If you're a boss, a key element of your job usually involves making sure your employees are as productive as possible. One automotive supplier manager had other ideas and it cost her company 10k in labor. 

Employing mostly student workers from a nearby work-study college program, the company had little to do with them while it went through a merger. Instead of cutting labor, the shop workers were often left with no tasks, while their equipment was transported to new locations. When work finally came in, one student was excited to get some hands-on experience, and efficiently completed her task before getting scolded by her manager to slow down and look busy, so as not to offend any higher-ups who happened to walk by. 

So the student complied and took all of her remaining 2.5 months' worth of hours to complete her next task, hiding away in a back room to do it. By the end of the season, she had racked up 10 grand in wages to watch Netflix and listen to music. "I think [my manager] genuinely forgot I worked there," she said. As one reader commented, "Do you know what completing tasks quickly gets you? More work. Not more pay, just more work."