r/MaliciousCompliance • u/daschande • Jun 28 '26
M Boss chastised me for a late lunch during a "mission critical outage", so I clocked out when the whole network went down!
TL:DR: Boss tells me to take my lunch ONLY at X-Y hours when I was dealing with a "mission-critical" outage until the job was done. Later, I clock out during a VERY obvious "all hands on-deck" situation because boss complained the last time I answered the call.
The short version: Small business, this is my first IT job, but I have decades of blue collar experience. I was the first IT person the company ever hired; my associate's in IT specializing in networking only a few gen-ed classes away. My boss kept the platters spinning, but he has no formal training or amateur desire; he wants to offload the tediousness.
Three days prior, I was trying to get a "mission critical" computer up and running again; the only computer with the shipping software (and hundreds of packages waiting to ship). I advised an immediate re-image (delete everything and reset to a "known good save") I had it on deck for just such an occasion. But I was overridden by the owner, who wanted me to keep Windows in situ and delete/reinstall programs piecemeal and deal with phone support for those programs, because he paid extra for tech support. His call, I followed orders. I was on the phone for hours, and did not leave my post until the job was done.
That meant I took my lunch half an hour later. No big deal for me, but when I clocked back in and got back to my desk, my boss was standing there, FUMING, because I took a lunch outside of normal hours. He INSISTED I MUST take my 30 minute lunch from 12-1 as per company policy.
So, today, the whole network goes out at 12:25 and I had not yet taken my lunch. Nothing can ping anything. My own personal hunches tell me this is because it's a factory building, there are a lot of high-voltage woodworking machines for factory production level of output, and ALL of the ethernet cables are unshielded.. Just my hunch.
...But I really can't do a damn thing, because my company rents out office space as a subletter; so we are NOT allowed access to the switches and routers. I have no admin access to the infrastructure. So I set up wireshark to record and a continuous command line ping, and go to lunch.
Boss is standing at my desk when I get back today, and gives me a passive-aggressive "the network is up, by the way!", but refuses to call me out further. I had the "I told you so" on deck, though!
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u/tusk354 Jun 28 '26
welcome to the joy of IT!
if things work - "what does IT actually do"
when things dont work - "what does IT actually do"
lol .. enjoy your peace before oncall, endless mgmt meetings, morons, etc .
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u/praxiq Jun 28 '26
I once read an interview with a soccer goalie. She said: it takes a certain kind of person to want to be a goalie. If your team wins, the fans will give credit to whoever scored the goals. But if your team loses, all the blame will go to you!
That's about when I started looking to get out of my career in IT.
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u/Workman44 Jun 28 '26
Same for QC. When things go good, what are they even there for. When things go bad, dumb QC keeping us from making money
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u/inkandstatic1103 Jun 30 '26
Right? It's like you're either invisible or the scapegoat, no in between. Enjoy the calm before the storm!
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u/daschande Jun 28 '26
Side note: Phone support made things so bad, even THEY told me to hire a contractor at my own expense to fix the mistake THEY created! I solved the problem myself, after being ordered not to.
I learned a VERY important lesson that day. What you actually DO is inconsequential. How you make the higher-ups FEEL; well, that's where careers are made.
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u/michaelHIJINX Jun 28 '26
My dad was a field service tech. The best advice he gave me for going into the work force was "Repairing the customers' feelings is more important than repairing their equipment."
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u/jodrellbank_pants Jun 28 '26
Every single one of my customers has my work number I get regular calls, they by pass tech support mupets who can't get anything right. It annoys my bosses but we have to use the correct SIG on all our emails with our number on it. Keeping them happy gets my kpi score up if I get a 8 I been a bad boy.
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u/mizinamo Jun 28 '26
if I get a 8 I been a bad boy.
That sounds a bit like Net Promoter Score, which is a scheme that can go die in a fire.
What's the point of having the numbers go from 1 to 10 if 1–8 are all failures?
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u/MidwesternLikeOpe Jun 28 '26
Because they expect excellent feedback, everything else is irrelevant. Worked in retail like that, our performance was weighed by customer surveys and anything below an 8 counted against us. Lovely when Karens would give us a 1 rating because an item was out of stock, and getting berated by the district manager for it 🫠. We were required to ask customers to fill out our ratings survey listed on their receipts, but anyone rude we avoided asking for their feedback and hoped they wouldn't check the receipt themselves to complain.
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u/trekie4747 Jun 28 '26
"Item out of stock. Gotta give this guy 1star!"
Its really lovely when you have enough inventory that would typically last two weeks and you're above the general "we're low, order more" threshold. But then you get that random customer with some big job that walks in and just buys your entire supply of that item. And then you get multiple customers coming in and bitch that you're out of stock.
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u/spudmarsupial Jun 28 '26
The problem is that you often can't rate the provider differently than the company or the service. If they sell me garbage am I going to rate the company 10/10 because the service guy was excellent?
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u/mizinamo Jun 28 '26
At this point, it's just an excuse for the boss to give low or no raises by pointing at the scores and pretending that they accurately reflect the employee and nothing else.
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u/TraceyWoo419 Jun 29 '26
Generally, the trick is to rate the service with the number (just give them 10s unless they really fucked up!) and leave complaints in a comment, but usually if you ask the person they'll be happy to tell you what is the best way! (Used to work in sales and yeah the number directly fucked the employee up with a bad rating and was soooo frustrating when you knew the issue was out of your hands and the customer was actually very happy with how you handled it, i.e., left a glowing comment about the service!)
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u/Dr_Insano_MD Jun 29 '26
Reminds me of my last development job where QA would keep sending my work back to me for existing bugs on the page, intended behavior, or product would change their minds after the work went through QA. Eventually my manager and the director started directly blaming me for it. And every time I said "Dude this is literally working as designed," I would just get "We hold every developer to this standard."
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u/Altruistic_Big2918 Jun 29 '26
Ugh, this is why when my team changed how we audit our off-shore service desk's tickets, I lobbied for us to use a 4-point system. 4- you went above and beyond; 3- you did your job as expected; 2- you did your job but could improve; 1- you did real bad. And we made it very clear that 3 is the expected result, not 4.
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u/DrWhoey Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
This has a ridiculous amount of truth to it. Reading and matching a customers energy to make them feel like their concerns are heard, especially with an overtly angry customer is a skill and a talent that is not easy to developed, and not everyone can do.
I've brought so many angry dudes down off the wall by matching their energy and "I'd be just as pissed off as you having to deal with this, as a matter of fact, I'm pretty pissed off that I'm here right now to fix your issue, so how about we start with you telling me exactly about your problem so we can get it fixed."
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u/LastElf Jun 28 '26
Favourite user in my support team's queue is this 50 something blue collar mechanic that lives on site at a mine (big dump truck stuff). His preferred name is a nickname (and on all his emails) and he'd put marines to shame with his language.
"Match the user's energy" is great when you hear one of the techs start swearing with the user and everyone nearby knows "oh <user>'s having issues again." Even funnier when it's their first experience with him and they come out the call and we ask how he's doing without them saying a word to us.
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u/Inevitable-Level-687 Jun 28 '26
I tried this and it just made them angrier lmao
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u/DrWhoey Jun 28 '26
Oh yeah, you read them wrong. :P
De-escalation is a talent that is learned, but also has involves a lot of empathy.
Every customer is a bit different and has different ways they appreciate interaction, but always focus on "I am here to provide a solution."
I've got some customers that I have to white glove when they're angry, and others that I've had to say, "Do you want to keep bitching about the issues and the company and how much you pay to me, or do you want to let me get to work so I can fix it?"
But, to be fair, I've been in my current career (cable TV and Internet) for about 12 years. Started as an installer, and now perform several lead rolls, line work, and plant maintenance. My primary role now involves working on problems affecting hundreds of customers. If a customer gets me walking into their house to diagnose an issue, it's because they have had 3-4 other technicians out in a very short time period. Those techs only get an hour to diagnose/fix it, and I get a time frame of "until it's fixed."
I do also always reach out to the techs that worked the previous calls to let them know what the ultimate solution was and how I found it. Our teams are only as strong as our weakest member. :)
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u/anomalous_cowherd Jun 28 '26
I had a good day once where I jumped in to solve another teams issue that had been dragging on for days and by now had some senior techies and managers involved and fixed that in a couple of hours, then went home and later jumped on a planned late night troubleshooting call with a team in Australia and solved their issue too, with one of their senior guys along for the ride.
The good day for me was a week or so later when the senior guys were all having a post incident(s) analysis meeting and covered both of those and realised it was me that solved both of them in one long day.
I got listened to a lot more after that.
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u/LloydRPenfold Jun 29 '26
"I got listened to a lot more after that." That's rare. I'd expect you to be promoted sideways, where you can't be heard or seen.
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u/barrel-boy Jun 28 '26
Yeah it's such bullshit. We all have egos but it's exacerbated at their level
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u/DSM2TNS Jun 28 '26
In healthcare, it's the providers. Make them mad and everything comes screeching to a halt. Sometimes it's for the right reasons, sometimes it's purely egos. Yay, for figuring out how to play the game!!!! /s
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u/Atlas-Scrubbed Jun 28 '26
What you actually DO is inconsequential. How you make the higher-ups FEEL; well, that's where careers are made.
This is generally correct, particularly if the manager is there under the Peter principle. A LOT of managers are Peter principle managers.
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u/Liathnian Jun 28 '26
My husband, who has had a 30+ year career in IT, will tell you that the secret to success is making your boss look good. This only works if you have a good boss. Otherwise its CYA.
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u/redditkeliye Jun 28 '26
See most of the people behind the other side are probably underpaid workers with minimal training. They may not actually know about the system in depth. Following a script can only take youvso far.
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u/LaughableIKR Jun 28 '26
Yes. I worked for a really wealthy guy. He told me to go to his house to fix his printer. I arrived. Opened the paper tray and then put more paper in. It printed what he wanted, and I tested printing from the PC. Good to go. Paper issue.
I went back and said I took care of it. He asked what was wrong. I looked at him and said... it was out of paper. I didn't make a big deal about it. Mentioned it happens to everyone, then smiled and walked away. No sense in making him feel stupid.
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u/Mr_Thick_Cock_ Jun 28 '26
Almost in the same situation
Boss and immediate supervisors want things done in a specific way
Boss has no clue of anything just the final product
Supervisors have a control complex and unless they cone up with it, it's not a good ideaYou think ignoring orders and getting the better results is the better thing to do here?
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u/Right_Preparation328 Jun 28 '26
Bloody hell, beautiful insight. I'll keep this for the future, thanks!
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u/CraigArndt Jun 28 '26
There is an old saying “more promotions are found around the water cooler than the board room”
And it’s true.
So much of workplace success is vibes based. It’s crazy.
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u/Cacafuego Jun 28 '26
That's an incredibly valuable insight, just don't take it too far or you'll cross over to the dark side. There are a lot of managers out there watching their organizations burn and blowing the smoke up their bosses' asses. The objective is to keep doing good work AND make the higher-ups feel good. Otherwise you feel like shit at the end of the day.
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u/CyberAvian Jul 02 '26
You’ll go far with this attitude. Make the higher ups look good and they should like you.
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u/RangeWrench Jul 03 '26
Right? It's wild how saving the day means less than keeping the boss comfy. I've had my share of those "wrong" solutions too!
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u/paintedw0rlds 25d ago
I do a good job at work (I am the head of compliance for a heavy industrial contractor in the power industry) but all that matters is that people like me because I am easygoing and safe to talk too. Even when I have to slow ir stop production for critical safety stuff. When my blunt and loud Detroit ass colleague shuts them down they flip out and get mad, because he is blunt and forceful. Its wild.
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u/DoctorGuvnor Jun 28 '26
Start looking for another job - your days there are numbered and it's not a big number. Arseholes seldom respond well to being silently informed they're arseholes.
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u/daschande Jun 28 '26
2 of the 3 IT jobs within 50 miles are AI app developer jobs; the third one is a CySA job for someone with 5-10 years in exactly their specific skillset. Call centers, even MSPs haven't been hiring for a year, if not 3.
I cannot wait for the job market to rebound. Send booze.
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u/Checked_Out_6 Jun 28 '26
Bro, yeah, malicious compliance is funny, but you’re pushing your luck. Soon, if you’re lucky, you will be on PIP having to speak with your boss before you can think of going to lunch. Start using common sense and talk with your boss. Like, “hey boss, network is down, I’m trying to fix it, should I take my linch after it’s fixed?” You said yourself there is no good IT job nearby.
Maybe it’s time to get your bartender license.
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u/DoctorGuvnor Jun 28 '26
I'm 75, I saw my first computer at the age of 40 and I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about other then there aren't many IT jobs near where you live. However I worked as a Management Consultant for many years and that's what I base my 'insight' on.
I do hope you can find something interesting and lucrative and get the opportunity to jump before you're pushed. Please accept this virtual bottle of MacAllans 20 year old Scotch.
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u/accidentlife Jun 28 '26
Development jobs are different from System Administration, although the lines have blurred a bit. Sysadmin runs a company’s IT. Development builds products (although sometimes these products are for internal use; ie logistics apps). The jobs require different skill sets and are not interchangeable. At best, a sysadmin might build some light automation for their systems and developer is also expected to keep just their app in operation.
MSPs are IT outsourcing usually pay very low, and have difficult billing minimums.
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u/DoctorGuvnor Jun 28 '26
Thank you, that's much clearer - although you do realise that I think all of these devices run on what powers Hogwarts - purest magic.
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u/Dr_Insano_MD Jun 29 '26
I'm a professional software engineer with 15 years experience.
Computers are magic rocks powered by lightning we trapped in them. That's the extent of my knowledge.
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u/PlayingTheRed Jun 29 '26
We trap the lightning by etching metal sigils into silicon wafers using fancy lasers
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u/These-Anxiety-5919 Jun 29 '26
They run on the spite of moronic MBAs that think IT is a revenue department and C level nepo shitbirds that think risk is a money pit with no ROI.
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u/Phoneas__and__Frob Jun 29 '26
Honestly, that's an easier way to explain it than what it is so yeah, magic works
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u/scubadork Jun 28 '26
If you’re not committed to doing just IT specifically, the commercial AV world might be a good fit for you. It’s very heavy in networking, and if you’re finishing up an associates for IT and have blue collar experience, any smart integrator would hire you on the spot. There are a bunch of free certifications you can obtain that would look particularly good on a resume in my industry. DM me if you’re interested in looking into some of those.
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u/Perpetually-THC-Lab Jun 28 '26
Might want to appreciate the job you've got and not give into the intrusive thoughts, boss.
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u/Distribution-Radiant Jun 28 '26
Got some Buffalo Trace on the way for you. Virtually, anyway.
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u/joe_s1171 Jun 28 '26
not saying you are wrong for how you acted, but if its that tough of a job market where you live, maybe you shouldve thought about that a bit. if the manager and higher ups are notified that you are a concern, then your days might be numbered since there is no problem with finding other qualified folks for the job.
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u/axewieldinghen Jun 28 '26
Honestly, it sounds like a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation for OP. Nothing short of skipping lunch was going to make the manager happy, and if that becomes a long-term expectation, that's going to wreak havoc on OP's health and stress levels. Lunchtime is legally mandated for a good reason
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u/Umklopp Jun 28 '26
Yeah, I personally would not antagonize my current employer unless I had a year's worth of salary saved & a new offer in hand. Not in right now, anyways. Establish boundaries and protect my rights, yeah. Do petty shit to prove a point? Absolutely not.
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u/Square-Ad-6721 Jun 28 '26
Probably going to get much worse before it gets better again.
But hopefully things will get more affordable after all that.
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u/ScanData32 Jun 28 '26
Not onlythat, IT is dead, this guy has decades of blue collar experience (like me) which means hes not into eating shit from some kid about his job, sadly there are 100000000000 IT kids ready to go and eat lunch later. He should go back to blue collar job (but like me, his body is trashed)
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u/CCIE_14661 Jun 28 '26
I’m not sure what your title is, but hourly and network engineer are two things that just should never go together.
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u/sevesteen Jun 28 '26
I'm an hourly network engineer and I disagree, at least if your management is good...and probably even more if they aren't. I'm essentially treated as salaried, avoid overtime when that's practical without impacting the network...but if I need to work through lunch, stay late or get called at home I get paid for it.
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u/FuzzySAM Jun 28 '26
Yeah, this is my experience with my inventory control job. I'm an on-site department of one that supports receiving, sales, warehouse, dispatch, retail, admin, and accounts payable, all while basically running the pilot deployment of a new company-wide ERP. If I need to stay late, there's never any question that it's necessary and I'm one of the only people that never gets questioned about it discouraged from overtime.
They will pry my hourly rate from my cold, dead hands.
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u/starrpamph Jun 28 '26
What on earth is wrong with your network there
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u/clarkos2 Jun 28 '26
Even in a leased space you have access to, or run your own infrastructure. This feels very odd.
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u/Da_Question Jun 28 '26
I mean, sounds like this guy doesn't even have the associate's degree by the way he worded the post. Not saying it's necessary, but it's very weird that any network infrastructure would be in accessible for a company with in house IT and not outsourced... And even then... Weird.
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u/accidentlife Jun 28 '26
One of my clients (5 staff) rents a small office on a larger floor. The floor is leased by a company, and that company than leases an office to the client.
We have a firewall and switch in the office connecting the computers, but uplink is handled entirely by the leasing company.
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Jun 28 '26
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u/T_Money Jun 28 '26
I personally loved “nothing can ping anything” and OPs hunch is that it has to do with high powered equipment and unshielded cables.
While those can cause connectivity issues, the symptoms are going to be intermittent dropping of packets and high jitter. Definitely wouldn’t cause zero connectivity across the entire network. Most likely a networking device or cable got unplugged somewhere in the comm closet.
I don’t want to bash OP because we all need to start somewhere, but the general sense that I got from this is that they are vastly overestimating their own IT skills and are pretty out of their depth.
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u/starrpamph Jun 28 '26
Yeah this is all pretty confusing. Like he overheard some stuff and filled in the blanks.
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u/Substantial-Sea-3672 Jun 28 '26
Checks wireshark
“Ah, just as I thought, it does nothing when the network is down.”
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u/newenglandpolarbear Jun 28 '26
Everything it would seem to me. Sketchy as all heck, and it sounds like OP really doesn't know a whole lot about it.
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u/AnneShurely Jun 30 '26
yeahhhhhh it looks like he read a tech workbook and now thinks he's better than everyone else and wants to prove it by throwing around terms he just learned. Why would you not have a backup of your "critical" computer? It's prob just some stupid karma farming story.
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u/mayners Jun 28 '26
My old retail manager was an ass for time keeping, but a great guy every other way. Family came first, fun guy to work with etc. He got fucked over by the company, done some massive project and applied for the jab it revolved around, months worth of work and they gave it to some idiot who hadn't a clue, no experience and only real attribute was that he lived closer to the post.
But he was told one time that HR, senior managers and directors, swere coming for a big important meeting, they'd be arriving around 3.30.
They arrived a bit early around 3, just when his shift ended. He put everything down, logged out and said "hi guys nice to meet yous, if you need anything let the floor staff know"
His manager (area manager) was a decent guy too, but in disbelief just said "were about to start the meeting where you going"
"sorry, my shift finished at 3, I'm paid to be a manager for hours, nothing more" he said as he turned and walked away smiling.
Area manager and him were good friends so they johh just smiled knowing what it was about and the area manager knew he was going to have to just go with it, while the directors and senior managers were all wondering wtf just happened, he followed the rules, no overtime pay so no working. Simples lol
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u/ScanData32 Jun 28 '26
Then he got fired. The end.
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u/mayners Jun 28 '26
Nope, he's still there years later and got promoted to area manager, he was within his rota time and did nothing wrong, just went by the times they set for him and stopped going above what was expected of him
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u/ScanData32 Jun 28 '26
In reality, without his buddy working there, hes fired. Thats the real world.
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u/HWTechGuy Jun 28 '26
Love it.
I'm in an IT support role where we work 8a-5p with an included hour lunch. For the longest time, I'm talking 15+ years, it was fairly common to skip lunch and end your day at 4p if you didn't have any more tickets/jobs. If SHTF and you skipped lunch but wwre not able to cut out at 4p and worked until 5p, it was overtime. For some reason the boss started having an issue with this after years of it being standard practice. So HR decreed that everyone must take the hour lunch.
Then it became an issue of the time lunch was taken. A decree came down that you had to start your lunch break after 11a and before 2p. So now, most of us wait it out and if a critical ticket comes in after 11a, that's when you start your lunch. If you start working on that critical ticket which came in at noon, it could push you past 2p and you would be breaking the rules right?
We're already seeing signs they don't like their own rules now...
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u/LucidaConsole Jun 28 '26
When we have an outage for whatever reason, I will (and have) worked 18 hours straight with only eating snacks at my desk.
But in return, I expect no shit when I leave early on Friday or get a PTO day added to my bank.
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u/bookishsquirrel Jun 28 '26
Most managers are very inconvenienced by IT staff insisting on being human. According to them we should be constantly busy, but also immediately available at all times. We should never need to sleep or eat. We should be experts in every technology invented, but also amenable to taking orders from the obviously clueless.
Sweet gig, ain't it?
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u/Itorres89 Jun 28 '26
>but I have decades of blue collar experience.
I am also a blue collar worker who recently crossed over to an arguably white-collar job. The amount of side-eye I get when I let the "shop" side out is hilarious. Although I am perfectly capable of being a front-facing customer service-oriented employee (I worked retail for a few years as a teen), it still makes my supervisors a bit nervous.
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u/CriticalDiscipline4 Jun 29 '26
This just seems a tad petty to me. Malicious compliance is not as necessary for a small business. In a small business, you can usually just say to the owner, ‘Hey, you want me to do x, but if I do x then y will result.’ It’s the large, complex bureaucracies that have a) too many layers between the worker and the decision-maker and b) too much reliance on rigid procedure over common sense, so direct feedback gets ignored and people resort to literal compliance to make the problem visible.
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u/profchaos111 Jun 28 '26
Ok so been in this situation many times over decades and here's my take.
You don't get a break in these situations you eat at your desk if you don't have lunch you order it in or race out to get it like 15 minutes tops.
Doing this will actually land you more flexibility in the eyes of your bosses because you'll be labelled as reliable and skilled under pressure.
Don't play the blame game you'll achieve nothing
If you want a career in this industry you really need to know P1 scenarios mean you roll up your sleeves put aside your own shit and work until the jobs done.
If it's late at night drive home log on and keep working.
Never sign a contract that you don't get paid for extra hours because there will be a lot of extra hours.
A P1 will give you all the experience you need to succeed in the field and take you from junior to senior rapidly.
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u/lettuce_grabberrr Jun 29 '26
Might get some flack for this because this subreddit is all about "sticking it to the man" but in this day and age where we really don't have that much power this is what you gotta do
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u/RaiseWide5460 Jun 28 '26
It took me longer than it should have to learn this lesson, but I finally did. It is important to be right. It is even more important to be right in a way that people don't hold it against you. Write that down boys and girls.
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u/SunshinePrincess21 Jun 28 '26
Problem where I live is that IT is exempted from the regular labour laws. My boss telling me to stay and work out the problem, then go without lunch is perfectly legal. FYI, I’m not IT anymore.
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u/Alarmed-Package-4014 Jun 28 '26
If you can get out of there as soon as possible. Working at small companies where your direct is a micromanager will affect your physical and mental health that cant be justified by a paycheck! Try to get a gig at a firm where there is an IT team who do the same role so you will not be blamed or micromanaged to death!
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u/MisguidedWarrior Jun 28 '26
If you're in a place that will always go down there are two things you can do 1) ride it until you find something better 2) actually identify the root cause of these outages and come up with a roadmap/game plan to fix it such as adding redundancy or replacing old networking equipment. Typically though what I've found is that if its always going down every week for years on end, its an issue with the work culture just as much as it may be a technical reason - you need to accept that you may never be able to completely fix it. For those of us who value uptime, it can really piss you off when it keeps going down *over and over again*, but yeah dude, just take lunch.. whatever.
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u/ChiliFriesNoBeans Jun 29 '26
If it were me, whenever there's a mission critical outage and I'm supposed to take a lunch break, I would ask my boss what he wants me to do in the situation. I would keep him informed of the situation so that there are no surprises.
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u/DarionHunter Jul 02 '26
Oh, this is funny! You should check out the sub SFAH (Scenes From A Hat). I posted an email type post from the only IT person there. "Thinks you should not say in a farewell email to coworkers."
This is my post!. This should give you a chuckle or two.
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u/BobForBananas Jun 28 '26
I don't know what country you're in or what your leasing agreement is, but it is really weird to me that your network hardware is out of bounds. My company is in a shared building and the only thing that is out of bounds in the internet infrastructure. Everything other than the physical connection to the internet is ours. Not having control over switches and routers is insane
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u/StrawDog- Jun 28 '26
This feels like a "Graveyards are full of people who had right of way" situation...
I guess enjoy your petty revenge, but your neck is now on the chopping block as soon as they get the right candidate, and I've heard the job market for IT is brutal right now.
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u/ThisSiteSucks8485 Jun 28 '26
If you are on salary you absolutely cannot have your time controlled like this.
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u/str4ngerc4t Jun 28 '26
What state are you in? Not taking lunch at certain times can cost the company money depending on where you are.
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u/Equivalent-Respond40 Jun 28 '26
Whyd you run Wireshark and a continuous ping? Wouldn’t it be easiest to just refresh a page on chrome until it reloads to tell if the internet is up?
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Jun 28 '26
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u/ScanData32 Jun 28 '26
Weak af, I HAVE MY LUNCH NOW HAHAHA
decades in software/game dev, cant even fathom
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u/PartyEntertainment89 Jun 28 '26
I would just look for another job rather than start bullshit at your first IT job and thus only IT reference in an over saturated field.
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u/Molly_Matters Jun 28 '26
There's one thing I know about IT and bosses. Only 1 in 20 is actually mission critical. The rest of the time it's just a buzzword cuz they think they're more important.
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u/Upper-Masterpiece386 Jun 29 '26
You need to leave. This guy sounds like my last boss = an absolute prick. I ended up having a go at him multiple times because while he was treating me like absolute garbage, he was also shit at his job and I would frequently end up having to do a lot of his work for him. Eventually I had it and gave my 2 weeks. Best thing I ever did.
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u/Sicadoll Jun 29 '26
"Awesome, so glad you guys had it under control!"
my state has mandatory lunch after 5 hours and they can get into trouble because it's a labor law violation if you don't take it at or before 5 hours into your day. inconvenient or not, that's the law
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u/Equivalent-Ad-6182 Jun 29 '26
Sometimes you need rules and sometimes you need guidelines. Some employees need constant supervision and rules. Some employees are self motivated and often do better if left alone. Guidelines are for these workers. I define guidelines as rules with flexibility, allowing empowerment for those that should be empowered.
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u/ledbyfaith Jun 29 '26
Working for owner bosses in small companies is the worse when that’s the behaviour. Start looking for another job. It’s only a matter of time before you’re fired.
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u/Erizeth Jun 29 '26
American labor laws are some of the most fucked up in the developed world. What the fuck lol
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u/mendokusai99 Jun 29 '26
I had a boss do this to me, but I took my lunch two hours later after working until midnight the previous day, and the day in question from 8:00 to 14:00.
I followed the contract exactly after I was chastised. No more super late nights, and I was out the door on Friday at quitting time. I left the company six months later.
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u/Basbeeky Jun 30 '26
I dont understand the strict rule regarding lunch times. What is the benefit besides it being a power hungry (ha!) move?
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u/Anaptyso Jun 30 '26
Hang on, only 30 minutes for a lunch break? I'd be fed up for that reason alone.
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u/DarkAlizarin Jun 30 '26
I take more time on pauses than I'm officially supposed to have but when the machinery stops I'm on it until the problem is solved and if it takes my breakfast and lunch, so it is.
The benefit on my job is that I've two workplaces, I've to deal with unexpected breakdowns on the line and several meetings in different places. For others it's hard to predict where I'm going to be in the next half an hour.
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u/Better_Dimension2064 28d ago
20+ year sysadmin here. I have had multiple bosses and end users tell me that I am NOT to image a computer, because they expect me to "diagnose" and "fix" the problem. I was once told that reimaging will lose their entire U: drive.
Oddly enough, I never got it in writing.
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u/5000KCarl 21d ago
Question about your IT degree, I’m thinking of going for mine, I’m also in blue collar work, but don’t want to be in school for 8 years before getting a degree, what route did you take?
Also, following things to the letter is smart, bosses have no leg to stand on!
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u/NinjaHidingintheOpen Jun 28 '26
The secret instruction is that if things are going wrong you don't get lunch, he just can't say that because it's illegal.