'I will not be staying to paint [...] Because I don't want to': Boss thought he could force employees to work OT to paint the office, they refuse

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Nov 9, 2023 2:00 PM EST

Let this story serve as a friendly reminder to never let your managers think you'll take on responsibilities outside of your job description with little to no reward. This kind of behavior often starts in small, subtle ways. Perhaps your supervisor asks you to fetch them a coffee despite not being their executive assistant, or perhaps they ask you to stay after work for a short period of time for a delivery. The key is that when this happens, you draw a line in the sand from the very beginning. Otherwise, your manager will get a false sense of permission to offload responsibilities onto you without giving you anything in return. In fact, the cynical part of me thinks that they're already testing you to see if they can get that extra work out of you with no pushback.

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  • 01
    "Boss tries to make me to work overtime to paint the office"
    via David Pisnoy

  • Thankfully, this employee and his wife (who also worked at the company) stood up for themselves. He shared his side of the story via this thread on Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit, and let's just say that this manager got the kind of wake-up call he needed. The boss asked OP to work overtime in order to paint the offices before the owners of the company visit. Now, it's important to note that it has never been OP's responsibility to paint the office. Even with the offer of overtime, OP had no desire to take this on. The boss kept thinking he could manipulate OP and his wife to stay behind and do his dirty work for him, but OP did not give in, forcing the boss to figure it out himself.

    Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions in the comments section. For more stories like this, here is one about a Karen who got an employee unfairly written up at work.

  • 02
    Boss tries to make me to work overtime to paint the office, even offered to let my wife help Sunday morning my wife and I were chilling playing some video games. I get a text from my boss, keep in mind my wife also works in the same place. Also my job has absolutely nothing to do with painting, I work in tooling in a plastics factory.
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 03
    "Just a heads up tomorrow and Tuesday they are going to need help painting so they are asking that if you could stay from 315 to 6. You can have the OT and help them paint before the owners come. If your wife wants to paint and get overtime as well she can do that so she's not just waiting around on you."
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 04
    I answered him: "I don't really need the overtime, so no thanks." Then it turns from a request to being mandatory. "I don't think it's an option. I'm just saying they're not going to ask you to leave early. They need help before owners come . Plan on tomorrow and Tuesday painting. Sorry they don't ask very often"
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 05
    I never even replied to the last text, I gave my answer and that's that. I get to work yesterday and get asked in the morning about the painting after work by the plant manager. I reply that I will not be staying to paint.
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 06
    "What about tomorrow and Wednesday?" "I will not be staying to paint at all this week" "Can I ask why?" "Because I don't want to"
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 07
    Manager has no idea how to handle this. His face gets all red and you can tell he wants to yell at me. But he can't find a real reason to, besides the fact that I said no to something that should not even have been asked of me.
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 08
    They waited until the last minute to try to get the shop clean and painted before the owners show around and up. You guys f found out, deal with it.
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 09
    Gayspacecrow. 3 hr. ago him, he can paint. B FC 315 Reply Share
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 10
    mikemojc 2 hr. ago I had a boss that wanted me to work overtime to hanging drywall and mudding/taping. know it wasnt an option, would be 12 hours on Saturday, my day off. I showed up, was me and one of my coworkers, no boss in sight. Neither of us knew how to do drywall. Let me He showed up 6 hours later, mad as once he saw the quality of our 'work'. F him.
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 11
    quakietree. 3 hr. ago Something similar to this was the final straw that made me quit my last job. We were moving locations, and my boss's husband sent an email to all staff abusing us for not spending more time renovating the new building.
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 12
    (The "new" place is a total dump -- build over a century ago, falling apart, had to be decontaminated from has sagging floors, lead paint, etc.)
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 13
    We're wildlife rehabilitators, FYI...we were spending our time taking care of the animal patients we still had. I don't know how to renovate a ..... building. But he said we were sitting on our and weren't earning our paychecks, blah blah, so I told him to go ahead and use my wages to hire someone who could paint the f walls. 165 Reply Share
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 14
    Efficient-Cupcake247. 3 hr. ago So proud of you Vote Reply Share samuraijak1337 OP 3 hr. ago Thank you, I fell into that trap at my last job with the same boss. I would say yes to everything and get stuck doing way more than I should have been. I am not going to let that happen again.
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 15
    Danymity831 3 hr. ago Cheap, tight company needed to hire professionals to paint. smh....
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 16
    samuraijak1337 OP. 2 hr. ago Exactly, for one, you're too f cheap to hire the right people to do it. But you waited until two days before the owners were coming in to try and get it done. Then tried to make it my problem. Nah I'm good
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 17
    massachrisone. 2 hr. ago My old job made me do this cause the quote for painters was too high. I took my sweet time making sure I took 10x longer than it should and that they were paying me more than the painters.
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 18
    When my manager got it took so much longer and the cost was so much more than hiring painters he asked what the problem was. Told him I wasn't a professional painter. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 19
    Metalsmith21. 2 hr. ago Nothing makes management and s[ co-workers p faster than turning down voluntary overtime.
    via u/samuraijak1337
  • 20
    I worked for an ISP that served areas in Kansas and Oklahoma from noon to midnight. "There are storms in the state and we're getting crazy alarms. Aren't you going to stay for OT to help clear the alarms?" NO. The alarms are not going anywhere. 95% of the alarms will clear by themselves in the 10 min it takes to verify if the alarm is real or not. No Field Tech is climbing a pole in the middle of the night during a rainstorm. They are going to sit on the alarms till the storm is over then just c
    via u/samuraijak1337

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