What do you think is the main quality of an effective and successful employee? Accurate and regular achievement of performance goals? An outstanding set of hard and soft skills? Constant mentoring for new colleagues and excellent teamwork? No, that’s all important, but it’s not the main thing. According to some managers, the most important quality of a good employee is simply being at their workplace on time, without any slightest delay.

No, we are not at all arguing that it is good to be late, especially if the delays occur regularly and for long periods of time. Or if your job involves incredibly tight timing – for example, you are an air traffic controller or an NFL kicker. But punishing an ordinary office worker for a one-time minimum lateness in 2022 – sorry, it looks a bit weird.

And yet, it still happens. Like it did to the author of this Reddit Malicious Coimpliance community post, user u/ohmydayzz, whose story has roughly 11.8K upvotes and over 300 comments as of today. True, the manager here did not receive any karmic retribution, as is often the case in such tales, however, the author of the post literally lost the initiative in her work – and this is completely the supervisor’s fault.

More info: Reddit

The author of the post works at a school as support staff

Image credits: Valerie Everett (not the actual photo)

So, the author of the post works at a school as support staff. Usually our heroine, in her own words, comes to work by 8:15, while her working day begins at 8:30. According to the Original Poster, she starts the day by making coffee and then goes to her work station. The manager usually doesn’t bother with small talk, but goes straight to work, so usually, the working process starts at 8:30.

Image credits: ohmydayzz

The author has a 45-minute unpaid lunch break, but she usually returns to her workplace after 30 or 35 minutes

The OP, as she herself says, also has a 45-minute unpaid lunch break. In the author’s own words, this time span is often too much, so that after half an hour or 35 minutes she usually returns to her workplace. This went on for quite a long time – until finally, a few months ago, this story happened.

Image credits: ohmydayzz

One day the author got a reprimand from her manager for being just three minutes late

The Original Poster came to her work station at 8:33 that morning with a cup of coffee. The manager was already in her place, and defiantly raised her hand to her eyes, as if looking at a watch – although she was not wearing her glasses. The supervisor then remarked that the OP had made coffee after her start time. However, our heroine more than made up for the lost three minutes of working time by returning from her lunch break ten minutes earlier.

Image credits: ohmydayzz

The next day, the OP intentionally came back from lunch at exactly 1:45, making full use of her allotted time. When she approached the class, she saw that the manager was already standing on the threshold, hopping from foot to foot. The fact is that the lunch break for students lasts from 1:00 to 1:40, so five minutes of the lesson had already passed, and it was necessary to start class.

Image credits: ohmydayzz

The next day it turned out that there was a 5-minute overlap between the author’s break ending and the lesson’s start

The manager asked why the OP was late, but she explained that her lunch break was 45 minutes long. Our heroine offered to start her break five minutes earlier, but this idea did not get a positive response from the supervisor, because the lessons also last until 1:00, where she needs the help of an assistant.

Image credits: ohmydayzz

As a result, the manager simply stated that she would talk to the school principal so that the OP could return from lunch break earlier, for which she was compensated in salary. However, the author of the post, being the union representative for her workplace, understood that such time under the law would be paid at overtime rates, so she just complied maliciously.

Image credits: ohmydayzz

It all ended with the author receiving her pay for 10 minutes with overtime rate

So it turned out, says the OP, that if she used to give 10 to 15 minutes of her free time to work literally for free, now she simply receives an increased reward for this, and even if she finishes eating and smoking much earlier, she simply spends the remaining minutes browsing Instagram. Moreover, the careless nitpicking from this manager led to the fact that our heroine always tries to arrive to her workplace in the morning no earlier than 8:28. Now, as the author of the post admits, the school will never get her time for free.

Image credits: Sam Howzit (not the actual photo)

An expert supposes that the situation was solved quite formally, but in fact, it only got worse

“Of course, this is a rather unhealthy situation, and there is clearly a very formal approach to the problem from the manager’s side,” says Victor Dobrozhan, a school principal in Odessa, Ukraine, who was asked by Bored Panda to comment on this case. “It turns out that the senior employee, on the one hand, seemed to have solved the problem, but on the other hand, in fact, it only got worse.”

“Probably it would be worthwhile to analyze the work schedules of other employees, coordinate them with the class schedule for students, so that in the future there would be no such ‘overlaps.’ After all, the way the situation was resolved, according to the author of this story, does not mean that a similar problem will not arise at the school in the future with other employees. It is better not to solve the consequences of the problem, but to eliminate its root cause,” states the principal.

Commenters state that such situations are quite common in schools, both in the US and the UK

By the way, the people in the comments also suggested various options for the school management on how to resolve the current situation, but probably the best option, as the author of the post herself says, would be to simply allow her to leave work earlier, not at 3:30, but at 3:20. However, as the OP immediately adds, she usually doesn’t even manage to leave on time – because the manager, when the working day ends, almost always starts talking her ear off – so much so that our heroine sometimes has even had to lie that she had an appointment just in order to leave quickly.

However, as many commenters say, this situation is not at all uncommon, both in the US and in the UK, especially in schools where management does not hesitate to have teachers and employees work overtime while not paying extra. Be that as it may, people in the comments believe that such cases definitely need to be changed.

If you are interested in the topic of posts about schools and their management, you can also read our post about a rural school principal and a newly minted superintendent who inadvertently interfered in their work decision. And besides, as always, we look forward to your own comments and stories if something similar has happened to you too.

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