'My colleagues are all 8am until 5:30pm. My contract is for 9 to 5pm': Employee refuses to amend his hours after HR discovers their mistake in his contract

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Aug 26, 2025 8:00 AM EDT

Always remember that it's the responsibility of both parties to honor an employment contract. If there was a mistake in those terms that should have been acknowledged before everyone signed, then everyone has the right to agree or decline to those changes. 

In this instance, we have an employee who recently began working for a company where his hours were 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Those were the hours as written in his contract by a relatively new employee in the company's human resources department. Well, it turns out that the HR representative made the slightest error. She likely assumed that those would be the new hire's hours based on traditional work standards. However, other employees within the new hire's department actually had more grueling hours. Their days began at 8:00 AM and ended at 5:30 PM. 

The new hire recognized that something did seem strange every morning when he arrived at the office and all of his coworkers were already hard at work. The same goes with the end of the day, when all his coworkers would stay behind after he left. Once he realized what was going on, the author knew that this was not his error and that he only needed to honor the hours expressed in his own contract. However, HR had other plans…

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  • 01

    "My workplace [messed] up my contract in my favour…. Would you change it?"

    Smiling manager welcomes a new employee in the office.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Once members of HR began to figure out that their new hire was arriving later than everyone on his team and leaving earlier than everyone as well, they took a look at his contract and discovered their egregious mistake. They even tried to pressure the author into agreeing to new terms, but thankfully, this guy put his foot down. Fingers crossed that he gets his way, given that he clearly has a desired skillset that provides him with some leverage.

  • 02
    I work in IT. After my old place had a bunch of layoffs, I have landed in a place that is pretty good and I've enjoyed it ok so far. I was interviewed by my bosses boss and was offered the job fairly quickly.
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 03
    They passed over my details to HR to deal with the contract for signing and on boarding me. I always noticed that people were in the office later than I was and I thought it was a bit weird but I never said anything.
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 04
    However after a conversation I found that my contract has substantially less hours than everyone else in my team. My colleagues are all 8am until 5:30pm.
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 05
    My contract is for 9 to 5pm with a 1 hour lunch. Doesn't sound like a lot but it actually works out at 30 hours less a month roughly. My boss who I like said that my hours I work should be 830 to 530 but I said no,
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 06
    that was the contract I signed so unless I was needed for something that needed overtime, which happens occasionally, I would be sticking to my agreed hours. So he dropped it but seemed a bit put out,
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 07
    but I do feel a bit guilty because it's obviously been an error because it was the HR lady's first week and she didn't do the contract properly and I genuinely like my colleagues. Would you change your contract for camaraderie or stick to your guns?
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 08
    Modern business team welcomes new employee into the office.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 09
    dsdvbguutres Lol your boss can kick rocks. Who the in their right mind lets an employee who is with the company for 1 week make a contract and lets that contract get executed without reviewing it first?
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 10
    OneMoreDog Unless they push back more and would consider a redundancy/severance over this I'd just leave it. Sounds perfect.
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 11
    Excellent-Ostrich 908 OP. Unlikely they could sever me over it because they have decent workers rights where I live, compared to places like America anyway.
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 12
    Just SomeDude13. Oh, you're not in the US? Yeah, you're probably fine.
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 13
    borisallen49. | Would you change it? Let me think about that for a moment...ok, thought about it: no, no I wouldn't.
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 14
    Well, if they want to exchange a higher salary for the additional hours, then maybe. OP, not that you should feel guilty at all in the first place, but
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 15
    do you know what salaries your co-workers are on? They could be getting paid substantially more than you in the first place.
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 16
    pasty_w-boy12345. If this is a salaried position oh what a glorious mistake it is!!!!!!!!
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 17
    Excellent-Ostrich 908 OP Yes I'm salaried.
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 18
    MuchDevelopment7084 no. If you made a mistake. They'd make you stick with it.
    via Excellent-Ostrich908
  • 19
    AMonkeyAndALavaLamp. I'd change it if I needed more money, but no way in I'd let them change the hours in my contract without changing my pay as well.
    via Excellent-Ostrich908

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workplace-stories employee work stories toxic-workplace job work human resources overworked-employees Horrible Bosses company toxic-work-environment
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