Employee forced to stay late for optics, puts in hours of OT for doing nothing: 'Well, you asked me to stay late!'

Advertisement
  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10488370432
  • Advertisement
  • 02

    "Boss demands overtime pay for zero work?? Okay!!"

    I used to work for a company where the boss had this habit of demanding that we stay late, even when there was absolutely no work left to be done. It was one of
  • 03
    those toxic environments where productivity was measured by the hours you spent at your desk rather than the actual output of your work.
  • 04
    One day, after wrapping up all my tasks well before the end of the day, my boss came over and told me that I needed to stay late because "that's just how things are done around here." Mind you, there was literally nothing left for me to do.
  • Advertisement
  • 05
    Now, instead of arguing or trying to reason with him, I decided to play along with his ridiculous demand for overtime pay.
  • 06
    I nodded, grabbed a book I had been meaning to read, and settled back into my chair. For the next two hours, I sat at my desk, flipping through pages, occasionally pretending to jot down notes, and looking as busy as possible.
  • 07
    At the end of those two hours, my boss came by to check on me, expecting to see me toiling away at some imaginary task. Instead, he found me reading a novel. He looked puzzled and asked, "What are you doing?"
  • Advertisement
  • 08
    With a straight face, I replied, "Well, you asked me to stay late, so I figured I might as well put in some overtime. This book has been on my reading list for a while."
  • 09
    Needless to say, my boss was speechless. He couldn't really argue with me since he had asked me to stay late, and I was technically still on the clock.
  • 10
    From that day forward, he never asked me to stay late unless there was actual work to be done. Malicious compliance at its finest.
  • Advertisement
  • 11
    TL;DR: Boss demanded I stay late for no reason, so I decided to put in overtime by reading a book at my desk.
  • 12
    Cheezburger Image 10488371712
  • 13
    JustSomeGuy_56 9 hr. ago. I had a contracting gig with a large financial services company. My little group was part of a much bigger department that generated the annual tax forms. They were incredibly busy from January 2 through April.
  • Advertisement
  • 14
    The guy who ran the department issued an edict that everyone had to put in 10 hours each day and work Saturdays if necessary.
  • 15
    Our little group had nothing to do with the tax statements but people complained when we were seen leaving at 5PM. So we were told to stay late as well. I asked if that applied to me and and the other contractors and was told "Everyone. No exceptions"
  • 16
    We were happy to do so since we were being paid by the hour. When we submitted our invoice for January he almost wet his pants and decided that the OT rule didn't apply to us.
  • Advertisement
  • 17
    grauenwolf 9 hr. ago I miss working for the military. My job was to test software. I knew it was broken, but the logs were empty. So many a night I spent reading a book and just waiting for it to crash with the hope. of I'd catch it in the act. I never did figure the thing out, but I got a lot of reading in.
  • 18
    IlikethequietZeppo 8 hr. ago I had a colleague that finished at 4pm. People got I off because she was always leaving "early". No, she got there before her 8am start, they just didn't see her working until they casually strolled in some time after 9.
  • 19
    One day, when big boss (who she worked directly for) was away, manager was in charge. He sneered you can't leave before 5pm.
  • Advertisement
  • 20
    "Ok, let me go and talk to our CFO and see about overtime rates. I work from 8 until 4pm. I manage my time well, and get all my work done."
  • 21
    He spluttered about being salaried and therefore no overtime rates applied.
  • 22
    With perfect timing big boss called from overseas. I gleefully transferred the call to her. Best thing about a fairly open plan office, is you could hear everything from the reception desk, also one of the worst things too.
  • Advertisement
  • 23
    I heard her say " manager insists I stay until 5pm, with no overtime pay, or reason mentioned. Have you got a particular task requiring me to stay?....... He wants to talk to you face"

Tags

Scroll down for the next article

Also From FAIL Blog