I used to work for a company that had a production department that operated 24/7. One year, our corporate masters enacted some cost-cutting measures that included several furlough (unpaid) days a year. Despite our crushing workload, the production department was not immune to this furlough mandate. The work still needed to get done, and this led to a lot of stress and unhappiness.
One day, my boss approached me with a problem: He needed a shift covered, but I had a furlough day scheduled. “Could you reschedule your furlough day?” he asked. “No,” was my response. “The company told the union that I had to take these days, and it required me to schedule them months ahead of time,” I continued. “I’m going to stick to my schedule.”
Thinking quickly, though, I added, “I could fill in for myself … on overtime.”
My boss scoffed and said, “Thanks for the generous offer, but I’ll just ask someone else to fill the shift.” No takers could be found, and later he sheepishly acquiesced to my proposal.
So that week, instead of filing 37.5 hours like I usually did, I filed 30 hours — plus 7.5 hours of time-and-a-half overtime. Turned out to be a nice little bonus for me, thanks to a ridiculous corporate policy that didn’t take into the account the needs of a 24/7 production department.
PS: It pays to be in a union. I knew that my union brothers and sisters would’ve had my back if my boss tried to strong-arm me.