Overworked Employee Quits Because He Wasn’t Getting A Fair Wage, Costs The Company $40 Million
Not paying your employees a fair wage can have disastrous consequences for the company’s bottom line. Some business owners realize this only when it’s far, far too late.
Redditor u/slw_motion_trainwrck opened up about how he quit his low-paying, exhausting IT job at a major multinational company… and how the day after he left work, the business lost $40 million. In three very extensive posts on r/antiwork, the redditor detailed exactly how this happened, and the read is absolutely riveting.
Scroll down for the full story and more details about why exactly the manufacturing company that makes components for the automotive industry lost as much money as it did, dear Pandas. It’s definitely worth your attention. You’ll see just how low companies go and how far from every promise is worth listening to if it’s not in writing.
Financial expert Sam Dogen, the author of ‘Buy This, Not That: How to Spend Your Way to Wealth and Freedom’ and the founder of Financial Samurai, was kind enough to share his opinion with Bored Panda on how to gauge if someone is underpaid.
“The best way to gauge if you are underpaid is to ask your colleagues and other people in your industry what they are getting paid. They might be hard-pressed to reveal their figures at first. Therefore, you can ask for a range and also volunteer your wage and ask for their guidance. Getting average wages for your job based on online websites is not too helpful given their numbers are averages and all over the place,” he told us that employees should ask around to see if they’re being paid a proper wage.
According to financial expert Sam, a good employee knows their value. “The more an employee is irreplaceable, the more valuable the employee is. Therefore, if you know that your business will run just fine without you for one month or longer, you may not be as valuable as you think,” he said. “On the other hand, if you feel your business will suffer if you’re out longer than a week, then you are considered more valuable. No manager wants to lose a valuable employee because it takes a lot of time to find and train a new employee.”
An IT specialist, who was very overworked and incredibly underpaid, decided that he wanted better work conditions
Image credits: Flipsnack (not the actual photo)
However, the multinational company was less than friendly, and drove itself into a huge financial mess as a result. Here’s the full story
He then summed up the story in one short sentence
It’s natural to have at least some worries about being let go from your job. However, Sam said that we can control this fear by knowing our value as employees and highlighting the benefits that we bring to the company at semi-annual reviews.
“You can also suppress your fear by actually trying to get laid off! It sounds counterintuitive, but if you are truly a valuable employee, you may want to try and negotiate a severance and find a new job for better pay, benefits, and title. Having the courage to try and negotiate a severance means you really know your worth,” the expert said.
“I actually wrote a book on how to negotiate a severance entitled, ‘How To Engineer Your Layoff: Make A Small Fortune By Saying Goodbye.’ I negotiated a severance in 2012 worth six years of normal living expenses. I could have worked for another firm after, but I decided to just be free,” he shared.
The redditor shared how he was left being the only person in IT to support 3 factories. All for a measly salary of just $31k per year, while their superior had earned thrice as much when they were doing the same job a while back.
According to u/slw_motion_trainwrck, he was working, on average, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for over a year. He worked every weekend and through all the holidays. Not just Christmas, mind you. He was busy doing his job during birthdays, too: his own, his wife’s, his kids’. That’s no way to live.
Eventually, enough was enough. He was offered a paltry $800 annual pay raise before taxes, so he decided to look for another job with a better salary and working hours. When he finally gave in his two weeks notice, the IT specialist found that the multinational company was doing its best to make his life a living hell.
However, Karma showed up and made the company lose $40 million the day after he officially left his job. You see, the way the manufacturing company’s contracts are set up mean that it pays fines if something happens to its production facilities: if the order isn’t being produced on time, the business loses money.
“When an automotive manufacturer completely shuts down production on about 10 assembly lines… costs add up very quickly. That is hundreds of salaries every single minute to reimburse… so when I say that it cost the company $218,000 per minute, that is an exact factual number,” the redditor noted.
Here’s how people reacted to the story about huge financial losses and management’s refusal to provide their employee with a proper wage
Previously, fitness expert Jack Bly told Bored Panda about the relationship between our health and our jobs. According to him, we’re able to perform better at our jobs the healthier we are. So prioritizing our fitness, diet, and rest is vital if we want to succeed in life.
“To increase our work output, the #1 place I look at is health. Better health leads to more energy, more focus, and more productivity. To improve our health and ultimately our output, we need to make sure we’re doing things like sleeping 7-8 hours consistently, [having] good nutrition, [and maintaining] consistent exercise,” he told us.
“Prioritizing things like workouts actually give us more energy rather than take energy,” he pointed out, saying that there is a “night and day difference in our output” when we eat well, move enough, and get enough sleep.
Jack noted that the hours we work are irrelevant. All that matters is what we do with them. “What truly matters is true output/results you can get. Person A: works 8 hours to get X work done Person B: works 3 hours to get the same X work done. Which person would you rather be?”
The redditor explained why he stuck with his awful job for such a long time, in a very candid follow-up post
Image credits: slw_motion_trainwrck
Average 16 hours a day for a year? I’m not even going to do that. And no overtime? A salary is for eight hours a day and maybe an occasional hour or two over. The fact that this person is a supposed to be a good IT and worked several years for around $30k and then withstood over a year with that abuse makes me wonder what is wrong with him.
Another sign that IT is not valued is they are considered labor exempt - companies don't have to follow the federal labor laws.
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All salaried employees have to work the hrs needed to get the job done. It is only hourly paid employees who have federal guidelines. That is one reason why salaried employees get paid on the average higher than hourly. Vacation time, time off for doctor appts, etc. Being salaried means more responsibility, hence more freedom, flexibility. You abuse it, you are fired.
Companies routinely abuse salaried employees. "Vacation time, time off for doctor appts, etc"??? Do you live in Peter Pan land? You are expected to work horrible hours with no overtime. Never, ever work for a US based company. The managers still haven't let go of the whole slavery thing. Work hard and get ahead? Not likely, they just continue to abuse. They don't value or respect employees so return the favor. If they annoy you just walk away. Corporations created this mess with the way they treat employees.
My wife's last two jobs have been salaried and she makes more than the hourly workers. She's also allowed to leave early and show up late when she needs to. It's not that unusual to have a salary position like that. Yes some are abused with the salary thing but a lot of them are not, I guess it depends on who you're working for. I know a lot of people who get paid salary and are not abused like this.
YAAAASS!!! 👊
Um. Okay. Did you happen to see his “ higher than average” salary? Haha maybe you should read this again. You clearly didn’t read, nor comprehend this article.😳 you’re funny though. Clearly, you have never been situationally or economically a salaried slave. Go experience that, and then pipe up.
Maybe you also need to learn how to read. She never said that the op was paid higher than average. She said on average, salaried employees get paid higher than hourly workers. My wife's last two jobs have been salary and her pay is higher than the hourly employees. She can also leave early and show up late when she needs to. And she will also work late when she needs to. That's how it usually works, this company the original poster worked for is very abusive though. It's kind of ironic that you said this person needs to learn to read the article before commenting even though you failed to read what she was actually saying. She never said that this person gets paid higher than average.
I did this, plus. From Dec 2019 to August 2021, I worked an average of 100-120 hours a week. I was doing the jobs of 4 people at my law firm. My bosses were originally really tone deaf to the fact that I was single-handedly keeping their firm from crashing, so one day in 3/21, I walked in and said, "I'm done. I'll come back to work when you triple my base pay, and I get extra bonuses of at least $2,000/month. I'm also going down to 40 hours a week, and if y'all don't like it, good luck." Because NO ONE knew how to do any of the things I did that kept the form running. So...I got triple my original (meager) salary, plus $3k extra every month since I did that. And I've finally learned to try to work only 40-60 hours a week (it's hard tho. I'm German.) So there is definitely a benefit to being indespensible, but obviously there are a lot of drawbacks, too. :/
He's American and doesn't not have rich parents. It seems a very common tale. I wonder what was going on in his boss' head when he didn't do his best to keep him AND bugger off on holiday.
His boss was thinking "I'm going on vaca with this extra bonus I got for keeping my department costs low by screwing over my coworker."
I'm not sure he's exaggerating. I work in IT and I've had jobs where I was pulling 16 hour days. You hope it doesn't happen every week, being under staffed seems a common theme. I had to do it 6 weeks in a row of 16 hour days to meet an aggressive deadline set by management. You learn a lot, but sometimes the private sector takes advantage. Oh, I was only paid for 40 hours because I was considered a salary employee. This was for a very large company with huge HR department, but it was still very common.
This is the norm for IT has been for decades. That is why the salaries are so competitive. But all salaried positions, in any industry can involve overtime, weekends, etc. It called getting the job done.
So April P - You work 80-120 hours a week for no extra pay ? The majority of people who work salaried positions are smart enough to negotiate for a required amount of hours in their contract. Mine is 56 hrs weekly
In. "Right to work" state, they can ask you for anything. You have ZERO protection. They can fire you for any reason at all. This type of stuff is a result of a very effective campaign of anti union rhetoric.
Isn't right to work for hourly employees. He was salaried, not the same guidelines. Salaried is usually "at will" - either side can end the relationship for whatever reason. Usually, a salaried person with get an severance too. Besides IT doesn't have unions.
That's false. In a "right to work" state hourly employees are "at will" also. It doesn't apply to unionized workers, but unions are rare in RTW states. Which is, of course, the reason for RTW laws.
Right to work just means that they cannot force you to join a union in order to work for a company.
Right to work means that a company can not force you to join a union if you don't want to. We don't have that many unions anymore because the unions have either bankrupted the companies, or ran them out of the United States and so now they operate overseas. Where they can turn a profit. Thanks a lot unions!
I agree - a bit of hyperbole, or he really needed the money but seems odd such a big company would have no HR for basic things like overtime.
Lots of big multinational companies that treat their employees like s**t will do things exactly like this. "Good" salary for a position, but if you need the overtime pay, you'd have better luck making ice cream in hell. I worked for a multinational telecom. My pay was salary. 80 hour weeks were entirely common. I got sick and literally almost died (they had to use the zap paddles on me, and I got to deal with the lovely minor burns that result from that), and one of my boss's bosses questioned why I missed a conference call and why a report was late. Like our bad! My coworker was only rushing me to the hospital because I collapsed while doing my job. Those types of jobs target younger people, it's often "entry-level" so we feel like the company is already taking a risk on us, but then they treat us like crap. It took me a long time to learn to say no to projects with a good boss, because I was afraid of being threatened with termination.
Did you work for one of the companies that resulted from AT&t being broken up? Maybe something like lucent technologies?
The Big, multinational companies stay "rich" through SYSTEMATICALLY cutting corners, flouting any environmental laws they can get away with, and ABUSING and EXPLOITING human "capital" "assets". People are THINGS to Corporate. To be used for as LITTLE compensation as possible, then thrown away after they're sucked dry. And yeah, I'm in antiwork, even though I'm retired through disability.
From his description of the company I doubt they would bother with anything that involves them paying their employees more, only exception being people in management like he said.
Some companies create salaried positions specifically to abuse the employee and make them work overtime for free every week. The company had the money to pay overtime they just don't want to pay it.
He was salaried, there are different rules for salaried because the idea is you work whatever hrs it takes to get the job done, make the deadline, etc. There is no overtime for salaried employees. You might get an annual or quarterly bonus but that is not common.
Did you read the whole article? He clearly explained why he stuck it out with that job, and that he had been trying to leave and interviewing for different jobs. And he left as soon as he had another job lined up.
There's nothing wrong with him. It's the system that is forced upon millions of hard working people. Struggling to keep up with our basic needs and killing ourselves for the bare necessities. It's a horrible system that only benefits those in control of that system. This man like so many others has no choice but to do as they are told and work our lives away. Still barely getting by and being made to think we are somehow the problem or doing something wrong. When in fact it's greed, carelessness, control, and power from the folks at the top that is the problem and what's wrong. It's kind of sad that even you think something is wrong with him and not seeing the bigger picture. This stuff is happening to people because of other awful people intentionally abusing power and anything else they can. While skating by convincing people that's just the way it is or has to be. When that is not only wrong but not true at all. It does not have to be like this and it's only this way because of abuse of power and resources. It should enrage all of us that any human being is being treated so carelessly and poorly. Yet I just do not think some folks are ready to face the way it truly is.
Right!?? Just way too many holes in this feel good type story
I agree. Some things don't seem right. I have an IT background, worked for several large corporations thru the yrs, including international. A company making that type of money with only two IT people doesn't make any sense. It is so incompetent a move that I have a hard time believing the company was making that type of money or could grow to be an international or multinational company. Especially it being that vital a piece to the companies function.
Sure sounds like Dell in Texas. Fits like a glove!
Did you read his response to why he stayed as long as he did?
Dios mio! Shush 🤫
I've been in IT for over 27 years, that is very common. However I was always compensated very well for it.
I have an IT background too. His story doesn't ring true on several levels. From his salary, never heard of an IT contractor getting a salary usually hourly. To a company being that large only having 2 IT people. The network would have to be setup in several countries since he stated it was multinational. Having a hard time believing each area didn't have some kind of on site support.
He started out as a contractor for 30k w/ promise of raise upon FT hire. He clearly stated that he was hired, but the raise never came and the "red tape" continued to put off any raise due to too many "reasons" = excuses. He said the facility was in a podunk town, likely the company's way of saving money by renting a mfg plant on-the-cheap and finding cheap labor in a low-rent town. His story rings true to me from experience, esp if the unnamed southern state, was Florida, where "right to work" and ALL labor laws favor employers, as do the Unions!! I did a worker's comp (later full disability) case as a favor to a Cuban gal who (barely spoke Eng) was hurt on the job. She was refused worker's comp, Dr recommended modified duty/reduced hours; even her Union (airline industry) sided w/ the company. FL has nice weather, beaches, and flying cockroaches; many of whom own companies, hire and mistreat their employees- live off the spoils of others' labor, suck them dry and cast them off!
Did you read his follow up reply, he explains it.
"Right to work" means you have the right to work for sh!t wages and bosses who have no obligations to treat you fairly.
Not always. We live in a Right to Work state. When I took over as DOO of our firm, I immediately gave everyone raises that were almost 1/3 additional to their previous salaries. I also started paying 100% on all medical premiums (from 30%), increased their company-paid life insurance by 300%, doubled their number of sick days and vacation allotments, and created a new bonus structure that ensured most of my workers had an easy way of making bonuses when they performed well. I created fun things at work, started an employee appreciation campaign that my employees really appreciated, and also started being much more flexible about office hours bc I started basing work hours on performance and work quality. My partners thought I had lost my mind at first, but I think our firm is proof that you don't have to be a d**k boss to get good work. Although the flip side of this is that I have to get rid of dead weight as soon as possible, because one bad apple can spoil everything.
TBF, you could have done that whether or not you’re in a Right to Work state. The two have nothing to do with each other. But good on you for doing them in any event.
What is your company and where are you located? You sound like a fair man to work for!
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I guarantee that OCTO-P is a woman!!
What makes you guarantee that?
You sound more like an exception, than a rule, even in non-right-to-work states!! Someone forward-thinking to work for is a dream of all employees, especially in states that condone workplace neglect and abuses in hours and pay! Good on you! I'm sure if you were seeking employment, you'd wanna work for a fair minded boss such as yourself. You incentivize your employees and those who would abuse your generous system will soon wish they had taken better care of the great environment in which they once worked!! They might even return for a 2nd chance!!!
Why would he give them a second chance? Lazy people don't have a history of changing and becoming non lazy.
What is your company?? I know 3 people who work hard and could use a good job that appreciates their hard work!!
One learns early in statistics that it is never wise to use one's anecdotal experience to define an average result. You may have been the sparkle in your employee's eyes, but the rule of thumb in Right to Work States is that most do not enjoy such insightful and farsighted employers. Your employees should consider themselves very, very lucky. Having lived and worked in a Right to Work state, I would never go back. So, either I was the one unusual case, or just part of the average.
You are correct in your statement. The bad thing too is that while not all employers are bad,...the bad ones all play by the same sh!tty rulebook with no display of remorse. Imagine being evaluated for 5-10 years with no written remarks of improvements from the supervisor, yet your co-workers and clients both have watched you evolve and excel in your job and professionalism. Then imagine that same supervisor finally giving you the best evaluation remarks the week she is to be targeted for termination. Coincidence? Nope. I was that employee. That former supervisor later revealed to me that she was fired because she refused to fire her Group Lead. She also revealed to me that the company was responsible for her not giving better evaluations because it would mean bigger pay raises for employees in her dept. So as a middle finger to the company. on her way out she made the one thing right that she should have done a long time ago. I'm sure the company was livid, but screw them.
That's right, not all employers are bad. However, the vast majority of them will not stand by their best employees, let alone their average ones. When the chips are down and when it comes to wages, benefits, etc., the rule is to always look at the bottom line first, the profits as they have been and what is predicted, and how large a share of those profits can be claimed for the top brass, the middle management, and of course the shareholders and board of directors. That is always the priority over all and everyone else. Companies are usually very good at playing a good game, using the right words, phrases, and wearing the right masks when it comes to “fostering” some bogus feel good language. Once it was “family” speak. We were all part of the family… until someone felt threatened, or profits were down… or someone had a hair up their butt. After a good decade or two of that, the tone changed to “teams”. We're all part of a team, we're teammates, team leaders, etc.
Like many regulations, laws, etc., that the conservative right successfully have passed, the wording "right to work", is meaningless. It's only purpose is to give the illusion of something beneficial to those constituents in that State, leading them to believe that their conservative politico is working hard for their benefit. The truth is, the only percentage of the population the conservatives create laws for, while fighting to protect them from any regulations, or tax increases, etc., is the top 5% of the population. I know most Americans have been taught that it is the top 1%, but in truth it is the top 5% that own and controll over 90% of all assets and resources in this country.
Right to work means you can't be required to join the union if there is one
Right to work means " employees nor employers are obligated to stay in a work relationship" in other words, they can fire you for no reason and you can quit for no reason.
Just one more one-sided application that benefits the employer far more than the employee. Seldom is it even warranted that an employee give a reason for leaving, as what difference would it make? But in terms of labor protections, they are necessary just due to the sheer inequity of power between labor and employer. Unfortunately, we live in an age where false equivalencies are often made between grossly disparate subjects. As if companies as a rule are in the weaker position when it is the employees, as a rule, who are.
His choice to work there. His choice to accept that wage. His choice to accept that treatment. His choice to finally get smart and leave. I don't condone treating employees this way, but there's more than a little responsibility on the "hero" of this story if it's even true.
Yep... But livr and learn prevails. Get all promises in writing!! Don't allow yourself to be a doormat. That he is emotionally "young" is something we all get to be, though some of us see the light early and some are abused into an early grave without EVER standing up for their worth. Self-worth and self-esteem are def NOT taught in schools, much less in computer Depts... you might need to pursue a career in psychology to get That lesson!!
Your pro-corporatocracy is showing. You might want to tuck that c**p in a bit.
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"Closed Shop" means the union takes a rake of your pay for nothing
Benefits and regular pay increases are absolutely not "nothing." The differences between non-union and union compensation is upsetting.
Closed shop isn't allowed in a right to work state anyway so this entire idea from Jefferson can't be applied in this case
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Unions are good for keeping s**t workers their jobs. I know I pay excessive dues every month
You're definitely one of the shitty workers.
Another way-too-long tale of "sticking it to the man" folklore.
For real.... No such thing as a multinational, billion dollar company that has a department where one man runs 3 plant's IT all by himself, 24/7, when an outage costs 200k/second. It just doesn't exist, this whole post is b******t, and anyone who believed it should feel really stupid.
I work for a multinational. At our location we have 750 computers and the IT dept is 2 people. You'd think we'd have an army full of IT workers but no.
Where i work there is only 1 it for the two plants, he usually works from home, 1/2 of the stuff never gets fixed and they never do anything to make him change, my email at work was down for a month, I talked to the " head boss" two days later, Mr. It, was there and said oh your computer is fried, replaced it with another piece of s, and now at least my email works.
Around 500 people in my job, 4 IT guys, but they do other things besides IT. And they loooove when someone calls them to ask why they can't acces insta or fb.
Nah, you are.
Agree, I have an IT background. It didnt make sense for a multinational company that large paying such a low salary for IT to begin with, let alone having 2 IT people. No way could it operate, no matter where it was headquartered.
Just because something doesn't make sense doesn't mean it isn't true. Management will surprise you with the self serving bone headed and abusive things they will do because they can get away with it. For example I used to work QA for a small but well known manufacturer and one newer product was very high precision. A newer contract injection molding facility was just starting to make some of these parts and a sr manager decided to visit. The company was having issues with part fit so the manager instructed them on what to adjust so things fit. Great. Unfortunately those parts were not adjusted to design spec and 100% incompatible with the same parts from other facilities. Had to toss everything. The owner made sure that manager never again visited a supplier. It was a multi generation family business so nobody ever got fired, just reassigned and the stupid continued ever on.
Emphasis on “lore”
Is it my imagination or did he say he moved to the town for the job then back track when people started questioning him and say basically he grew up in the town and he stayed at it because that's just the way things were there? Also I call BS on working 16hrs a day 7 days a week for a year and no breaks. Not possible. Also a manufacturing company in the US that has 3 plants and clears 4 bill a year in pure profit??? Yeah, keep it grounded if ur gonna lie 🙄
No, he said "growing up in that area". Could mean city, county, culture, work domain. The follow up was basically the American Dream : Work hard and fortune will fall over you. No break is perfectly doable in a job that isn't constant work. Let's say you're a night-shift convenience store cashier, you don't have nay break or lunch, because most of your time is waiting for something to happen.
And yet you read it...and commented...again. 😄
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You must be a manager.
Yeah they have to be, because we all know that regular workers would never lie or exaggerate. Their as pure as the wind driven snow
"THEY'RE" They ARE. If we're denigrating workers for refusing to tolerate any longer the BULL Corporate has been handing down for a hundred years, let's at least try to look "smarter" than all the dOn'T wAnT tO WoRk AnYmOrE folks. K?
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You're "you are" and idiot
Average 16 hours a day for a year? I’m not even going to do that. And no overtime? A salary is for eight hours a day and maybe an occasional hour or two over. The fact that this person is a supposed to be a good IT and worked several years for around $30k and then withstood over a year with that abuse makes me wonder what is wrong with him.
Another sign that IT is not valued is they are considered labor exempt - companies don't have to follow the federal labor laws.
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All salaried employees have to work the hrs needed to get the job done. It is only hourly paid employees who have federal guidelines. That is one reason why salaried employees get paid on the average higher than hourly. Vacation time, time off for doctor appts, etc. Being salaried means more responsibility, hence more freedom, flexibility. You abuse it, you are fired.
Companies routinely abuse salaried employees. "Vacation time, time off for doctor appts, etc"??? Do you live in Peter Pan land? You are expected to work horrible hours with no overtime. Never, ever work for a US based company. The managers still haven't let go of the whole slavery thing. Work hard and get ahead? Not likely, they just continue to abuse. They don't value or respect employees so return the favor. If they annoy you just walk away. Corporations created this mess with the way they treat employees.
My wife's last two jobs have been salaried and she makes more than the hourly workers. She's also allowed to leave early and show up late when she needs to. It's not that unusual to have a salary position like that. Yes some are abused with the salary thing but a lot of them are not, I guess it depends on who you're working for. I know a lot of people who get paid salary and are not abused like this.
YAAAASS!!! 👊
Um. Okay. Did you happen to see his “ higher than average” salary? Haha maybe you should read this again. You clearly didn’t read, nor comprehend this article.😳 you’re funny though. Clearly, you have never been situationally or economically a salaried slave. Go experience that, and then pipe up.
Maybe you also need to learn how to read. She never said that the op was paid higher than average. She said on average, salaried employees get paid higher than hourly workers. My wife's last two jobs have been salary and her pay is higher than the hourly employees. She can also leave early and show up late when she needs to. And she will also work late when she needs to. That's how it usually works, this company the original poster worked for is very abusive though. It's kind of ironic that you said this person needs to learn to read the article before commenting even though you failed to read what she was actually saying. She never said that this person gets paid higher than average.
I did this, plus. From Dec 2019 to August 2021, I worked an average of 100-120 hours a week. I was doing the jobs of 4 people at my law firm. My bosses were originally really tone deaf to the fact that I was single-handedly keeping their firm from crashing, so one day in 3/21, I walked in and said, "I'm done. I'll come back to work when you triple my base pay, and I get extra bonuses of at least $2,000/month. I'm also going down to 40 hours a week, and if y'all don't like it, good luck." Because NO ONE knew how to do any of the things I did that kept the form running. So...I got triple my original (meager) salary, plus $3k extra every month since I did that. And I've finally learned to try to work only 40-60 hours a week (it's hard tho. I'm German.) So there is definitely a benefit to being indespensible, but obviously there are a lot of drawbacks, too. :/
He's American and doesn't not have rich parents. It seems a very common tale. I wonder what was going on in his boss' head when he didn't do his best to keep him AND bugger off on holiday.
His boss was thinking "I'm going on vaca with this extra bonus I got for keeping my department costs low by screwing over my coworker."
I'm not sure he's exaggerating. I work in IT and I've had jobs where I was pulling 16 hour days. You hope it doesn't happen every week, being under staffed seems a common theme. I had to do it 6 weeks in a row of 16 hour days to meet an aggressive deadline set by management. You learn a lot, but sometimes the private sector takes advantage. Oh, I was only paid for 40 hours because I was considered a salary employee. This was for a very large company with huge HR department, but it was still very common.
This is the norm for IT has been for decades. That is why the salaries are so competitive. But all salaried positions, in any industry can involve overtime, weekends, etc. It called getting the job done.
So April P - You work 80-120 hours a week for no extra pay ? The majority of people who work salaried positions are smart enough to negotiate for a required amount of hours in their contract. Mine is 56 hrs weekly