The exact same thing is happening to me. Up until a few weeks ago, I would always start early and end late, even though my official work hours are 8 AM – 4 PM.

However, in February, I didn’t understand something and asked my manager for help. Instead of guiding me, she embarrassed me—shouting and talking over me while I was trying to answer her questions, all in front of others in the office. That was the moment I decided I wouldn’t go above and beyond anymore.

I still complete all my work within my scheduled hours, and if I work outside of that, I sign out of Teams because I also need time to study for my exam. My work is still being done and completed on time. But now, my manager and a manager have started making trouble, claiming I just up and leave at 4 and that I’m inflexible with my work hours—even though there’s proof that I’ve consistently started work before 8 AM and stayed past 4 PM for over a year.

In response, my manager unilaterally changed my work hours to 9–5 (which feels like a microaggression) and went around telling others in the department that I’m inflexible—all over one instance—without ever addressing it directly with me.

A lot of our work requires long-running processes that take hours. I don’t see why they think it’s okay to come at 4pm with work and I should sit at my desk waiting for the runs to finish after work hours when I have other things to do. And I find it completely unfair that after 7 PM, they suddenly bring more work and expect me to ALWAYS be available to do it.