New Manager Creates An Insane Lunch Break Plan, So Employee Fights Back By Scheduling Meetings And Raking In The Overtime

If there’s one experience that seems to be true across the board, it’s that somewhere, a new manager is micromanaging in an attempt to look like he’s good at his job.

Things were going smoothly for OP at work. Because of a small break room, employees tried to stagger their 1-hour breaks, but otherwise, were left to their own devices as far as timing.

This happened at my previous job, where my manager was the definition of a micromanager.

At this job, we had an hour for lunch, but the breakroom was small, so people usually staggered their lunch breaks.

It was an unspoken rule that as long as you didn’t take more than an hour and your work didn’t suffer, no one really cared when you took your lunch.

Then, a micromanager got involved and decided everyone needed to be scheduled.

That was until our new manager, let’s call him Dave, stepped in.

Dave decided that he needed to control when everyone took their lunch breaks. He created a strict schedule, assigning each person a specific lunch hour.

OP didn’t like his assigned time, because it fell during an hour when he would normally be super productive.

My assigned time was right in the middle of my most productive part of the day, which was super frustrating.

I decided to follow the new lunch schedule, but I also decided to take full advantage of my rights as an employee. You see, our company policy stated that any work done during our lunch break was considered overtime and needed to be compensated.

So, he started to schedule important meetings during that hour, knowing he was entitled to overtime for any work that took place during a scheduled lunch hour.

So, I started to “accidentally” schedule meetings, calls, and tasks during my lunch break, making sure to meticulously document every minute of work I did.

Then, at the end of the week, I’d submit a detailed overtime report to Dave, showing him all the extra work I did during my lunch hour.

A few days of overtime requests and the break schedule mysteriously disappeared.

Dave was furious, but he couldn’t deny my overtime requests without violating company policy.

After a few weeks of paying me extra for work that I would’ve gladly done during my regular hours, Dave scrapped his strict lunch break schedule and let us go back to our old system.

Does anyone on Reddit take issue with this tactic? Let’s find out!

The top comment is advice for all new managers.

That is the secret to success.

Or at least, it’s a good place to start.

After all, the ability to learn is a good thing.

Change isn’t always the answer.

It doesn’t always pay to be eager.

Sometimes slow and steady wins the race.