Employee refuses to give in to Karen coworker's demands to show up early for unpaid work: '[I] do not work for free'

Showing up early for work is a personal choice. If it makes it easier for you as the employee to have a few extra moments in the workplace to center yourself before getting started with your daily tasks and responsibilities, that makes total sense. However, if you're someone that can show up right on time and get started immediately, that works too. No one can say anything otherwise. Remember that: if you're being pressured to show up early to work, it's time to pull out that contract and advocate for yourself. Being expected to get to work well before the start time to do more tasks is more than enough justification to advocate for getting paid to do that extra work.

This Redditor already arrived 5-10 minutes early every day per their manager's suggestion. However, their Karen coworker felt that 30-45 minutes early should be the requirement and even tried to get the Original Poster (OP) in trouble for not complying with the rules. Keep scrolling below to see how folks reacted to this nonsense in the comments section. For more, check out this post about a coworker's company-wide letter of resignation.