I over explain a lot so apologies. TL;DR at the bottom.
This happened a couple months ago. For context, I'm 19. As part of a post-highschool employment program I've worked in a corporate services department. I've rotated between many of the teams, but this one frustrated me the most.
Partway through my employment I lost my rental in the city of my work's office and had to move 2 hours back home. As such I moved to a full-time WFH schedule, which was agreed upon by my manager, supervisor, and director for this team.
For a span of about a month, our internet at home was very temperamental. Our modem needed replacing, so having too many devices connected at once would kick some off.
So between 3&5 I wouldn't have a secure internet connection as all my sisters would come home from school & their devices would connect, and my laptop would be deprioritized and therefore either very slow or wouldn't connect at all. Knowing this, I scheduled all my work that needed internet for earlier in the day, and tasks that didn't for the afternoon/evening. I told my superiors about this and they didn't have an issue. I told them if they needed me to contact me via mobile phone as Microsoft Teams was always first to drop off.
Whenever I was having connection issues before 3:00, which happened often towards the end of the month unfortunately, my manager and supervisor would spam call me on Microsoft teams because it showed that I was “away” or “offline” and indicated I wasn't working. They'd often get the director to call me as well – which you'd usually only do if something was urgent. Basically, it made me look to him and affected my reputation within the dept as people found out about the director getting involved.
Each time this happened I'd apologise and tell them that I was here, this is what I was doing, and if they wanted proof I'd show them via screenshare. I'd explain that we had ordered a new modem, the internet would get fixed soon, and then as we left I'd tell them to ring my mobile next time as I'm always available there (spoiler, they never did!).
Despite me always getting all my tasks done, they'd do this frequently. They'd see me disconnected and immediately accuse me of being offline, despite knowing I had connection issues, and despite me providing quality results each day at the morning stand up.
Over a week and a bit my major task had been to copy a bunch of files from an intranet filing system to our new system, and to collect other documents from emails as they came in. I sorted them in a parent folder ready to transfer across to the system once they were all there. (It's a long story, but this was the easiest method.)
Well one day they accused me once more of not working. I'd almost finished compiling the folder of files. I told them this and they asked to see them so we called. I screenshared to show them the massive compilation of documents. They asked why they weren't in the filing system yet, I explained I was going to move them after the call, and they said they wanted to watch me move them.
I was ticked off and made a spur of the moment decision. In front of them I dragged this massive folder of files into the new filing system. I let it get about a quarter of the way moved, then I opened my wifi settings, turned my wifi off, and disconnected from the meeting. Doing it this way made me lag out instead of looking like I'd left on purpose.
I waited roughly 10-15 minutes. During that time I moved the parent folder to a different location on my desktop and renamed it so it wouldn't show up in searches. My manager and supervisor spam called me on teams (still didn't pick up their phones tho!). I finally came back, apologized and told them that the internet had dropped and that I had to reboot my computer to reconnect. I rescreenshared and went to where the files were but… Oh no… They're gone… :0
I pretended to panic and frantically opened the search bar and search for the missing folder. I continue frantically searching for the folder in random folders, but “no luck”. I put on my best “almost-in-tears” face and apologise profusely.
My manager and supervisor are speechless. They saw the files and know I did the work. They saw me try to transfer the files, at their request, and watched me disconnect. They “know” I'll now have to redo all the work I'd already done.
They immediately start reassigning my tasks and demand I redo all the filing straight away. They give me a deadline of one week absolute maximum to have it redone. It took me a week and a half to do it to begin with, so not too unreasonable. We end the call and I finish the last of the filing I had to do.
And for the next week? I sat with that completed folder on my desktop and enjoy some paid time off. I know it was wrong, but I clocked in some overtime and watched movies on my phone, just tapping my keyboard to keep Teams awake and answering calls giving progress updates. With about 3 hours left on the due date I uploaded them to the system without a hitch.
I essentially had 5 days off and earned almost 3 hours of overtime doing nothing. Again, it's theft, but honestly, fuck those kind of corporate people. I was with that team for 3 months and they micromanaged the hell out of me. It was exhausting.
TL;DR: My bosses accused me of not working (when I was) due to previously disclosed internet issues. I fake having a massive folder of files compiled over 1.5 weeks get deleted while on call with them, they ask me to redo, I get a week of unofficial paid holiday (& overtime – all illegal tbh) as payback for their accusations.