Employee’s Overtime Response to New Boss’ Unconventional Hours Sparks Debate

Amidst the surge in remote work arrangements, some employers are expressing dissatisfaction with the setup and are allegedly encroaching upon their employees' workspace. Many adopt a "just get the work done" mentality, regardless of whether tasks are completed before or after traditional work hours. One Reddit user, @can3gxw, shared their experience on the subreddit r/MaliciousCompliance, detailing their employment at a company with approximately 60 employees. 

The employee's role involved providing IT support for computers and software. On joining they negotiated an arrangement with their boss, opting for time off instead of overtime pay. Despite consistently logging in early and accruing saved hours, the situation took an unexpected turn when the employee spent a significant portion of a weekend performing hardware maintenance.

While their previous boss honored the agreement, the interference from the new boss caused disruption and frustration.

The post read: Last Friday, my boss approached me with a concern, stating, "I've noticed you've been leaving early this week. I'd appreciate it if you could stay in your office until the scheduled end of the day in case someone needs you." I explained that I was using up lieu days, but apparently, it didn't sit well with others. So, I thought, "Can't they understand that I'm still putting in my 40 hours a week, just not at the same time as everyone else? Fine."

In response, I immediately submitted four hours of overtime for the hours I didn't take in lieu. I still showed up to the office at the same time as usual but refrained from starting any work until 8 am. If I got called outside of my office hours, like at 7 pm, for a brief question, I'd log it as an hour of overtime.

When my boss noticed the pattern and questioned the sudden influx of overtime submissions, I replied, "Some people don’t understand or appreciate me taking lieu time, so I need to claim it as overtime since I am at my desk from 8-4."

Redditors chimed in with their own experiences of dealing with dismissive bosses in the IT industry.

@Lionabp1 shared, "Return to office culture is bullshit. I’m a sales rep who spends 99% of the time on emails, calls, Zoom meetings, and LinkedIn. Zero need to be in the office to get shit done. The last two jobs were fully remote and now it’s super difficult to find another one. Nearly every company I hit up requires 2-3 days in the office, no exceptions."

@xpdx remarked, "I don't understand how bosses fail at this. If an employee comes to you and asks why another employee is leaving early, you tell them they work a different schedule. That's it." @Geminii27 added, "Your boss was lying about 'people noticing'. What he meant was that he, personally, didn't like it. No one else cared."

@yParticle commented, "Yeah, that's one of the most egregious things that IT folks put up with. If you're basically on call 24/7 your time is never truly your own." @bopperbopper wrote, "Hey boss, tell them that I don’t see them at midnight when I have to come in to fix the server and that looks bad."

"The server went down an hour after you left! Then it'll presumably be down at 8:00 AM when the shift starts," shared @Houseplantkiller123.

@SamuelVimesTrained commented, "Had that once. The Manager told me people complained that I left at 3 in the afternoon. I asked him 'Do they also complain when I fix their issue on Sunday afternoon, after they partied so hard they forgot their password again?' They never complained again."