Employee walks out in the middle of a work crisis after being told not to work overtime

We have all heard of companies forcing employees to work overtime, but here, the management's no overtime rule led to unexpected consequences. The employee (u/runnerdan) shared their experience on Reddit in 2024.

The employee, working as a developer for a financial company, often had to work overtime to keep everything running smoothly. This was particularly because the company lacked many essential tools, and so the employee had to put in extra hours building tools, scripts, reports, etc. "At my peak, I probably had around 300 apps and/or scripts in production. Due to the number of requests from leadership and to keep the lights on, I [was] usually booked for anywhere from 4 to 10 hours of overtime per week," they shared. However, everything changed when they got a new boss who decided that the employees would not take any overtime for any reason. "She proclaimed that I would ONLY be allowed 8 hours per day and not a moment more. 'No exceptions.' I wasn't a full-time employee, so I didn't have any grounds to push back. I usually started at 8, so with my 30-minute lunch, that meant my new hours were 8 to 4:30," the employee explained. Things were working just fine until a bug broke their system. The employee who had faced a similar situation in the past knew how to fix it but needed a little time to figure things out.

The employee kept working on the issue until the clock hit 4:30. "I lock my computer, stand up from my desk, and say, 'Well, it's 4:30. That's my 8 hours. I'll see you tomorrow,' and I walked out," they wrote. The issue couldn't be solved, and so their overnight backups didn't run, leading to a major problem at work. The next morning, the employee was called in for a meeting with their boss, who informed them. "Moving forward, I'll manage your timesheet, and you can take as many hours as you need." The employee left that job a few months later and found out that almost everyone was laid off after that. "Only two of about 200 people weren't laid off, and one of those people was the guy I hired to backfill me, as someone had to keep all the code running," the employee wrote.

Rules are usually made by companies in the larger interest of the organization and employees. However, sometimes, these rules end up being a bit unreasonable and cause major inconvenience for everyone involved. For instance, according to research, almost 60.2% of Brits have worked for a company that implemented strange or ridiculous rules. This means just like the author in the story, many working professionals face issues because of illogical workplace rules that also affect their productivity. Meanwhile, reacting to the story, u/versatile_opt commented, "This definitely is a great malicious compliance, but I think OP missed a huge opportunity to negotiate his overtime rating. After this incident, they know that you know how valuable your overtime is."

u/snazzystooge said, "FANTASTIC story. If I may offer a version that’s the exact opposite, not in the spirit of this sub but an example of an amazing boss. Boss says to his (all salaried) people, 'You may not be in charge of a bunch of people or resources, but you are in charge of yourself and your own time. Therefore, I want you to get good at managing those things. To that end, I will be walking around the office every day at 4:30 and unplugging computers. Be sure to have your work done by then; I don’t want to see anyone here working late unless we’ve discussed it ahead of time.' Phenomenal boss, great work environment, always had his people’s back." u/theoldman-1313 said, "I love the managers that think that there is nothing more important in life than eliminating overtime. They are always good for entertainment."

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