Boss bans overtime, then begs employee to stay when chaos erupts

Workplace rules are meant to streamline operations, but when poor management decisions clash with reality, the results can be disastrous.

A Reddit user, u/runnerdan, shared how a strict new policy against overtime led them to walk out mid-crisis, forcing management to scramble for a solution.

Representative Image Source: Pexels | Christina Morillo

Overworked but keeping things running

For years, the employee worked as a developer at a financial services company, responsible for building hundreds of tools and scripts that kept operations running smoothly.

"At my peak, I probably had around 300 apps and/or scripts in production," they explained. "Due to the number of asks from leadership and to keep the lights on, I usually booked anywhere from 4 to 10 hours of overtime per week."

This extra work wasn’t optional—it was what kept the system from falling apart.

Overworked software developerRepresentative photo by Vasilis Caravitis | Unsplash

A boss with a strict ‘no overtime’ rule

Things changed when a new boss took over and banned all overtime, declaring:

"You will ONLY be allowed 8 hours per day and not a moment more. No exceptions."

Since the employee wasn’t a full-time staff member, they had no leverage to push back—so they simply complied.

media1.tenor.com

The moment everything fell apart

Just days later, a critical system failure brought everything to a halt. The employee was in the middle of diagnosing the issue—with both their boss and her boss watching over their shoulder—when the clock struck 4:30 PM.

Instead of staying late to fix the problem, they locked their computer, stood up, and said:

"Well, it's 4:30. That's my 8 hours. I'll see you tomorrow."

Then they walked out, leaving their bosses stunned, panicked, and furious.

media1.tenor.com

An overnight disaster for the company

That one decision had major consequences. The company’s entire overnight backup system shut down, meaning a global financial institution had zero data backups for the night.

If anything happened, they were completely screwed.

media1.tenor.com

The next morning: A complete reversal

The employee arrived the next morning at 7:56 AM, only to find their boss’s boss waiting for them. Without hesitation, he walked them into his office and overturned the policy:

"Moving forward, I'll manage your timesheet and you can take as many hours as you need."

Suddenly, overtime wasn’t a problem anymore.

Reddit reacts: ‘Held together with spit and glue’

The story struck a nerve, with IT professionals sharing their own experiences of companies that failed to appreciate their work until it was too late.

User u/pdx_mom summed it up perfectly:

Others pointed out how common this issue is in IT:

"This is standard for IT. I work in a fairly large IT department where we have 40 staff. Not one of the other guys could deal with 80% of what I do day to day," wrote u/Dumbname25644.

Image Source: Reddit | u/Joppedi_72

Image Source: Reddit | u/I_Jellyfish_3729

A satisfying ending

A few months later, the employee left the job, but the fallout for the company wasn’t over.

Not long after, the entire building was laid off, leaving only two employees out of 200—one of whom was the replacement the employee had personally hired.

media1.tenor.com

Final thoughts

When companies don’t value their employees, they risk losing the very people keeping everything afloat.

The boss thought banning overtime would improve efficiency—instead, it led to total chaos and a humiliating reversal.

And the employee? They left on their own terms, while their old workplace crumbled without them.

media1.tenor.com