I was just thinking about a colleague of mine today. We both worked in a bit of a sweat shop, but he was just out of school and was in the period of life where he was quite happy with 80-90 weeks. But he was also smart (much smarter than me, alas). He decided to ask our boss for overtime pay. The boss said, "No, but you can have time off in lieu".

Well, my friend decided to continue to pull crazy hours and every Friday afternoon at 4:30 (when the boss went home) he went up to the boss and said, "Here. Sign this. These are my hours for the week." They boss (not being too bright) just signed it week after week after week.

Eventually a year went by and my industrious friend went up to the HR department and said, "Here are all of my time sheets for the year. My boss agreed to giving me time off in lieu. Here's his signature on every sheet. I've put in 80 hours a week for a year. Now I want a year off".

Of course they couldn't give it to him. After consulting with their lawyer they gave him time and a half (pro rated on his salary). Then they went to our boss and made a special rule for our team. Nobody was to work overtime again. Ever.

Everybody was happy. Except for my boss :-)