Have you ever worked for a boss who says one thing but does another? That’s exactly what happened in this story. The protagonist and their colleagues were told not to work past their shift hours, but the boss would call them late at night for assistance. When the boss finally made it official, everyone had to clock out exactly at the end of their shift, even if they were in the middle of something important. But when the boss called the protagonist after hours, they decided to stand their ground and follow the rules. This led to an epic showdown the next day and a victory for the protagonist and their colleagues. Read on to find out what happened next!
Source: Reddit
Edit: I’m sorry I didn’t mention English is not my first language and that my grammar is bad. Also need to add my last workplace is a Home Health agency where we coordinate with nurses and therapists on field when visiting patients. DON is Director of Nursing, Alt DON is Alternate Director of Nursing and Admin is Administrator.
Ready for another story about my ex-boss?
For the longest time working at the previous Home Health, I’ve noticed some coworkers would work couple of minutes past end of the shift. From my understanding, this was to prevent any field agents contacting whoever is on call until the next day. Now quick backstory… the person on call is the boss, aka OWNER, DON, ADMIN, ETC. One day, we had a conference meeting that the boss wasn’t happy some of us were working past work hours and makes a statement to clock out exactly at the time we close for the day. Of course that meant she refuses paying us overtime if we’re working over 8 hours. So since our work hours are from Mon – Fri 8 hours each day, we have to make the best of it being productive within those hours. Why emphasis about the days and hours you ask…? Since the calls have been transferred to on call, which is the boss, this also means she’s responsible taking calls until office opens. You’d think she’d know the basic knowledge what to say or instruct when someone calls…. wrong. She’d basically call one of us late at night to assist her with any issue and it usually takes 1-2 hours tops to finish assisting the issue. Here’s the malicious compliance.
One day, half of the coworkers were on vacation and we’re understaffed. We finished work for the day and transferred calls to the boss. At this time, I wasn’t feeling so good and I wanted to rest for remainder of the evening. It wasn’t even 8pm and I received a call from my boss.
Me: Hello, ma’am?
Boss: Oh good! I’m able to reach you on time.
Me: Ok. What’s wrong?
Boss: I need you to call this patient and…
Me: I’m sorry… I cannot do that at this time. I will follow up in the morning.
Boss: No! This needs to be done now!
Me: I understand, ma’am. But I cannot work outside hours as you officially said. I will follow up on this patient in the morning.
Boss: I DID NOT PAY YOU TO BE STUCK UP!! NOW HELP ME OR YOU WON’T WORK FOR ME ANYMORE.
Me: But don’t you remember what you told us. Because we cannot work overtime and it’s past work hours, we cannot assist. This issue with the patient will be done soon as I come into the office TOMORROW. -hangs up-
The next day, I come into the office and the alt DON arrives in time asking what happened last night. I explained to her the scenario and she took my side. We had a three way call with the boss and the alt DON gave her a long lecture how she told everyone we are NOT to be bothered after work hours even when she told us we cannot work OVERTIME. The shivers I can hear from her side of the call belittle her. After that, we were allowed to work extra 15 mins with extra pay past work hour to complete whatever needs to be done. She slowly stopped contacting us late at night but would bug the alt DON instead.
And the issue she wanted me to assist that time with the patient…. the patient couldn’t find their pillbox and ended up finding it later in the morning. So what the actual fudge.
Here are a few comments on the story where it was originally posted:
