At my first (and thus far only) job, as a closer for a supermarket deli, I was told, by my department manager, that, as long as I stayed within eight hours and didn’t keep management longer than they were supposed to be there, I could stay late to get things done. A front-end cashier confirmed that the other person who was on my shift when I wasn’t there, and who had been there far longer than I, was also doing it.

I was scheduled six hour shifts and staying about seven and a half to eight hours. I didn’t find out for about six months that that was not correct. Which struck me as odd because I was getting in trouble for overtime past the eight hour mark before my shift was changed to do that, but I hadn’t been spoken to about it in that six month period.

And at that point, I also couldn’t just change back to the eight hour shift because I started school and they were already telling me to be at work at the exact same time I had just gotten out of class, the latest the deli employees were supposed to be there was the marked end of my shift, and they don’t typically allow split shifts or one hour lunch breaks unless you were scheduled nine hours, and the one hour break was factored into the nine hours, and not allowed within the first 2 hours, which is when I’d have to leave to get to class.