A boss has been called out over creating an extreme rule that punished staff harshly for being even one minute late to work.
While it's always good form to show up to work on time, there are limits to how much punishment should be doled out to latecomers.
Someone who used to work in the office posted the rule to Reddit, where it has been torn apart and ridiculed as an extreme measure.
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The post laying out the rule appeared on the r/antiwork thread, titled: "Shout out to the worst place I ever worked (minimum wage, of course)"
It soon went viral as people could not believe a boss would put in place such a tough rule, let alone expect anyone to respect it.
The Redditor posted a photo of the boss' printed off rule, titled 'New Office Rule', which read: "For every minute you are late for work, you will be required to work 10 minutes after 6pm.
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"For example, if you arrive at 10:02, you will have to stay an extra 20 minutes until 6:20pm. Thanks."
The extreme rule was soon torn to shreds in the comments, with one person describing it as 'hilariously pathetic, petty and sad', while another commented 'do you want to lose employees because that's how you lose employees'.
Plenty said they'd just ignore the rule if it was put in place at their job and walk out on the dot.
Others suggested staff at the workplace should use the rule to farm the boss for overtime pay, though the original poster explained she was not getting paid overtime at that job.
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She explained it was a 'crap' job she got shortly after leaving university and 'quit after a couple of months', it's not hard to see why considering the working conditions.
Several people worked out that the extreme rule was actually illegal as working the extra time for being late without being paid would push staff wages below the minimum wage.
Some enterprising commenters suggested the rule should cut both ways, joking that staff showing up to work one minute early should be allowed to leave 10 minutes sooner.
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Someone quickly worked out that under those rules arriving at the office 54 minutes early would mean a member of staff was already finished for the day.
A handful of commenters sided with the boss with one arguing 'here's a better idea, don't be late to work' and another saying 'be on time or be fired'.
Luckily, it seems this rule is very much illegal so there's no real risk of your boss suddenly ordering you to stay another 10 minutes for every one minute you're late.
Joe Harker