In a surprising workplace twist, an employee discovered that establishing clear work-life boundaries—rather than constantly going above and beyond—was what finally earned him recognition and a salary increase.
The anonymous Reddit user’s experience, which has now gone viral, details his unexpected career advancement after years of unappreciated overwork. “I got a raise after I started leaving exactly at 5pm and my boss is acting like I’ve ‘stepped up my game,'” he shared in his post.
For years, this employee embodied the classic “office workhorse” mentality—arriving first and departing last, responding to emails during off-hours, and compensating for colleagues’ unfinished tasks. Despite this dedication, his requests for advancement were repeatedly deferred with vague promises about “timing” and “potential.”
“I asked for a promotion three times and kept getting the ‘we see your potential, just need to wait for the right timing’ speech,” he explained in his post.
Ironically, it was only after scaling back his excessive commitment and establishing firm boundaries that management finally recognized his value—a counterintuitive outcome that challenges conventional workplace wisdom about the relationship between extra effort and professional recognition.