Imagine doing your best to cover your coworker’s absence and taking on extra responsibilities, only to be told you’re not supposed to leave earlier. Well, this is what happened to one Redditor who shared an incident at work on the Malicious Compliance subreddit.
After starting to work as a supervisor at a manufacturing plant, Redditor Dorky_dad77 realized that “the 2nd shift supervisor is a train wreck.” Turns out, “he leaves an hour or two early from his shift 2-3 times a week.” Being a responsible employee, the author wrote: “I come in at around 8 pm to cover the last 3 hours of his shift and my full shift. At least once a week, I just do it.”
But the new boss Sarah had her own vision of running the plant. “I'm getting a formal warning for my early departures, going into my personnel file,” the author wrote, indicating that the tension reached a boiling point. So, he makes a maliciously compliant move and starts working not a minute more than he’s supposed to. Guess if Sarah is happy.
This Redditor who works as a supervisor at a manufacturing plant has been covering his colleague's shift and his full shift
Image credits: cottonbro
But the new boss Sarah was not happy with his early departures and filed a formal warning which went into the author's personnel file
We reached out to Christine Mitterbauer, a licensed and ICF-approved career coach based in the UK, and asked about employees who feel pressured to work more than their scheduled hours without extra payment. “Depending on the industry they work in, this can be more or less common. If working overtime without getting compensated for the extra work is common in your industry, you’ll have a hard time to change this fact,” she explained.
“You might have to ask yourself if it’s the right industry for you, or if there’s another industry that would be better suited. If it’s, however, not common in your industry, you might have had bad luck with the company or manager,” Christine said and added that in this case, you could consider having an honest conversation with them about this fact, and explain that you need work boundaries in order to have a balanced work and personal life.
“Explain the value you already add to the company, and demonstrate that you’re able to add more value than perhaps other employees, without working overtime. Gather examples of this over a few weeks or months so you have a solid case.”
If an employer refuses to pay you for covering a coworker's duties and working their hours, Christine said that you need to have an honest and direct conversation with your manager about this. “Explain that this isn’t right or sustainable, and that you need to be compensated for such extra work. Make sure you’re able to demonstrate how much value you’re already adding to the company, and explain what kind of extra work you’re willing to do, and what kind you’re not,” she explained.
And this is what people thought of this whole situation
