Doing work is a necessary evil in life because money “doesn’t grow on trees” (I mean, it’s paper, but…). And as a necessary evil, it should come as no surprise that the devil has had his share of fun with this and hence evil is increased to the power of 666 and you have layers upon layers of evil in any given workplace.

Unavoidably, there’s gonna be a necessary evil within a necessary evil in the form of a crummy coworker who’s gonna try to shove sticks in your spokes while on route to happiness and prosperity.

More Info: Reddit

Work probably wouldn’t be so bad if not for some of the unavoidable factors employees have to contend with, like coworkers who are up to something

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)

A Redditor recently turned to the r/AntiWork community for some perspective on an issue she had with a coworker who asked her to start coming in 30+ minutes early

Image credits: Any-Cartographer-675

The woman said she’ll talk to the manager about it, but otherwise won’t change her work handover habits

Image credits: Valerie Everett (not the actual photo)

A Redditor nicknamed u/Any-Cartographer-675 recently approached the r/antiwork community with a conundrum she had.

You see, OP works in hospitality, a hotel. There’s this thing called a handover that’s essentially a period of time when one employee is about to finish their work and another is about to start and the two exchange information on work-related matters.

For this reason, the manager called a meeting and suggested having a 5 to 10-minute handover period, because how much info can there be to hand over, right? Well, apparently lots. At least, according to OP’s coworker who, ever since the meeting, started giving OP the stink eye.

This expression of non-verbal discontent soon turned into the coworker pulling OP to an unused meeting room for a private chat. The coworker expressed her dissatisfaction (apparently, the dissatisfaction of the manager too) with how OP has been doing handovers and started pressuring her into coming in 30 to 45 minutes early.

Even if you don’t work in hospitality, you’ll understand that something that really could take 5 to 10 minutes doesn’t have to take 30 to 45 minutes. OP explained to her coworker that the manager pointed out a different time frame, which visibly angered and frustrated the coworker. “I will be reporting this to (the manager),” quoth the coworker.

Image credits: Rachel Claire (not the actual photo)

At that point, OP didn’t know how to feel about this and she sought answers on r/antiwork. The community tackled the issue from multiple angles, first and foremost pointing out that OP should never work for free. If anything, the 5 to 10 minutes should be written down as part of the job description and paid for. In fact, write everything down and have everything in writing.

Some folks were suspecting this was the shady coworker’s way of winning an extra 30 minutes off work because “well, since you’re here, I’m gonna go now.” Others were also very sus of her claim that the manager is upset too. Shouldn’t the manager be the one delivering this bit of info in the first place if she’s so upset?

For context, coming in 30 minutes early for an average of 22 work days a month is an extra 11 hours of unpaid labor (math is hard, indeed). Also, for context, this happened in the UK, so the laws might be a tad bit different. Regardless, it’s safe to say that folks had a lot to say about the coworker and her interesting demands. In the end, OP decided to sit the manager down and talk about it. Bored Panda also reached out to OP to see if there are any developments in the story and are yet to hear from her.

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)

At least in the US, the Fair Labor Standards Act (and most likely state laws too) require the employer to pay the employee for all hours that the employee dedicates to the job. Bernadette Jones, Founder of Visionova HR Consulting Inc. and Intentional Leadership and Inclusion Expert, explained this and more in a LinkedIn short of hers.

These hours include the time that’s required for an employee to be on the premises, even if they haven’t really started performing their duties. By proxy, prepping for work is also considered a part of the employee’s payable workday.

There are policies and requirements that employers can implement to make sure employees are properly prepared right when their official work time begins. And they can even discipline them for not following these requirements. However, in any case, if they require someone to be at work for work reasons, they have to be paid for every single second of it.

So, if this was in the US, OP could effectively agree to come in 30+ minutes earlier and cash in around 11 hours a month or 132 hours (or 5.5 continuous days) of work per year. Oh, and if there’s an overtime clause that triggers beyond the 8-hour workday, you can essentially consider yourself a lottery winner at this point.

So, what are your thoughts on any of this? Let us know in the comment section below!

Folks expressed their concern, saying every minute on the job should be paid for and pointing out suspicions that the coworker just wants to get off work early

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