'Your working hours are 9 to 6': Employee signs out of important meeting right at 6pm after being chastised for leaving a few minutes early days earlier despite having worked hours of overtime

Respect begets respect—and flexibility begets flexibility. It's no surprise that as in the old adage of 'The Golden Rule' along with so many other maxims, if we treat others with esteem they'll be far more likely to do the same. In the context of the modern workplace, this comes into play with a surprising frequency. Say, if a member of the team you're managing needs to leave early one day for an appointment or to take care of a personal errand, not making an issue of this means that they're going to be far more likely to be available and willing to stay late on the occasion that you need help crunching for a looming deadline. However, adamantly declaring that they must be posted at their desk—like a guard outside Buckingham Palace—for the entirety of their contracted hours, is only going to ensure that while they are at their desk for their contracted hours, they are only at their desk for their contracted hours.

Of course, this managerial snafu is an easy one to make, particularly when one is inclined to controlling behavior and prone to outbursts intended to assert authority. Luckily for the rest of us, the ensuing fallout makes for a great story when the workers inevitably share it on the internet years afterward—just as this worker did in the story they originally posted in this popular online community.