Boss demands employees take their required breaks and strictly adhere to policy, chaos ensues: 'Sorry, we can only help after our break'

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Jul 1, 2024 6:00 PM EDT

If you want someone to be accommodating, it's usually best to accommodate them, too. This sounds like some version of the golden rule: "Treat others how you want to be treated," but really, in a professional setting, it's just common sense, and you can't expect someone else to go where you won't—especially when your leadership is setting the example.

Still, time and time again, budding new managers make the same mistake, trying to command respect and improve efficiency by walking in the door and altering the status quo, leaving their workers frustrated and hoping that they don't alter it any further.

Well, government departments, no matter where you are in the world, have a certain reputation for making things that should be simple and exceedingly difficult, and the department in this story is no exception. The understaffed team had developed a system during which they could skip their breaks when they needed to in order to accommodate the public instead of closing down for breaks like they were supposed to. The tradeoff was that staff would sometimes lock up and leave 15 minutes early in order to make up for their missed breaks without needing to claim the overtime.

This worked quite well, meaning that the public could come in at any time throughout the day but might find the place closed if they arrived 15 minutes before the official closing time. The new boss tried to put a stop to this, demanding strict adherence to the posted hours, causing chaos when staff followed the boss's orders and closed up for breaks when they were supposed to.