Employee finds loophole in company's tracking system, takes 2 hour breaks that are only marked as 30 minutes: 'I did exactly as I was told'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jun 20, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

There is always a big transition when a smaller company gets bought by a larger one, and that transition takes time and patience. However, sometimes, the way in which the workplace used to be run was better for everyone involved, so when some fancy guy in a suit comes in and starts implementing annoying changes, it's inevitable that those changes will be met with some resistance.

In this instance, we have an employee who now has to clock out every time he takes a break. However, according to the new system, he discovered that efvery break is clocked at 30 minutes no matter how long the break actually is. This meant that the employee was able to take breaks lasting one or two hours while complying with the new policy. Talk about a perfect situation! The best part is that if he were confronted with probing questions, he can say that he literally was just following HR's orders like any other loyal and compliant employee!

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    Cheezburger Image 10518549760
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

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

  • Let's also take a moment to acknowledge that employees need to take breaks of their own desired length (so long as it's reasonable) in order for the work to be strong. Regardless of whether or not the work is physically or mentally draining, being limited to a narrow amount of time to take a breather is only more stressful. Kudos to this employee for standing his ground and knowing what his needs are!

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    My former small company was bought by a much bigger one. When this happened our time management system changed to a new one. Nothing extraordinary
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    here. The new system however had a major flaw: it substracted half an hour of mandatory break every day from your hours but you could not manually clock out for longer breaks or the system
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    would break. I however was taking longer breaks on some days. This was common before and I (and my colleagues) had the approval of my supervisor for it. So with the new system I could
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    not clock out for my breaks properly - it had to be manually adjusted each day. I talked to my supervisor about it, he told me to go to HR and let them sort the system out. I went to HR,
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    explained that I had approval to take longer breaks and asked how to use the system correctly. got this exact reply in writing: "don't clock out on your breaks,
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    the system works automatic" It was clear from the phone call earlier that what they wanted to say was: don't take breaks longer than 30 minutes. But that was not what was written. I answered and thanked them for the clarification.
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    Cue malicious compliance: I did exactly as I was told: I took long breaks every single day but the system only ever counted them as 30 minutes. On some days I
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    took like 2 or more hours of break, went into the city from the office to get some ice cream or do some shopping and did never use more than 30 minutes of time
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    for it. My "overtime" hours were going so high that I was ordered to take multiple days a month off to compensate... This went on for about 2 and a half years until we were sold again and the new system sadly did not have the same flaw...
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    Cheezburger Image 10518550016
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

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

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    Perfect-Scene9541. Clearly they couldn't afford to track time, which equals money.
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    suh-dood You must take longer breaks and take a whole month off
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    Sistersoldia • When I come in late I will leave early to make up for it.
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    CDCaesar • Don't ever let anyone tell you that you did anything wrong.
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    avid-learner- I so feel you on this one! Though I'd swap ice cream for wine... cheers!
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    Far_Necessary7448. Genius. You exploited the system's flaw and HR's poor wording. "Malicious compliance" is an art. Enjoy those extra ice cream breaks.
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    throwaway_0x90. Yeah this is the fault of their bad workhours software and canned-response to your concerns. As long as you were still meeting expectations, this is fine.
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    ThatCanadianViking ⚫ So where i used to work there was an older gentleman. Hed arrive every day half an hour early, clock in go have coffee in the break room. (Clock is right when you walk in the door)
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    he did this for almost 15 years. Turns out he was getting paid for his coffee in the morning (for nearly 15 years). It was found out because there was a strict
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    no OT put into place for a couple months and.. he happened to get OT. He wasnt punished, it wasnt his mistake. Payroll however had to start paying attention to each employees start time after that.
    via Sordonir

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workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace malicious compliance work employees overworked-employees funny work stories workplace malicious compliance toxic-work-environment
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