Wished He Hadn’t Butted In

(I work for a temp agency and I have been asked to work at a shop for a few days. On my last day that I work there I walk outside and notice that smoke is pouring out of the cigarette bucket which is right against the building. The company has some very big buyers inside looking to make a big purchase, so I quietly dump what is left of my soda from lunch on it. As it is still smoking and burning pretty badly right next to the building I quietly slip back into the building, fill my drink cup with water, walk out, and dump it on the fire. I end up doing this about six or seven times before the fire is fully out. I go inside and clean up since my hands are now covered in soot from moving it away from the building.)

Manager: “Hey there, why are you still here? You were told to leave about 10 minutes ago. I’m not paying you overtime!”

Me: *staring in disbelief* “The cigarette bucket next to the building was on fire… I’ve been putting it out so that they–” *I point over to the four men there planning to buy their products* “–won’t notice that you almost had your building burn down because you couldn’t take a few moments to clean out the butts in there.”

Manager: *staring at me like I grew an extra head* “I’m still not paying you overtime.”

Me: “Well, you should still have someone clean out those butts. They are just going to catch fire again. I doused them so they shouldn’t relight for a few days. Have fun.”

(As I leave I overhear this:)

Worker: “I can’t believe you just said that to her! We could have lost the whole building and those buyers would have never bought this if we can’t even keep our building from catching on fire!”

Manager: “She’s just a temp! She was probably lying! I don’t give a d*** if some temp says the building almost caught fire just to try and get overtime!”

(The buyers heard it and as I slipped out I had a good laugh as the buyers began asking him what happened. As I drove away I saw them outside looking at the burned spot on the building. I didn’t put in for any over time, but I felt good knowing I did the right thing! When my paycheck arrived I noticed that I had been paid for 2 extra hours.)