IT Support Gets Slammed For Working In Lieu, Charges Company for Overtime Instead

Advertisement
  • 01
    r/ r/MaliciousCompliance u/can3gxw • 1d "People" don't understand why you're leaving early M
  • 02
    First time posting here, but have to get this out. Maybe this could also be posted in r/antiwork I was working for a small-ish company, about 60 employees across several locations. IT support for both hardware (laptops, phones) and software. When I was hired (just under 9 years ago) it was verbally agreed that instead of clocking any callouts as overtime, I would just take the time in lieu. Callouts were always minimal and there were never any issues with me taking the time here and here to make
  • 03
    I also ALWAYS started early, just depending on when I left the house, got into the office, got my coffee - could have been anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes because I would leave the house earlier so as not to wake the family if school was off that day. I didn't care at that point. It never bothered me. They got free time from me, but again I DID NOT CARE because honestly what else did I have to do? It was a great job until it wasn't.
  • 04
    One weekend I was working on some hardware maintenance (cleaning up wiring, ethernet, plugs, installing a new UPS) that took me the better part of Sunday to complete (6-8 hours). This was understood, approved in advance and appreciated.
  • 05
    The following week I decided to start burning those extra hours up. I still came in early (as I had done for years), but started leaving an hour early from my regular end time every day if nothing was going on. This is important - if something needed done, I got it done. I was reachable via email until early evening, and phone pretty much 24/7. This particular week was slow so I had nothing going on. I left an hour early for the first 4 days. On Friday, my boss comes to me and gently says "peopl
  • 06
    I immediately submitted 4 hours of overtime for the hours that I didn't take in lieu. I still showed up at the office at whatever time I got there, but didn't not start ANY work until 8am. If asked, I would say "sure, 8am start time".
  • 07
    If I got called outside of office hours, depending on how long I spent on the issue, I logged it as overtime. User calls me at 7pm to ask a question? I answer him in 30 seconds... one hour OT. When my boss then started to ask "how come you're submitting all of this overtime?" I responded with a simple "some people don't understand or like me taking lieu time, so I need to claim it as overtime since I am at my desk from 8-4"
  • 08
    Because I wasn't available at his beck and call, it ended up costing them more money. 95% of my job could be done from home because of full remote access, but that stupid old school mentality means that people in the office need to see you at your desk all day long. I left the company very shortly after that for a much better paying job with full work from home. Know your worth.
  • 09
    Grimsterr 1d I had this exact same problem 20+ years ago. Big dotcom, I was sole Unix admin responsible for keeping the e-commerce (aka our main source of revenue) online. 2 am Sunday morning is when our Oracle database did maintenance, it often locked up and had to be babied back online. No biggie take care of it, take in lieu of. Our main systems weren't even at the offices, they were 90 miles away and my home internet had a FASTER connection to the data center than our offices did, so I could
  • 10
    Came in one day to the office (usually worked 2-3 days per week from home) and my boss said some people had complained I'm almost never there. I basically said "so? I'm the only person responsible for the Unix servers and one of two (after you) responsible for the database, so I don't NEED to be here to get the job done." He replied that it would just look better if I were in the office more. So I said sure, I'll be here 5 days a week, 9-5, and when I go home, my phone goes to silent, and I will
  • 11
    rentacle 1 d Good for you. Doing things just because they "look bad" or "look good" is so dumb, and yet so many managers follow those rules because they are too stupid to measure results in any other way. I did the same thing at a past job, except the other way round. I would come in 30-40 minutes late (not a morning person) but in exchange I'd stay until 7pm to finish all pending tasks and lock up. Out of the blue I was reprimanded because "being late is bad for optics" and I needed to be in th
  • 12
    can3gxw OP • 1d I can't upvote this comment enough. How about you be an actual manager and explain that "OP takes calls in the middle of the night. OP keeps the business running and deals with power outages and server down issues while you sit at home watching reality TV".
  • 13
    StamInBlack 1d I'm surprised you weren't demanding on-call pay. : Reply 41.4k o yParticle 1d Yeah, that's one of the most egregious things that IT folks put up with. If you're basically on call 24/7 your time is never truly your own. : 879 can3gxw OP• 1d It was always tough carrying that possible burden, but I hardly ever got called out, and if I did it was usually a short phone call. I still enjoyed my off time.
  • 14
    CAR bopperbopper 1d "Hey boss, tell them that I don't see them at midnight when I have to come in to fix the server and that looks bad" : Reply 4144 ↓ can3gxw OP. 1d *emails boss at 2:30 am to tell him that I'll be late coming in because I dealt with a server issue for over two hours and am going to try to get some sleep. Also explains what the issue was just in case something happens before I get in. Boss calls at 8:30am asking where I am and why I'm not at work. Is everything ok? No, I sent yo
  • 15
    For TheHordeKT 23h Had something similar at my last job. Old boss didn't like that I wasn't staying till 5pm. Only issue was, I was coming in at 3am to get ethanol loads going from railcars to our tanker trucks. I handled all the outside railcars going into tanks, trucks getting loaded, etc. Everyone else was working 8am to 5pm but they stayed in the warehouse filling up totes, drums, and buckets of oil and sh t like that. I'd do whatever truck loads were scheduled in, stay till the last one was
  • 16
    We got a new boss who just simply didn't like the fact I left before 5pm. That was his whole damned deal. And when I tell him I don't fancy working longass hours and would like to have somewhat of a home life, he tells me "I got plenty of guys in that warehouse who'd love to come in at 3am and leave around noon!" Alright, f cker. Bluff called. None of them want to get their ss up and be here at 3am and you know it. So I told him great. I'll cross train anyone who wants to come out here and we ca
  • 17
    verminiusrex 22h I had to deal with "people" noticing that I came in later than them. "Must be nice rolling in an hour late." "Must be nice leaving earlier than I do. Our department shift times aren't the same." She apparently never noticed that the production department was still cranking away when she walked through on the way to her car, but sure noticed us coming in when she'd been at her desk for an hour. Reply 4 Vote ↓ : can3gxw OP. 22h I hated this so much. How about you mind your own bus
  • 18
    Houseplantkiller123 1d "The server went down an hour after you left!" "Then it'll presumably be down at 8:00 AM when the shift starts."
  • 19
    Innerouterself2 23h The ability of a coworker to understand my job is dependent on a boss who can explain it to them. We had a tech dude who hated coming in early. So we just said- who cares work when you want to. As he would take care of emergencies amd work till 7 or 8 pm so he could have quiet work hours. One person complained once and I gave them a 20 minute lecture on the value said employee brings and shower her every tool he manages, created from scratch, and the endless after hours emerg
  • 20
    yParticle 1d that stupid old school mentality means that people in the office need to see you at your desk all day long. "People" being the out of touch upper management. Your peers don't care. We have contractors who come and go at all different hours, the only difference being that they're being paid as contractors so they get to choose when they're on site.

Tags

Scroll Down For The Next Article