[reposted from reddit - I am not OP]
I work at a store that sells kitchen appliances and other kitchen related stuff, normally when we’re supposed to leave or go on break we’re supposed to tell our manager, I was helping a long line at cash register and had already been there for 8 hours and assumed they had someone to cover me, I wasn’t allowed to use the walkies to ask to be covered to go home, so I quickly found my manager and told her my shift was done.
She got really prissy at me and said, “Could you really not stay a few more minutes?” I tried to tell her, “I thought you had someone to cover me I can stay if you want.” She then replied, “No no just go, but next time you need to wait for a manager to let you go home.”
record scratch
This was never a rule, I asked other people who’ve worked there for years and they agreed that it wasn’t a rule.
I worked again a few days later and the store was empty, my shift was over and was about to ask to go home then I remember what my manager told me.
Cue malicious compliance.
I continued to wander the store and slightly fix shelves, making sure I was near my manager.
After about 2 and a half hours she said, “You’re still here, why haven’t you gone home?” I replied, “You said I need to wait to be told to go home.” My manager looked at me as though she was mentally kicking herself. “Just go,” she said.
I clocked out and got paid an extra $30 for doing literally nothing.
TL;DR: My manager got so annoyed when I told her my shift was done that she said I had to wait for a manager to dismiss me after my shift. Well, the next time I worked I waited around for 2 and a half hours doing nothing waiting to get dismissed. When my manager noticed, she told me to go and that’s how I got paid an extra 2 hours for doing nothing.
2 hours of overtime is $30? OP needs a union.
Retail managers are about the dumbest people I’ve ever worked with. All they know how to do is boss people with passive/submissive personalities around (poorly) and make up rules when things go awry. Also shifting blame onto others is a key skill in retail management.