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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/CySecDog on 2023-06-19 17:42:40+00:00.

First time poster, hope I don’t fudge it up.

So, this happened a couple years ago when I was 19-20, somewhere around then. As a wee lad I got a job working at a local superstore while attending college. I was a cashier, it sucked but honestly wasn’t as bad as it could have been. My immediate manager helped protect the cashiers from the higher ups, but those are war stories for another day.

As time went on, as it does, eventually the dreaded holiday season came around, Thanksgiving week to be exact. I got the week off of school due to the holidays and was scheduled to work a juicy 40 hours that week, but unfortunately was scheduled to work all Thanksgiving and Black Friday. My schedule had Thursdays off, but Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday and I was being forced to work. The good news is at least they fed us a ton of food in the breakroom. That was honestly nice. But I was bummed that I had to miss the holiday with family since I had prepared to have the day off as I thought I would.

Now, before we get into the MC, a quick note. The store DID NOT allow overtime (OT). You were given extra lunches, sent home early, whatever they had to do to avoid paying out. If you got OT, you were either lucky or you had a major problem you were being made to handle. Management was salaried, and the “enlisted” workers were lucky to get 38+ hours. No extra money for the folks in the trenches.

As we are a major store that caters to everything from groceries to electronics, we prepare for a very long week that tends to mark the hustle and bustle of the holiday season as a whole. The energy is pretty low as we all really dread this time of year, and I am extra nervous. This is my first retail job in the front lines during the holidays, and I heard of all the horror stories about what is coming. The Store Manager (SM) gathers up a lot of the workers for a quick announcement that Monday. He tells us that essentially, we are really behind and have a ton of work to do, and this is going to be a rough and wild week. So, he is authorizing any and all OT across all departments from today until Sunday. He told the managers and department heads that if an employee wanted to work, let them work. We need the coverage.

Later on, we would discover what he meant was letting us come in on our days off to work an extra shift or two, tack on a nice 8 hours to our paychecks. Whoops.

“If an employee wants to work a shift, let them work.”

And oh boy, oh lord, oh gosh, oh golly gee wilikers… Did we want to work.

Let me tell you, we went crazy. I pulled 6 doubles that week. Someone parked their RV in the parking lot and worked what had to most likely be forbidden due to labor laws. People were working maximum hours. One day I worked so long our manager gave me 3 lunch breaks. Dozens of people jumped at this opportunity. The next day I came in and saw the overnight guys still petering around. We milked that week for every hour, every cent of possible overtime.

I don’t recall all the numbers and such directly, but I think I went from a 72-hour paycheck to one that had about 118, and around 42 was OT, which was 1.5x paid. It’s been a few years, but those numbers feel right.

Also, if you work on Thanksgiving. You are given a single use 25% off coupon to use in the store on one big order. Since I used my overtime on stuff to buy in the store, it felt like I earned an extra 25% on top of that.

Management let it happen, no one said anything to SM that week and he sat in his office. It was 2 days after that week that some corporate suits showed up and gave him a verbal beating when they realized he blatantly authorized that. I think early on he realized his mistake, but the die was cast, and truth be told we did need to get the work done. All that OT and we barely were ready for the open door on black Friday. He was mad, shouted at a couple managers after he got yelled at asking why they let us work so much but they just shrugged, “If an employee wants to work a shift, let them.” It was immediately dropped, and was clear it would never be allowed again, and policy will remain as it was.

I bought a T.V, a month+ of groceries, Christmas gifts for everyone, a new car battery, 2 new tires, and some random things here and there for myself. It was worth it. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.