Boss said no overtime under any circumstances. So I left mid-emergency

A couple of months ago, our manager sent out a stern company-wide email saying “There will be NO overtime—no exceptions,” even if things ran behind or if clients were in panic mode. Okay. Got it, boss.

Fast forward to last Friday. A major client’s account completely tanked due to a glitch, and it was all hands on deck. My shift ended at 5 PM, and around 4:58, I reminded my boss about the no-overtime policy.

He chuckled nervously and said, “Well… this is a bit different, just stay until it’s fixed.”

I smiled, showed him the email he sent, and said:

“Sorry, I’d love to help, but I really don’t want to violate company policy.”

I logged out right at 5:00, grabbed my things, and left—while the rest of the team stayed until 8 PM cleaning up the mess. Monday morning, we got another email:

“Overtime requests may now be approved on a case-by-case basis.”