Employee gets scolded after one day of failing to meet daily quota, despite years of overperforming, leading employee to do only the bare minimum until quitting: ‘They lost me as an overachiever’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Apr 28, 2025 7:00 PM EDT

When one works a job that requires a daily quota, the best way to manage that is by never going under that quota, but never going over it either.

Not going under the daily quota is self-explanatory. If you are hired to do a certain amount of work, doing anything less than that might suggest you are not the right person for the job. However, going over the daily quota is something that some employees see as a positive. By doing more than you're actually required to do, you are proving that you are a hardworking and trustworthy employee willing to go above and beyond for the sake of the company. What is wrong with that?

Well, the moment you prove to your employer that you can do more than is required, they might start getting used to this new output of work. Which means that if you ever find yourself doing anything less, management is not going to be happy about it.

You shouldn't do anything more than what is expected of you, but if you are still unsure, maybe the story below will tip you over.

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  • The employee in the story below has been working more than 150% over their daily quota at work. They thought that doing so would prove to their management that they are a valuable employee. But when this employee has one day in which they fail to meet the daily quota, they discover that management does not really care about the extra hard work, which later leads them to completely pivot their work ethic.

  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10499201024
    via Jay Yuno

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02

    "Punishing me for underperforming for 1 day in 2 years? No problem."

    Hello everyone, I will try to be concise. BACKROUND I work at a company where I handle mid to high level complaints to managers, PR and legal.
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 03
    My daily requirement is 40 cases handled per day, there are some of my team colleagues that struggle with this, but I don't, and I don't feel lazy to stop at 40,
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 04
    so I have handled 50-55 basically every day for the past two years. There is no bonus (or even recognition) for this, I just did it because I felt a friendly obligation to the company.
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 05
    Complaints can be a 5 minute resolution, or a 2 hour zoom call with our New York lawyers, it's a gamble really.
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 06
    THE EVENT Recently I had a day where I felt a bit sick and at the same time, had bad luck of getting only very hard cases
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 07
    that required more time, so I had 39 cases (1 under the requirement). I thought nothing of it, as my weekly average way off the charts, 50+ as usual.
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 08
    The very next day I felt better and went back to my usual high numbers. Come Monday, I had a "emergency 1-on-1" with my manager where I was
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 09
    informed that I had to attend a 3 day workshop/seminar on how to best meet requirements, because I "underperformed last week."
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 10
    My jaw dropped, and I asked don't they count the weekly, monthly, yearly numbers, to which I was told that the "daily requirement is 40, and this
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 11
    is standard practice, nothing we can do." Basically it was a workshop for underperformers who had 20-30 out of 40 cases daily,
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 12
    it was nothing hard, but I did need to drive there for 3 days after work and listen to HR guys giving bad advice (as they never actually handled the
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 13
    cases in real life) and I had. to talk about what will I do to improve my numbers and "reach the 40", as they nonsense HR talk calls it.
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 14
    This made me lose hours and hours of my free time and I was livid. After it was over, I had a long think and I decided that I will do exactly that. I will "reach the 40" and that's it.
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 15
    Cheezburger Image 10499202048
    via Ralf Geithe

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 16
    THE AFTERMATH For the past few months, I go into work, I handle 40. cases, my daily requirement, and then I do NOTHING for the rest of my shift.
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 17
    I have had multiple 1-on-1's with my manager during this time, and I am constantly asked: "is something wrong", to which I naively reply "no, am in
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 18
    trouble, am I underperforming?" and then of course they say that I am 100% within daily requirements and that way I shut the conversation down.
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 19
    This is real life, so I can't really say a clever comeback or something like that, but I do keep "playing the fool" that has no idea what is wrong now, but I find
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 20
    satisfaction in knowing that they got used to my overachieving and are now suffering for the lack of it. Before Easter, they put up an internal ad for
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 21
    promoting another 2 managers, so my guess is how that is the number of people they will now need to pay extra, just because they lost me as an
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 22
    overachiever, and they lost. me for no reason other than their own stupidity. Thank you all, I hope I did not bore you.
    via Scary_Expert1929
  • 23
    Aussieomni You had to go AFTER work? They paid you right?
    via Aussieomni
  • 24
    Loko8765 They gave you a class on how to reach the 40, you are applying what you were taught... Also an example of bad metrics ill-used.
    via Loko8765
  • 25
    SeaGranny I would have asked the HR person giving the talk so many questions about the hard cases you get and what to do when the companies lawyers have you on the phone for hours, do you just hang up on them after 10 minutes?
    via SeaGranny
  • 26
    Pristine-Bluebird-88 In the UK, I think that's known as "work to rule". Manglement at its finest! Perhaps it's time to file your own complaint with management about it!
    via Pristine-Bluebird-88
  • 27
    CoderJoe1 Nothing wrong with analyzing metrics, but once the employees know, the metric is all that matters and defines the business.
    via CoderJoe1

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boss workplace-stories employee manager job malicious compliance tales-from-the-workplace reddit story overworked-employees workplace Reddit company malicious compliance reddit quitting
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