Engineer complies with manager's insistence to never stay past 5:00 PM by pausing an imminent project at the end of the day: 'Greg had explicitly told me to leave even if the building was on fire'

This guy's manager might have initially been worried about overtime, but now, he's worried about an entire project coming undone.

When a manager tells you to make sure you're leaving work on time, you might be thinking how great it is that your boss has your back and that he's concerned about your personal wellness. Seems like a great thing to be working with someone who seeks to ensure that their employees are taken care of and that they are establishing a healthy boundary between work and life.

However, it's important not to be too naive about your manager's intentions. In this scenario, the engineer who shared this story online discovered that his manager was not at all concerned with his ability to establish work-life boundaries. Instead, he was worried about having to pay people overtime, even though the engineer was salaried and willing to stay late under specific circumstances. 

Keep scrolling below for the full story of what went down after the manager gave the engineer a stern "talking to" about occasionally staying late for work. Let's just say all it took for the manager to instantly regret his stance on this matter was a little compliance.

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  • A mechanical engineer wears a red shirt and a hard hat at work.
    via Fábio Lucas

    A mechanical engineer wears a red shirt and a hard hat at work.

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

  • Since you want me out at five then I am out at five

    So I work in this engineering firm doing BIM coordination and mechanical design. It is the kind of job where things are mostly predictable until a project hits the submittal phase and then everything turns into a dumpster
    via VelcroNova7
  • fire. My direct manager who we will call Greg is one of those guys who thinks management is just looking at a clock and a spreadsheet without actually understanding how a 3D model is built or why a clash detection report takes time to run. For
    via VelcroNova7
  • context I usually stayed an extra fifteen or twenty minutes if I was in the middle of a complex pipe routing or if a contractor was screaming for a fix. I did not mind because it made my mornings easier and kept the projects moving. Greg however started getting a bug in his ear about "overtime optimization" even
    via VelcroNova7
  • though I am salaried and was not even asking for extra pay. He just hated seeing me at my desk after 5:00 PM because it made him look like he was not managing my workload correctly or something.
    via VelcroNova7
  • He gave me a couple of "friendly reminders" about leaving on time which I ignored because I actually care about not letting my team down.
    via VelcroNova7
  • Cheezburger Image 10627776512
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    The manager of an engineering firm looks at plans while wearing a hard hat.

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

  • It sounds like this wasn't exactly the kind of job where leaving right on the spot while in the middle of a key project was easily doable. In fact, it says like nine times out of ten, doing this would only make matters more complicated when you return to work the following day.

    Clearly, the engineer tried to explain this reasoning to his manager, to no avail. Instead, his manager was far too concerned with the optics of having his employees stay late. What a surprise! A manager too obsessed with how he looks as a manager instead of ensuring that the quality of his employees' work is strong? Groundbreaking…

  • Last Wednesday Greg finally snapped. I was finishing up a critical HVAC layout for a hospital project that had to go out the next morning. If the ducts are not aligned with the structural beams the whole thing is a mess. I was at my desk at 5:05 PM when Greg walked out of his office. He did not ask what I was doing or if the hospital project was ready.
    via VelcroNova7
  • He just stood there with his arms crossed and gave me this formal lecture about how I was "defying a direct managerial directive" regarding my schedule. He told me that if he saw me at my desk one minute past five again he would write me up for insubordination and report it to HR as a failure to follow office protocols. He actually said "I do
    via VelcroNova7
  • protocols. He actually said "I do not care if the building is on fire you leave when the clock hits 17:00." I told him I was just trying to make sure the submittal was clean but he cut me off and pointed at the door.
    via VelcroNova7
  • Enter the malicious compliance. I decided that if Greg wanted a robot who follows a clock then that is exactly what he would get.
    via VelcroNova7
  • I set a loud alarm on my phone for 4:59 PM. Thursday was the big deadline for the hospital job. I had about twenty major clashes left to resolve in the Navisworks model. Usually I would stay until 6:00 to make sure the MEP trades had a clear path. At 4:55
    via VelcroNova7
  • PM I was right in the middle of rerouting a massive 24-inch chilled water line that was clipping through a main structural column. It is a delicate process because if you move it one way you hit the electrical trays and if you move it the other you are in the ceiling of the operating room.
    via VelcroNova7
  • My alarm goes off. I do not finish the move. I do not hit save. I do not sync the model to the central file which is BIM 101. If you do not sync nobody else can see your changes and the model stays "locked" for those elements. I
    via VelcroNova7
  • literally just stood up grabbed my bag and walked past Greg's office. He looked pleased and gave me a little nod. I did not even look back.
    via VelcroNova7
  • The manager goes through items on a checklist as he tours an industrial factory.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    The manager goes through items on a checklist as he tours an industrial factory.

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

  • Friday morning was a total bloodbath. I walked in at 8:00 AM to find Greg and the Senior Partner standing by my desk. The contractor had tried to pull the latest model at 6:00 AM for the site meeting and found that the main chilled water line was literally hovering in the middle of a hallway and half the mechanical
    via VelcroNova7
  • floor was locked by my user ID because I never synced. The Senior Partner was livid because the client was threatening backcharges for the delay. Greg tried to throw me under the bus immediately saying that I must have been "slacking off" or "disorganized" the day before. I
    via VelcroNova7
  • just sat down opened my log and showed the Senior Partner the timestamp of my last action. Then I turned to Greg and said loud enough for the whole floor to hear that I wanted to finish the sync but I was worried about the "direct managerial directive" and
    via VelcroNova7
  • the threat of a formal write-up for insubordination. I told the Partner that Greg had explicitly told me to leave even if the building was on fire. The look on Greg's face was priceless as he tried to explain that "common sense should have applied." I reminded him that he specifically told me common sense did not matter and only the clock did. The
    via VelcroNova7
  • Partner told Greg to go to his office and I was told to "just do whatever it takes to fix it." I still leave at 5:00 PM sharp now but Greg does not even look at my desk when he leaves.
    via VelcroNova7

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employee toxic-workplace manager 9 to 5 engineering Horrible Bosses workplace malicious compliance
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