Employee of the Month Rewarded With More Work

A Denver area worker was shocked and saddened to learn Monday evening that, in line with American tradition, his employer was requiring him to work additional hours as a result of his being identified as one of the organization’s top performers of the year. 

“No… I need to go home,” said distraught union employee Nikola Jokić, 28, before he put his head in his hands and rubbed his forehead to ease the stress.

Jokić, a Serbian tradesman who commutes to the U.S. for work, had previously believed he had logged his final workday of the season on Monday, when he completed the final task on his to-do list.

He was then informed that he was required to stay in the Denver area until Thursday for a company celebration tied to his team’s performance in the most recent quarter. The news caused clear distress for a worker who wanted nothing more than to go home.

“Nobody likes his job,” Jokić said, adding that anyone who said they did was lying.

Like many workers, Jokić finds more fulfillment in his hobbies than his day job. On days off, the 28-year-old likes to spend time with his horses in his native Serbia. He has previously preferred to receive recognition for his work achievements while at the stables, and he has made clear that his job is not his life, a theme he reiterated Monday evening.

“There’s a bunch of things that I like to do,” a helpless Jokić said Monday evening. 

Jokić's desire to clock in and out has been well-appreciated by his fellow union workers. One of them, 34-year-old Kevin Wayne Durant, who works in Arizona, recently said Jokić simply wanted to “Facetime his horses,” not become a star in his field. 

If that is the case, research shows he may be going about things the wrong way. A recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that hard-working and loyal employees like Jokić were “perceived to be more exploitable,” leading over time to extra unpaid work and a “vicious circle of suffering.”