Boss enforces rule that doesn’t allow employees to work overtime but still assigns last-minute work on Fridays at 4:50 for Monday, so the employee complied: ‘I clock out, grab my bag, and walk out while he’s still standing there with his mouth open’

If they can’t work overtime, then don’t force them to…

I’m always finding out new ways in which bosses end up mistreating employees. Is there a secret power they acquire when they get promoted to the manager position? Is there something, mentally, that changes into making them completely unlikeable and always looking for new ways in which they can make their employees’ lives harder? I don’t think so. There are bosses who are kind and try to teach everything they have learned through their years in the industry. They are completely likeable, and when your work relationship with them ends, you always keep the good memories you made. So the fact that some bosses are horrible is not exactly associated with the promotion. Most probably, they were already awful people who got more power than they deserved, and that makes them think that any other employee was below them and deserved zero respect. Would you agree with that statement? I certainly do. 

In the case of this story, it feels like a great example of my statement. This person is trying to make employees work more than they should, as it definitely requires more than office hours to complete the task, but without having to pay them one more cent. When the employee confronted his boss, magically the task wasn’t offered to him anymore, especially not on a Friday at 4.50 p.m. So did it magically disappear, or did this boss just get his mouth closed by somebody cleverer than him? Whichever the case is, he definitely got what he deserved, which was someone showing him that hecouldn’t get away with EVERYTHING. There is a limit to power, and that limit is set by the most clever person in the room. So be that person. Stand your ground, be sensible, and don’t ever transform into a boss who feels like he’s better than everybody else and so his employees can just be mistreated by him. You have to definitely promise that last part. We don’t need any new bosses behaving that horribly in the future. The change starts with you.