Boss says "no overtime" after accusing employee of "time theft," employee gladly maliciously complies: 'She denies ever saying this'

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Mar 19, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

No one really wants to work overtime—if you say otherwise, you're lying… or have something else at home that you're avoiding. Who on earth would want to spend a moment longer at work than they had to? Of course, there are exceptions to this—that sweet time and a half pay can be pretty sweet. Still, you'll be rolling your eyes when your boss asks you and weighing up whether or not it's actually worth a better paycheck when you're sacrificing all that time doing things you'd rather be doing.

This goes doubly if you're not being paid to work said overtime… The time and a half pay is the only reason you'd consider working overtime in the first place. And why on earth would you ever want to work without being compensated? Compensation is the point of the whole working deal.

Of course, "cracking down" on overtime is one of the ways that new and shortsighted managers scheme to save on labor. They decide that just outright banning overtime will solve the problem without stopping to wonder why overtime might be a necessity in the first place. So, you end up with ridiculous situations where workers maliciously comply to these overtime bans, gladly taking the chance to work a normal work week.

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  • 01
    "My manager quit [less than a year later.]"
    via Simon Abrams
  • 02
    Posted by u/Away_Location No overtime, no problem Been working at this job for some years when I got a new manager. A month or so into her working there, she came into my office and told me I wasn't allowed to work overtime anymore and if I have any issues, we can discuss it. The way she said it sounded like she was expecting this to really hurt me. I sent an email to confirm the conversation we had and her response basically said, "Correct, no more time theft!"
    via Away_Location
  • 03
    I didn't really like that accusation. I usually stayed a little late by 30 minutes at most to finish up projects. A lot of projects come in last minute and other managers were thankful for my help. So I quit staying to finish projects and wouldn't start a new one if there wasn't enough time. No real issues but some projects started falling through the cracks. I let the other managers know my manager told me no more overtime and I'm just following orders.
    via Away_Location
  • 04
    Fast forward barely a month later. As I'm leaving for the day, she rushes to me asking if I can work on, you guessed it, a last minute project. It's potentially worth millions! I explained how I've got plans and I'm not about to be a thief. Next day was too quiet. In the afternoon, I get a request to have a meeting with my manager and HR. Usually you get a written complaint beforehand so I'm still a little off guard. I could at least be a little prepared. At the meeting, my manager reads off gri
    via Away_Location
  • 05
    When she finally finished (she had to have started writing that the night before and into the next day), I asked if it's okay if I had my say. I pointed out a lot was just her opinion and I'm overall well liked. I always do exactly what she says. However, my manager likes to constantly move projects around while I'm working on them and I'm not allowed overtime. She denies ever saying this so I forward the email to HR. My manager then starts backtracking she didn't mean it permanently.
    via Away_Location
  • 06
    HR takes me off the call a bit. When they come back, it's just HR and I start by saying I'm not signing anything. They tell me let's agree to disagree, this has been one big miscommunication, and they appreciate all the work I do. I asked to confirm if this was going to be held against me in any way and they said no. They went on to say if I can stay late sometimes, great but it's also okay that I leave after my 8 hours. My manager later quit in less than a year.
    via Away_Location
  • 07
    grauenwolf I would like to file a formal harassment complaint. And I want you as a witness that my manager lied about having a no overtime policy. Vote Reply Share . . . Lylac_Krazy Just the "time theft" comment would be enough to rustle my jimmies into following thru. Vote Reply Share • • •
    via Away_Location
  • 08
    GaelinVenfiel I got approached by another team to help with a server problem. He said my manager told him they were not available, so i could not get approval for OT. It was already 10pm. So I checked to make things were ok gonna call it a night if the and server came up ok. However...the database was missing on reboot and had to do a restore. 2am i drop off...about 4 hours OT.
    via Away_Location
  • 09
    Big project, 3rd party was coming in on sat to help and they needed this server...so i thought they would understand. Nope! Got an earful from my manager, no OT and i should have called her first. I made the mistake of thinking my colleague was correct but they could have answered. I was not even gonna report it but she found out.
    via Away_Location
  • 10
    Next week we had a big meeting and the manager in charge of the project shakes my hand and thanked me for saving their project. He said it was exactly the type of thing he liked to see...other departments helping out and not staying in their silos. I told him i was surprised to hear it...since i got nothing positive from my manager
    via Away_Location
  • 11
    CIO heard me say that...and said "Call me" Long story short, I now silence Teams and do not read email after hours now. Otherwise, i would have to record overtime. Cannot have that! Vote Reply Share
    via Away_Location
  • 12
    A-Wise-Cobbler I learned very quickly after becoming a manager not to make hasty decisions. I near fired a guy - a month into being a Sr. Manager - for being way too aloof and dismissive when I would ask him for some basic information.
    via Away_Location
  • 13
    Turns out those were his orders from the consulting firm he was from and literally the only reason I delivered on the major program I was tasked with was him. All he and I needed were a few weeks of working together to get on the same page and we were like a well oiled machine after that. I guess the point is, hasty decisions into a new role and especially accusatory notes aren't going to get you far in life.
    via Away_Location
  • 14
    You serve the team. Not the other way around. If OT is a concern sit there and find out why OT is happening and try solve those issues instead of just saying "no more OT" and calling it time theft ✓ Vote Reply Share
    via Away_Location
  • 15
    Charlie Mouse 7 hr. ago I worked for a company where overtime went in predictable cycles. We'd normally just do it if required, to cover project emergencies, deployments, last minute rushes. Management largely trusted us to just get on with it. Then every so often some exec would have kittens about the IT overtime
    via Away_Location
  • 16
    bill and issue an OT ban. We'd shrug and accept it. Projects would start being later and emergencies took longer to fix - and we'd explain why - until eventually they'd quietly rescind the ban for us. I worked there for years and went through this many times. One time a particularly clueless exec actually even banned OT for
    via Away_Location
  • 17
    implementations/go-lives. No out of hours planned work permitted full stop! We and our management tried to diplomatically point out the obvious implications of that but he wasn't interested. That changed rather rapidly over the following couple of weeks as his peers overseeing various parts of the business became seriously unhappy about various production systems being brought down for change work during the working day instead of out of hours. Vote Reply Share . . .
    via Away_Location
  • 18
    nobody-u-heard-of Rule number one as a manager, is somebody asked you to confirm something in an email, it's going to be used to burn you later on because you've screwed up. Rule number 0 is don't be a some managers can't help it. but Vote Reply Share
    via Away_Location
  • 19
    tofuroll It's a win-win: the bad manager doesn't want their directives thrown back at them, while a good manager likes to have things crystal clear for everyone. Vote Reply Share
    via Away_Location
  • 20
    roselover58 Good job! Why you always get things in writing. Vote Reply Share . . . Away_Location OP I saw this coming a mile away. My previous manager had absolutely no issue with overtime. Even recommending I watch Hulu or read a book until we heard an update from a client Vote Reply Share ...
    via Away_Location

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