Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Money-Calligrapher85 on 2025-10-14 17:54:37+00:00.

This is not my personal story but one from my dad years ago. I dont remember all the details as its been years since i last heard the story so bear with me.

He worked in a company where they had to unload trucks with a forklift.

To draw you a picture, there was the delivery bay with a big offloading space and next to it was a small creek.

The manager was a person who was always stressed and never was able to give you a proper answer on where he wanted certain stuff to be unloaded.

So one day, it was a busy day again. My dad asked him where he wanted this pallet to be offloaded. So the manager busy as always said: „Just throw it down the creek“.

Thats exactly what my dad did.

When he told me the story the first time he couldnt stop laughing. Never again did he get such an answer out of that manager.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/m1sterwr1te on 2025-10-12 21:08:44+00:00.

Obligatory this isn't my story, but I was present for it.

Years ago, I worked for a well known chain of transmission shops. The owner/manager (well call him Jim) was a decent guy and great boss. We were also pretty successful. He insisted on keeping the shop clean, and a commercial was even filmed there.

The outside of the shop is painted a patented red, white, and blue pattern. Well, ours was VERY faded. The company is supposed to repaint them every few years. Despite Jim putting i request after request, corporate insisted it was fine. They suggested he could repaint it, at his expense, if it was so important.

So he did.

Jim.went to the paint store and bought several gallons of the cheapest, ugliest brown paint he could find and paid us out of pocket to paint the outside. I mean, this was the color of shit.

Then, he waited.

Sure enough, two weeks later corporate called in a huff. The shop is supposed to be red, white, and blue! Jim reminded them he was allowed to paint the shop at his own expense. They never said what color.

Within a week after that, a crew was sent out and we had a pretty, new paint job.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Starr12 on 2025-10-12 16:32:32+00:00.

tl;dr manager says non-negotiable policy, demonstrates that when they won't work with me after a family member dies and then tries to negotiate when I decided I couldn't handle the job.

I started a job at a local answering service a couple years ago. Decent place with fun coworkers and patient clients. I told management at the interview that I couldn't handle early shifts at 8am because I had been working late shifts for almost fifteen years and couldn't get up that early any more. They insisted on a month's training on the early shift and I told them I would try my best because I wanted the job.

They also made me sign a "late policy point system" paper. It was usual management BS. points per minute-late, lose time off and other benefits based on points per month, too many points and you're terminated. Typical "managers dealing with some one else who can't manage their time and every one's getting punished for it." type of non-sense. The "big rule" in bold at the bottom of the paper relevant to the story was that a no-call no show to a shift would result in an instant termination. Fine, what ever, I don't have problems showing up on-time.

At least, usually I don't. I told them I took issue with it because super strict policies like this usually backfire on everyone, and the employees get the worst of it. I asked them if this would be in affect while I was training and they said yes, it's "non-negotiable" and that if I didn't sign, I wouldn't get the job.

Fast forward two weeks, and my room mate is freaking out, driving my anxiety insane, and I'm dealing with a death in my family. I was seriously depressed, and getting no compassion from the new job on the issue, but they loved my work effort and kept telling me so. I'm answering calls and handling issues as effectively and quickly as some of their experienced employees. I even provided much needed insight into one of their clients, as I had worked directly for them previously, and knew what was going on at the other end of the phones.

Eventually the stress caused me to crash. I went to bed one night and slept through my alarm until 5 in the afternoon the next day, all the way through a shift. effectively a "no call no show". So I just started looking for a new job, didn't call them up or try to show up the next day, nothing. What was the point? I was terminated. and that was non-negotiable.

Eventually they called me and told me to come pick up my paycheck, and when I did the manager who made me sign the late-policy paper came out, holding on to my check like she was implying she wanted answers before I got paid. She started grilling me on what happened and why I didn't call to apologize or work with them on keeping my job. She was genuinely confused on why I didn't try to negotiate against a non-negotiable policy.

I took my check directly out of her hands and told her "You made it clear in the paperwork that I was fired, and that was non-negotiable."

I still think about her response, as she tried to reach for my check. "But you were so good at this!"

edit: I don't have troubles with being late, I had hoped I had made that clear in the story. At my current job of 8 years, I've been late less than 5 times. and it is a 4am job that gave me time to adjust. I disagreed with the rigidity of the policy, not the with practice of being on time.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/AeonFinance on 2025-10-12 14:02:58+00:00.

Ok I will get this right this time.

10 y ago. I worked under a manager who could best be described as old-school old-battleaxe. It was an hr office (I do not work in hr anymore and this is probably why) . I was an intern starting a white collar hr corporate job after 10 y of blue collar work. I was excited to be in a climate controlled office. I dreamed for years for this and put myself through university by my bootstrap. I would do anything for air conditioned office. I just broke my back a year prior and had a difficult time finishing my final year.

She was known across the office for being impossible to please and for running through staff faster than the copier toner. Nobody lasted more than a year, I was told.

From my first day, I was on her radar. I make occasional typing mistakes because of medication I was on that affects short-term memory. I always ran spellcheck and proofed my work carefully, but she treated every minor error like a personal failure.

She would scold me for the smallest things. Once she gave me an hour-long lecture about professionalism because I wore a blue shirt instead of a white one. I wore a sweater to a client meeting because their thermostat was broken and it was -20c outside. I got shouted at by my supervisor for wearing the sweater harder than I did on any work site. Every day felt like inhaling glass shards.

Then came the instruction that broke the camel’s back.

She told me I needed to deliver a daily oral report on every client file I managed.

These weren’t short updates.

She expected me to know every number, every email, every call from memory. Word for word what was said. If i even got one word out of the transcript off.. i was not fit to be there.

She said,

“From the moment the sun rises on this office to the moment it sets, you are to report everything that happens in these reports” She knew I had a memory-related disability from a past concussion. She knew it would overwhelm me.

So I decided to take her words literally.

That night, I opened Excel and began logging everything. Every keystroke. I wrote it all down. I even practiced my delivery so I could recite it perfectly.

The next morning, when she called me into her office, I began:

“Walked from my car to the building. Opened the office door with my right hand, moderate pressure. Entered the building. Greeted the receptionist. Made a coffe in the keurig for 25 seconds. Sat at my desk. Adjusted my chair. Started computer. Open excel. Began typing reports, ensuring keyboard sound remained within acceptable volume to avoid disturbing senior management arriving 45 minutes after 9am...."

I continued like that for almost the entire hour interrupted. She tried to interrupt, but I reminded her gently that I was “reporting everything that happens..."

When it was over, she just stared at me.

A week later, HR called me in (yes hr does have its own hr) I explained the situation exactly as it happened, that I was following her directive word for word. I had detailed documentation (by this time I wrote down EVERYTHING that happened in that office). They agreed it wasn’t sustainable. Within a month, I was transferred to a new department. I was laid off 3 m later because that boss quit but I got a good reference.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/UncleCoyote on 2025-10-11 17:03:15+00:00.

Never, ever stop being petty. Never EVER let something go, or let it die, or let people say you are doing it for attention or karma; pettiness does NOT have an expiration date, and as long as you keep pettiness in your heart all year round, it will never leave you.

A while back I posted a story about a Wrench, and my father, and how he teased me about losing it. Here's the original link if your into backstory and lore:

The Original Story

Today, is Dad's birthday, and while he only asked for gift cards, from me, he will always get one, extra, tiny little gift.

A Craftsman, 7/16, ratchet end wrench.

Why?

Because it will never NOT be funny. But at this point, I feel that I am a large shareholder in Craftsman Tools.

This year's present:

TL:DR - My father, many, many years ago jokingly accused me of losing a wrench. Sick of the teasing, I warned him he'd get that wrench every Father's Day, Birthday, and Christmas for the rest of his fucking life. I keep my promises.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/neverregretlife on 2025-10-11 06:26:37+00:00.

This happened years ago when I was babysitting a friend's kid whose elementary school aged. We had spent most of the day inside, he watched Power Rangers for awhile before playing his Playstation. He liked to drive around in GTA.

After about an hour, I told him he should go play outside since it was such a nice day, and then I went to the kitchen to grab us bottles of water to stay hydrated. When I came out of the kitchen, he was standing on the porch outside, looking through the screen door while still playing GTA.

I told him its not what I meant, but that he wasnt wrong and did listen, so he could keep playing. I made sure to be much more specific after that. I think I still have a pic of him I sent to his dad for proof.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Optimal-Tax-7577 on 2025-10-11 03:22:35+00:00.

So, this is a story about my 1 year old and how he is working on his malicious compliance. Today we visited grandma (my mom) and he loves to play everywhere and she lets him. He stopped at a coffee table and grabbed a wing shaped metal ash tray (clean and only decor) and started to hit the table with it, he likes the sound. My mom comes in and says "Grandma doesn't like when you hit the table, remember? Please don't hit the table". He looked at her, smiled and stopped immediately; he then sat down turned to look at her with a grin and started to hit the floor! I swear he was saying "I listened, you never said don't hit the floor" with his eyes.

I was watching from the living room, and was impressed, he listened and found the loop hole. My mom was trying so hard not to laugh because he was obedient but smart. I was very proud but also concerned about my future and how I will need to be careful with my words when giving him instructions or orders.

Maybe other parents have experienced this or might be common for toddlers but he's is my first and I was impressed

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Myrddn_Emrys on 2025-10-10 16:57:32+00:00.

This might be a bit long but it needs some set up.

TLDR: New manager decided that Python was the only language to be used in a C/C++/C# software team. Productivity drops to zero. Manager is no longer around.

Preface: Please don't bash any programming language in the comments. This is not a post about the merits of various programming languages. It's just a story of what happened.

I worked for a VERY long time at a small company that created some niche products. The company had a lot of scientists and engineers around to develop and refine the products this company made. Over the years, the people in the science and engineering departments changed but I still stuck around. They paid well and I got a lot of time off. I also only had to work 40 hours per week, which was nice.

My job in software was to support the production of equipment. I wrote custom software that calibrated and configured the devices. At the click of a button someone could run the software with minimal human interaction needed. When I started I was the only developer. By the time I left, there were four developers. That should give you an idea about the size of the company. Not large. But profitable.

At the beginning of my time at the company, each piece of software was originally developed by a scientist or engineer. Each and every one had their own pet language they preferred to use. They would start the software and, when they felt that it was ready for prime time, they would hand it off to me. I would then make it actually ready for use. This included things like error handling and streamlining the user experience. Also finding the massive amount of bugs that were in the code. This also meant that originally the company used dozens of different programming languages.

Towards the end of my time with the company, they had decided they were going to mostly focus on Windows computers. So we used primarily C derivatives (C, C++, C#) and web technology (Javascript, HTML, CSS, PHP). There were other languages floating around but this is what we mostly used. All four of us were proficient in these languages and I was the only one that could handle the edge cases of old programs from before this consolidation. By the time of this story, we had been using these languages for nearly a decade.

For most of my time at the company, we had worked under the Engineering department for a person that wasn't really a software manager. So we were left to run ourselves. One day the company decided they needed to hire an actual Software manager. So they found one that came with excellent credentials. He had a lot of experience managing software teams. He actually came in and didn't change things right away, for which I was grateful and held out hope that it would all work out.

Then came the fateful day. One day he pulled us all into a conference room and told us that company would be making a shift. One of the scientists was complaining that they couldn't understand the software we were writing and needed to be able to edit it. So, instead of teaching the scientist C and such, we were going to, shift 100% of all new code to Python. Starting immediately. Any new code written needed to be in Python.

I brought up the fact that none of us knew Python. I was told that we could take classes in our own time on our own dime if we wanted. I pointed out that learning a new language would slow down our delivery of software. Python isn't hard so I had no doubt we could get there. But we had libraries written of common code that we just plugged in when needed. None of those could be used. In fact, we had to figure out how to plug Python into existing programs that needed updates. Any updates had to be done in Python. And, not only that, all our code had to be "Pythonic". Meaning that it had to be done in the proper way for Python and not utilizing techniques that would technically work in Python but weren't necessarily the "correct" way in Python. Any code we did write had to be submitted to the complaining scientist to verify that it was "Pythonic". Which most of it wasn't.

So, we did exactly as we were told. All of us stopped writing in any language except Python. Everyone stopped working and started writing very simple programs to figure out how Python worked. I was working on a plug-in for an existing program to try and resolve some U/I issues. However, I really struggled with this because the U/I was written in C# and the new code had to be in Python. When I brought this up, I was rebuffed and told it MUST be done in Python. So I was trying to figure out how to change an existing C# U/I by using new Python code.

Our productivity dropped to zero. Not a single bit of software made it to production for the few months this manager was around. After a few months of nothing at all getting done, he decided to leave the company to pursue other opportunities. We weren't told that they fired him. But I'm sure that's what happened.

After he left, they brought in a new manager that saw the issue right away and shifted us back to working in C and web languages to support existing software and took a much more sensible approach to software. We were to support existing software in the language in which it was written. Any new software we would discuss the choice of language. If it was small, then we would use Python. If it was large, then we would use what made sense, until we were proficient in Python. And new hires would be trained in Python. We could also take classes during work hours and the company would pay for it. Also, the new manager pushed back on having anyone in the science or engineering departments be able to work on the software that our team supported. The would have input and have to sign off that the science was correct, but no editing ability.

Productivity returned to normal. Several new small programs were released written in Python. All the existing software ended up having Python ripped back out of it. All was right with the world again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/blueboy714 on 2025-10-10 14:40:00+00:00.

Before I retired I was manager and programmer in a department located in the US. I would program, manage, assign projects, create timelines, answer questions that my staff had, etc.

The company I worked for decided to consolidate the US and UK programming departments and the new boss decided have only managers in the UK oversee the programmers in the US. This meant that I was only supposed to keep programming (I had the most experience among all the US/UK programmers) and no longer needed to do the management side of things (but I still got the same pay I used to).

Due to a 6 hour time difference between the US and UK that meant that there were only 2 or 3 hours each day that we overlapped. This left the rest of the day for my old staff to either wait until the next day to ask their new boss or come to me and I could answer immediately.

The latter made more sense so they could keep working - but eventually the UK managers complained to US/UK boss that the US staff wasn't coming to them to help and were still coming to me - which the UK managers were having a conniption about.

My boss told me to stop helping my old staff when they asked me questions and that they needed to ask their new manager. So it was time for malicious compliance...

I went back to only programming and when my old staff came and asked me questions (usually in the afternoons US time since the UK was done for the day). I told them I was told to no longer help them and they should ask their new UK manager the next day or send their UK boss an email with their question. I told them it was time for malicious compliance - since the US programmers knew exactly what would happen.

So my old team started deluging their UK bosses with questions, problems, etc. and then had to wait until the next day or 2 to get answer. Within 2 weeks the US team was missing deadlines, etc. and the UK managers had to answer for why their team was missing deadlines. After a couple more weeks my boss and the UK managers came to the realization that due to the 6 hour time different there should be manager in the US (which is exactly what I told them weeks ago).

Finally my boss asked me if would like to be a manager again and I told her I was happy just programming and didn't need the other work. They ended up giving me a raise in order to get me go back to managing the US programmers.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/parodytx on 2025-10-09 19:54:55+00:00.

One of my many HOA stories when I regrettably was a member for the longest 2 years of my life was regarding decorations. All of our homes had a porch and rules regarding front of house "decorations" - the R&R said you could only have one decoration. Fine. I had no desire for any decorations at all in my front lawn.

We DID put 2 nice chairs on our porch to use on pleasant evenings with a sunset potential. We received a notice regarding our "violation" of having "two decorations in front of our house and the R&R only allowed one, and we had 24 hours to comply."

Alllllllllllllllllllrighty then.

I removed both chairs from the porch. I searched for hours online for the most obnoxious decoration I could find - because the R&R made absolutely NO mention of WHAT the decoration could or could not be, only that you could only have one item. I ended up with an at least 7 foot tall blow up sphere, with an obnoxious nekkid mermaid-like thing floating inside it, flapping like one of those wind-man devices at a car dealer.

I also posted a small sign stating "Surveillance Camera in Operation. SMILE!" to curb any vandalism ideas.

The HOA BOD went absolutely NUTS. I received no less than 6 letters in 2 days about how inappropriate, vile and other various adjectives my "decoration" was, and that I was obliged to remove it. I responded with a certified return receipt letter with the appropriate section of the R&R highlighted and invited them to return mail with the exact language that my decoration was in violation of, and failure to do so with continuing violation notices would result in legal action on my part against all the BOD members.

This went on for about a month, and finally my lawyer buddy sent them a threatening notice on their letterhead stating that depositions and full financial disclosures from each and every member would be demanded for discovery purposes in my damages lawsuit unless I received an acknowledgement of their errors and a formal apology.

They waffled for about a week then caved. Got a written apology published in the HOA newsletter signed by all the BOD members.

The next HOA meeting resulted in a rules change that porches were excluded from the decorations restrictions, and that all lawn decorations needed to be smaller than 4 feet in height.

Many of the homeowners came to thank me for my resistance and results.

Like I said, moved after 2 years for my job and never considered an HOA since - every realtor we worked with that was absolute no-way rule #1.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Durwyn on 2025-10-09 16:42:12+00:00.

The following is an old story from years ago, but I thought it would be worthy of sharing here.

I (now 53m, then around 20m) used to work for a now defunct electronics retailer called Circuit City in Southern California.

The staff was paid on a commision basis and were pressed daily to sell our extended warranty packages as a way to increase revenue.

To explain how the "Extended Warranties" work is to explain how the company made most of its income by scamming not only the customers, but also its suppliers.

How it worked is thus.

When a customer comes in and wishes to purchase a product, they are offered an "Extended Warranty" so if anything happens to the product, they simply bring it back and it would get "repaired" by an onsite department. If it could not be "repaired", it would be replaced.

The room for the repair department was a 5x5 foot closet with a shelf and customer service was instructed to carry the product into that room, put it on the shelf and return 15 minutes later to pick it up, bringing it back to the customer with the unfortunate information that it could not be repaired, but would have to be replaced.

The customer would then leave the store with a new product and the store would send the product back to the manufacturer as defective, never having inspected it in the first place while at the same time taking a full credit on the product and receiving full credit for it.

So the company was able to minimize the cost of labor, while simultaneously receiving income from both sides, the supplier and the manufacturer.

Now, here's where the story begins.

I worked as a salesman on the floor in the department that sold the items that could not be clumped together neatly, such as sections for televisions, stereo equipment, kitchen appliences, laundry machines, refrigerators, etc.

At the time this included Walkmen (the precursor to the IPod, which utilized cassette tapes), Minidisc players, CD Walkman, and Desktop computers and accessories such as monitors, printers, and various other items that attached to computers.

This was prior to laptops being ubiquitous, so all these items were bulky and heavy.

One day a guy came in in ratty clothing, sweating from head to toe and stinking like he hadn't showered in a week.

The other salesmen, and women, decided he was not worth their time, and I got instructed to "help him" while security was called to escort him off the premise.

I found out, he was in the shop to get a replacement walkman, as while out for a run, the one he had had failed.

I walked him over to the shelf that had all the portable music devices, and, after listening to what he was looking for, did not direct him to the most expensive product we sold, attempting to upsell him, but providing him with the most affordable option for what he was looking to purchase.

He even asked about the "Extended Warranty" and I told him to not bother with it.

He paid for the Walkman and left before security could arrive, and I made maybe $2 on the sale.

For the next 2 weeks, I got hounded by the other salespeople and managers that I was not pushing the warranties enough, depriving myself of the sales income that comes with it, thus losing money in the process.

About 2 weeks later, when I arrived at work I was told there was a customer who had come in, asked about me, and left, telling them he'd return when I did.

After a few minutes of being on the floor, a man, the same one that had been sweaty, arrived in a full suit, expensive at that, flanked by two others in business suits, asking for me.

Turns out, he runs multiple private schools and was looking to purchase "a few" computers for them, without all the extended frills that were unnecessary.

Now, the computer sales, at the time, were the crown jewels on the sales floor, and if a salesman sold one, they were king of the hill of the salesforce that week.

This guy wanted 10 of them, for his students to use, and I was personally requested by him to be the one to make those sales.

I walked him through what we had and the final bill was over $15k! Blowing away the next biggest sale that year by $10k!

When it came time to pay me, and hand me the biggest check that store had written that year, the staff decided to hold a ceremony in my honor and asked me to speak to encourage others that there was money to be made.

I said only 4 words. "Thank you. I Quit," and walked out of the ceremony got into my car, and drove home, never to go back to that store again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/surrenderedmale on 2025-10-09 12:35:28+00:00.

Simple and straightforward. At an old job I was once called out for not doing enough work. I wasn't shifting enough pallets of stock.

So I started working only on big easy pallets that would go out in seconds, such as bins, microwaves etc (I worked a homewares department which covers a lot of stuff, from cookware right down to soap and makeup) and completely avoided the smaller stuff that takes forever.

Of course, eventually the little stuff started piling up and eventually had a piss poor workflow because everyone was stuck doing nitty gritty stuff in busy times. Turns out putting out hundreds of little items when you're busy is disproportionately harder than 10 big things!

To add to it I was congratulated for 'completely turning things around and working plenty.'

To which I said I probably worked less hard and explained what I did.

There was a certain level of vindication upon seeing the reaction.

It wasn't fully malicious I admit because I didn't want trouble for not working when I was one of the harder workers.

Pretty satisfying situation overall

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/CrushFive5 on 2025-10-09 08:02:40+00:00.

Backstory : I was in a desert country that was very hot while in the military. I was one of the newer members to the group when they gave us a free plane ride out there. My job was not combat oriented in any way and far away from most danger. However because I was newer instead of a normal weapon to carry daily (15 hrs a day 7 days a week) I was assigned the heavy size. After about a month into this me and the other people assigned this weapon are complaining. We do not need these readily available as our job is not to provide immediate defense.

I worked in a section that consistently dealt with Warrant Officers. To those not in the know these WO's are very known for their no nonsense get the job done in the best way possible without messing with the standard. They are the keepers of the standards and would expect nothing less. One day a Warrant officer 5 saw me carrying this weapon and asked me why I had it. I explained it was the weapon assigned to me and as an officer he replied "I have a pistol my substantially lighter weapon is in the armory tell them to exchange my heavy for his.

I am through the moon after the exchange I go to the smoke pit and show off my new weapon. Eventually my first line supervisor sees me and asks how I got it. I explain the orders given to me. He responds with Is he your front line supervisor. He makes me re submit my new weapon for the old.

Now the fun part. I worked in an area where sometimes we went to where the WO's were on assignment. I took the job to go deliver something and the WO5 sees me with the old weapon. He asks if I had a chance to exchange I reply I did but my SGT said to change it back. His response was did you tell him it was my order? me: yes sir :ok OP follow me anybody who has an idea of the army knows that a WO5 outranks a SSGt by a mile so countermanding his orders better have a good excuse.

We get to the SSgts office and the WO5 asks him what happened the SSgt gave some bs excuse then the WO5 said snap to attention. WO's as a rule don't adhere to normal standerds. The WO5 then excused me told me to switch weapons and locked the door. I stayed just long enough to hear a lot of yelling curse words and counting pushups.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Common_Employee on 2025-10-08 13:35:14+00:00.

So this actually happened a few months ago at my job. Long story short, coworker got promoted to a new supervisor position for all the wrong reasons (she’s besties with the boss and gives him relationship advice on the side).

Our team handles many types of incoming requests; phone calls, emails, tickets, and even printer jobs that get printed out automatically. We have a really chill system that actually works: everyone helped where needed, and the manager trusted us to get the work done. Nobody tracked individual stats or micromanaged. We just got everything handled and kept things running smoothly and its been that way in this department for probably 30 years now.

Then my new supervisor comes along and I guess decides she wants to tighten things up or increase accountability or something.

Her big idea? “From now on, I'll be tracking phone calls for performance metrics. Make sure everyone's doing their job and no ones slacking.”

So of course we asked, “What about tickets and emails? Those take most of the time.”

She says, “Well, there’s no way to measure those right now so we can't really track that.”

Umm, ok?

So of course, everyone does exactly what she asked. Phone rings? Answer it immediately. If we were working on an email and a phone call comes in? Put it on pause and answer the call. Working on a ticket? Pause, gotta answer a call.

So naturally emails start piling up in the shared mailbox, tickets sit untouched in the internal portal (which management still doesn’t know how to run reports on), and the printer starts piling up paper in front of it.

After a couple of days, people from other departments, people from our satellite offices, and even some of our external customers start emailing and calling asking if we're “backed up” because nobody’s responding to tickets or emails. One guy even came down in person to ask why no one has reached out to him about the email he sent in.

When asked what was going on we just repeated what supervisor told us. "Focus on the phones since thats what matters."

A few days later, I saw the supervisor get called into a meeting with the boss. When she comes out, she’s clearly annoyed and sends out a message on teams saying:

“Please remember that all work types are important, not just phone calls.”

And just like that, the “performance tracking” policy quietly vanished. We’re back to doing all the work again, the same way we’ve been doing it successfully for years.

Edit: It seems a lot of people do not understand workflow. Before, if a ticket or email comes in, you take yourself off the phone queue to work it. But now, why am I going to take myself off the phone queue to work a ticket if it'll look like I'm doing no work?

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Tall-Charge-2094 on 2025-10-07 22:12:22+00:00.

I've been a longtime lurker in this sub and I've been debating for a while on whether or not to post this. I think enough time has passed that there should be no issues with it, but I will still refrain from talking about timeframes, people, and things like that. Sorry in advance if the writing isn't too great. This is actually my first story post I've ever done.

BACKGROUND:

I was deployed overseas for a year in a hot dry country in the middle east. This was a routine deployment with people generally saying that the worst part of the experience would be boredom and having nothing to do. That's how it was supposed to be for my section, but I would soon find out that things wouldn't work out that way.

If you're not familiar with how the structure is laid out, my platoon is part of a section, which is part of a company, which is part of a division. We had an OIC (Officer in Command) who was assigned to be in charge of our section. One thing to know about this guy is that he had a record of being an overachiever, and not in the best ways. OIC would pitch ideas about doing exercises and operations specifically because he wanted to have bullet points on his evaluation report at the end of the year. This led us to be constantly doing redundant stuff, but it's the military so that kind of stuff is expected.

The issue with OIC being so gung-ho about getting his bullet points, is that he would take everything to the extreme, and he genuinely did not know anything about how our equipment worked or what our jobs were. As an example of how frustrating this can be, he told us we needed to accomplish "Task A" and we have 2 weeks to do it. We told him "Sir, in order to do Task A we need at least 4 weeks with our current manpower and workload to accomplish that". OIC would blow us off and tell us that we need to find a way to do it in 2 weeks because he said so. Keep in mind, this man has no idea what it is we do and is blowing off all of the input that we are giving him. In the end, we did manage to accomplish Task A by pulling 24 hour rotations around the clock with an 18 hour workday for 3 weeks straight. Keep in mind that this is a BULLETPOINT for this man. There's no mission here, there's no lives on the line. This guy just wanted to pad his own resume.

When we told him that we physically could not meet the 2 week deadline for Task A he dressed us down and chewed us out saying "we were dragging ass" and "this is absolutely unacceptable". It was like this nonstop for the first 6 months of my deployment. We would be outside all day setting up our work site, accomplish whatever redundant task OIC would be making us do, we'd tear down the work site, then we'd move the worksite to the next spot and set up there. It was constant cycle of build up, tear down, move equipment, repeat. All while OIC would tell us how we're lazy and never did anything because we would go over whatever timeline he came up with. The worst part of all this is when it started getting into the hot season. It would be 120-130 degrees, and we would be in non airconditioned Humvees in full Kevlar kit moving equipment and pounding grounding stakes into the rock ground all day every day. There was multiple people including me who had heat related injuries from this experience. All of this is happening while our OIC is chewing us out nonstop from his air conditioned office.

THE VAN:

All of this was pretty shitty, but not unheard of when it comes to the military experience. However, this is where it starts to get juicy.

One day, there was a new task given to our section. This task was sent down by OIC himself. The task was "Clean our section assigned van. We all need to do our part".

As you read earlier in this post, we as a section had to use oven hot Humvees for all of the tasks we were given for the months leading up to this incident. Everyone in the section had the exact same reaction to this task. "WE'VE HAD A VAN THIS ENTIRE TIME????". Come to find out, OIC didn't want to walk the 1/2 mile to chow every day, so he secretly commandeered our section van with crisp cold AC so he wouldn't get sweaty in the desert heat on his way to the DFAC (Dining Facility). As you can guess, people were irate over this news. We have been having people drop from heat exhaustion and this guy has been using a van meant to be shared as a section as his own personal vehicle. The only reason it came to light is because someone much higher rank than himself needed to use the van to get to the airport. So OIC wanted us "plebians" to clean out the van that he kept to himself and made messy on his own. Because obviously "we all need to do our part".

CUE MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE:

I had a SGT in charge of me at the time who I will call SGT Zyzz (he was a bodybuilder and an amazing SGT). When he found out about the news he called a huddle for the platoon. He knew exactly how we all felt about the situation and made a few things clear. As the order needs to make its way down the chain of command, it needs to go through him to get to us. SGT Zyzz made it clear that he felt the situation was unethical and he refused to give us the order to clean the van. He said, "I will not be sending my troops to do a task that was given to us from an ivory tower". Instead, he and one other SGT will be doing the task themselves.

SGT Zyzz and the other SGT took the van to the PX on base. He then loaded up on Q-tips, trashbags, and cleaning product. He then went back to the bay and grabbed his (very loud) JBL speaker. SGT Zyzz then parked the van at the entrance of the Division command tent. This man BLASTED the army recruitment song at full volume while he and the other SGT cleaned the van out with Q-tips. There were many upper cadre who stopped by either on their way out or into the command tent wondering what the commotion was about. SGT Zyzz was more than happy to explain the situation. "OIC told us he wanted us to clean his van because "everyone needs to do their part!"" Noone told him to stop and after 4 hours of the army soundtrack, the van was pristine. He turned it back in, and we assumed that was the end of it all. It was a little funny and we all felt a massive morale boost after being punted into a corner this entire deployment.

AFTERMATH:

What ended up happening shocked a lot of us. The Division OIC (our OIC's boss) heard about some contention around an incident with a van outside of the Division command tent. Apparently, some of the high brass there thought it was rude and annoying to the people coming and going. There also were complaints that during this time, SGT Zyzz was wanted for his expertise in our field of work, but he wasn't available to help because he was cleaning the van. This caused him to want to look into what caused the entire debacle.

The DOIC (Division Officer in Command) held a townhall meeting. A townhall meeting is held by the division First SGT where anybody can bring up any issues or concerns they have without fear of repercussions. Normally this type of event is more administrative than anything else. "You guys are good?" "No First SGT, there's mold in our barracks and no hot water". Little things like that are what's normally talked about, and it generally takes about an hour to sort through it all and finish the meeting. This townhall meeting however, took FIVE HOURS. The first SGT was shocked at the revelations that came out of it. We talked about how we haven't had a real day off since we've been boots on the ground, how OIC hasn't been at site once this entire deployment, how we're being reprimanded for timelines that aren't possible, etc, etc, and of course, we talked about the van.

After the 5 hour long townhall meeting the First SGT was visibly enraged. He was very upset with how our OIC was handling things and even more upset that this was happening under his nose this entire time and he wasn't aware of any of it. He took everything he heard and brought it up to the DOIC and we were told that there would be action taken on our behalf to fix this.

Fast forward one week and we have not heard a peep from OIC. This would continue for the rest of deployment. OIC didn't give us a single task, job, or detail for the next 4 months. It was fair to assume he got quite the chewing out and the only reason he kept his position was due to there being no one to take his place. Every time we would see him, he looked like a sad puppy and you could tell his deployment was not going the greatest anymore.

Normally the tail end of deployment is one of the busiest times for my section. We have a ton of equipment that needs to be packed, organized, and inventoried. It's a pretty big workload, but after the amount of work we had to do for the first 6 months, those final months felt like a holiday. The timing for the relaxed workload came just in time for Space Marine 2 to come out. Those last 4 months were amazing.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Calm-Cheetah2991 on 2025-10-07 02:43:18+00:00.

My dad used to work as a technician at a manufacturing plant in the late ‘80s. He wasn’t a manager or anything fancy, just one of the guys who actually knew how things worked. The place ran smoothly because the crew knew all the little tricks that kept the machines alive long after they should’ve been replaced. Then a new supervisor showed up. Fresh degree, shiny clipboard, zero experience. He told everyone that the old way was inefficient and that from now on, they’d follow the manual to the letter. My dad tried to warn him that the manual was outdated and didn’t reflect the modifications they’d made to keep production running, but the supervisor insisted.

So my dad shrugged and said, Alright, boss. We’ll do it your way. The next morning, they started up the machine using the manual’s exact procedure. Within twenty minutes, the production line jammed, overheated, and shut down. The entire shift was stalled for hours. The supervisor panicked, calling maintenance, engineers, and anyone he could reach.

When my dad arrived, the supervisor demanded that he fix it immediately. My dad calmly pulled out the same dusty manual and asked, You sure you want me to follow this? The supervisor just glared at him. So Dad followed every step exactly as written. It didn’t work. He just stood there with the manual in hand, waiting. Eventually, the plant manager came in, took one look at the mess, and told the supervisor, Maybe next time, listen to the people who’ve been doing this for twenty years. After that, no one questioned my dad’s methods again. And the new supervisor started asking, not ordering.

Dad still laughs about it. He always says, Sometimes the best way to teach someone is to let them learn the hard way.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Reda_E on 2025-10-06 17:08:54+00:00.

Hello,

Sorry English isn't my first language so bear with me. I'm a mechanic at night for a fleet of municipal buses.

A lot of work gets done in the night since that's when the majority of the buses are out of service.

I used to finish my planned work orders then do more, as well as help the others.

I'm in no way a master mechanic but I know most of the problems and solutions for the buses in the fleet.

Anyway, I got called in some weeks ago, and told I should "stop cheating with your work time, stop helping people" if I don't stop helping others I'll get in trouble, I was also told to take no own initiatives, and that if I keep up there will be consequences...

I've in the past done more than I should've.

But now I've stopped helping the others when they want my help, I've also focused on just my planned stuff and then go home, and it is showing.

If something comes up, like someone asks me from the office before morning: I simple tell them: sorry I was told I'm in deep trouble, I'm not allowed to help or take own initiatives.

I'm on my way out of there so no issue for me.

One thing that is positive is that I'm feeling a lot more rested now, that I've stopped doing all the extra stuff.

I guess sometimes you do more than you should and no one really seems to appreciate it, better to do what you're payed for and no more.

Maybe I'll find another place where doing extra is not frowned upon.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Jobvent_throw on 2025-10-06 15:42:50+00:00.

I've been struggling with my mental health for many years. Up till a few months ago, I was still able to keep up at work even through extreme client pressure. Then I started begging for help because I was struggling a lot. They promised to move me to a different team with less pressure, but kept moving the goal posts, telling me that they couldn't find a replacement due to client requirements.

Early this morning they ambushed me with a meeting with our HR director to give me 2 options. Either I get fired after a disciplinary hearing, or go on disability. I've been begging for disability for months, so naturally I was really happy to go with option 2 as I have good income insurance through the company. Then the HR head bitch demanded that I get the doctor's paperwork done today. I'd already been in contact with the doctor and she couldn't get it done because she'd just returned from leave and had a huge backlog. The HR bitch demanded that I go to the doctor's office to get it done today.

I was feeling utterly malicious when I complied. Even though it meant a 2 hour drive with the distance and traffic. I got there and managed to chat to my doctor for 2 minutes in-between appointments and she requested permission to be rude to the HR bitch and I told her to go for it. I don't know what she said in that email, but the HR bitch was suddenly VERY reasonable. Now I have a full week to get the paperwork done.

I'm happy. The HR bitch is the wife of the CEO and the company is about to take a huge hit because the client has found alternatives. So its going to hugely hit their bank accounts. It gives me a very happy, fuzzy feeling. I gave YEARS of loyal service and they're going to get their karma very soon even if my malicious compliance is a drop in the bucket.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/casserole422 on 2025-10-05 15:48:10+00:00.

This was many years ago, so I apologize if some of the details are incorrect.

Twas was the year of our Lord 2006, my big sister had just started driving on her own. My parents did as most parents did at the time, they bought her the biggest pile of shit car that they could find. Relatively reliable, but it was a mid-80s gold Geo Metro. It was a beater, rusty, dented, and dinged, very ugly, and importantly for this story, one of the mirrors was duct taped on. One afternoon in the fading light she was driving to our local Pizza Hut to pick up her paycheck. On that fateful day, as the sun was going down, someone in a big black suburban type of vehicle backed into her front driver's side pretty hard. So hard in fact that the car was completely totaled. But luckily my sister was fine.

Both parties had insurance, they called the police to take an official report, and my parents started the hunt for a new car. Some time passes and they get a letter from the suburbans insurance agency asking for our insurance to cover the cost of the damage done to the suburban. The suburban driver was alleging that my sister had been speeding through the parking lot and was therefore at fault. This was news to them, they grilled my sister, who swore up down and sideways that she was not speeding, and actually that she was going much slower than normal because as the sun was setting it was hitting the windshield in such a way that made visibility difficult. After some digging they found in the police report the sheriff's deputy had noted that the mirror that was duct taped on fell straight down. So not only had my sister not been speeding, but she was very nearly or completely stopped at the time of the accident.

My parents insurance sent a letter back stating that my sister had not been at fault for this accident, and they were willing to accept the total they had paid for the car several months earlier, a paultry sum of $350. The lady who hit my sister responded back that she would not be paying for anything as she was very confident that she was not at fault, and told my parents that they would just have to take her to small claims court. My parents responded "bet" and did just that. In order to get all of the paperwork in line for small claims court they had to take this shitty little geo metro to an auto body shop and get an estimation for how much it would cost to replace the panels that this lady had totaled. Well, a car that old was difficult to find parts for, and so they were unable to find anything to replace the panels and the door. So they gave her a quote for how much it would be to repair those panels, as well as replace the tire and suspension bits that she messed up by backing into it. About $4,000.

Just before court they did attempt to go to mediation with her to attempt to get her to just pay the $350 that they had initially bought the car for. Unfortunately, or fortunately, she was still convinced that she was not at fault... Long story short, my parents were awarded the full four grand, as it was determined that the lady did not check behind her thoroughly enough before backing out of the parking spot.

And that's how my parents made three grand on a $300 car.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Alkuna on 2025-10-05 07:11:19+00:00.

This story of malicious compliance was shared with me by my grandfather many years ago, so some details may be lost, and I am not sure about all of the job titles. However, I will do my best to convey the main idea as I recall it.

My grandpa used to work for the railroad as a Signalman. His role was to ride on the back of the train and use a lantern to communicate through signals to the train driver at the front. At that time, trains were much shorter than they are today.

In modern times, safety regulations are written in blood and have good reasons behind them. My grandpa said that back in those days, safety protocols were still being developed, and those working on the trains had a better understanding of what was truly safe and effective, as opposed to what the rulebook suggested.

A bit more information: the mechanism that connects trains is called a 'coupling,' and the two parts come together, lock, and they're solidly connected. Now, to compare the situation to LEGOs, you don't just delicately set one LEGO on top of another and expect them to connect. You have to put these bits of plastic together firmly enough to get that Snap! noise. Train couplings are similar, only we're talking about metal carriages that are weighed in tons, not tiny plastic bits measured in grams. So instead of a Snap!, you need a good, proper Bang!

Onward to the actual story!

The train depot had recently hired a new manager (I'm not sure if they have an official title, so I'll just refer to him as a manager), who decided to be very By The Book. He very quickly became hated by everyone, because the rulebook of the time was written by someone more concerned with creating arbitrary rules rather than ensuring that things would actually work.

Grandpa grabbed his lanterns and jumped into the caboose at the end of a line of trains. The engine backed up along the track to prepare for coupling, and the manager came running out, yelling and waving his arms. The engine driver and the manager argued back and forth, and even Grandpa could see the engine driver's exasperated sigh from the back of a train. Malicious compliance was initiated!

The engine slowly backed along the track until the couplings came together in a gentle kiss (or as gentle as two multi-ton titans can kiss). The chain of trains didn't even shudder. The engine driver then moved forward, leaving the line of trains behind. The couplings touched, but there was no Bang! to signal their connection. Grandpa signaled that it didn't work.

The train stopped, then slowly and gently reversed again. Another kiss, but no coupling. Pulled forward, backed up, tried again. Kiss. No coupling. This repeated for fifteen minutes before the engine driver and the manager got into another argument.

Grandpa said he could guess the argument:

Engine Driver: "This isn't working, and we're wasting time! We need to get back on schedule!"

Manager: "Nope! Keep following the book exactly! No deviation. The book says this will work, so follow the book until it does!"

Fifteen more minutes passed of Kiss. No coupling. Pull forward, back up, try again. They had been at it for 30 minutes by now, and the train was officially behind schedule. However, the manager was still insisting that they MUST keep doing it by the book.

Finally, someone higher up (the Depot/Station Master?) came along, trying to find out why the engine was acting like the slowest pendulum in existence and why they had wasted half an hour. After getting the story from both the Engine Driver and Manager, Depot Master finally told the manager to shut his howling screamer and let the people who actually work on trains get the job done. This stupid process had gone on long enough, and it was painfully obvious that the book was wrong.

The manager crossed his arms and was steaming. The engine pulled forward a bit more than by the book. The whistle blew its warning call, and then came in reverse at a good clip. Obviously not at full ramming speed, but fast enough to get the job done.

Bang!

The line of trains shuddered gently, then the engine pulled forward. The trains were FINALLY coupled. Grandpa signaled "All good," and the train got underway.

Grandpa didn't get to hear the reaming, but the manager looked like a little boy getting the scolding of his life as the caboose passed him on its way out of the depot.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/se69xy on 2025-10-03 22:19:26+00:00.

This seems appropriate usage of a malicious compliance. I wonder how the city is going to respond. TLDR: Under the city’s new 485-x tax program, rental building projects that cross the 100-unit threshold trigger higher wage requirements for construction workers and stricter affordability rules (1). The result? Builders are trimming down their plans and capping projects at 99 apartments to dodge the extra costs.

https://moneywise.com/a/ch-synd/as-new-yorkers-debate-a-rent-freeze-developers-are-scaling-back-building-plans-to-99-units-heres-why-thats-a-problem-for-affordable-housing

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/DeathBerryRen on 2025-10-03 00:53:37+00:00.

I'll try to keep it short and sweet. No promises.

Obligatory long time lurker, first time poster.

At my current job (warehouse, no public interaction) we all have pallet jacks. Not personal ones, but each of us has "our own" pallet jack that we use on a day to day basis. For over a year and a half, "my" pallet jack has had a sticker with my nickname on it. Between my 3 other coworkers and myself we have an understanding and everyone uses the one that's "theirs". That being said, this has never been a problem and neither has the sticker on my pallet jack...... Until we hired a maintenance guy. We'll call him Dickhead or DH for short because that's what he is.

DH decided that stickers on pallet jacks or any of the heavy equipment (those had decepticon/autobot emblems that a previous employee put on) were tacky and unprofessional. DH then started to remove the stickers on the equipment any chance he got. One day I came in and the sticker with my nickname was ripped off my pallet jack. Ok, np. Just put another one on. DH ripped that one off too one day when I was away from my area. Same deal, new sticker.

A few days after my supervisor calls me into the office and goes off on me about how maintenance has complete discretion over the equipment and how it looks and that if DH takes off a sticker, it needed to stay off. As a consequence for putting another sticker on the jack, I needed to remove it and any other stickers on there. You got it boss.

So I removed them. Every. Single. One. Warning labels? Gone. Weight limits? Gone. Brand name? Gone. Then I convinced my co-workers to do the same. "Boss said no stickers on the equipment anymore."

My boss hasn't spoken to me in a week and I can live with that. Lol.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/sad_puppy_eyes on 2025-10-02 15:06:58+00:00.

I was grumbling about insurance companies in another thread, and led me to this memory....

My wife was driving in Toronto many (many) years ago. At an intersection, she waited at the red light, and then the advance "green left arrow" lit up and she started turning left. Other vehicles coming the opposite direction also had the same "green left arrow" for them to turn left. It's pretty standard stuff, everyone's been through those while driving.

Unfortunately, the driver coming straight the other direction wasn't paying attention. He saw the vehicle next to him start moving (turning left), so he did too (going straight), through the red light, and crashing into my wife.

So I call the insurance company. I'm thinking this is pretty straight forward; my wife was legally turning left, buddy ran a red light and hit her. Nay, nay, they tell me... my wife was turning left, so regardless of right of way, she's deemed equally at fault. She should have anticipated someone would run the red light and waited to make sure he was going to obey the law. I grumbled, but they stood firm. That ruling was horseshit, but it wasn't a fight I was going to win.

The damage was mostly cosmetic to the side of the car; $4k to repair, but the car was perfectly derivable and wasn't unsafe. It was also an older second vehicle we rarely drove anyways. So, instead of getting it repaired and watching my rates subsequently go up 100% for the next five years, we shrugged and told the insurance company that we wouldn't claim it and take care of it ourselves.

Fast forward nine months, and we're moving somewhat unexpectedly to another province. My insurance company doesn't have jurisdiction in that province, so I need to change companies. I do, and new company wants a copy of my clean history from old insurance company.

When I contact old insurance company, the female employee at the counter tells me that they can't give me a clean driving record because we *were* in an at-fault accident, so they will have to tell the new insurance company that. I give them my best "are you fricking kidding me" look. She refuses to budge. "Rules are rules, and it would be dishonest".

Rules are rules?

OK, I go home and I look up the company's rules. It seems that I have one year to process a claim. I come back an hour later, and smile at the nice lady. I tell her that if I'm going to get held liable for the accident on my record, I damn well might as well fix it. I'll have it fixed, get a rental car throughout, and basically run the repair bill as high as I legally can.. And then I'll send a notice to the company head office explaining what I did and why I did it, advising them that I admired your integrity (reading her nametag "Ms... Karen... Smith...") in not providing the letter, even though you cost your company over $5000 in unnecessary expenses.

I got a long pause. "Well, maybe we can find a work around". And ten minutes later, she ended up providing me a letter, stating that I had a "claims-free driving history" with the old insurance company. Not accident free, claims free. That satisfied the new insurance company, and life went on.

Man, insurance companies are the devil.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Leopold_tribute on 2025-10-02 09:25:15+00:00.

Hi all, your stories are so inspiring and I really think it is healing for me. So this is probably not a hugely malicious story, but I am a recovering people pleaser, so for me it is biig.

Context: In May of this year I fell ill and had to go to a clinic for exhaustion depression and burn out symptoms. Before that, I had been quite closed off and had isolated myself, which is a normal behaviour for my illness (I learned). This also meant I didn't check in with my friends or had to cancel plans last minute, because I would get panic attacks, if I went out. Of course I would make up stupid excuses, because I was ashamed of myself. A close friend had planned to leave to travel for six month in May and wanted to meet me before that. I made up something why I couldn't come, feeling guilty for not showing up for her. Because we are Swiss, she never said anything, but she also never said goodbye on the day she left, which I totally understood. A few weeks into my clinictreatment, I decided to write to her and appologise for my behaviour, explaining what my situation had been. She answered with asking me for book recommendations to read on her travels. She didn't ask how I was or acknowledged my appology, but I thought, well she might still be a bit angry or disappointed. So I gave her a few books to read and wished her all the best for her journey. Sadly, since then, my friend has never asked about how I have been or sent just a little hello. She was MIA for several month. I was a little disappointed, but I had also learned in therapy, that the aftermath of a breakdown can mean that you see who really are close friends and who aren't. I have been out of the clinic for a few weeks now, feeling soso much better and actually thriving. Today, I got a message from my friend, asking for more book recommendations. No 'hi, how are you? Do you feel better?' or anything, just 'hey, Google, get me some good books' (not literally, just the tone). It made me giggle, because it was so absurd, but then I thought, how do I react? Just giving her, what she wanted, seemed too 'people pleasy' and not reacting seemed to passive aggressive, because I'm not bothered, I just don't give a (insert here). So to FINALLY get to the point, I know she hates horror or even slightly uncanny stories. So I recommended her books, that are 'normal' at the surface and end with a twist, that makes you gasp or haunt you for ever. I know, it's not much, but I think, I'm on a good path, to not be a push over anymore. Plus, I am really interested, if she ever gets in touch with me again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Glittering_Law6321 on 2025-10-02 06:20:02+00:00.

At my last job, a VP sent out an edict: “From now on, copy every manager on all external communication. Transparency is key.”

We all thought it was ridiculousour clients hated long CC lists. But okay, compliance mode activated.

Next client request I handled? A 2-line email asking if an order shipped. I CC’d 15 managers plus the VP.

Within 10 minutes, my inbox exploded: Why am I on this email? Please remove me. “This doesn’t concern me.”

I replied-all: Per VP’s directive, all managers are to be copied on every external email. Let me know if policy changes.

The VP was buried in reply-alls for about a week before quietly amending the rule to “only copy the relevant manager.”

Malicious compliance achieved.