Boss scolds worker of 25 yrs for clocking out 3 minutes early after a 19-hour shift — instantly regrets it
'He said he was making me aware that I could be fired for it...'
A man (u/irritatingfarquar), working for a company for 25 years, completed his 19-hour shift, only to hear his new manager say that he apparently "attempted to defraud the company." Reason? Well, he clocked out 3 minutes early, which, according to his manager, was unacceptable. His post, shared in 2023, has received 18K upvotes on Reddit.
He explained that the water company he worked for required workers to take turns and be available for emergency repairs outside official hours. On a particular week, the man was asked to work a very long shift — 7:30 am to 3:15 am. He completed his shift and went back home, only to be called in for a meeting on Tuesday morning. The boss said the vehicle tracker showed he left work at 3:12 am, i.e., exactly 3 minutes early, and accused the employee of trying to cheat the company. "I was absolutely fuming at this level of bullsh*t. I told him that at the time I was covered in mud and sweat and just wanted to get home after completing a monster shift for the company, and was he genuinely making a shitstorm over 3 minutes? He said he was making me aware that I could be fired for it," he wrote. In response, the employee insisted that his manager take him off the emergency contact list for extra coverage and said that he wouldn't start 20 minutes early daily. "I'll now be clocking in at exactly 7:30 am, and I shall be heading out at exactly 5:30 pm, no deviation whatsoever," he announced.
Soon enough, other workers, except the ones who were close to the manager, began following the rule, and this negatively impacted their productivity. "Mr. Numbnuts gets called in by his bosses to try and explain what is going on. He tried to spin some bullsh*t story that I'd turned all the guys against him for no reason, and that this was the result," the man explained. Now, here's the real twist — the man, in fact, had trained the manager's boss 15 years ago, when he wanted to know how hard the field job was. Since the boss already knew him, he called him to find out the truth. The employee explained the situation, and as a consequence, the manager was fired for misusing the vehicle tracking system.
As overtime continues as the new normal, people seem to have forgotten about work-life balance. Employees working beyond official hours are praised, yet those who leave minutes before the end of their shift are often criticized. In fact, Ciphr surveyed 1,000 UK workers to find out more about people working overtime, and the result was just shocking. The survey suggests that nearly half (49%) of employees work extra hours without getting paid.
Reacting to the Reddit post, u/unasked_for_advice commented, "They micro-manage because they have zero idea what they are doing or how to do it. This behavior may fall into the Dunning–Kruger effect category and is often accompanied by an overinflated ego. On the other hand, u/justaman_097 shared, "My experience as a manager suggests that any manager who wants to micromanage time down to that level is majorly pissing off time himself and thinks that everyone else is doing the same. You did the company a good by highlighting what a j*rk he was."
u/elendel19 recalled, "I once got a warning for being 1 minute late 3 times in 6 weeks. 'Late is late,' they said (the time I start is absolutely meaningless; nothing is waiting on me), so now every time I wake up late or think I’ll be 1-2 minutes late, I just chill at home for a while and come in 15 or 30 minutes late since there is no difference."
More on Scoop Upworthy
Company started fining employees for coming late even by a minute — ends up regretting it massively
Employee works overtime as payback to micromanaging boss and eventually gets him fired
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