following OP's lead… it was a storm, alright.

Scroll down to read exactly what happened and about the beautiful, justifiable ending. Next, you can read about another employee who got others to follow his lead when his office security checkpoint was making him empty his bag one too many times.

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  • 01
    Tire
    via Canva
  • 02
    Font - Posted by u/irritatingfarquar 4 hours ago So you are claiming I defrauded the company by booking an extra 3 minutes, No problem M OC I worked for a water company for 25 years and was one of their most productive repair crews, that is until The new manager Let's call him Mr N₁ ts started.
    via u/irritatingfarquar
  • 03
    Font - We had a monthly rota where you are on call for one week in 4, for emergency repairs out of hours. On the day in question I started work at 7.30 am on a Friday and finished work at at 3.15 am Saturday morning, so a pretty long a d shift. I get to work Tuesday morning and get called into the office by Mr N ts and informed that according to my vehicle tracker I'd left the yard at 3.12 am and not 3.15 am, which is an
    via u/irritatingfarquar
  • 04
    Font - attempt to defraud the company, As you can imagine I was absolutely fuming at this level of b t, I told him that at the time I was covered in mud and sweat and just wanted to get home after completing a monster shift for the company and was he genuinely making a s t storm over 3 minutes. He said he was making me aware that I could be fired for it.
    via u/irritatingfarquar
  • 05
    Font - Cue malicious compliance. I said that if we're going to be this petty you can take me off the emergency contact list for extra coverage and I won't be starting 20 minutes early each day either, I'll now be clocking in at exactly 7.30 am and I shall be heading out at exactly 5.30 pm, no deviation whatsoever and you can explain to your bosses why productivity is down and you are
    via u/irritatingfarquar
  • 06
    Font - struggling to get coverage for emergencies. We'll then see how important your 3 minutes are when they are costing the company money. Little did I realise at the time but the guys job was bonus related and linked to our productivity, which tanked after that because all the other gangs followed my lead, except the brown nose gangs obviously.
    via u/irritatingfarquar
  • 07
    Font - S Three weeks go by with an absolute t show in customer service complaints about their work not being carried out in a timely manner My productivity dropped from 7 jobs per day down to 4. And Mr N :s gets called in by his bosses to try and explain wtf is going on, He tried to spin some bs story that I'd turned all the guys against him for no reason and that this was the result.
    via u/irritatingfarquar
  • 08
    Font - Little did he know that I'd actually trained his boss when he first started with the company 15 years before and wanted to come out and find out what we do and experience how hard the job is, he surprised me by working a full month on the repair crews before going back to the office. Anyhow the boss calls me in to find out what is really going on, so I explained how he'd used the tracker to monitor what time I'd left the yard
    via u/irritatingfarquar
  • 09
    Font - and that I'd guesstimated my finish time and over estimated by 3 minutes because I was absolutely knackered after working a shift from hell on-call . Conclusion, manager was let go for misuse of the tracking system, as it's only supposed to be used for emergencies and not monitoring and we had our on-call system reviewed to cut the hours we were having to work.
    via u/irritatingfarquar
  • 10
    Font - not-rasta-8913 · 4 hr. ago When will new managers learn not to s w with veteran employees? Probably never. Vote Reply Share irritatingfarquar OP. 3 hr. ago It's very rare to find one that isn't on some kind of power trip when they first start, in saying that though his boss was
    via u/not-rasta-8913, u/irritatingfarquar
  • 11
    Font - actually one of those unicorns, who looked at the bigger picture and made changes based on what the people doing the job were telling him. For example they employed a bean counter to manage our stores procurement and the quality of everything dropped within a month, I explained to our boss that although
    via u/irritatingfarquar
  • 12
    Font - the stuff was slightly cheaper that it was going to cost more in the long run because we'd be buying it more often due to it breaking , so they switched it back to the original gear and made the procurement guy look for better deals, instead of buying st equipment for us to use. Vote Reply Share
    via u/irritatingfarquar
  • 13
    Font - dertwo 4 hr. ago I like that. His bosses actually sound like the kind of people that you want to run a company. How many times have we heard that "if only my boss knew what was actually going on here"? His bosses actually did, and gave you the respect that you deserved. Vote Reply Share
    via u/dertwo
  • 14
    Font - CLE-Mosh 2 hr. ago I have that direct manager now... never questions my time sheets, and rarely questions length of tasks, because he has seen the s t show first hand... yesterday for instance... 4 hr est mate, turns into 10 hr day... one word: electricians. his reply: Copy that Vote Reply Share
    via u/CLE-Mosh
  • 15
    Font - Tar-Nuine 4 hr. ago Calling him Mr Ni is too kind. Vote irritatingfarquar OP. 4 hr. ago S Reply Share Vote It's much better than what we actually called him, but I had to censor it for the delicate sensibilities of the moderators. Reply Share
    via u/Tar-Nuine, u/irritatingfarquar
  • 16
    Font - Nutella_Zamboni - 3 hr. ago Good on you OP, We are paid based on a 1/4 hour system. So essentially 6:53 am - 7:07 am = 7:00am. Had a boss like yours that was trying to hold people "accountable". Suddenly: people that showed up a few mins early waited until EXACTLY 7:00am to start working,
    via u/Nutella_Zamboni
  • 17
    Font - -people would leave EXACTLY at quitting time, no matter if their work was done or not. -people that would give a couple mins at the end of shift waited until the next 1/4 hour to punch out to ensure they were paid for all time "worked"
    via u/Nutella_Zamboni
  • 18
    Font - -breaks were taken EXACTLY per the contract Productivity way down and costs way up... 4 Vote Reply Share
    via u/Nutella_Zamboni
  • 19
    Font - irritatingfarquar OP. 2 hr. ago In my job, if I was almost finished with a repair near finishing time, I'd complete the job rather than getting the on-call guys out to finish it off, as it would take them longer to get there than for me to complete the work. But after he was ad k about 3 minutes I'd get
    via u/irritatingfarquar
  • 20
    Font - the on-call crew to come finish off almost on a daily basis, most of the guys liked the overtime payments anyway, so they weren't bothered by it and I always gave them a heads up that they were getting the call to come across and complete the work.
    via u/irritatingfarquar
  • 21
    Font - So basically if I was 1.5 hours from the yard and the job could be completed in 15 minutes, instead of me doing that and it costing them 15 minutes x 2 in overtime payments, it would then be the on call guys getting paid to travel down to site 1.5 hours then set up their
    via u/irritatingfarquar
  • 22
    Font - pump and other equipment another 0.5 then traveling back to the yard another 1.5, plus meal expenses of £10 each guy. They ended up with all that extra cost for almost a month, all for the sake of 3 minutes on my timesheet. Vote Reply Share
    via u/irritatingfarquar
  • 23
    Font - CrittendenWildcat. 4 hr. ago That power move turned into an out-of-powet move for your boss. Vote Reply Share irritatingfarquar OP. 3 hr. ago He had little big man syndrome and was all about him being in charge, instead of actually running things the right way.
    via u/CrittendenWildcat, u/irritatingfarquar
  • 24
    Font - SamuelVimesTrained 3 hr. ago I have to admit - you do not often hear about bosses KNOWING what the work is for having actually done that themselves. You got a good one there.. Vote Reply Share
    via u/SamuelVimesTrained
  • 25
    Font - Turinggirl 3 hr. ago When a company cares about 3 minutes you know its a company that needs the reality check. They really need to stop hiring MBA's. Actually having an MBA should be a great indicator to not hire someone.
    via u/Turinggirl
  • 26
    Font - Also I love knowing when someone is from the UK because they spell out a and say rota. (two things I adore) ✩ Vote e (D Reply Share
    via u/Turinggirl
  • 27
    Font - OneDishwasher - 3 hr. ago Good stuff, this is the kind of story I read this sub for. I hope your next boss is more reasonable Vote Reply Share irritatingfarquar OP. 3 hr. ago I'm now my own boss, as I've retired early due to ill health. I now have time to sit down and
    via u/OneDishwasher, u/irritatingfarquar
  • 28
    Font - remember some of the ridiculous things that I've experienced and to occasionally share them with Reddit. ↑ Vote ↓ Reply Share
    via u/irritatingfarquar

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customer service water company boss repairs veteran employee fired new management muddy productivity repair crew vehicle tracker company work shift malicious compliance reddit
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