Employee gets back at micromanaging boss by working scheduled hours after being singled out over flexible working hours: 'You will work 9 to 5 so we can watch you'

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Oct 2, 2024 12:00 PM EDT

Flexibility begets flexibility, and a little understanding goes a long way. There's no sense in being overly rigid about rules when they don't serve to benefit anyone and make things worse for everyone overall. 

This worker enjoyed a flexible working arrangement until they were singled out by their boss and made to work 9 to 5 each day instead of 8 to 4 as they had been working. Frustrated at these new restrictions and at the erosion of the work-life balance that that flexibility had allowed them to enjoy, they decide to adhere strictly to their boss's instruction that they work 9 to 5 each day… beginning work no earlier than 9 AM and leaving right at the tick of the clock to 5 AM. This escalated, and they, along with their coworker who was in a similar situation, began working as slowly as possible, ensuring that they always had something they were working on under the watchful eye of their micromanaging boss but getting far less work done than they had when they were granted more flexibility.

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    Cheezburger Image 10411869696
    via Tim van der Kuip

    Image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Image is for illustration only and subjects are models.

  • 02
    You will work 9 to 5 so we can watch you S So at my first job I enjoyed the flexible work schedule, but because I was bored out of my mind I would do non work things during work like everyone else in the department. I was singled out together with one other coworker and got told to work 9 to 5 instead of 8 tot 4 as I did before and boy we did.
    via xforesttree
  • 03
    We would show up at no later than 9 o'clock even if we got there early and would drop. whatever we were doing at 5pm exactly. This included walking out of meetings and straight up missing them. We knew we were being watched for non work activities so whenever there was nothing to do we started watching others for non work activities, collecting evidence and reporting them.
    via xforesttree
  • 04
    Soon enough it became obvious that they were targeting us because the others had friends in high places and didn't get in trouble for the same stuff. So we took it a step further and did exactly what our tasks described but at a snails pace so as to never not be working. They then threatened to fire us because our productivity was down and we were "disrespectful" (leaving meetings, snitching on people). We pointed them to the fact we were just doing as they said and they struggled to dispute it.
    via xforesttree
  • 05
    The 9 to 5 was lifted, though I'm pretty sure the watching wasn't. I then manged to make sure I was essential to keep things running smoothly in my team and then quit with enough paid time off left to just peace out. It felt glorious.
    via xforesttree
  • 06
    Edit: Since I've gotten a few comments, the reason I was doing non work things was because I was bored out of my mind. I had asked multiple times for more work, suggested stuff to do but got nothing. Also, I'm human, nobody focusses for 8 hours and I had many coworkers who did way less on a day. I was actually one of the people who focused the most but had just not tried to be friends with people in high places.
    via xforesttree
  • 07
    OkIntroduction... Why target anyone at all? If the work's getting done just leave it alone. Micromanaging never ends. well.
    via xforesttree
  • 08
    RicoDredd After years of working early, working through most of my lunch break to some extent and staying late, probably 8 out of 10 days - I was once nearly an hour late to work. No excuse, I overslept and was just late. Normally I would have worked through my lunch and stayed a bit later to make the time up but that day I had to go out at lunchtime and had to leave on time.
    via xforesttree
  • 09
    The next day I arrived even earlier than normal intending to work through in order to make to the hour I had missed the day before. My boss came in bang on time (as he always did) and asked me why I hadn't made the time up the previous day. I apologised and started to explain that I was doing it that day and he cut me off
    via xforesttree
  • 10
    saying that I needed to 'buck my ideas up' and the company didn't do ' flexitime'. I was livid so made my time up that day - and never did a minutes extra unpaid work for the rest of the time I worked there.
    via xforesttree
  • 11
    scriminal I worked at a place where people liked to tattle to HR for petty I like 5 mins late back from lunch. Everyone was salary. Instead of writing people up for being. late, HR responded by telling the snitches to stop it, which was hilarious.
    via xforesttree
  • 12
    Atiggerx33 I hate companies that do this. Look if someone is getting their work done, if they finish early and spend the rest of the day goofing around who cares? As long as they aren't distracting other employees or breaking
    via xforesttree
  • 13
    My dad's job doesn't go by hours it goes by II done". If you have no work to do because you finished all your tasks early it's expected you'll help another department if they need help, if nobody needs help. you can just go the home and get paid for a full day regardless of hours. worked. So it's basically do your work, ask "hey anybody running behind and need help? No? Ok, I'm out then."
    via xforesttree
  • 14
    Nobody quits there because they get paid well, they frequently get to go home. early and still get paid for a full day, they have decent benefits, and the boss is super understanding and just an awesome human being. Like one employee's wife got breast cancer and needed a mastectomy, boss gave him time off without him even asking just saying
    via xforesttree
  • 15
    "be there for your wife" and "take as much time as you need", let him know if he needed anything like an advance on his pay and he'd have it, gave him full pay for the duration of his absence, sent flowers and a card to his home, and actually visited a couple of times. The boss is actually friends with all his employees
    via xforesttree
  • 16
    because the average length of employment is about 30 years (there are 2 newer hires because the company has grown, other than those 2 the newest employee has been there 20 years; people don't quit this place).
    via xforesttree
  • 17
    Living-Complex... In a modern office setting any competent worker either works 2 hours a day and "is available for calls/questions/meetings" for 6, or is doing the work of 3 employees. Note by competent I mean able to automate processes, create macros, etc.
    via xforesttree
  • 18
    If you do the work of 3 people, you get people fired, so slacking off is doing your coworkers a favor. I try to teach my coworkers my tricks though, no point in them working 8 hours to do what I can in 2...
    via xforesttree
  • 19
    PrisBatty I worked in a call centre where we would get written up for putting our coats on the backs of our chairs. There wasn't anywhere to put them. They wanted us to bundle them up and stuff them in our desk drawers.
    via xforesttree
  • 20
    Someone actually got paid to walk around and write up people who put their coats on the backs of the chairs. In a call centre. Where no customers could see us. I spent every day there feeling angry.
    via xforesttree
  • 21
    Vee-Shan I had a similar experience with my previous job. Clear favoritism for a few and blatant distaste for others. They hired me and said that they wanted my feedback on how they handle their call centre. Cool. At least it was till 2/4 managers told me to sit down, shut up and do my job. So that's what I did. A year later they call me into
    via xforesttree
  • 22
    their office and ask why I wasn't putting in the extral effort. I point blank told them what happened and who said it. One of those guys was in the room and the colour drained from his face when confronted. Then they tried to convince me to take on more responsibilities and I said no. They were surprised and continued to make my life from that point on. I work to live, not live to work.
    via xforesttree
  • 23
    Isgortio I had that in a workplace, I even got told off for spending more than 3 minutes in the toilet (which was the other side of the office) yet the guy sat next to me would spend 50% of his day outside smoking and not doing any work. As I got unhappier in the job they removed more and more work from me and lumped it
    via xforesttree
  • 24
    on my colleagues, so I sat there with very little to do and asking for work, offering to help my colleagues and I was met with refusals. So, I watched everyone else get stressed out by having to do my work as well as theirs, whilst I had nothing to do. This was all so they could have a reason for dismissal.
    via xforesttree
  • 25
    Apparently after I left, that treatment got moved to someone else who lasted 6 months and another who barely managed an extra 6 months. 0/10 would not recommend that company to work for.
    via xforesttree
  • 26
    Licensed_to_ne... It's ridiculous how common this kind of management is. And you know they pat themselves on the back for it. So infuriating.
    via xforesttree

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