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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Fit_on_my_sace on 2025-06-30 11:37:37+00:00.
Context: I’m a paramedic that works semi rural (1 hour drive to hospital). We work 12 hour shifts from 6-6. Commonly we would arrive at 5:30 so the off coming crew could go home earlier after handover of equipment.
Anyway. The 5:30 arrival time was a “gentleman’s agreement” so that the off coming crew wouldn’t have to attend a call out that would put them over their finish time and potentially breach their 14 hours maximum working time (Local driving laws can’t be working for more than 14 hours if your job involves driving, at 14 hours you must stop driving no matter where you are unless you have a critical patient).
Occasionally a job would come in during that 5:30-6 period which the new shift would take and then claim the early start as over time (standard practice here, normally never a problem).
One day the Manager sends out an email stating that no staff should be turning up early and starting work before 6 because it was costing too much in overtime.
So that’s what we all did. Every single crew which was 30+ staff. At the peak of winter which is usually one of the busiest times of the year.
It sucked finishing late a fair bit but making the boss pay us 2+ hours of overtime and giving them the headache of driving us back to station once we breached 14 hours instead of paying for 30 minutes was great.
After 2 months of haemorrhaging money in overtime payments, we get another email “You can now go back to the 5:30 arrangement”.