My entitled boss demands that I no longer be allowed to get any overtime hours, despite the fact that I use my time wisely and my involvement is crucial for our company staying afloat. So I decided to get revenge by maliciously complying, resulting in our business nearly falling apart at the seams. With me proving to everybody, including our corporate representatives, that my boss is the reason that all of this fell apart, and I've honestly never felt better about getting back at somebody in my life. Here's what happened.
So I work as a manager in a call center. I am nowhere near the phones and generally do not interact with customers. Rather, I am a knowledge repository for my staff and handle communication between our team and the client company which we provide support for. We are a technical support team.
not a sales or order support, and the devices which we support are very complex consumer electronics. Most of our support time goes to professional installers, and we rarely speak to customers first-hand. In short, my job is to know our policies like the back of my hand, and to know the products that we support better than anyone.
except for maybe the designers that engineered them. A secondary part of my job is to coordinate our online chat team, which is generally pretty hands-off other than right as the shift ends when I generally jump in to monitor any active chats and make sure they close up quickly.
I don't want to keep my guys here any longer than necessary. They like it better and it cuts down on overtime hours for the entire line of business by a lot. This means I generally rack up about 15-20 minutes of overtime a day and some days it can be as little as zero and others as much as an hour. My direct boss knows about all of this and is generally all for it. One day however, the guy who was in charge of all of the support teams sent out a memo saying that management should never be getting overtime.
I brought this up with my boss as this would seriously impact my team, and they ended up arranging a meeting with the big boss. Well, the big boss proceeds to tell my boss that no, I cannot rack up any overtime hours, so I think to myself fine, I'm gonna get out at a reasonable time every day, and I have absolutely zero issue with this. So the next Monday, I log out right when my shift ends.
And it turns out three of my guys were there for an extra hour with last minute chats. Tuesday rolls around and it's nearly the same story. This continues all through the week, and we are bleeding overtime hours for the support staff, with most of my team getting nearly an hour of overtime per day.
This goes on for a pay period when the big boss comes back and tells us that we were told to reduce our overtime hours and that we had somehow racked up even more than we had before. Well, my boss backed me up and told the big boss that no, we were told to reduce management overtime hours.
And that I had indeed not racked up any overtime. My big boss asked why my overtime hours had increased, and I mentioned that I stayed to make sure that my team had the support that they needed so that they could get out as early as possible. The big boss says, well, that makes sense. Keep doing that, but add any overtime to your Friday lunch so that you don't rack up any overtime.
I explained that I can do this, but I will still probably be getting a bit of overtime on Fridays since the end of the shift is obviously after lunch. And again, this is totally fine by me. Long lunches are really nice. This works well for a few weeks, and I am making sure I zero out my overtime.
But I knew it was only a matter of time before they regretted doing any of this. We were approaching the busy season and getting more and more long chats and longer calls. I made sure to get the big boss to email me and to send a message to me and my boss this instruction directly. Sure enough, a few weeks later, on Monday, I'm there for a whopping hour and 30 minutes, trying to get one guy out the door. Tuesday, it's the same story for about an hour, and then Wednesday, it's about an hour and 15 minutes.
And to top it all off, I was there for 2 whole hours on Thursday. It was a terrible week for the last minute chats, and when I added everything up, it made my lunch for Friday about 5 hours and 45 minutes. Not to mention an hour for my normal lunch time. I normally work 4 hours, 1 hour for lunch, and then another 4 hours. So that Friday, I came in and explained the situation to my boss, and he was cool with me only working for 2 hours and 15 minutes the entire day.
And this is because I was doing exactly what the big boss had told me to do. So an hour into my shift, I go on my 6 hour and 45 minute lunch break. While I'm enjoying most of my day, Siesta, the entire line of business is burning down. Chat is so busy that we have people waiting 30 minutes to speak to somebody.
Calls are so busy that we have 15 calls waiting to be seen. On days like this, I normally jump in the queues, as I do not need to document every case like our tier 1's have to, and I'm also very good at my job. I can usually knock out a 15-20 minute call for a tier 1 in about 5 minutes or less.
I can easily handle four to five chats at one time, and this seriously takes a massive load off of that team. Now, I alone could not save this shift. There's no possible way. We were due for a hiring class, and we were working on onboarding our new tier ones at the time. But man, does it look bad to the client when one of your key players is absent for all but two hours and 15 minutes on one of the busiest days we've ever had. I eventually get back, I settle down at my desk, which is right as the rush is clearing up.
And at that point, the damage is already done, and we were pretty manageable for the rest of the day. Right at the end of my shift, I look and notice that there is no one on a chat or a queue, so I immediately log out and I thank my team for working hard that day. Fast forward to Monday, and I get to meet with a client, the big boss, and my boss for our weekly meeting.
The client was furious about how Friday went, how one of our best assets was on a super long lunch break, and the big boss puts me on the spot and asks me why that was, but my response was completely rehearsed. I said the following. Well, according to the company policy established by my boss, I am not allowed to accrue any overtime hours. Any hours over 8 worked within the work week must be made up during my lunch break on Fridays.
Now at this point, my big boss actually began denying it, but thankfully my boss stepped in and said, wait a second, I got an email about this. He then pulls up the email that the big boss sent and shares it on screen in the meeting. And at this point, the client is furious and the corporate representative begins ripping the big boss a new one on the phone.
After ripping into the Big Boss, the corporate representative speaks to me, telling me to accrue as many hours as needed to make sure my job is done, and that if my company wants to retain this line of business, the Big Boss is not to interfere with my generally very successful management without consulting them and myself.
Ever since then, the Big Boss has continued to try to interfere and change how I run my line. However, every time so far, this corporate representative has had my back. They are extremely happy with my work, and they know that I do a great job, and they even push through a large race for me when my Big Boss was blocking my boss's attempt to get me more money, and it honestly felt fantastic to get back at this stupid boss.
Yeah, that guy is out of his mind if he's gonna try and block you from getting overtime hours. For starters, it seems like he's trying to micromanage in like, penny pinch you specifically, even though it doesn't sound like he knows at all what he's doing. Like, that's really obnoxious and it's so annoying to see someone act like that. But also, on top of that, you clearly were getting your job done in a timely manner.
For him to sit there and be like, oh, you can't get any overtime hours. And if you do, you're gonna make it up on Friday. Like, that's really annoying in and of itself. But not nearly as annoying as this guy trying to deny it ever happening. And this, ladies and gentlemen, in my opinion, is exactly why you need everything in writing.
It is so important to recap what you talk about in meetings in an email, or in some kind of written format, so then you can hold your boss accountable for what they say. This way they can't try to screw you over and take you out of your job, or even try to lie like the big boss did, just so they can avoid any kind of heat from the higher ups. I can't stand management that acts like that, and there's just no good excuse for that in the slightest. So seriously, I'm so glad you came out on top of this situation, because your big boss sounded like a massive jerk.
and I know if I had to deal with that on a daily basis, I would definitely be looking for another job. If you like Am I the Jerk, you're probably going to love Am I the Genius. Check it out, link down below in the description. Also, go to amithejerk.com slash submit if you would like to submit your own stories. Am I the jerk for supposedly tricking my brother into selling me his half of our childhood home, only to then demolish it and make a lot of money off of it, because right now he is very upset and I seriously don't know what to do.
Here's what happened. So my mom and dad divorced when I was very young. My brother loved the fact that our mom had no rules for him, so he went with her. I abided by the custody agreement because I had no choice in the matter. My mom loves the both of us, but she dotes on my brother like he farted perfume. My dad kept the house, but he had to buy my mom out. It was an old house built in 1953. It had old wiring and was really less than suitable for modern living.
What it did have, though, was a huge yard that was great growing up. My dad passed away during COVID-19, and he left everything equally between me and my brother. Now, I wanted the house, and I told my brother that we should tear it down and put it in infill housing like that neighborhood is owned for.
But he just wanted money. So I bought out his half of the house at the market value, and it was sold as a tear down. He took the money and went on a vacation. And even after that, he still has money left over. Then I had the house demolished and I built a fourplex. Each unit has three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, a small yard and a garage. I kept one unit for myself.
and I rent each of the other units for $2,000 a month. My mortgage is $1,800 a month for the entire thing, so basically I live for free and I bank $4,000 a month. Now, at this point, my brother is angry with me, all because I didn't give him a unit to live in, since he reminds me that it was his home as well at one point.
And you know what, I even offered to sell him one at a cost, but he said no. So right now I'm just lost. I offered him a partnership, I paid a fair price, I even offered to sell him a unit. I did everything to try and be fair. But he thinks that I tricked him because I apparently get free money every single month.
Our mom said that she would be cutting me out of her will and giving everything to my brother if I didn't give him a unit or the income from one of them. Now I agreed that was fair and said that I would no longer feel the need to contribute to her upkeep or retirement when that time came. I am now being bombarded by the two of them but I took the risk. I took on the debt and now the money is mine. So am I the jerk in this scenario? What should I do?
No, you are definitely not the jerk. You bought him out of his portion of the house fair and square. You even try to get him to join you in doing this in the first place. But he just wanted money and he wanted to run away and do his own thing. And it's so funny that he only has sour grapes after you put all this hard work in. That is completely obnoxious and so unfair of all the risk and the hard work you put into this place.
So no, you're definitely not the jerk. And if your brother is seriously that upset about this, then that honestly falls on his shoulders and not yours. Am I the jerk for not letting someone switch seats with me mid-flight? All because they wanted to get away from a crying baby. Because as a result of me saying no, they freaked out and called me all kinds of horrible names. And now I'm starting to question my decision. Here's what happened.
So my wife and I were flying back from Dublin to Washington DC. We were assigned the middle and window seats in a row, and the aisle passenger no-showed so we ended up having the entire row to ourselves. Before leaving the gate, I moved to the aisle seat and my wife stayed at the window. Now nothing eventful happened for the first four and a half hours of the flight.
The flight attendants were amazing and even gave us extra drinks to compensate for the guy that was missing in the middle. Well, randomly, the passenger from the aisle seat across from me comes over with a friend who was sitting a few rows back and announces to me that her friend would now be taking the middle seat just so she can get away from a crying baby further back. And mind you, she did not ask us. She told us that this was happening.
And there were about three hours of flight time remaining. I asked the woman whether the flight attendants are on board with this or not, and she said yes. But since these deals are usually brokered by the flight attendant, I decided to call one over. So the flight attendant said that the agreement was that they could take an available aisle seat, but they could not disrupt anyone's seating arrangements.
The woman then starts complaining about how I was assigned the middle, but then moved to the aisle before takeoff. So I shouldn't even have the aisle seat. I had been sitting there for almost five hours, and we had already distributed our items all over the row. The woman and her friend disappeared to talk to another flight attendant for about five minutes, and the woman across the aisle then comes back to her seat and proceeds to yell at me saying that her friend would not be sitting there. Not because she's not allowed to, but because I was so incredibly rude and that we were complete jerks.
But you know what, I just kept my eyes on the show that I was watching. The only thing I did this entire time was ask to talk to a flight attendant. I did not say anything else to this woman, though I really would have liked to. So honestly, am I the jerk for not volunteering the middle seat mid flight? Because that lady was very angry and I'm kind of questioning my decision.
No, you are definitely not the jerk. First and foremost, you absolutely need to check with a flight attendant first, and this lady and her friend just straight up lied to you and said, oh yeah, she's on board with it, don't worry about it. Like, that's insane and that's completely uncalled for her. But even better, just look at the way she reacted when she was told no. This lady freaked out and acted like the whole world was ending, as if you had committed some great atrocity.
But you literally didn't do a single thing. All you did was call over a flight attendant and try to mitigate this situation because this lady was clearly lying. So no, you're definitely not the jerk, and those people's behavior and attitude was completely uncalled for. Am I the jerk for walking out of the house and staying away for the entire day after my parents brought up once again that my older sister did not want to be adopted by them?
Because after hearing this so many times growing up, I'm honestly sick of it and I now don't know what to do. Here's what happened. So my parents are hosting extended family for a couple of weeks. It's my maternal and paternal grandparents, as well as my aunt and uncle on my paternal side. It was going okay until last weekend when my parents brought up a topic of conversation that I am so tired of hearing and being pulled into. So let me explain the non-adoption and why it bugs me. My dad had a kid before he met my mom, this being my half-sister.
My dad had primary custody of my half-sister and her mom was in and out of her life. My parents met when my half-sister was two years old and got married when she was four. Her mom was in and out of prison and was on and off substances and alcohol and she was really disruptive to my half-sister's life and to my parents.
She refused to stay away, but refused to be a good mom as well. When I was two or three years old, her mom offered to walk away for good, but only if they removed any chance that she could be sued for child support. My mom was willing to adopt my half-sister. The three adults wanted this to happen, but because of my half-sister's age, her wishes held a lot of weight, and she didn't want my mom to adopt me, and so, as a result, it never happened.
So, as a result, her mom kept the back and forth for a few more years before giving up the relationship with my half-sister completely. My parents were so upset that my half-sister rejected having a stable and loving mom with my mom for a woman who even she admitted was so mean to her and didn't take good care of her at all. But from what I witnessed, my half-sister never really liked my mom to begin with. It's a really big deal to my parents and I've grown up hearing about it way more than I need to.
They told me details I didn't need to know, and this is when I was too young to be hearing them. They would literally suck the fun out of things, just even bringing it up. And I just know that they hold it against my half-sister. And they also think that my other sisters and I do as well. But the lack of closeness has nothing to do with her not getting adopted, and everything to do with our half-sister not wanting to be close with us.
I asked my parents to stop bringing it up around us a few times, but they just ignored me. But then they said they got it and that they would listen. But last weekend, my parents brought it up while the family was over, and I was so not wanting to hear about it again, so I got up in the middle of breakfast and I left the house.
and I didn't come back all day. And you know what, my parents were so mad at me for that. I told them that I couldn't listen to them talk about it again, and that they just simply couldn't help themselves, but I wasn't going to turn it into a fight to try and stop them. They told me walking out without permission is bad enough, especially since I'm only 17 years old, but when we have family here, they said it's disrespectful, and they told me that I'm old enough to know and do better. Now this has been a sore point the entire week, so honestly, am I the jerk in this
situation, because right now I really don't know what to do. No, I don't think you're the jerk at all. It seems like your parents bring this up pretty much all the time, and I think after like the first ten times, it would really drive me crazy as well. And it sounds like it just completely deflates the room entirely, and it ruins all of the atmosphere that probably was there before they started talking. So you know what, if I was in your shoes, I probably would have walked out as well, or at least like gone up to my room and been like, yeah, I'm not gonna hear this another time.
because that really is obnoxious and I don't blame you for reacting in the way that you did. Am I the jerk for telling my wife that her family would need to get a hotel the next time they visit us simply because of how obnoxious their kids are? Here's what happened. My wife and I have been married for seven years and we have a five-year-old son.
My wife has four siblings, with two brothers and two sisters. Her brothers live far away, and she isn't very close to them, and both of her sisters live within two hours of us, and the three of them are very close. Both of her sisters also have two kids. Her youngest sister, who we will call Jennifer, has a three-year-old and a one-year-old. Jennifer, her husband, and their kids came to visit us this past weekend for Memorial Day, and we have three bedrooms in our house, our master, our son's room, and a smaller guest room.
My wife decided on her own that we should let Jennifer and her family have our bedroom. Apparently, Jennifer's kids aren't the best sleepers at home, and if they are in an unfamiliar place, it's even worse. So, my wife offered Jennifer our room so all of them could be in one room and my wife and I would sleep in the guest room. Well, it turns out that by bad sleepers, Jennifer means that her kids wake up multiple times a night and then wake up for good at five o'clock in the morning every single day.
I don't know about anyone else, but the last thing I want to do on a weekend is be woken up by a screaming baby at 5 in the morning 3 days in a row. It wasn't just the crying baby, but the fact that Jennifer and her husband would also be running around getting whatever the baby needed. The commotion was so bad that it woke our son up, who then woke up my wife and myself.
and this was every single day at five in the morning. I spent the entire weekend tired and very cranky. To make things worse, Jennifer and her husband would take naps together whenever one of their kids was napping, which left my wife and I watch their non-napping child all by ourselves. I complained to my wife about being tired, and she told me that her sister and brother-in-law needed the rest more than we do, because this is their life every day, so we should help them at least get a little bit of a break.
But by the time Jennifer and her family left on Monday, all I wanted to do was sleep, which I did immediately after they left. Well, my wife got upset with me for napping because our son was also tired and cranky and was fighting her on everything, and she even woke me up so that she could take a break.
Well, I later told her that next time her sister wants to come and visit, they need to get a hotel because their kids' sleeping habits are clearly disruptive to our entire family. She told me that she isn't going to tell her sister to fork out hundreds of dollars for a hotel room when we have the space for them in our house. She also said that Jennifer's kids will become better sleepers as they get older. So I told her that every decision that she is making prioritizes her sister over me and our son. And when I said that, she got defensive and told me that I'm being a jerk.
Now, maybe I'm far enough removed from the baby stage that I've just completely blocked it out, but I do not remember ever being so disruptive to anyone when we were guests in their house. They are supposed to come and visit us again for the 4th of July, and I'm already completely dreading it. So am I the jerk for saying what I said about my wife's sister, because right now I seriously don't know what to do.
Honestly, I can kinda see both sides of this, but it seems like your wife is looking through rose tinted glasses. She is not looking at the facts and she is just completely ignoring how intrusive these people really were in your home. And I'm personally right there with the original poster. If someone was in my house and they were waking up and screaming at 5 in the morning every single day, I would be super exhausted and I really would not want to put up with that.
So in my opinion, I don't think that's an unreasonable request, because it really does not sound like you guys have enough room to accommodate them. Because from what you've described, it sounds like they're very disruptive. And if I was in your shoes, I definitely would not want to deal with that a second time. When you subscribe, make sure to hit the bell to turn on notifications. To finish listening to all the stories, check out the playlist at the top of the description.
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