'I started using the timer for everything': Micromanaging boss accuses employee of "cheating the company"

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jan 12, 2024 11:00 AM EST

As if this person didn't have enough to do already, their boss started requiring some detailed daily logs from his employee. 

Micromanager bosses are difficult to work for. Instead of just doing the job you were hired to do, you also have to manage your boss's emotions. Some days your boss will assume you're not doing any work, and will flip out over nothing. Other days, they'll praise you for working so hard. And lots of bosses demand you write out intricate logs of your day. Will they ever read these logs? Of course not. It's just a way to waste the employee's time while making them feel like they're under a microscope. 

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  • An employee who goes by u/ExecutorAxon shared what happened when their own boss requested daily logs all of the sudden. This confused the OP, because they already knew there were timers built into the computers. Word was that no one actually used these timers, though. Instead, people just guesstimated how minutes or hours their daily tasks took up. 

    Scroll down to check out the OP's story, as well as their edits to explain more about what happened. Then, one small business retail employee got back at their boss in a satisfying way. 

  • 01
    'My boss was... demanding to know how my overtime hours had nearly doubled from previous months. I just said, "I don't know" MacBook Air
    via Dan Dimmock on Unsplash
  • 02
    Want me to log my work time more accurately using a timer because you think I'm cheating you? Happy to oblige.
    via u/ExecutorAxon
  • 03
    This happened a while ago, and I've since moved jobs. Basically, every employee in my department was supposed to log their work hours and the project they were working on. When I first joined the company, I noticed that there was an inbuilt timer in the software which you can start/stop to get accurate logs, but I asked my bosses and other employees around, and everyone told me that no one uses it, and everyone fills in the log EOD or first thing in the morning next day. I was cool with that.
    via u/ExecutorAxon
  • 04
    So I started logging my time just like everyone else. Things were fine for quite a while, till I started putting in more and more hours to get work done. Fast forward to that fateful day, I get called by management. They tell me that my logging seems "dishonest" and "deliberately misleading". I got told off saying they rely on these numbers to plan deadlines for the future (only on paper, not in practice) and that I'm cheating the company. They instructed me to only use the timer next day on, an
    via u/ExecutorAxon
  • 05
    I should probably mention that the way I logged time till then was rounded down to 30 minute increments, just out of personal preference. For example, if a meeting lasted 45 minutes, I'd more often than not log 30 mins. On top of that, I used to remove an hour off the top just as an eyeball figure for lunch and smoke breaks, because on avg that's how long it took. And I should add that everyone, including my bosses, used to log time similarly. The company had trusted us to not be dishonest
    via u/ExecutorAxon
  • 06
    with it, and generally it worked out fine. Anyway, that day on, I started using the timer for everything. 10 minute briefing? Going in the log. 5 minute company call? Logged. Started eating in 15 mins instead of 30, cut down smoke breaks from two to one, etc. Basically, I made sure almost every minute between my in and out times would be accounted for. They also maintained a timestamp of all the times someone enters and
    via u/ExecutorAxon
  • 07
    exits the office, which they combined with the log to check. I made sure I was not being dishonest in any way, and just logging my actual work times. As you can guess, all the 11 hour overtime days piled up pretty quick, and at the end of the month, I got called by management again. My boss and his boss were both there. My boss was furious, demanding to know how my overtime hours had nearly doubled from
    via u/ExecutorAxon
  • 08
    previous months. I just said I don't know, I'm using the timer just like I was instructed to. I told them to go through my in and out times, my breaks, my deliverables, and when the timer was started and stopped to check if I was being dishonest or not. They sent me away after yelling at me a bit more, threatening termination if I was wrong.
    via u/ExecutorAxon
  • 09
    Next day, my boss told me to stop using the timer again, and apologised for calling me dishonest. I stopped using it, but I told him that now I knew more accurately how long my stuff takes, so I'll be logging accordingly even if I do so manually.
    via u/ExecutorAxon
  • 10
    TL;DR: Comapny assumes I am being dishonest with my time logging because of long working hours, ask me to use inbuilt timer, which actually ends up showing more hours than I was logging before.
    via u/ExecutorAxon
  • 11
    EDIT: Wow I've read almost every reply. Thanks to everyone who started a discussion about fair pay, ethics of working hours and how to manage projects. I'd just like to add a couple things, because I don't think I made them clear. I don't work there anymore first of all, and I'm salaried. Hourly pay doesn't
    via u/ExecutorAxon
  • 12
    happen in these parts at all, unless to you're freelancing, sometimes not even then. The logging was more for getting leaves based on x hours you put in over your usual time.
    via u/ExecutorAxon
  • 13
    Also, i found out later why they were this mad at me was because they knew after I'd tell people, everyone's leaves would go up, and us being understaffed at the time it wouldn't have been great for the company.
    via u/ExecutorAxon
  • 14
    Razorking A lot of higher ups would be astonished how much work is done for free. I am playing with the idea if pulling something like that with my boss because she aint paying overtime.
    via u/Razorking
  • 15
    MCPhssthpok I think I would have told them that, no, I've decided I like using the timer so I'll continue using it. I actually wrote myself a timer like this at an old job (without all the detailed timestamp logging) because I'm terrible at estimating and remembering what I've been doing.
    via u/MCPhssthpok
  • 16
    NW N1NJ4W4RR10R_ I'm sad there was no "Yeah I know. Appears you were were right, my hours weren't accurate, I was being underpaid" Regardless, nice story. I love malicious compliance
    via u/N1NJ4W4RR10R_
  • 17
    Skyward_Shadow. I've made it a point at my job to leave at exactly my appointed time unless asked to stay and help (because they have to log that they asked me to stay and therefore pay for my time). They don't pay me enough and I don't enjoy the job enough to do work for free.
    via u/Skyward_Shadow

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boss workplace-stories jobs job malicious compliance record bosses work coworkers malicious-compliance-reddit hours cheating workplace malicious compliance reddit
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