Yesterday I got a call from one of the managers at my branch. She noticed that I had been consistently logging overtime without approval. I told her that I work until there’s no more work to be done, then I go home. Since I’m in a customer service role, there’s no way of knowing how much work I will have on a given day. She insisted that I must get my hours pre-approved by her on a daily basis. I told her this is ridiculous and reiterated that there’s no way of knowing how much work I will have, but I consistently log about an hour of overtime each day, sometimes more. Usually between 5-10 hrs/week. I told her she should pre-approve me for up to 10 hours of overtime per week so that we don’t waste our time. We basically went back and forth with her telling me what I “needed” to do, and me telling her why that wasn’t possible, then me offering better solutions and her refusing to listen.
I actually love my job in every way except for when I have to deal with management. It’s amazing to me that the most consistent aspect of work that I’ve found at any job I’ve had is that management is out of touch with how the company actually works. If management continues to refuse to see things as they really are, I may have to take it up with my boss, who luckily used to hold very senior positions in management before he got fed up with all of the bullshit. I have no doubt that he can, and would, get it resolved. I feel bad for my colleagues whose bosses don’t have that kind of pull or don’t care about them. Luckily I have a resource at my disposal that can override management’s bullshit.