Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/octohippo on 2025-11-20 15:12:19+00:00.

The fallout just happened and this compliance seed was planted a couple weeks ago.

My boss likes to send tasks via email, but to a group of employees and tell us to figure it out as far as who will do what. To further complicate it, when someone does volunteer to do a task, he will then tell you to make sure it’s okay with the rest of the team.

This annoys me to no end because it is incredibly non confrontational, inefficient, and fosters a lazy working environment where one person does most of the work.

We get an inquiry to create a new training curriculum. Boss sends normal email to myself and another lead asks who wants to do it. I don’t reply because I don’t want to do it. Boss meets with me in-person and said he wanted me to do it and had me in mind when he sent the email. (Why didn’t he just assign it to me!?). But he does his typical, run it by the other employee first. You already know.

I send the email asking the other employee and make sure to cc boss on it. An important note, because of this dynamic, employees have learned to just not reply to any emails. Even if it is to approve of the coworker taking the task, for fear of somehow being roped into the task. Shockingly, the other employee does not respond.

My boss just left my office panicked because not only did this one not get done but now there is another order. I’m swamped because I have been volunteering for his other email tasks that could warrant their own post. He realizes he is too much of a coward to force his other employees to do it and is now having to work both orders on his own.

Friday Eve got a little better.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/kyle1234513 on 2025-11-18 10:50:03+00:00.

So i work in a science lab, and normally we write up our results for the day around 2pm when all of the testing is done, we leave at 3:30.

the bosses boss being mostly admin and managerial works 9-5

the bosses boss wants this report magically earlier in the day before were done with all of our testing, he walks into the lab holding one of the reports (this is paraphrased),"I need this earlier, you guys are always giving it to me after the days already over and I cant make any changes, I need to know whats going on sooner rather than later to make adjustments. 11 would be much better."

I try explaining the reports done at 2 because thats when all of the numbers are in, if I do it earlier it wont be complete. he says back what will be missing?.... (this and this, i point to the sections) he says oh those arent important, we dont make changes based on those. So I ask him to send me an email as a reminder to me, and to the rest of the lab as well so they can make this change. "will do"

He walks back down to his office and sends it. im floored.

So I ask my direct boss and she smiles too knowing what would happen.

For the full month we comply, but we leave 2 uninteresting numbers off the daily report every day simply because the numbers arent in yet, the testing hasnt been done, everyone in the lab is on board with this.

so the end of the month comes around and the boss is looking to print out his monthly compliance report and he has a big empty section for two pages. he cant figure it out. all of us have left by 3:30, and what should be a simple 5minute print and hole punch job he does at the end of every month he has to go find where 2 points of data are kept.

bosses boss was stuck staying late on the last day of the month to get the report in. my boss ignored his calls for a few hours but finally gave in around 7 to get back to him to tell him where he could find the numbers. (everything is labeled in the lab, he shouldve been able to resolve it himself) he was there till about 8 putting data in.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Careless-Cat3327 on 2025-11-17 21:58:45+00:00.

Update

The fallout - I saw a meeting invite pop into my calendar on Sunday night for Monday am with him & a senior HR manager.

I accepted & prepared everything.

I haven't dealt with her before but she was extremely neutral. She asked for both sides.

Her first question was why are we talking about 2 PTO days & not 2.5. So that was rectified.

Second one to my manager - "if you don't want him to take leave then accept the cash in option." He looked at her like she was the stupidest person alive.

Outcome -

1 of 2.5 days will be taken in December to extend my leave. I was given the option to take both but thought I'd rather continue with my early Fridays as it gives me more satisfaction.

0.25 days have been taken - last Friday.

The other 1.25 days can be taken as I choose - however I have to send a written email at least 24 hours before the time & have to use it before 31 December.

I immediately sent an email after the meeting thanking them both for their time, adding a summary & stating that I'll be utilizing the next 1.25 days over the next 4 Fridays & 1 Monday before I go on leave.

Original post

Firstly for context - I'm in corporate working 40 hours per week in the tech space. A few weeks ago, I was covering for my manager & a colleague & lo & behold (edit) an "urgent escalation" arrives on Friday at 2pm. I worked that evening until 8pm. I worked the entire Saturday & Sunday dealing with it. Some colleagues get that time back as "monetary" where I was told by HR to arrange with my manager on when I can have that time back. I asked for 2 extra leave days in December as it's quiet - 2 PTO for 2.5 extra days worked over a weekend I thought was fair. My manager told me "No I don't agree. Just end early every Friday until you go on leave. Put it in your calendar." So that's EXACTLY what I did. The annoying part is, there is an unwritten rule that meetings & work really ends at 2pm on Fridays unless it's a P1. But.. he needed me today as our CTO wanted to go over the proposal for our top strategic client. The proposal that I created and is sitting on my laptop. We had a meeting at 1 to go over it together. He cancelled last minute. But at 4pm he realized & he tried to call 4x & sent a message. I ignored every single one whilst playing with my son.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Quadrilaterally on 2025-11-13 19:07:29+00:00.

I don't make a peep, and I clean up after myself. I engage in friendly small-talk and acknowledge my roommates. They even asked me to move into a house with them and have said on multiple occasions, recently even, that they enjoy living with me. Now that I've brought up the dog urine and feces, my roommate Agnes (61 F) is "uncomfortable" because I always keep my headphones on. Her issue with me is that I don't talk to her enough. She calls it anti-social. I do take my headphones off when they have something to say. Personally, I can't stand that they keep multiple tv's playing from 6am to 3am, even when they leave the house, so noise-cancelling is my go-to. I also just prefer to listen to podcasts or videos when I do my cooking. Besides that, she's a very long-winded, unemployed and uninteresting shut-in. Maybe if she gave me space in the conversation, or asked me about myself, she'd be a better conversation partner. As it stands, I don't often have 15-30 minutes to talk to her. So, now, my music comes from my speakers. She pretty much instantly lost it, texting me "What are you trying to achieve here?" and comparing me to her three daughters. I turned the volume down, and she's still furious. Sorry bae, I'm allowed to listen to things at a reasonable hour. It's also not my responsibility to entertain you, as uncomfortable as that might make you feel.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Filthylittleferrent on 2025-11-11 15:11:41+00:00.

I saw the recent post about someones bullying teacher so after responding to that I decided to type up a bit of a more detailed version for the entire sub

So to start out with I'm going to tell you a little about my disabilities. I have Tourette syndrome and ADHD, it makes learning a bit hard, but I was homeschooled by a professional teacher growing up so I got the accommodations I needed no issue.

One thing I struggle with is writing by hand. I do not know why but it literally hurts. My mom used to say that the pencil was my biggest enemy in learning. My hand will cramp up hardcore if I start writing and I end up with larger and larger writing as I go. As far as I know I'm holding the pencil correctly, so I really don't know why. I also have a tendency of concentrating so hard on the act of writing I miss literally everything that wasn't on the projector, in fact I might miss entire slides as well because of my slow painful writing. So because of these reasons taking notes is a bit of a challenge, that's what accommodations are for though right?

So my learning accommodations for college were time and a half private testing (They actually always gave me double time God bless them), the ability to record lectures, and a notetaker. So in college I never had any issues, I was able to concentrate on the lesson because I'm more of a visual learner but also I got notes to study. It was great... until I hit american history.

The teacher was this smug Gods gift to teaching type of guy, to be fair he was born for it, he had the exact same name as a certain confederate general, and he was an amazing lecturer. He assigned me his TA as a notetaker and would take the notes and copy them for me after class.

After a couple weeks though he noticed I wasn't attempting to take notes he got upset. He claimed that the only possible way to learn was to take down notes, and if I didn't he'd refuse me any future notes. I was gobsmacked... I tried to explain that my learning style was different and that I needed to listen to him and pay attention to the board because otherwise I could miss a slide, or things that weren't on the board. I was an A student on the deans list every semester so that should have been enough, but nope, it wasn't.

So I told him id make a compromise, I never needed to record any other classes, but I'd bring in a tape recorder, he was happy with that and continued to give me the notes.

this is where the malicious compliance starts. I did bring in that tape recorder, but I never once listened to it. I'd let it run, and the tape would fill up in about three quarters of a class and I wouldn't turn it over. the following week I'd turn the microcassette over and record three quarters of the next lecture. Then I'd take the tape flip it over and record over week ones partial lecture. It was enough to get him off my back.

I really should have reported him, refusing to give me notes could have gotten him in serious trouble, due to violating my ADA rights, but I was a stupid kid. I told my disabilities councilor, but never escalated it because I came up with my simple malicious compliance.

I ended up overall enjoying the class, like I said, he was a great lecturer, just a shitty person for being ableist

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/danz409 on 2025-11-11 02:09:09+00:00.

it may be petty malicious compliance, but i enjoyed it, anyway. i work for a non emergency medical team, a driver at work pissed me off and... well. malicious compliance is a bitch. some background info is needed. this person likes to drive a specific truck. number 26. and use a VERY specific cot. "labeled to identify it" well. there truck is currently in the shop. i worked Saturday i got the schedule for todays runs (Monday). they where scheduled to be in truck number 29 due to there truck being in the shop. ok. so i move his cot and equipment into the truck. just a heads up. no other drivers require any special equipment. its ether manual, Berry or power cot as scheduled. so this asshat is already getting special attention by having his own assigned cot. the schedule for Tuesday rolls out and i noticed that 29 was assigned to another driver, and his truck is still not ready. so when he pulled in today i went to him and informed him what truck i'm moving his cot to for tomorrow, ideally 34, as its unassigned for tomorrows runs, he instantly started throwing a rage fit "Dont touch my shit dammit. i'm not using another truck. keep it in this truck" so... i did just that. 29 still contains his cot and his equipment. 29 leaves about an hour before he even shows up to work. it is assigned to be out on the road, with a manual cot... HIS manual cot... have fun!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/nimbusgranger on 2025-11-10 14:21:28+00:00.

I work in a call center for a mid sized airline partner. We help with schedule changes, vouchers, and the usual name typo panics. We have a legal disclosure script that must be read before we charge a card. It takes about one minute thirty if you breathe. Everyone reads it when money is involved and nobody reads it when a call is a wrong number or an internal transfer. Common sense, right

Last month we got a new supervisor who wanted to tighten quality. He sent a message that said agents must read the disclosure verbatim on every inbound contact. No exceptions. Someone asked if that included calls that were just being transferred to baggage. He replied with three words. Every. Single. Call. He then added that failure to read the full script would be a QA fail for the day.

The next morning I started my shift and complied. First call was a confused gentleman asking what time the desk at Tulsa closes. I greeted him, apologized for the wait time, and before answering read the entire payment and consent script. He tried to interrupt. I kept going because the rule said verbatim and unbroken. He hung up around the bit about data retention. I documented that the caller disconnected during required disclosure, then dialed baggage to provide the closing time for my own sanity.

Second call was an internal transfer from loyalty. The agent just wanted me to confirm if a voucher could be stacked with a promo. I asked them to hold for mandatory disclosure and read the whole thing into our corporate phone system while they listened in stunned silence. Their only response after the last sentence was a very small thanks followed by a click.

By lunch our queue had grown from eleven waiting to fifty four. The wallboard was yelling. The new supervisor came around asking why handle time had doubled. I showed him his message and my notes. I showed him three call recordings where the only content was me reading the script to a person who wanted the terminal number at Spokane. He told me to use discretion. I said the message said no exceptions and that QA would fail me if I skipped. He sighed and said he would clarify at the next huddle.

The clarification arrived as a bright green banner on our dashboard. Read the disclosure only when a payment is taken or a change incurs a fee. For informational calls and internal transfers use the short consent line. My handle time returned to normal. The queue cleared by end of day. QA sent an apology for the confusion and removed the fails for those who had followed the message too literally.

My favorite part was the end of shift stats. The team that complied the hardest had the worst numbers, including me. The note on the report now says agents were following the previous instruction. Every single call. Message updated.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Dramatic_Platypus_73 on 2025-11-09 16:09:57+00:00.

I do wedding photography in Galway. Freelance, been doing it maybe four years.

Booked this wedding back in March for October. Normal package, ceremony and reception coverage.

Week before the wedding the bride's mother emails me directly. Says she doesn't photograph well and doesn't want any candid shots of herself. Only posed photos where she's ready and knows I'm taking it.

I reply saying that's unusual but I can try to minimize candids of her. She responds no, absolutely zero candid shots. If she's in the background of other photos that's fine but no photos where she's the subject unless she's posed for it.

I confirm with the bride. Bride says yeah, her mom's really self-conscious about photos, just go with it.

Wedding day comes. I'm shooting the ceremony, reception, all the normal stuff.

Mother of the bride is heavily involved. She's helping with the dress, giving a speech, doing the mother-son dance, all of it.

Every time I see a good moment with her, I don't shoot it. She's adjusting the bride's veil and they're both tearing up? Can't shoot it, she's not posed. She's laughing during a speech? Nope. Emotional hug with her son? Not allowed.

I shoot everything else. Hundreds of photos. Beautiful shots of the couple, the venue, guests, details.

Two weeks later I deliver the gallery. Bride loves it initially.

Then calls me upset. Asks why there are almost no photos of her mother. Says her mom is barely in any of the shots despite being such a big part of the day.

I remind her of her mother's request. No candid shots.

Bride says she thought I'd still capture the important moments, just not like random unflattering ones.

I pull up the email. "Absolutely zero candid shots." That's what her mother said.

All the emotional moments, the helping with the dress, the tears, the hugs - those were all candids. I couldn't shoot them.

The only photos of her mother are a few posed family portraits where she's standing stiff and smiling at the camera.

Bride's mother is apparently upset now too. Says she didn't realize that meant I wouldn't photograph any of the "real moments."

I explain that real moments are candid by definition. You can't pose spontaneous emotion.

They want me to edit photos to include her mother somehow or give a partial refund.

I'm not doing either. I followed the instructions exactly as written.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Wall-Florist on 2025-11-09 14:03:24+00:00.

I own a teeny-weeny business and I recently switched to a new POS, and to be completely honest- it’s a piece of crap. I should have looked up reviews on Reddit, because website reviews are all positive, but apparently we hate it here. Transactions take about 15-20 seconds longer with all the extra buttons staff have to press, settings that aren’t changeable, and a website that likes to crash when I’m making inputs (AFTER I make the inputs, requiring me to start over multiple times). I also experienced a discrepancy in online ordering and lost hundreds of dollars in a day- I kind of need that as it’s raise season for my lovely team.

I called the owner and demanded he get to me ASAP, which he did. But he couldn’t fix the problem. Two hours into our “meeting” he brings me a new printer and tells me mine is broken- it isn’t. I call BS.

I then had a eureka moment and was able to fix the problem myself while he’s on the phone with tech support for 40 minutes- but it was a fix that the system didn’t take into account. I found a workaround. I taught him, he was thankful, and joked that I should be working for him (not him working for me? Funny).

So I asked to get out of my contract- this is underperforming and they already negated 10% of the savings I expected in the swap. I also mentioned I lost confidence in his leadership since I had to educate him on his own product. He still said no. I asked him why I am having these issues, and he says it’s because no other business owners in the area care this much- they have less optimized menus. Again, BS.

So, tomorrow I’m throwing the equipment in a closet. I pay a $70 rental fee, and they gave me approx 11k in (useless) products. They primarily depend on processing fees, so now you get none. Enjoy my $1680 in rental fees over two years while your spankin’ new tech bro equipment depreciates and rots in my office until it’s obsolete ✌️

I’m not the one.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/RegularWhiteShark on 2025-11-08 23:46:35+00:00.

So, during the 1970s, my dad worked for the Royal Mail (British postal service) as a postman. Like many men at the time, he had long hair (just below his shoulders). His managers had an issue with this and told him he needed to sort his hair out and tie it up if he wasn’t going to cut it.

Now, my dad is an arsehole, and it came in handy here. He went home that day and told my mum and she agreed to get up early to tie his hair for him before work.

The next day, he went into work with the most delightful pigtails, tied up with some lovely pink ribbons. My dad greeted his manager and said he’d tied his hair up, as requested, and then went off to do his round.

He wore his pigtails for a week until coming back with his hair down after a weekend off and never got shit for it again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/homsikpanda on 2025-11-08 18:03:31+00:00.

hey all, friendly neighborhood Trash-Panda here (the giant kind, not the bandit kind, it'll make sense in a minute).

backstory: i work as a sanitation engineer with a primary focus on residential communities (i'm a garbage collector for houses (see, it makes sense now)).

our collection is handled "automatically", our trucks have a hydraulic grabber that we control from inside the cab to grab carts and dump them into the truck, we generally do not need to get out of the truck, we're not manually lifting and tossing garbage, it's a pretty easy gig.

what most people don't realize is the RULES for garbage collection, there are A LOT of rules placed on homeowners/residents: what materials are acceptable, size limitations, if your garbage bin lid isn't fully closed, and a "big" one is bin placement. all bins need to be 1 meter away from, basically anything else, parked vehicles, other bins. this is to ensure ease of using the hydraulics to grab the bins, and also to prevent possible damage like scraping someones car or busting a headlight or something.

generally this isn't an issue in that, with a bit of practice you get good at grabbing bins even if they're parked right beside each other, or we'll just hop out of our truck, move the bin a little so it's easy to grab and then move it back. reasoning for this is 1: we're not Aholes, and it's just the nice neighborly thing to do since myself and most of my colleagues live in the same community we work and 2: it's actually A LOT of paperwork for us to fill out for violations, so it's significantly easier to just take the 30 seconds to move the bin then the 5 minutes to do all the paperwork to issue a violation ticket.

story: we service a community that does both garbage and recycle on the same day, 2 bins, 2 trucks, 2 drivers. most residents will put both bins side by side touching each other (a violation) so what we'll do is which ever truck gets to the location first will grab their bin, dump it then move it maybe a foot or 2 away from the other driver's bin so the second driver has an easier time grabbing it, it saves time for for us, and makes things run smoother. and we don't get complaints from people.... until we do.

a resident complained that we were "moving her bins" and word travelled to the higher ups myself and my colleague got disciplined, instructed to places bins back "exactly where we got them from" and then were monitored via our dash cams for a few weeks to ensure compliance and out supervisor would take a trip out to the specific resident who complained after our shift to ensure the bins were not moved.

not appreciated being discipled so severely because some fat cow had to take 2 extra steps to get one of her bins we complied to the letter with her request. unfortunately for her she had a habit of placing her bins side by side, which is a spacing violation. so for 2 MONTHS, every week we would get to her residence, bins are side by side, so we can't grab them due to not enough space, fill out paperwork for a violation and place the violation ticket on her bins, and not dump her bins, she finally got the hint after about 2 months and started spacing her bins 3 feet apart, and never complained about us moving her bins again. she also had to pay several small fees for extra pickup, since by the time she figured it out she had several bins full of garbage and regulations are 1 bin dump per resident, anything extra is a not insignificant fee per extra bag.

TLDR: woman complained that we moved her garbage bin while collecting her garbage despite us bending the rules to dump her garbage, so we followed rules to the letter and she lived in trash for 2 months.

-edit- fixed words

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Milli_Grande on 2025-11-08 02:21:15+00:00.

I've worked at this fast food place for almost 4 years. Every Christmas I request the week off to see my family and every year my boss says no because of seniority based scheduling. Is that even a thing? This year I'm literally the second longest employee after my boss. Everyone else quit or got fired lol. I put my request in back in AUGUST. Last week six employees who started THIS YEAR got Christmas week approved. When I asked about seniority my boss said they have young families and it's more complicated than time served and I should be a team player since I don't have kids. I looked up our policy. It says preference given to senior staff for holiday scheduling but there's zero definition of what senior means. So I made business cards that say Senior Gastronomy Officer and got a name tag with Sr. before my name. My manager approved it thinking it was part of my legal name. I've been signing all the staff group chat messages as Senior Team Member and introducing myself to new hires as the senior employee here. Boss got annoyed but what he going to do because I AM senior staff. I'm Rick James, fuck your couch right? I've been covering every single one of my boss's shifts for two months straight because the handbook says employees acting in senior management capacity get scheduling priority. Yesterday I resubmitted my Christmas request with a 12 page packet proving I'm the most senior employee by every possible metric. My boss looked like he wanted to throw it away but just walked away all pissy like and eventually, actually approved it. I guess I accidentally created a workplace hierarchy just by pretending hard enough.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Typical_Bar_9544 on 2025-11-07 11:21:37+00:00.

I live in a townhouse community outside Boise, Idaho. We have an HOA but it's usually pretty hands-off, like they deal with landscaping the common areas and that's about it.

Three months ago this guy Marcus moved in two doors down and immediately joined the HOA board. Not even like, waited to see how things work. Just straight in.

He's been sending violation notices for everything. My neighbor got one because her doormat was burgundy instead of brown or black (I didn't even know that was a rule). Another guy got cited because his car was parked 3 inches over his driveway line into the guest spot.

Two weeks ago I get a notice. My son left his skateboard on our front porch. Apparently "recreational equipment must be stored out of sight." It was there for like, maybe four hours? He'd just gotten home from school.

I asked Marcus if he could maybe just knock on doors for small stuff before sending official notices. He literally said "Rules are rules. If I make exceptions, where does it end?"

Fine.

I read the entire HOA covenant. All 47 pages that nobody's looked at since 2008.

Turns out there's rules nobody follows. Like: No security cameras visible from the street (Marcus has a Ring doorbell), No decorative flags except US flag on specific holidays (at least 8 houses have those seasonal garden flags), Garbage bins must be stored in garage, not visible from street (everyone keeps them on the side of their house), No vehicles with commercial signage can park overnight (the plumber three houses down has his company van)

So I started filing reports. Every single violation I saw. I spent like two hours walking around with my phone taking photos and filling out the online forms.

Submitted maybe thirty violations in one week.

The HOA president called me. She's this retired lady named Joan who's been doing this volunteer gig for like fifteen years. She sounded exhausted. Asked me what I was doing.

I said I was just making sure all violations get reported equally. Rules are rules, right?

She told me they've now got to send out all these notices because they're officially filed and it's a mess because half the board members are getting cited including Marcus and people are pissed.

Marcus came to my door yesterday. He didn't yell or anything, he just looked tired and asked if we could "find a reasonable middle ground going forward."

I said sure, that sounds good.

But now Joan keeps giving me these looks like I made her life harder and honestly I feel kind of bad about that part? She didn't do anything wrong.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/AnyTask6496 on 2025-11-07 04:46:28+00:00.

Had a toxic boss who had me be a workhorse, took credit for everything and would make underhanded threats, saying stuff like “feel free to look for another job” when asking about a raise 1.5y into my tenure. I was getting 75k as a software developer with no experience or degree which was ok at first but when my manager saw I was competent, the work piled fast.

It got so bad that one day I had to send a follow up meeting quoting stuff he said. I soon after got moved departments.

At this point I’m over it and the company and within 2 months, secure a new job for 135k + 10% yearly bonus doing the same exact thing.

When I left my toxic director said she was disappointed and the best feeling was responding “you’re entitled to your feelings but facts are facts” after taking a full 3 weeks pto (they don’t pay out) before quitting. Should’ve just gave me the measly 20% I originally wanted lol

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/PossiblyAPodcast on 2025-11-06 22:17:31+00:00.

Years ago I worked for H&R Block's Internal Tech Support. If Tax Preparers or Company Offices had issues, they called me. They may know taxes, but those beloved senior citizens know NOTHING about computers. Little did I know this day would be a special one.

I was lucky enough to take a call from a real peach of a lady who was both misinformed how computers worked and belligerently stubborn. She was in a hurry and demanded I reinstall her entire offices server because of some mild tech issues she was having. That's the equivalent of asking a mechanic to rebuild your cars engine to change the oil.

This lady was pushy, rude, and unusually cagey when asked for information. The worst part was I couldnt just hang up on her for that. It was weird but not out of the ordinary enough for me to cut her lose, so i dealt with it. She would frequently put me on hold as she was apparently roaming around looking for joy to crush. Long story short she used to be a franchise office, not a company owned office, so changing everything back to company software had some hiccups.

One of these times I had her on hold for some diagnostics, I overheard a coworker on another call. He was saying things like our records for an office, call history from a specific employee, and other very unusual things. He was on the phone with a district manager, a VERY big deal. All the sudden I hear him say "Sorry, I don't see anything that far back, it was a franchise office... Yeah, you would have to ask the owners name" The same owner I WAS ON THE PHONE WITH!

I immediately get my coworkers attention and tell him that I'm on the phone with the woman he is talking about, and he fills me in on the most insane story I'd heard on the job.

Turns out The Owner was LIVING IN THE OFFICE! The district manager was there to inspect the newly required office and make sure it was functional for the upcoming tax season, but the owner Refused to let them into certain rooms including the break room.

The DM really wanted to see what was going on in the break room, so we told her the insane coincidence that I was on the phone with the psycho owner and we coordinated a plan. I told her to go to the server room for some made up reason, while gone the DM pryed the door to the break room open.

Inside was a cot, clothes in a suitcase, food, dishes and even prescribed medicine in the fridge with the owners name on it. Oh, AND HER FREAKING CAT TOO!

Needless to say not long after the door was opened the Owner 'had to put me on hold again and I got the info from my coworker that she admitted to staying in the break room for a few days, but only because her home was infested with rats.

Now, keep in mind this whole time I've been yelled at, insulted, and forced to do unnecessary work by this goblin. And now I had my chance to strike back.

Once she got back on the phone I told her to go do a test on her end I knew would fail. When it did I said "That didn't work either? OH RATS!"

She audibly gasped, but managed to stammer out whatever demanded she had next. I had her go and try something else I knew wouldn't work.

Did that not work either? Oh Rats.

Her discomfort was obvious. She started to tell me something, I cut her off. "Oh, hold on let me juuuuust... Nope, not that either, RATS!"

This went on for the next minute or two. She finally told me she would call back when she had some more time to work on the issue (which I had fixed by now).

"I understand, it sounds like you have a lot going on at the moment. I just wish we could have solved it for you today...rats."

Quick Update:

I saw some dissatisfaction with the lack of a dramatic end. This happened almost 10 years ago so I can't say with enough confidence to include above, but if I recall correctly they backed out of buying her office back into the company. I remember looking her up a while after the incident and she was listed as a franchisee again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/SolarGlyphs on 2025-11-06 16:54:23+00:00.

I am on an internal tools team for a mid sized company. We do quick fixes and small features for other departments. Historically we tracked time in big chunks, one line per day, because work arrives like popcorn. New manager arrives from a consulting firm. He loves "visibility". He sends a long email with a shiny spreadsheet and announces the new policy. Every task must be logged as a separate line, in 15 minute increments, rounded up. Even if it took 3 minutes. Context switching should be captured for "true cost". No exceptions. He even bolded no exceptions twice.

I asked for clarity. If I answer an access request in 4 minutes, that is 15, right. If I get interrupted mid work to unblock someone for 2 minutes, that is another 15. He writes back, correct, this will show stakeholders the price of interruptions. Great, I thought, we will show them.

Day one with the policy, I kept a little kitchen timer next to the keyboard. Ping, finance needs a report column renamed, 6 minutes. Ticket line, 0.25 hours. Ping, Sales wants a spreadsheet exported, 9 minutes. Ticket line, 0.25 hours. Ping, two separate Slack pings that were technically different tickets, 2 minutes and 5 minutes. Two lines, 0.25 and 0.25. Before lunch I had 14 lines totaling 3.5 hours, despite having worked about 90 minutes. I felt like a petty librarian with a stamp, but also strangely calm. I was doing exactly as asked.

By Friday I had 73 lines. The totals said I worked 58 hours. My badge times said 39. Manager was thrilled. He forwarded my sheet to leadership with a note about "revealed operational load". Then finance noticed that our internal chargeback model pulls from those sheets. Facilities got billed 11.25 hours from me alone for door badge resets that week. Sales got 13.5 hours for CSV pulls. HR got 7.5 for password unlocks. That is only me. We are a team of eight.

Monday 9.12 am I get an invite titled Urgent timekeeping sync. In the room, Finance director, my manager, and two department heads who looked like they had slept under a printer. Director opens with, help me understand how a 90 second CSV costs 15 minutes. I said it is the policy, rounded up, no exceptions. I pulled up the email and the bold line, because I am a helpful coworker. Silence that tasted like a lemon.

Fallout came fast. Finance put an immediate hold on chargebacks from our team. My manager had to write a "temporary suspension of the 15 minute rounding rule" and propose a new plan. The new plan is honestly great. We now reserve 2 hour focus blocks in the calendar where pings are triaged by a rotation. Anything truly urgent goes to the on call person. Everything else becomes a sane queue. Time is logged in half day buckets, with one note of what moved.

My favorite part is a tiny line in the memo, interruptions have a real cost and will be batched where possible. The policy did exactly what he said he wanted, just not the way he hoped. I still keep the kitchen timer on my desk as a paperweight and a reminder to be careful what you standardize.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/iwantshortnick on 2025-11-05 22:13:24+00:00.

My first post here, not sure if it better fits here or at r/pettyrevenge but anyways.

Some years ago I worked at bank office (not in the US). I was mediocre at sales, but good at service and processes, conditions, pricings etc, so I was put at administrator position (not a manager one). My job was to meet incoming clients and help them to solve their problem by helping them with the ATM or mobile app, or by navigating them to the right specialist via electronic queue, etc.

So there was this woman, let's call her CUSTOMER, she came to the office and asked for money withdrawal. I recommended her to use ATM and she told me she already used it, but can withdraw more due to daily limit.

I asked how much she want to withdraw (it was 600 000 of our local currency) and replied that due to bank policy to withdraw that amount of money via cashier she need to order it in 5 days (for safety reasons) and only amount we can give her today is 150 000 without fee and 300 000 more with 2,5% fee, but she can use ATM tomorrow and withdraw all needed amount with no fees, because daily limit will refresh.

She wasn't happy, and I can understand this, but then she started being rude and unreasonable.

CUSTOMER: I need to talk with more experienced employee, what do you mean I can't withdraw my money, it's a bank.

Me: they will tell you the same, it's a bank policy, fastest and cheapest way for you to withdraw needed amount is to use ATM next day, technically after midnight, if it's somehow urgent.

CUSTOMER: No. I don't want to talk with you, you are some newbie, just give me queue number and I'll talk with proper bank worker.

Now worth noting that I was most experienced employee in the office in terms of operational work, including manager, so I giggled inside, but that was her clear will, so I gave her number and moved on.

Twenty minutes later (yeah, it was busy evening) her number was called to desk and she started asking same questions from a new girl (worked around 1 month at this point). Let's name this girl Eve. She wasn't familiar enough with everything, so she started casual identification procedure, by checking client ID in the UV, searching for client profile in database, sending her SMS-code to approve entering profile etc, so around 5 minutes more were gone.

Then Eve asked what operation lady want to do and lady repeated her question. Eve tried to start withdrawal and noticed she can't make more than 450 000 and there is fee. And what do you think? She called me to help. I walked around the desk and asked Eve what happened.

Eve: Look, CUSTOMER want to withdraw 600 000 and I can't type more than 450 000 and there is fee.

Me: I'm sorry, I can't help here, client insisted to have more experienced employee to answer his questions. And left back to my work place.

After that there was some banter between CUSTOMER and poor Eve, trying to explain same stuff while I typed everything to her in work chat. Then she gave up and offered CUSTOMER to talk with manager, if she's unhappy. She waited 20 more minutes for manager and heard same info I told her 50 minutes ago and Eve repeated 20 minutes ago: today she can have 150k for free and 300k more with fees, after midnight she can have 600k with no fees via ATM, and in case of big withdrawals in future she need to order cash in advance.

CUSTOMER left furiously not looking at me.

TLDR: bank customer wasn't happy with my consultation, telling me I'm nobody, and then lost 50 minutes to hear the same answer twice

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/knitpatternsue on 2025-11-04 15:13:41+00:00.

I run a tiny facilities team for a public theater. We fix seats, change bulbs, unjam doors, the unglam stuff that keeps shows on time. New procurement head arrives and sends a sunny email, from now on all purchases must use the approved catalog and include the exact SKU, no exceptions, tickets without SKUs will be closed. Before this, we just walked to the vendor 2 blocks away and bought screws and odd brackets on a store card, fast and cheap. I wrote back, hey, a lot of what we buy is weird one off hardware, the catalog doesnt have 5mm furniture t nuts or the antique hinge pins our balcony uses. He replied with a quote, “process creates freedom.”

So I complied. First week a seat arm fails in Row G before a matinee. Used to be a 10 minute jog to grab a 6 mm insert and a matching bolt. Now I open the catalog, search inserts. Only option is “generic wall anchor, assorted.” Policy says exact SKU. I create a request to add our part to the catalog like the handbook allows. The form wants dimensions, supplier, HS code, photo on white background. I take a picture on printer paper with my phone, upload, ticket goes to pending. I print “Seat G12 closed for maintenance” and go tell front of house, sorry. Audience sits around a little hole that looks like a bite mark.

By Thursday my queue is comedy. A door closer needs a tiny screw, but the catalog has a single line item, “door screw kit assorted 1 lb.” Not allowed, not exact. I submit a new item, “Machine screw M5 x 12 zinc pan head, bag of 25,” attach a glamour shot of a screw next to a quarter. Then a hinge wants a pin, then a seat wants a special washer, then my cart wants coffee because now everything is a photo shoot. Each request gets routed to Procurement Review which meets on Tuesdays. The backlog grows, our open tickets grow, and my radio becomes a museum of me saying “waiting on SKU approval” in different tones.

Week two procurement writes me, why are maintenance KPIs red. I send a tidy spreadsheet, 41 catalog additions pending, 0 approvals, policy quote highlighted. Also a note that the show on Saturday had 7 blocked seats because I can’t buy 2 dollars of hardware without a SKU. They escalate. Week three the executive director tries to sit in G12, finds the little “sorry” sign, and asks why his own theater looks like a toothless grin. I forward the same sunny email with “no exceptions” and a photo of my best screw still life.

Fallout, on Monday we got a new line in the catalog called “Field Urgent Non-Catalog” with a 150 dollar weekly limit and a requirement to upload a receipt after. I stapled that policy to the wall and walked to the vendor like a free man. We added back 23 seats in one afternoon with 9 dollars of parts. Procurement head now waves at me when I bring in receipts. I wave back with hands that smell like actual work, not printer paper.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Tubist61 on 2025-11-04 11:51:52+00:00.

One of the degree modules I teach involves students working on a group programming project. Nothing too elaborate, but the aim of the module is to develop skills they will need if they go on to work in the IT field. After all if you're doing a Computer Science degree, you must be thinking of going down that route?

This one student is an absolute entitled nightmare. He uses GenAI for a lot of his work and it really does show. He always pushed back on the written remarks on his work but every time I sit him down and ask him to explain the code he produces, he struggles and often has no idea how the code he submitted works. In this project he came up and told me he cannot work with others in the group and must work alone. I explained that there are specific group activities and efforts I would be marking and that I needed to see his input within the group. There was no way I could excuse him from the group activities in the module, however I could see he was not going to budge and therefore complied with his demand to work on the project alone.

All the students in my class had been assigned to their groups and I did check in with all of them on a weekly basis. This one guy was steadfastly refusing to work with the rest of his group and as I had complied with his request, he was working on his own project alone. In my interim feedback at the end of each stage I repeated that he really should work with the group or he risked a failing mark for the module. I made sure this feedback was sent to him both in hardcopy and also via email with read receipts which I kept.

Cue the end of the module and the submission for marking. Sure enough, the one student submitted a project based just on his own work and had not engaged with the group he was asked to work with. There were several issues with his project, first and most important was it didn't meet the brief. The code simply didn't do what we asked for. He lost marks for that aspect of the project. As he had not worked with others in the group, he was not awarded any of the group marks allocated for the work. Because his code was so far away from the specification, I called him in for a Viva Voce to explain the code and he demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of the code he submitted, more marks dropped. His eventual mark for this assignment was a hard fail. He must now resit the entire module.

There is of course one real downside of this whole thing that affects me. I've got him in my group again for the resit of the module.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Kulbardee on 2025-11-04 01:13:35+00:00.

Not malicious i guess...just compliance.

Been parking my van that needs regular restocking in the loading zone in our private car park. We get maybe 2 outside deliveries of a couple of small boxes a week. HR comes from head office... "nope cant park there...only to be used while loading".

Van moved, next day staff member trips over the concrete wheel block thing in the zone...breaks arm... first workplace injury in 5 years

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Agreeable_Hair1053 on 2025-11-03 15:56:18+00:00.

I work at a battery place and one night had a customer come in and literally throw a power tool complete with charger and dead battery at me. “It’s broken, I want you to fix it” We don’t fix power tools here Miss, but I’ll look at it. Determined it just needed a new battery. “Needs a new battery, I can look one up for you” After some back and forth with the lady questioning my intelligence more that a few times, I found a replacement in our system for said power tools. Battery cost about 200 bucks thru us with double the capacity of the one she brought in. She wanted this tool to work so badly, so I ordered it and she paid for it. Two weeks later it came in. She picked it up again and then proceeded to question the whole store’s intelligence. I also informed her that we have a no return policy on lithium batteries that we ordered. Just as she was leaving out the front door, I mentioned slightly loudly to a co-worker, “Had she treated us with respect and was nice two weeks ago, I would have sent her to Home Depot, where the exact one she brought in was $50 dollars” Screw you Karen.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/sobegod00 on 2025-11-03 14:34:12+00:00.

While scrolling a electronic chainstore website, I find an item I have been wanting at 40% off. Upon seeing it available at my local store, I figured im going out anyway, I'll just get it in person. Upon reaching said store, I found my item but to my annoyance, its showing full price! I inquire with a floor goblin about my conundrum & was informed that price is online only & they cannot price match there own prices. Ok, gimme a minute.

I pull out my phone, go to the store app & find my deeply discounted item. Add to cart, select the pickup in store & hit complete purchase. While walking around looking at other various items, the same floor goblin walked past me with one of those handheld scanners toward where my item resides. He scans it & as he turns around, spots me leaving the next aisle. He looks at the item in his hand, signs & says "This is probably yours right? I smile, nod politely & follow him to the service counter. He hands it to the girl at the counter who happens to be a assistant manager. She acknowledged my prompt item retreaval & I told her the backstory. She has a good laugh, gives me kudos & to have a great afternoon.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Any_Effective8727 on 2025-11-03 09:30:17+00:00.

Work as a lab technician at a hospital in Milwaukee. Been there about nine months.

My supervisor Derek is one of those guys who panics about everything. Two weeks ago state inspectors came through and he completely spiraled. Started implementing all these new "protocols" that are technically in our safety manual but nobody actually follows because they're outdated from like 1997.

Friday morning he sends this department-wide email in all caps about how we're doing EVERYTHING by the book from now on, zero shortcuts, he doesn't care if it takes longer. Anyone caught skipping steps gets written up.

Thing is. Our equipment sterilization protocol in the official manual requires 8 hours of UV exposure between uses.

We have six pieces of equipment. We run maybe 40 tests a day across all of them.

You see the problem.

Monday morning I start the UV cycle on the first machine I use. Derek walks by later and asks why I'm not running samples. I show him the manual, show him his email, explain the math. If we actually follow protocol we can run maybe 3 tests total per day as a department.

His face went through like five different emotions. Tries to say "you know that's not what I meant" and I'm like but you said everything by the book, zero shortcuts, remember?

He had to call the department head. They had to get someone from compliance on the phone. Turns out that protocol was supposed to be updated in 2015 and just... wasn't. Nobody noticed because nobody followed it.

We shut down non-emergency testing for the entire day while they pushed through an emergency protocol update. Derek won't make eye contact with me now.

My coworker Amanda bought me coffee this morning though so that was cool.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/pyreforge on 2025-11-03 08:44:25+00:00.

Company sends a shiny HR email, subject line all caps, USE IT OR LOSE IT. We had to burn our remaining PTO by the 30th or it evaporates into the sun. Same day, my manager announces in standup that due to quarter end “no one can take time off until the 1st.” I asked how to reconcile that, he shrugs and says talk to HR. HR says talk to your manager. Cute loop. So I opened the handbook, because I am a petty librarian when annoyed. Page 14 has this little sentence I never noticed. “PTO requests not explicitly denied in writing within 48 business hours are considered approved.” There is also a note that partial day PTO is allowed in 1 hour blocks. Thank you, legal team.

I submitted ten separate requests. Two hours every morning next week, two hours every afternoon the week after, a random Friday 3 to 5 to watch a plumber, and one full day to visit my mom. I sent the requests in our HR portal, which auto emails the manager and CCs a shared mailbox nobody watches. Then I went back to my tasks and set reminders. Forty eight business hours pass. No denial. The portal changes each request to approved, green checkmark, confetti gif. Monday comes and at 9.58 I put a cheerful note in the team chat. “Heading out, see you at noon.” Manager pings me to hop on a client call, I reply with a screenshot of the policy and the portal approval. Silence. Then three dots typing, then nothing.

By Wednesday our calendar looked like cheese. Half the team remembered they also had PTO sitting around and started filing it in little blocks. Meetings kept colliding with green bars. Finance realized that if we did not use the days now, they would be paid out at separation later, which they hate. HR wrote a new post saying we should “coordinate” but that approvals already granted stand. My manager called a huddle to ask why productivity dipped. I said we are following HR’s instruction to use PTO. He said he meant in November. I sent him the original email timestamped this month. He sighed and said he never thought anyone would actually read the handbook. I used every hour, took my mom to lunch, and my plumber fixed the cursed sink at 3.40 while I drank tea. Next week a new policy appeared. PTO must be requested in full day increments during quarter end, and managers must respond in 24 hours. Thanks for clarifying, truly.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Verden_Leafglow on 2025-11-03 08:25:41+00:00.

On Sundays, my family typically goes to church in town about 45 minutes away from where we live. I'm an Atheist myself, but with four children I opt to be around to help my wife out so she isn't overwhelmed, and I'll admit this church is pretty special - a decent community that has a meal every week: something rare from what I've seen (families or groups take turns doing the meal for everyone each week). It's nice to sit down and talk to people after the service over an actual meal instead of just leaving or having a coffee and a sugar cookie, and then leaving.

Once it seems like things are mostly under control (my children are settled, or in the play room, or whatever), when I've had enough of the service I'll typically go for a walk, usually ending in the kitchen and dining area (where the coffee and sugar cookies from the previous service are located).

Now having been to this church for a while, there's a peculiar thing I've noticed both at the after-service meals and a number of the more "formal" meals - very often, there are no pitchers of water to be found anywhere. Honestly, it's really weird. At some point - I don't know exactly when - I had had enough of visiting the kitchen sink to get water in my glass, or asking someone for water, that I ended up using this "walk" time to just put out the pitchers myself while the service is going on. I'll fill up about 5 pitchers of water, and also put out the glasses, bowls, plates, cutlery, and coffee cups. (No, I don't want to be a volunteer. And I'm not committing to anything. I'm not signing anything! Leave me alone!!!) I do this whenever I'm there at this point and just make it part of my routine, and I'm quite happy with it.

So a number of weeks ago I was at home with my wife and we were discussing what was in our kitchen cupboards and wanting to make more room as things were a little tight. Attention gravitated to our teacups. We both readily agreed that we had too many of them and could do away with some. We did not agree on which ones to do away with. My wife wanted to get rid of certain ones I liked that didn't match or were ugly or whatever, and said that we can probably just donate them somewhere instead of throwing them out.

I paused, thought about it, didn't argue. Okay, let's donate them, all the ones you don't like.

As it happens, since I'm the guy who is putting out all the meal items, like teacups, I knew that the church had somewhat of a shortage of teacups and coffee cups that usually forced us to use a backup of paper cups to cover the need. Also, most of the cups there were too small. So one week when we were going to church, I quietly packed the box of tea cups into our van.

When my routine resumed as usual in the kitchen, I took out our teacups and placed them with the church's teacups - but not just that, I made sure ours were at the FRONT of the group of cups, where they are easy to see, every week. I have not mentioned to anyone where the cups came from.

My wife hasn't either.

We're still married.