Bosses cut workers' pay for working too fast, so employees slow down and milk the clock until company caves: ‘I'd go grocery shopping, get lunch, read a book, look at social media, anything, until clock out time'

Author image for Etai Eshet
Etai Eshet • Editor
Oct 22, 2025 8:00 PM EDT

This story sums up how fast hard work turns into a bad idea when management gets weird about pay. The job setup sounds simple enough. You get a zone, a list of tasks, and a time limit to finish each one. The catch is those time limits are huge. Most jobs only take half an hour, but they hand out two‑hour schedules like candy. Everyone used to just log the full time anyway, because it kept pay fair. Then new management showed up and said nope, if it takes less time, you earn less.  

So yeah, everyone started "running the clock." Finish a job in twenty minutes, then stretch those two hours doing normal stuff. Grab lunch, hit the store, scroll social media, kill time until it's safe to clock out. It wasn't laziness, just matching the energy of a company that punished getting things done too fast. The smarter you worked, the dumber your paycheck looked, and that kills motivation fast.

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  • My job cut people's pay for getting tasks completed too fast so everyone ran the clock

    Businessman lying on grass resting
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    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • It became this unspoken rule all around the region. Everyone knew the system was broken, but no one wanted to lose money over being efficient. The best part is when the worker finally quit, the company begged them to stay. Classic move. People don’t quit the work itself most of the time. They quit the nonsense that makes work harder than it needs to be. Turns out running the clock wasn’t the problem. It was the only thing holding the joke together.

  • For context, I am assigned a geographical zone and I must complete all tasks in that zone by their deadlines and complete the job within a time limit given.
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  • I make my own schedule, get paid milage to locations, I clock in via GPS tracker to prove I am at said location.
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  • My supervisor existed, but he worked remote, never watching me directly, I worked independently. Each job we are assigned has a time limit.
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  • Problem is, we are usually given way too much time. Rarely do I get jobs that take multiple hours.
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    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • I've been doing this for 6 years, most jobs they give me I can complete literally in less than 30 minutes, even 10 minutes, meanwhile they give me 2 hours to do it, because I know what I am doing.
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  • Our managers have always said it's fine to claim that we took the full time allotted for payroll purposes because hard workers getting paid less than people who don't do shit is unfair and enforcing that will only make people run the clock, we deserve the same pay.
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  • And it does. We got new management and then they started enforcing it, we had to either take the full amount of time given or take the cut in our check.
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  • I started running the clock and my colleges in different cities told me they they were too.
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  • I would go to a location, clock in, knock out the job, then bullshit. I'd go grocery shopping, get lunch, read a book, look at social media, anything, until clock out time.
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    via Khakimullin Aleksandr

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

  • Because it's bullshit if it takes me only 25% of the time to complete something, I should get 25% of the pay other get.
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  • I did eventually quit. The company was a mess and I got sick of it, the job already sucked enough.
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  • They begged me to stay, believe it or not. I ghosted them.
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  • PacquiaoFreeHousing Yeah always do this, always make a task take longer than the actual time, so they adjust to any mishaps and delays you legitimately will have in the future.
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  • OP VampArcher I got a new job and it's funny how they do the same exact thing. People know as soon as they finish all of their work, management will either dismiss them and tell them to go home hardly making any money or give them a bunch more work that will get them stuck their all day. I got hired and the veterans that been there for 20+ years explained to me 'never rush, work to finish at the time they expect you to be done', I was already ahead of them. Never is there any good to be had fini
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  • SpunningAndWonning I can't imagine the logic that led to that stupid policy
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  • OP VampArcher Nobody ever said corporate people know how to manage people. They want to find out how cut costs, having no clue how anything works in the field.
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  • MyNamelsQuason Let me guess, merchandiser?
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  • OP VampArcher Yup.
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  • MyNamelsQuason SAS retail services? Used to work there and I'd get 2hr for a 10 min job
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  • OP VampArcher Very close, but the two companies as so similar, they may as well be twins. I think most retail merchandisers besides certain ones likes Coke, Pepsi, Nabisco, etc., that make a ton of sales are all like this.
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  • xboxgamer2122 Work smarter not harder.
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  • evilbrent In my view it comes from people getting positions of power in organizations without having any experience within said organization. Or any organization really. The rest of us know what is and isn't socially acceptable. Many managers these days look at everything as numbers, which is fine, but they don't know enough to look at ALL the numbers.
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  • Clyde Prefontaine Similar to sanitation drivers
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  • bellamadre89 I googled them for funsies and this came up "SAS Retail Services faces multiple lawsuits, including class- action suits alleging failure to pay for all hours worked and reimburse necessary business expenses, such as mileage, cell phone use, and home office expenses. Other lawsuits have involved issues like unpaid overtime, lack of reimbursement for mileage and per diem, and improper meal/rest breaks."
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  • Beagly99 Crazy how when you work hard and well, it cost you money and your time.
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  • AllThingsBeginWithNu I use to have a job where I charged by the hour, but I got to good so I made less money so l switched to a flat rate. Honestly I don't think you guys did anything wrong, except for many not staying in site for the full billable hour.
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Tags

management workplace discussion employment issues boss workplace-stories hr manager bosses work PTO managers supervisor workplace Horrible Bosses work-life balance
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