'No exceptions!': IT Manager says "no overtime," has to drive to site in the middle of the night to fix emergency himself when team complies

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    "No overtime... No exceptions!"
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    No Overtime - No exceptions! MOC I work in IT and worked with one client for years and years looking after their various networks. Normally it's a 9-5 kind of job, but if something goes wrong after hours it can become a real emergency for them quickly. One day the manager came down to visit our small team at this client's office. We were told they renegotiated the contact and took a 5% cut on the job. So they asked if we would all take a 5% pay cut as well. No. No one
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    accepted that and we were ready to walk if they tried to push it. The next week we were told there was to be zero overtime without prior authorization of the company president himself and there are no exceptions to this iron-clad rule. They had us repeat the new policy back to them and e-mailed it to us. The only thing I said to them was "This is going to end poorly".
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    Two days later the core router that connects all the different parts of the big data center failed at 9:00 p.m. Our manager called my cell phone and said to jump in my car because the data center was down. I told him that I don't have authorization from the company president who had apparently gone camping for the long weekend with his family and was out of contact. I told him sorry. I can't do any work as it hasn't been authorized. He tried to say how he's authorizing it. I told him he specific
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    told us just earlier this week it has to be from the company president, and there are no exceptions. If he can get a hold of the president, then give me a call back. He was mad. The client was mad as they were told I refused to help. He left an angry voicemail for the president about me. They did get it fixed when the manager drove himself to the data center at in the wee hours of the morning to pull the bad circuit board.
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    The next business day first thing in the morning the manager, the client's CIO and our company president were waiting for me to come in and told me to come in to the meeting room. It went as expected with raised voices, accusations and many "final warnings" until I pulled out the e-mail and gave it to the clients CIO to read. It took him 10 seconds to read, and then the CIO asked me to head back to my desk and carry on with my day. I never heard what was said in the room after I left. But there
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    JoeyJoe Joe JrShab Honestly, the most unexpected part of this story is where the manager drove to the data center and fixed the problem. himself. Everything else went pretty much as I'd expected from reading the title. 472 Reply Share . . . Arrasor Nah the unexpected part is the manager knew how to fix it, not that he did it since his would go down first had it not fixed lol. Those kind of manager is very quick to realize when they can't get out unscathed. 334 Reply Share
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    Schlonzig "No exceptions" is like "zero tolerance": it throws common sense under the wheels of the bus of rules. 380 Reply Share ... perpterds Meanwhile those wheels are going round and round 87 Reply Share . . .
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    CoderJoe1 Manglement hates this one simple trick. 262 Reply Share lostalaska +1 for Manglement 49 Reply Share perpterds ' +1 million for manglement lol, got a genuine loud laugh from me hah 30 Reply Share ...
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    theothermeisnothere I had an employment contract that stopped salary at 50 hours per week. After that, I was to get $35/hour. In 18 years at the company, I never went over 50 hours. Each time I got to 49 hours, I had to email my boss who then told me to go home. Every time. I liked that contract. 87 Reply Share ...
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    Bored_n_Beard I love it. A few years back the contact center I was at tried the same thing: No OT for the IT staff unless pre-approved in writing. That's fine I'll work my straight 8 and go home. Come late Thursday, just as payroll was about to get approved, a server died. I waved and kept walking, pointing out it wasn't pre-approved that I stay. My phone kept ringing, but I'm off work and can't answer work calls since I'm not on the clock. They had to get my manager to head in, since he was sal

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