Boss turns red in the face after employee reveals why he refuses to work more than 30 minutes a day
Ultimately, his labor paid off with an act of malicious compliance that earned him way more than just his time.
Work-life balance is a dream, especially when you're expected to work overtime without any compensation. Similarly, when Dave, an employee, was sent to another state three hours away to set up a new office, he believed they'd provide him with temporary accommodation there. However, the company asked him to travel from his home to his workplace every single day. Ultimately, his labor paid off with an act of malicious compliance that earned him way more than just his time. Another employee (u/technos) shared his story on Reddit in 2019.
Dave and another employee from the company in question had been sent to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to set up a new office for a client. The employee had never met Dave before, but from the beginning, he didn't like him much. Reasons? He explained that Dave was always late, moved almost like a zombie, and was caught dozing off multiple times during work. "Still, he was the closest thing I had to a friend in Fort Wayne, so I invited him out to the bar on Friday for all the company-funded booze we could drink," he explained. However, Dave turned down the invite, saying he wanted to go home and sleep through the weekend since travelling to work every day had been exhausting. "It seems Dave's boss had been a d**k, and, instead of paying for a plane ticket, hotel, and rental car like my boss had, he'd instructed Dave to drive. From Chicago, almost three hours away," he said. The employee was shocked, but he assumed Dave had been making insane money with all the overtime he had been working. Turns out: he'd been doing it all for free.
Concerned, the employee immediately called his boss, who was just as confused as him. "Unfortunately, neither I nor my boss had any say in the matter, and neither of us was familiar with Illinois or Indiana labor law, so all we could do was advise Dave to save his receipts for the IRS and complain to HR," he wrote. The following day, Dave was late again, and after waiting for an hour, the employee finally called him. Dave answered and informed him that he would arrive in about two hours. The whole day went by with Dave hardly working and taking "15-minute breaks" every now and then. The employee was confused but didn't confront him about it. However, after lunch, when Dave announced he would be leaving for home, the employee asked him why, and learned that he'd discussed it with HR.
"I didn't see Dave on Tuesday; his cellphone was going unanswered, and neither my boss nor I had any luck finding out why. We didn't try hard; Not our zoo and not our monkey, after all. Ditto for Wednesday, but whatever, he's probably just sick. And then on Thursday, I see Dave. Before work. At the hotel breakfast buffet," the employee recalled. When he confronted Dave about not showing up at work, the latter laughed and told him the story. Dave said the client had already noticed him arriving late and leaving early. Dave's boss and the local HR had even called him for a meeting, planning to fire him immediately for claiming 32 hours of unearned overtime and not working the previous day. When Dave saw things getting serious, he showed them three pieces of evidence that turned the tables on them. First, his boss's email asking him to drive to work daily at his own expense. Next, he showed an email from Corporate HR that had clearly told him that he wasn't required to work overtime. Third, he had written evidence showing paid breaks off-sites were allowed.
"He then informed them that he was not working any more overtime, and after 3 hours driving in, 1.5 hours of breaks, and 3 hours driving back home, it left him with just half an hour a day to do actual work. Less, actually, if the traffic was bad. Oh, and that Corporate HR was willing to stand behind him on it. He'd just spoken to them before the meeting," the employee said. Moving on, Dave said it took him about seconds to realize that they had no say in this. "And, since everything was booked last minute, I'm in a suite with a Jacuzzi, and my rental is a damn Cadillac!" Dave said. Today, most working professionals are expected to work around the clock and prioritize professional commitments over mental sanity. In fact, according to Spill Chat, 120,000 people die every year in America due to job-related stress. 91% of US workers said stress negatively impacts the quality of their work, and 76% said work stress affects their personal relationships. Now, while Dave was one of the few who could rise above the injustice, most get stuck in their dead-end jobs, fearing uncertainty.
Meanwhile, reacting to the story, u/sparriw1 recalled, "Oh man, that takes me back. I worked as a field testing technician for a company that exclusively does that. There would be times I would travel 3 hours one way, only to hop out of my truck and be told I had to go right back to the office because the site had a delay. Sure, it sucked to not be doing my job, but I got 6 hours of window time at $25 an hour and got back to the office in time to put in another 6 to 8 hours. The paychecks were amazing, and I caught up on a lot of music and books."
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