Boss says "no overtime," employee leaves right at 5 pm when their shift is over, even though it's in the middle of a company emergency: 'Sorry, I’d love to help, but I really don’t want to violate company policy.'

Middle managers and sweeping policies that ban overtime (or at least the reporting of it) are a dynamic duo. Seriously, is it in some default handbook that comes with every dubiously awarded promotion? 

The first rumblings that come of "no overtime" policies are usually when vacancies have been left on the team for a suspiciously long period of time, forcing the remaining members to work overtime just to keep up. The most dedicated on the team continue to work overtime anyway, desperate to keep up with the workload. But consistent pushback from management eventually leads to these team members giving up, turning instead to voicing the fact that projects are falling behind. 

When management still ignores their warnings, the only thing left to really do is to do exactly what they want and drop everything right when their scheduled shift is finished. Deadlines begin to get missed, and clients and customers are unhappy. Management starts to take it out on those same workers, blaming them for not doing their jobs, despite the fact that they've been communicating the lack of staffing and resources the entire time. Now, suddenly, the overtime is ok, management begins to act like the workers aren't being "team players" for staying to help finish.

It's a classic scene that has played out time and time again in many a workplace. A classic logical fallacy, right up there with firing most of the IT team because "Everything is going well, so what are we paying them for anyway?"

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