Lindsay
Man, CEOs aren’t getting the memo that us employees like to… not work.
See, humans as a species have complex lives filled with families, hobbies, activities, and more that goes beyond just work. (And tbh, all those things are way better than working.)
So, when a boss or CEO gets in a tizzy over employees not being “on” at all hours, it’s important to remind them that they are horrible.
Recently we stumbled upon a Quora entry where a CEO laments about their two hardworking employees that stop working after work ends.
The screenshot struck a nerve with our community and the post has received 88k upvotes and is chock full of 1.4k comments exposing bad bosses. Let’s take a look through a few…
1. Turns out employees need motivation.
“I’m in the UK. I was denied a pay rise because I was told I wasn’t “putting in the extra effort”. I asked my manager to explain and she cited that I tend to leave around the time my contracted hours finish. This is not long after delivering a large project that increased productivity by magnitudes across different departments. You don’t need to be a genius to figure out what that did for my motivation or how many days I worked late after that yearly review.” – Mathisaconspiracy
2. Imagine getting paid for your lunch break (as required by law in many cases.)
“Places that really want that dedication usually don’t pay for it. Ask you to misreport hours so they don’t pay overtime. I know one place I worked at had roughly half the people working with no lunch break but threatened to let them go if they didn’t put the lunch on their timecard.” – Morgwino
3. You can sleep when you’re dead.
“I’ve had this too I was working as a QA in food factory was supposed to do 8 hours a day but always ended up doing between 10 and 12 hours as production always ran over, and QA could not leave until the factory finished. At least they paid overtime. But doing 5 days of 12 hours I was always Fked complain to my manager and he said ‘you have weekends for sleeping'” – Vattaa
4. Salary vs. hourly be like…
“I worked overtime for my previous employer and the first time I claimed it on my timesheet, my boss freaked out and said I need to edit my timesheet. Constructively, we agreed that for a week that I took two-hour lunches so that my in and out punches were still accurate. Coincidentally, he being on salary, really did take two-hour lunches.” – SofisticatedPhalcon
5. If you actually want to give it 110%, just start your own business.
“Never ever give more than 60% at a job. If you give 110% from the start, they’re only going to expect you to give more and more.
If you really want to give more than 80%, start your own business.” – MeEvilBob
6. Fired someone? Don’t hire anyone new, just spread the workload on everyone else without increasing their pay.
“Working hard gets you nothing but more hard work, me and my wife work at the same place and another woman who works there wasn’t performing her job to spec so they decided instead of talking with her they made my wife start sharing her work load with no extra pay or anything.” – oicu812buddy
7. “Donate time?” Are you joking?
“I was asked during a yearly review once if I was willing to “donate time.” As in, they didn’t want me charging Overtime.
I said, ‘I don’t know how your mother raised you, but mine didn’t raise me to work for free.'” – Sleek1229
8. I’d never thought of it like that, but it makes sense.
“When I worked shifts my manager suggested night staff should have extra responsibilities because they get paid more. Colleague pointed out they get paid more because night shift wrecks your physical and mental health. Manager shut up after that.” – baby-or-chihuahuas
9. Salaried positions aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
“Salary was the worst decision I ever made. I make more now in my hourly position with less headache and much less expected responsibility than I did at my previous 2 salary jobs and I actually get paid for every hour I work. Not as much vacation time, but it was always a hassle and a chore when I asked for time off before and had a mountain of work no one else would touch waiting for me when I got back.” – potsticker17
10. As if the number of hours you spend in the office equates to productivity.
“Same here, my end of year ‘personal development plan’ was marked down because it had been observed that I ‘don’t go above and beyond’, I pointed out that that isn’t measurable, and is completely subjective, they pointed to me leaving not long after 5 most days, and wearing jeans, even though it’s a dress down office!” – mydadsarse
11. The “if I have to stay, you do too” mentality is toxic.
“I got written up once because I wanted to leave on time to go home so I can beat the traffic. 9 – 6 job with everything done.” – Madra_Eden
12. It’s not just in the U.S., FYI.
“From Portugal, and yes, that’s almost a requirement. The first job I had, the manager came to me directly with this “issue” because I left “early” two weeks in a row – it was August and the whole country used to close for vacations back then. But even when I stayed, the only thing I did after-hours was play pinball and browse the web. Since then, I opened my own business and I don’t even require the employees to show up if they if they don’t deem it necessary.” – lojkine
13. Good for you.
“More and more people are refusing to work off the clock.
I tell my clients my hours are Monday-Friday, 7-3, and they are only able to reach me or get a response during that time. If I need to work outside those hours my rate doubles.
When you value your time it becomes more valuable to other people. Bosses and customers will bend you till you break.” – HaverfordHandyman
14. We’re not made to work 24/7.
“Something I said many years ago to a manager who kept pushing for overtime really shut down asking for things outside of regular work hours.
‘Since I’m paid by the hour, our arrangement is that I’m selling my time to you. My evening and weekend hours are just not for sale, sorry.’ -ksguy-
15. Burning both ends.
“My very first job, my CTO wanted us to stay late to show willingness to grow with the company, and my CEO wanted us to get in early to show willingness to grow with the company. FML.” – beleagured_penguin
16. They only notice the mistakes, never the good things.
“I always stayed as late as they needed me, could be 1 hour or 8. Sometimes I would be the last to leave because other people left after their 8 hours. Never saw that reflected in bonus or raise. Got a warning for being 5 minutes late a couple times.” – AdamOolong
17. They call it freelancing because it’s freeing.
“LOL. I was a department head a while back and instructed my department coworkers to end their work day punctually after finding out the top management do not believe in overtime compensation at all. After a while they learned to leave on time. I was proud of them (and a little of myself)
A year after I left the company, I returned as a freelancer for a project and stayed late, as freelancers do. Problem was that I needed a staff member to give me access to something I as a freelancer had no right to access. It was 20 minutes after quitting time and nobody was there. I laughed so hard and was smiling the rest of the evening.” – Revolutionary_1968
18. It’s just science.
“Well there is ample evidence suggesting CEOs have personality traits similar if not identical to those of psychopaths. This here is it.” – SueSheMeow
19. Chicken and egg.
“My coworker asked about a pay raise. He didn‘t get one since he joined the companies around 3 years ago. My boss said that only people who do more than what they are supposed to do get a pay raise. Sure bud, no one of us got a pay raise so far. That‘s why i only do the bare minimum at my job.” – GangGangAndShit
20. A “thank you” would be nice.
“I did extra working hours. I jumped in if someone was sick. I had 300h/month and did some work at home even on sundays. When I sent my timesheet to my boss he didn’t want to pay the sundays supplement and even asked me why I didn’t finish the work within the 12h shift. I reminded him that I do the work for 4 people and can’t divide myself. I didn’t stay longer at this company than needed. Didn’t get a thank you or anything.” – piutharbheag
