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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/FeralFaee on 2025-07-01 13:54:16+00:00.

I originally posted this as a comment on another thread, but a few people messaged me saying I should give it its own post. So here we are.

About ten years ago, I worked for a mid-sized manufacturing company that did contract work for a lot of big-name tech companies. We were always under pressure to meet tight deadlines, and it was common for employees (especially on my team) to rack up a ton of overtime. We weren’t forced, but we were compensated really well for it. I was young, hungry for the extra cash, and honestly proud of helping the team hit goals.

Enter new management. Our old supervisor retired and was replaced by a guy I’ll call Dan. Dan came in hot, trying to “shake things up” and “streamline operations.” Classic. One of his first big changes? He decided that too much overtime was making him look bad to higher-ups. Said it made it seem like he couldn’t manage his team’s workload. So he called a meeting and announced that going forward, we were not allowed to log overtime unless it was pre-approved in writing. And spoiler: he wasn’t going to approve it.

We tried to warn him. We told him how much we actually needed that extra time to hit the ridiculous deadlines that were promised to clients. He waved it off, said we should “work smarter, not harder.” So fine. We did exactly what he wanted.

We all stopped working overtime cold turkey. No staying late to help the next shift, no logging in early, no coming in on Saturdays to prep for big shipments. We worked our 8-hour shifts and clocked out, nothing more.

At first Dan was thrilled. He kept bragging in meetings about how he’d “fixed the overtime problem.” But within two weeks, the cracks started showing. Orders got delayed. Shipments missed deadlines. Customers started calling, pissed off about late deliveries. Dan started staying late himself trying to figure out why things were falling apart, but the dude had no clue what actually went into the day-to-day work.

It all came to a head about a month in. We missed a massive delivery for one of our biggest clients, and they threatened to pull their contract. Dan ended up in a panic, trying to throw overtime at us to catch up. By then, most of us were over it. A few people bailed and found other jobs. I stayed long enough to watch him eat crow, then I moved on too.

The best part? The higher-ups eventually figured out that his no-overtime policy was the root of the problem, and he was “let go” (aka fired) about six months after he started.

Moral of the story: Be careful what you wish for when you try to fix things that aren’t broken.