Customer service rep gets paid to play video games after management's misguided instructions leave them without any work: 'For 5 days, I sat in my spare bedroom/office playing video games, all while logged in'

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Nov 5, 2024 6:00 PM EST

If you do your job too well, you're simply going to make everyone else look bad by comparison. Instead of earning yourself the praise you deserve, you actually just wind up putting a target on your back while everyone quietly wishes you'd just disappear and stop making all of their jobs harder by setting the bar so high. Usually, your boss won't just come right out and tell you to stop working so hard or being so competent, saying the quiet part out loud would only make them and the team look worse.

This customer support worker, who works from home, was doing so well that their boss broke that rule and flat-out told them that they needed to stop taking so many gosh-dang calls. They abided and had such a sharp reduction in calls answered that it triggered a performance review, which then landed them back in an "in training" status. This meant that they were at the direct order of their team leader, who, not noting their status change, failed to assign them any work. This meant that they were basically free to do whatever they pleased while they waited for this all to blow over.

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