Kate Hackett
I think women of the world won’t have to imagine too hard here, but imagine your boss thanking your husband for your overtime. Just. PICTURE IT.
I know, it’s frigging insane, isn’t it?
But that’s exactly what happened to u/SolitudeWeeks, who recently shared a note from her boss to her husband thanking HIM for her mandatory overtime.
Here’s what she said:
I work as a nurse. Mandatory overtime is supposed to be heavily fined but that was suspended with COVID. This past winter I didn’t work a single shift where several of us would be mandated to stay an extra 4 hours (or 8 if we were scheduled an 8 hour shift). After a particularly bad week, my HUSBAND got a thank you care for “sharing” me from the hospital.
She also wrote an update:
So I posted this on facebook and a local nurse influencer found it and it went semi-viral and the CNO got wind of it and stopped the practice. But they had to access my emergency contacts to find out who to “properly” thank. It was more of a slap in the face than the $10 giftcards they gave out but quickly ran out of.
Other Redditors had similar stories, which both BLOWS MY MIND and does not, in fact, blow my mind at all.
One user wrote, “I once did an absolute bucket load of overtime along with several team members to hit a crazy target our boss had set to show off to his manager. We’re talking about staying in the office until 10 p.m. most nights for a few weeks. We each got a £30 voucher to an Italian restaurant. I’d rather have received nothing.”
Another shared, “I got one of those a few years ago. I had been working 16-18 hour days for about two vears straight with absolutely zero time off, all due to horrible decisions by upper management. After one particularly horrible six-month period, the executive team called a meeting with eight of us. They gave us about $50 worth of gift cards and a typed card thanking us (and our families) for all of the hard work.”
And this story makes me want to hire this person, “I once told an HR person “Nothing says ‘we appreciate your overtime’ like a large cash bonus.” Their response: “There are other ways to show appreciation” Me: “Sure, but all those other ways just encourage me to seek employment elsewhere.”
Like, why do bosses think this works? “I work as a banquet bartender. Guests are typically very generous, or they’re heavy handed with the compliments. “Thanks, I just got off the phone with my mortgage company and I told them what an awesome job they’re doing and they told me that was sufficient payment this month,” wrote another person.
