Reminds me of working at Kroger, when I did second shift customer service. The desk closed at 10 every night, and I would be scheduled until 10 pm. Actually closing it took about 30 minutes of running reports, shutting things off, and the like, so I had to start at 9:30 to leave on time. But they wanted me to keep it open until the posted closing time at 10, which would normally mean starting the closing process at 10, but they were very strict on nobody working any overtime. What this meant for most people was that they would clock out at 10 when they were supposed to, and then do the 30 minutes of work off the clock. I would always either close early so I could leave on time, or stay on the clock for the extra 30 minutes. Management got mad at me a lot lol, but I never got in trouble, because they didn't want to say out loud that they were expecting me to work off the clock
The thing is, you would 100% get in trouble if they "found out" you were working off the clock, since they didn't want to risk getting in trouble. They just made sure they didn't find out about it as much as possible when it did happen. There was all kinds of performative compliance at that store. They would always pressure us to make use of any way we could fudge metrics to make the store look better, but once corporate found out, the blame was all on the people who did it.
Now I'm just thinking back, there was all kinds of stuff I did in that job that got management mad at me lol. As a front end supervisor, I had a pretty good working relationship with the baggers where I wouldn't go out and micromanage them collecting shopping carts like I was supposed to (god forbid someone listen to music while they work alone). And in return I never had to worry about whether or not it got done on time, because they always kept on top of it without needing to be reminded constantly.
I wish I would have done that more often in retrospect lol. Unfortunately I was a mere lib at the time, and my inclination was just to do what I could without drawing too much attention to myself
Reminds me of working at Kroger, when I did second shift customer service. The desk closed at 10 every night, and I would be scheduled until 10 pm. Actually closing it took about 30 minutes of running reports, shutting things off, and the like, so I had to start at 9:30 to leave on time. But they wanted me to keep it open until the posted closing time at 10, which would normally mean starting the closing process at 10, but they were very strict on nobody working any overtime. What this meant for most people was that they would clock out at 10 when they were supposed to, and then do the 30 minutes of work off the clock. I would always either close early so I could leave on time, or stay on the clock for the extra 30 minutes. Management got mad at me a lot lol, but I never got in trouble, because they didn't want to say out loud that they were expecting me to work off the clock
Love to be pressured to commit wage theft on myself!
The thing is, you would 100% get in trouble if they "found out" you were working off the clock, since they didn't want to risk getting in trouble. They just made sure they didn't find out about it as much as possible when it did happen. There was all kinds of performative compliance at that store. They would always pressure us to make use of any way we could fudge metrics to make the store look better, but once corporate found out, the blame was all on the people who did it.
Now I'm just thinking back, there was all kinds of stuff I did in that job that got management mad at me lol. As a front end supervisor, I had a pretty good working relationship with the baggers where I wouldn't go out and micromanage them collecting shopping carts like I was supposed to (god forbid someone listen to music while they work alone). And in return I never had to worry about whether or not it got done on time, because they always kept on top of it without needing to be reminded constantly.
The passive-aggressive shithead in me loves to act clueless in situations like that to try to force people to say the thing out loud.
I wish I would have done that more often in retrospect lol. Unfortunately I was a mere lib at the time, and my inclination was just to do what I could without drawing too much attention to myself
Not a bad strategy for staying employed, tbf.
Also true lol.