Bosses can be genuinely a pain sometimes, and if you try to be wise, it can worsen the situation.
A Redditor asked on a popular forum; Boss says, “If you’re 1 minute late, I’m docking 15 minutes from your time” He gets mad when I don’t work the 15 minutes I was docked for free.
We want to know what you think about this. Here is the entire story:
Backstory:
About four years ago, when the Original Poster (OP) was working in construction, his boss had grown tired of people walking in late for work.
Even though the boss was a few minutes late more consistently than anyone else, he implemented a new rule stating that if the employees weren’t standing in front of him at 6 o’clock when he started work, he would dock 15 minutes from their time for the day.
The next day, OP accidentally forgot his tape measure in his car and had to walk back across the job site to get it, which made him arrive inside at exactly 6:00. However, his boss chewed him out and docked him 15 minutes, citing his seriousness about the rule.
In response, OP took off all his tools and sat on a bucket. When his boss asked why he wasn’t getting to work, he replied, “I’m not getting paid until 6:15, so I’m not doing any work until 6:15. I enjoy what I do, but I don’t do it for free.”
The boss attempted to argue with OP about his refusal to work, but OP stood firm and warned the boss about the legal implications of asking him to work without pay.
OP told the boss it was against the law and that opening the company to that risk was not a good idea. OP also mentioned the possibility of suing and clarified that he would only work once paid for their time.
After the conversation with his boss, OP noticed that he stopped arguing with him, and everyone else who witnessed the incident also became unwilling to put up with his behavior. As a result, other workers who would have been a few minutes late began texting the boss in advance to inform him of their lateness and waited in their cars until their time officially started at 6:15.
This behavior continued for the next few days.
What Happened Next?
Due to the actions taken by the workers, including the behavior modeled by OP, the boss experienced a significant decrease in both productivity and morale.
Many workers emulate OP’s stance, either only working once they were officially on the clock at 6:15 or staying in their cars to avoid being docked 15 minutes for a minor lateness of 1 or 2 minutes.
Although most workers spent the first few minutes of their shift preparing materials and socializing, the boss refused to budge on his policy of docking pay for even slight tardiness.
After a few weeks, OP was chewed out by his boss over the loss of productivity and how poorly the docked time sheets looked, reflecting badly on OP as a leader because deadlines were missed. It showed that he didn’t know how to manage his people. Suddenly, his self-implemented policy was gone, and everyone worked as they were supposed to. They caught back up reasonably quickly.
Worker solidarity won the day. His attempts to impose his will on them failed, as no one worked for that time for free.
What Did The Boss Do?
After that incident, it became apparent that OP was a target. OP managed to hold on for two more months before he found enough flimsy reasons to justify firing OP.
He used it because OP called in sick for a few days in a row after his mom fell, and OP had to take time off to care for her and monitor her during the day.
Was OP correct to sit out and only work once the official clock starts? Was it inappropriate for OP’s boss to implement a rule just because employees were late by a few minutes? How would you have reacted in this situation?
This article was originally published on Mrs. Daaku Studio.