Boss bans tech employee from taking lunch after allotted time, forcing employee to go on break while the company's entire network is down: ‘So I clocked out’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Jul 2, 2026 10:30 AM EDT

To take a lunch break or not to take, that is the question!

With all due respect to the work we all get paid to do every single day, lunch break is probably the most important part of an employee's day. It is the time to recharge, to socialize, and most importantly, to eat. It provides employees with a much-needed pause to the workday, which allows them to come back afterwards with newfound strength and energy.

Working a 9-5, you tend to find your favorite period of time to take your lunch break, unless your workplace has a set time in place. We assume most people like to take their break between 12 and 1 PM, allowing themselves to cut their workday exactly in half and eat their lunch at the right time. 

However, work is usually a dynamic thing, and sometimes your schedule has to adapt to the changes your job demands. If there is a certain work crisis, for example, you might decide that lunch has to be postponed for a few hours, so you can deal with the problems at hand and not leave your coworkers or clients with an issue you can fix. How can you drop everything and go enjoy your lunch when you know your help is needed?

If you're working for someone like the boss in the story below, you might not have a choice. An IT employee shared on Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance how they were late to take lunch one day because they were busy fixing an issue with a computer. After they were done and managed to grab lunch, their boss chastised them for going on a break outside the normal lunch hours and insisted it can't happen again. 

An odd request for an IT employee who's in charge of the company's entire tech support, but how are they to argue? The next day, even as the company's entire network was having problems, the employee complied with the lunch company policy and clocked out at the right time, leaving the issues to wait until their return. What was the boss's reaction this time? Scroll down to find out.

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  • 01
    Man working + a post-it note with the words “Lunch break!”
    via Getty Images

    Man working + a post-it note with the words "Lunch break!"

  • 02

    Boss chastised me for a late lunch during a "mission critical outage", so I clocked out when the whole network went down!

    TL:DR: Boss tells me to take my lunch ONLY at X-Y hours when I was dealing with a "mission- critical" outage until the job was done. Later, I clock out during a
    via daschande
  • 03
    VERY obvious "all hands on- deck" situation because boss complained the last time I answered the call.
    via daschande
  • 04
    The short version: Small business, this is my first IT job, but I have decades of blue collar experience. I was the first IT person the company ever hired;
    via daschande
  • 05
    my associate's in IT specializing in networking only a few gen-ed classes away. My boss kept the platters spinning, but he has no formal training or amateur desire; he wants to offload the tediousness.
    via daschande
  • 06
    Three days prior, I was trying to get a "mission critical" computer up and running again; the only computer with the shipping software (and hundreds of packages waiting to ship). I
    via daschande
  • 07
    advised an immediate re-image (delete everything and reset to a "known good save") I had it on deck for just such an occasion. But I was overridden by the owner, who wanted me to keep
    via daschande
  • 08
    Windows in situ and delete/reinstall programs piecemeal and deal with phone support for those programs, because he paid extra for tech support. His call, I followed
    via daschande
  • 09
    orders. I was on the phone for hours, and did not leave my post until the job was done.
    via daschande
  • 10
    Businessman enjoying lunch break eating noodles outdoors
    via @imgenesjosecarlos

    Businessman enjoying lunch break eating noodles outdoors

  • 11
    That meant I took my lunch half an hour later. No big deal for me, but when I clocked back in and got back to my desk, my boss was standing there, FUMING, because I took a lunch outside of
    via daschande
  • 12
    normal hours. He INSISTED I MUST take my 30 minute lunch from 12-1 as per company policy.
    via daschande
  • 13
    So, today, the whole network goes out at 12:25 and I had not yet taken my lunch. Nothing can ping anything. My own personal hunches tell me this is because it's a factory building, there are a
    via daschande
  • 14
    lot of high-voltage woodworking machines for factory production level of output, and ALL of the ethernet cables are unshielded.. Just my hunch.
    via daschande
  • 15
    ...But I really can't do a d thing, because my company rents out office space as a n subletter; so we are NOT allowed access to the switches and routers. I have no admin access
    via daschande
  • 16
    to the infrastructure. So I set up wireshark to record and a continuous command line ping, and go to lunch.
    via daschande
  • 17
    Boss is standing at my desk when I get back today, and gives me a passive-aggressive "the network is up, by the way!", but refuses to call me out further. I had the "I told you so" on deck, though!
    via daschande
  • 18
    A man working on his laptop
    via Getty Images

    A man working on his laptop

  • 19
    NinjaHidingintheOpen The secret instruction is that if things are going wrong you don't get lunch, he just can't say that because it's illegal.
    via NinjaHidingintheOpen
  • 20
    daschande OP Side note: Phone support made things so bad, even THEY told me to hire a contractor at my own expense to fix the mistake THEY created! I solved the problem myself, after being ordered not to.
    via daschande
  • 21
    I learned a VERY important lesson that day. What you actually DO is inconsequential. How you make the higher-ups FEEL; well, that's where careers are made.
    via daschande
  • 22
    DoctorGuvnor Start looking for another job - your days there are numbered and it's not a big number. seldom respond well to being silently informed they're a ɔles.
    via DoctorGuvnor

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boss lunch break workplace-stories employee manager job tales-from-the-workplace lunch workplace company network
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