25-year-old construction employee costs company $20,000 after 34-year-old boss refuses to listen to her: 'I'm telling him no... I was perfectly within my right to do so'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 30, 2025 3:00 PM EDT

No matter how big of a mistake you've made in your workplace, it probably pales in comparison to the one that this construction boss made. 

Having a truly good worker and boss relationship is quite difficult, and not everyone assigned to a manager position is able to achieve it. Some micromanage their employees, which can drive the workers insane. Others ignore their workers until there's a big issue, which is also not ideal. And many are somewhere in between — ideally, they give their workers the confidence to make smart decisions and know that management will have their backs. This boss didn't do that, though: instead, he tried to overwork an employee without paying her, and luckily, she refused. 

So many bosses feel entitled to all of their employees' time. Instead of just utilizing them to the best of their ability for the 8 or so hours they're working each day, the boss tries to get them to work during their off hours. Although some salaried positions take this quite seriously, it's not good for workers to always be "on call," just waiting for their boss to need them. When this person's boss asked her to work overtime, she just said no! I think she made the right call: no one wants to work for free, even salaried workers, when they could be at home relaxing and letting their boss in the next tax bracket handle it instead. 

Next, read about this employee who got back at her petty boss by providing email receipts, only to get fired with haste: "She saw an opportunity." 

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  • 01

    'Shut up and do my job? Fine. That’ll cost the company $20,000'

    So I don't work at this company anymore for obvious reasons but this was such a satisfying moment for me. Also I was 25F at the time. My boss 34M. Not that it matters too much just for context.
    via u/licdb
  • 02
    I work in construction consulting and our job is to make sure that all dirt materials are stable for building or pouring concrete or asphalt on. We have three different labels for dirt. Type one. Type two. And type three. We very rarely interact with type three except in very specific circumstances. One of my first few weeks of the job there was an underground foreman that was trying to use type three material that had not been approved. Type
    via u/licdb
  • 03
    three needs approval for use and can only be used to surround sewer pipes and other utilities. Because of this incident I was exposed to type three. My average coworker could go two years without ever seeing it. Fast forward a year and a half later and my boss and I keep getting in tiffs. He's asking me to drive across town (in my personal vehicle) and I'm telling him no, which I was perfectly within my right to do. And there were just
    via u/licdb
  • 04
    other random little things that he was getting mad about. He decided he had had enough of me when he approached me one morning asking me to go to a job site on the other side of town as an overtime job in the afternoon. He stated that if he sent one of my other coworkers they would complain so he needed me to go. I had the next day off for vacation and he knew that. He also knew I had a six hour drive that night through the pitch black desert of Arizona. So I told him I wouldn't
    via u/licdb
  • 05
    go. If I was in the wrong here or not is irrelevant. I was only required to work my forty hours as an hourly employee and did not have to do overtime. But he was ped. I got called into the office that afternoon and had a stern talking to about how my attitude needed to change. While I went back and forth with him saying he can't expect me to do things he
    via u/licdb
  • 06
    doesn't expect of my colleagues he decided the correct answer was "I need you to just shut up and do your job when I tell you to." Well alright then. A week and a half later I arrive at a job site to test what is supposed to be type two for underneath asphalt. The ONLY material allowed under asphalt per our building codes is type two. I looked up this specific
    via u/licdb
  • 07
    material on the county approved material listing to find it was labeled for type three use only. So about half a medium sized neighborhood worth of street is currently filled with the wrong material. And I am well aware of this. It's about 12,000 cubic yards of material that was placed and treated. This takes hours and hours to do and dozens of rock trucks full of loads of rock. I have two options when I realize this. I can call my boss and let him know that the contractor placed
    via u/licdb
  • 08
    the wrong material. Or, I can just do the testing that is asked of me and be on my merry way. So I did the testing. I did everything I was supposed to do. Gave my paperwork to the contractor and left. The county building department then shows up to have a look at the material and my paperwork.
    via u/licdb
  • 09
    The following Monday County calls my office asking why I tested type three. The contractor calls my office saying this is going to cost $20,000 to fix and that we should've caught their mistake and so we have to foot the bill. My boss calls me and requests we have a meeting.
    via u/licdb
  • 10
    A lot of my coworkers were p ed about me getting in trouble the previous week so one calls me to let me know that my bosses actually didn't know what the proper code was for this situation and had called another coworker who had been in the industry for 25 years.
    via u/licdb
  • 11
    3 construction workers, 2 men and one woman, wear neon vests and look at paper amidst rebar
    via Andy Quezada For Unsplash+

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

  • 12
    I had also already accepted a job with a new company but I hadn't given them my notice yet so I wasn't really worried about what the outcome of this would be. My boss is yelling at me for allowing this material to get through to county and that I need to do better and why didn't I call him.
    via u/licdb
  • 13
    I told him I was doing my job like he had told me to do. That he had told me not to ask questions and to just do what I was told so that's what I was doing. He didn't want to hear this and kept saying ow I was better than that and that I should've known better.
    via u/licdb
  • 14
    At which point I've checked out of this conversation and am thinking about anything else. I calmly let him know that any of my coworkers would have also made this mistake except for possibly the very one he called that afternoon to ask about the code. He told me that that wasn't true and that everyone else would have known. I said okay okay sure yeah whatever. And that maybe you should've trained us better because No one knows what type three even is.
    via u/licdb
  • 15
    Woman construction worker in orange vest, hard hat, and blue jeans walks through concrete hallway followed by male construction worker in hard hat and green vest
    via Andy Quezada For Unsplash+

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

  • 16
    At this point his boss comes in and says how we will probably be the ones to foot the bill for this situation and how it's a very costly mistake and we need to do better. He says it's going to cost about $20,000 and that it looks very bad for me as I signed this paperwork. He's rambling on about possible repercussions for me and that if there was a lawsuit I would be liable. I'm not the person of competence for this job site and I didn't do anything wrong in terms of lying about the
    via u/licdb
  • 17
    situation which would actually put me at fault. But the bosses keep talking about this and tell me I can leave. Two days later we have a department meeting about this situation. Not a single one of my coworkers rose their hand when my boss asked if we knew what type three was other than the coworker he had called. He got pretty red and said "we will have more training on this soon"
    via u/licdb
  • 18
    I put my two weeks in that Friday and was walked out on Monday. Felt really great about that. TLDR: tell me to shut up and do my job? Okay I will. And that will cost $20,000 for the company.
    via u/licdb

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malicious compliance construction workplace malicious compliance reddit construction workers
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