Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Zodiac72826 on 2025-04-03 19:59:15+00:00.

This is probably super mild compared to most things posted here, but I just remembered it and it made me laugh so here goes.

When I was in high school, far longer ago than I care to admit, I was a bagger at a local grocery store. One of the policies of the store was that we had to offer to help everyone take their groceries out to their car. Anytime someone elderly, or someone with a lot of bags, came through the line, I would offer to help, and many of them accepted. There were a lot of parents with kids that turned down the help because they would make their clones help instead. I quickly learned who was going to accept the offer and who wasn't, so if they fit the criteria for not being interested in help, I didn't bother to ask. They always refused, so why keep asking?

Well, one day my manager is hovering while I'm bagging, and a lady bought a carton of eggs and a loaf of bread. I smiled and wished her a nice day, handing her the single, featherweight bag, and she smiled and returned the greeting, and was on her way. My manager noticed I didn't offer to help her out and scolded me, and I just pointed out she had one partially filled bag that was super light, so probably wouldn't have needed help. He emphasized it was the store policy and I need to offer help to EVERYONE.

The next guy in the line was definitely a gym rat. A foot taller than me, biceps as big as my head, a tight tank top and basketball shorts. It's been so long I can't remember what he bought but it occupied a single bag, and wasn't heavy. I double bagged it, still in front of my hovering manager, and said "Sir would you like me to help you carry all of your groceries out to your car?"

He laughed, saw I wasn't also laughing, and his expression changed to utter confusion. He looked at me like I'd just asked him what shampoo he used on his armpit hair. It was 95% confusion, 5% suspicion at what game I could be playing with him. He looked at my manager with a new look that said "Is this kid okay?" then turned back to me, still chuckling a little bit in confusion, and said "Uhh, nah man I think I got it...." He took his bag of protein powder and eggs or whatever it actually was and walked out, shaking his head.

I looked at my manager and shrugged. His expression read as "Yeah, alright, fine." And he went back to the office. He never hovered or enforced the policy again after that.

Like I said, super mild and short compared to a lot of posts on here but it was my first case of malicious compliance so hopefully you guys got a laugh out of it as well.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/thefarzin on 2025-04-03 10:51:27+00:00.

my friend idris recently shared this wild story from his first job, and i’m still shook.

idris was 17 when he started at this grimy call center. back home, he’s got a whole crew of geese in his yard—he’s obsessed with them, treats them like pets, and has a favorite named blinchik (russian for “pancake”). he brought a little wallet-sized photo of blinchik to work, just to keep his spirits up in that depressing dump. but his boss, dave, saw it and flipped out. dave had this hardcore rule: “no personal items on your desk. it’s about professionalism.” meanwhile, his own desk was a trash heap—old mugs, random figurines, even some rusty fish statue. idris says dave had these weird ticks: he’d go from passive-aggressive whispers to fake-nice vibes in a heartbeat. total oddball.

anyway, dave clocked the goose photo and went nuclear. he made idris rip it to shreds in front of everyone, muttering about “rule-breaking.” idris, just a 17-year-old kid, froze—he had no clue how to stand up for himself back then and just did it. he says he almost cried but held it together so he wouldn’t look weak in front of the team. blinchik’s photo was toast, and dave smirked like he’d just won something.

idris wasn’t letting it slide. dave want me to obey? I’ll maliciously comply with him. next day, he rolled in with nothing—no pen, no notepad, no headset. when dave asked what the deal was, idris hit him with, “you said no personal items. i’m waiting for the company to hook me up.” dave lost it, but idris doubled down: “it’s your rule.” the team jumped in—half of them stopped bringing their stuff too, and the whole operation tanked. customers were raging on the phones, calls were dropping, and dave was scrambling to make everyone “work normal.” eventually, he caved and mumbled, “fine, bring what you need, just keep it lowkey.” idris came back with a fresh blinchik photo and slapped it on his desk. dave didn’t say squat.

but it gets crazier. a couple weeks later, dave tried to fire idris for “insubordination.” idris, now sharper, had recorded the whole “no personal items” freakout on his phone (legal where we’re at) and sent it to hr with a rundown of dave’s hypocrisy. hr didn’t axe dave, but they gave him a slap on the wrist, and he chilled out. then the real bomb hit. turns out dave had been skimming cash from the petty cash box for years—small grabs, but steady. idris says he cooked up the rule obsession to keep everyone stressed and off his trail. he’d snag money from the drawer—supposedly for coffee, paper, office junk—and mark it as “office needs.” it added up to a hefty chunk, though no one’s dropped an exact number. his weird mix of passive-aggressive jabs and over-the-top strictness kept newbies like idris too spooked to dig deeper. that photo meltdown? idris figures dave was just flexing to throw everyone off his scent.

dave got busted when a senior coworker noticed the “office expenses” weren’t lining up. they canned him, and later even filed charges. idris says he’s still stoked about how he accidentally took down a crook by playing dave’s own dumb game. blinchik’s still chilling in his yard with the rest of the geese, honking at anyone who steps too close. so, reddit, what’s the call? is idris the king of payback

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Arraxis_Denacia on 2025-04-03 00:19:20+00:00.

Thought I'd share a minor one that I was the victim of. At the time I was working in the second hand goods trade. When people bought items from us valued over a certain amount, the system would require us to take down the name and address of people, though it didn't have to be formal presentation of ID. Some people really didn't like it when we asked for their details, even if I told them that they could just make it up due to the informal nature of it.

An older gentleman, who I'll call Bob, came in and wanted to buy a couple of coins. Individually they were under the amount but together they exceeded it, so I asked for his details.

Bob: What do you need my name for? Me: Store policy. Transactions over a certain amount require me to take your name and address as we're a second hand dealer. Bob: What's the amount? Me: tells him Bob: So I'll just buy them individually them.

I wasn't about to try and start an argument about it, so I just proceeded with the individual transactions. A little annoying, yes, but he was technically correct.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/snickerdoodlesrule on 2025-04-02 10:47:10+00:00.

Okay, I’m new to the page! I want to hear all of your stories or moments of malicious compliance in marriage.

Mine is when I asked my husband to move money from another shared bank account to our checking for bills. You guessed it, he didn’t move the money. This was the 3rd time that he “forgot about it” and I was tired of asking. I watched our checking account go into the negatives/ with overdraft fees. I confronted him and he said that I didn’t tell him which account, but we only have one main account for both of us to pay bills from. The account is connected to our debit cards!

The next day he went for lunch at chipotle. As he was checking out he realized that he didn’t have cash or money on his debit card. He called me at least 5 times asking me to transfer money, since I was near the bank that day. I did transfer money, but not to the account with the debit card, because he didn’t say which account 😉

We haven’t had any problems with him transferring money, since.

Edit: We share all of our bank accounts. I crunch the numbers and can’t always be responsible for budgeting and going to the bank/ doing transfers!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Nomadness on 2025-04-01 07:07:43+00:00.

45 years ago, I spent a few months as a software engineer for a Midwest company that built industrial control systems... writing assembler for an embedded micro.

Management had gone to a seminar on "structured design," the latest software trend, and got religion. My manager, Jerry, called me into his office and asked to see my work. He was not a programmer, but sure... whatever... here you go. I handed him my listing, about a half inch thick, and forgot all about it.

A few days later, he called me into his office (which always reeked of cigarette smoke). "You've got some work to do!" he snapped, furious. I looked down at his desk and my 8085 macro assembler listing was heavily annotated in red pencil... with every JUMP instruction circled. "This is now a go-to-less shop. You've got to get these out of here."

"Jerry, this is assembler code... that's different from a high-level language."

"I don't want a bunch of God-damn excuses! You have two weeks."

Well, shoot. This is ridiculous. I stared at the code for a while, then got a flash of inspiration and set to work.

Every place there was a jump, conditional or unconditional, I put the target address into the HL register, did an SPHL to copy it to the stack pointer, then did a RETURN followed by a form feed and a "title block" describing the new "module." The flow of control was absolutely unchanged, although with a few extra instructions it was marginally slower. The machine was controlling giant industrial batching equipment, so that wouldn't matter.

I dropped the listing, now almost two inches thick, onto Jerry's desk, and went home. He would either spot the joke and respond with anger, or (hopefully) be convinced that I had magically converted the program into a proper structured design application. Some of those title blocks were pretty fanciful...

He bought it! Suddenly I was an expert software engineer versed in Yourdon and Constantine principles, and the application made it into distribution. Around the same time, I quit to work full-time on my engineering textbook and other fun projects, and forgot all about it...

...until about 3 years later, when I was pedaling across the United States on a computerized recumbent bicycle. I got a message from a new employee of the company who was charged with maintenance of the legacy system, and he was trying to make sense of my listing.

I called him back from a pay phone in Texas. He sounded bewildered. "Did you write this? What are you, I mean, you know, I don't understand... like, what are you actually DOING here?"

"Ah! There's only one thing you have to know," I said, then went on to relate the tale of Jerry and the structured design hack. By the end he was practically rolling on the floor, and told me they had long since fired that guy. He now shared my secret about virtual software modules, and promised not to tell...

But it's been almost a half a century so I guess it's okay now.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Designer_Coach_4890 on 2025-04-01 08:24:20+00:00.

This happened in the 90’s when no one had caller ID.

My friend Jenny (f about 35) was a SAHM and her husband Walter (m about 40) worked long hours commuting by train to the big city.

Walter owned a BMW and dropped it off for service early morning at the dealership that was close to his train station. The dealership gave him a ride to the station.

That evening Walter picked up the car and returned home. No problem - right?

The nightmare began days later. The first call came from whatever marketing company BMW had hired to conduct their surveys. Jenny answered but they wouldn’t accept her feedback wanting only to speak to Walter. Jenny requested they call back in the evening to speak with him.

That night when they called Walter was tired and didn’t want to deal with it so he asked Jenny to tell them he wasn’t going to respond. They replied that they would call again at another time.

The phone calls came multiple times a week for over a month asking to speak with Walter but he refused to answer. Jenny begged first the marketing company to stop calling and then Walter to just answer their survey. This was driving her crazy. Jenny swears they called no fewer than 30 times.

Finally Jenny went down to the dealership to ask them to stop the phone calls. The lady at the desk was a bit snippy and said she couldn’t help.

Luckily Jenny noticed a very large sign requesting that customers who were not going to give a five star rating to call and speak to the GM.

The next time the survey call came asking for Walter, Jenny replied “Speaking”.

Survey Woman “I’m calling for Walter”.

Jenny “that’s me”.

Survey Woman “I’m calling for Walter.”

Jenny “Are you making fun of my name?”

Survey Woman “oh no. Of course not”

The survey was given and Jenny didn’t give them anything higher than three stars on any question.

Is this Malicious Compliance? I hope so!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/MattHatter1337 on 2025-03-31 20:55:25+00:00.

About 2 years ago I had a customer complain that we had raised the price of his phone contract. I work for one of the main UK mobile phone companies here as a customer service rep.

I've had my fair share of terrible customers, and ridiculous requests. But this was the straw that broke my back.

So every year, we have a proce increase in March. It's the rate of inflation as published in november +3.9%. This is in all contracts. Has been for as long as I've worked there. Every year we send a letter out in Feb to let people know. And every year we get calls asking "wtf is this?". Most of the time I deal woth these fairly well. I explain they agreed to it in their contract, and occasionally read the exact part of said contract. What makes it more delicious is if they've bought it in store, they have a physical copy. So I ask

"do you see where you signed your name in the box that says 'I have read and understand the terms and conditions of the contract'? Well. Just above there the box above that says 'I understand that as of March the price will increase by the rate of cpi +3.9%'?"

And that normally ends those arguments.

Well. One day I'd spent ALL day dealing with these calls. And I get a guy call. Let's call him Kevin. He complains about the price increase. Saying how he never agreed to it in his contract. That his contract says its (let's say) £30. And thats what he agreed to. No more. No less. He would never agree to something where the price was going g to change. After s The normal back and forth of explaining it, how all companies do it not just us, petrol, food shops, books. Everything. But he was having none of it. Around about the time most people accept and give up he was still going strong. Going in loops repeating the same arguments I've shot down already. At one point t he says he never read it, so it shouldn't apply. I asked him "Sir, if you dont read the 30mph speed limit sign and do 70mph there, you will still get stopped by the police. Just because you didn't read it. Doesn't mean it's not correct. Besides, you signed the box saying that you HAD read it, so. I'm afraid you were aware of it." Now, that was prehaps me allowing my emotions to get in the way, but he did not like that at all. He said, if he doesn't get the contract reverted to what he agreed, he would cancel his direct debit and "see us in court".

Queue malicious compliance.

I noticed earlier during the conversation that his contract was ACTUALLY £60 and that his first 3 months were half price. But the agent who added the discount, added an undated 50% discount. Instead of the 3mhp discount that auto removes. Well. Given the call was an hour long and I was overdue my break, I finally said.

"Okay sir. On this occasion. I am willing to wave the price increase for you and revert your plan to its origional, agreed upon price. Because I can't stop the increase, I will add a discount of [his increase here] to the line, and as you've stated, your ant your plan to be put back to what you agreed to. So the 50% discount you have has now been removed, the plan is back to £60. [He tries to talk] but don't worry sir. We won't be making you repay the back dated discount from the last 12 months. That's not how it works here. So I can confirm that your plan will remain at the agreed price, of £60."

After a stunned and silence he recovers and asks what do I mean £60? I explained that he agreed to a contract at £60 per month, with 3m half price. But that the wrong 50% discount had in fact been added and had been left on longer than was Intended. He told me to leave it alone not do anything but itnwas too late. He had already confirmed he wanted it. And even if he hadn't, we have a system in place to report excessive or incorrect discounts which I wpuld have been reporting him on. But this was much MUCH more enjoyable. In the end it was escalated to manager, who stuck by my actions to remove the incorrect discount, and infact, removed my discount for the CPI as its policy NOT to discount these.

It went above her to the Excecutive complaints team, who I followed up with and noticed he was given a letter of deadlock that he could try taking to ofcom.

It felt great, the guy had an incredibly poor attitude spoke to me like I was his to do with as he wanted, and wanted to spit his day out in a tantrum.

I claimed the victory in the name of those who work in a role with direct customer interactions, when they've treat you like nothing and we're truely horrible people.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/NotGayRedditGuy on 2025-03-31 17:42:54+00:00.

Ive started buying bananas for my job, we have two 15 minute breaks and om my first one I like to snack.

My first time doing this, I bought 2 bunches of bananas, and brought them home. I bought 2 because I knew my sister would also want bananas, but that seemed to be a mistake. The whole time we had these bananas, everyday, my sister would say "I think you bought too many bananas", "this is a lot of bananas", "I think you bought too many bananas". Day in, and day out.

I spend my hard earned, factory, money on my bananas and she has the gaul to tell me I bought too many? Ok. I've now been buying one bunch of bananas, as apposed to the oh so generous two.

Now reader, there are 3 things you may not know.

1. The rule to the bananas was, she could have them, as long as there were enough for me to have one for every day I worked.
2. I work 5 days a week.
3. A bunch of bananas from my kroger has only 6 bananas on them.

No more is she basking in bananas whenever she may please, now she only gets 1 banana a week. She's talked to me about how she gets stressed at the prospect of leaving me with no bananas, so she doesn't know if she can have one.

I now get to have my bananas, and no longer hear her complaining about "too many bananas", like such a thing exists.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/DeathSheep666 on 2025-03-31 16:48:13+00:00.

So this is a peculiar case. In this case I was the "victim" of the malicious compliance and the perpetrators was...my dog.

So bear with me. I was in my kitchen fixing dinner and my dog, Mona, kept getting under foot. Every time I turned around, she was right there. Clearly she was in an attention-seeking mood. Every time I told her to go away, she'd come right back. Finally, I lost patience and told her (not particularly kindly) to go to her bed.

She kinda slunk off and I thought I could finally finish working. Minutes later, I step back and nearly trip over her again. I whirled around to scold her, and found that she had quietly dragged her bed into the kitchen and was contentedly curled up in it right behind me. I couldn't even be mad...

Mona: 1, u/DeathSheep666: 0

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/PrincessSarahTDP on 2025-03-31 07:06:08+00:00.

So back when I was 17, I used to live in a small town in Massachusetts. I lived with a narcissistic mother (let's call her N) and a father who didn't have the balls to stand up to her (let's call him K). On a hot summer day in July 2023, N decided to start an argument with me over something that she did. Now I do not recall what this argument was about, but she had said something along of the lines of "you can walk to work. I'm not driving you." and mentioned something about me needing to be independent.

Queue malicious compliance. N was asleep on the couch and K was in a work meeting. I let K know that I would be walking to work and that I would let him know when I got there. After leaving through the porch slider door, I called my boyfriend and stayed on the phone with him while I was walking. N decided to turn on screen time while I was walking there. I didn't turn back and continued walking. As I was walking past a farm near the house, a person that I knew from the local church who also knew my parents noticed me walking. After explaining the situation, she offered me a ride and I said yes.

After arriving at work and getting my things ready, I called K and he asked me if I made it, and I said yes. K then asked me how I got to work so fast and replied that I ended up getting a ride from something they know and someone I knew. N was on the phone too and furiously said"You could've woken me up! I could've driven you!" in which I responded "You told me to walk to work, and so I did what you told me to do." She continued to be mad at me in which I hung up and messaged my boyfriend to let him know that I made it safely and was grateful that I was okay. Everyone at my job understood what had happened that day and made sure I had water and some time to cool off before starting my shift.

I know this happened two years ago but this is the fallout: I'm currently 19, living on my own on the west coast. Later that year (2023), I ended up cutting off N and the rest of that side of the family for the sole reason that she was just toxic overall and not wanting to do anything with her. I am in minimal contact with K. I moved out of that toxic household after I was finished with my senior year of high school, and moved into state housing with the help of my school until I flew out of Boston. I am in a much better situation and K's extended family is helping me process N's torment. My boyfriend and his family has been helping me financially while I receive no help from N and K, and as a result, N hasn't spoken to me in over a year, while K doesn't reach out to me or even check up on me as it's only if he needs something.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/The_Fondz on 2025-03-30 20:45:23+00:00.

This happened today at work. I manage a bar/restaurant. We had a long weekend and everyone(to include myself) is noticeably ready for the day to be over but at this point it had only just started. I had stopped by the gas station on my way in and grabbed a couple of energy drinks and a Powerade to get me through the shift. As I intended to space out the time between them, to maximize their effectiveness I placed the second energy drink and the Powerade in the canned beer well to keep them cold. While placing them in the well I notice there is very little ice in them, and we are now currently open for business. As is required from time to time I approach my bartenders and say “Hey guys, beer wells are looking light on ice. Let’s get some more ice on them so our products stay cold.” To which I receive some exasperated but light hearted sighs. We are a pretty relaxed establishment most of the time provided things get done as they should be. So I pull out my disappointed dad voice and say “Come on guys. Y’all know the drill.”

Fast forward 5 hours into the shift, and I go to grab my drink. Imagine my surprise when I arrive at the aforementioned beer well, with an accompaniment of uproarious laughter to find the well properly iced down….save the very corner I had placed my drinks, which now resembles a scaled model of Mount Everest.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/hellcat920 on 2025-03-30 03:58:33+00:00.

About 15 years ago I worked at an insurance company. The building we leased had awful tap water. So the company had the big water jugs delivered. One of the new hires Carla, didn’t like all of the jugs full/empty filling up one wall of the break room. Carla is one of those people who complained about everything. The office was either too hot or too cold. The work was unfairly distributed and so on and so on. So she complained and dropped the number of bottles being delivered every two weeks down considerably. So myself and several other staff members started drinking as much water as possible each day. After one week all of the jugs were empty and with no delivery for another week all the was left was an empty jug. Boss comes in one day for a fill up… no water. He asks where the full jugs are and I say to him that Carla doesn’t like having a stack of water jugs and wanted less delivered. Carla never complained again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/thefarzin on 2025-03-30 01:09:35+00:00.

the original post is in r/pettyrevenge. i tried to share it using the share button, but unfortunately, the button doesn’t work. So, i decided to add a couple of comments to the post since people had asked me about it before.

hope you like it!

so last summer, i’m at this neighborhood BBQ—sun’s out, beers are cold, and i’m ready to flex my smoked ribs game. think tender, smoky perfection that steals the show. it’s a chill potluck vibe, but then this dude—let’s call him karen—crowns himself grill overlord and lays down the law like he’s guarding the holy flame.

“no one uses the grill but me,” he says, flipping burgers like he’s on a cooking show. “one dish at a time—mine first, then maybe you get a shot.”i’m standing there, cooler in hand, like, “bro, it’s a huge grill—can’t i just toss my ribs on the side? they need time.”“nope. one at a time. my rules.” he’s smirking, so i bite my tongue. alright, karen, let’s see how this cooks.

he does his burger thing, taking forever, while my ribs chill in their marinade. crowd’s eating, but i’m plotting. his turn’s done, he waves me in, “go ahead.” here’s where i get petty—and a little sneaky. i’d smoked the ribs at home for a couple hours that morning—low and slow, 3-2-1 style, but just the first stretch. wrapped ‘em tight, brought ‘em ready to finish. not fully precooked, just prepped to win. i fire up the grill, slide the ribs on, and sneak a foil tray of applewood chips in the corner. smoke rolls out—thick, sweet, pure temptation. karen’s over there, chomping his burger, when heads start turning. “what’s that smell?” people wander over, noses up, drooling already. i’m brushing sauce, all chill, “just ribs—takes a bit, hope that’s cool.” his burgers? yesterday’s news. the mob’s around me now, begging for a taste.

he storms up, “you’re smoking out my grill!”“one dish at a time, right? i’m just following orders.” i flip a rib, smoke curling like a victory flag. he tries to elbow in, “let me cook”“nah, my turn’s still going. your rule.” i stretch it—tending the ribs, tweaking the chips, chatting up the crowd about “low and slow magic.” takes over an hour, and by then, karen’s reign is ash. everyone’s piling ribs, raving, while his burger tray sits there, sad and cold.

night ends, host slaps my shoulder, “dude, you own the grill next time.”“say less.”

karen thought he’d rule the BBQ, but i smoked him out with a half-cooked plan and a whole lotta petty. prepped the ribs early? sure. worth it to watch him choke on his own rule? hell yeah.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/thefarzin on 2025-03-29 05:17:23+00:00.

just wanted to share how i “technically followed instructions” and caused a little chaos at work this friday. i work at an it company, and we have a manager who loves micromanagement. his latest gem: "all tasks must follow the template exactly, or they won’t be accepted!"—even for urgent production bug fixes.

on friday evening (an hour before the deadline), a critical bug popped up. i fixed it fast and wrote in chat: "fix is ready, deploying to prod, waiting for approval." the response? "where’s the jira ticket? no ticket—no release!"

so i created the ticket.

• filled out every field, including "environment," "related requirements," "change history."

• attached screenshots, logs, db dumps.

• assigned everyone as reviewers.

• sent it for approval.

20 minutes later, the manager panics: "what is this? we’re wasting time!" my reply: "just following the rules. no ticket—no release, right?"

result? the release was delayed, the client got mad, and the "urgent fix" template got simplified.

moral: sometimes the best way to fight stupidity is to do exactly what you’re told.

ever had a similar situation?

p.s. the manager wasn’t fired, but he’s more careful with rules now. and i got a bonus for "initiative." 😈

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/sergemeister on 2025-03-29 22:44:46+00:00.

Son has birthday and asks everyone to respect his wishes that he's too old now to have cake. Says it's a kid thing. Its his birthday, it's Saturday we go out to dinner to a restaurant he likes. I go the maitre de and ask if they could please help us sing happy birthday to our son. They say sure and that they have a personal cake just for these types of occasions free of charge. I tell them no cake he's too old for it, but you can bring the candle out so he can have something to blow out. The maitre de walks off and I sit down with the rest of the group to order and eat. About halfway through the meal the loudspeaker goes off to the tune of happy birthday and the staff comes out with a plate. On the plate a solitary green candle standing perfectly in the center! You should have seen his face! Anyhow he sat the rest of the night pouting and on his phone. Bet he rethinks his phrasing next birthday.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/DrD3adpool on 2025-03-29 14:22:27+00:00.

This happened a few years ago when I worked at McDonald's. The one I worked in was near a bunch of schools so most of the staff was high school kids. As summer vacation started, we began having the trouble of an employee getting break and then spending their break eating their meal and conversating with their friends who were still working in the kitchen.

It was having a seriously bad effect on productivity as well as posing quite a few health risks so our manager finally initiated a rule that if you were on your break, you couldn't leave the break room until your break was over. This went swimmingly until the kids went back to school.

We then had a new problem. Short staffing during break cycles meant our ticket times would skyrocket during rushes. Management lifted the rule so that employees on break could clock in early and help out with the rush, however... The District Manager didn't like the implications of employees working shortened or no break shifts and forcefully reinstated the rule. They also doubled down by saying that employees who tried to work during their scheduled break would be written up and/or terminated for doing so.

Cue MC. The date was 4/20 a day when nobody wants to be working at any fast food place, much less McDonald's. We had been getting slammed so hard from the open of the store, that we called in extra help from other stores, including the regional and district managers. As the break cycle began, the management was pleased with the sub two minute ticket times they had managed to maintain. A few breaks through, and we were managing well. Then came my break. As soon as I sat down to eat, someone came into the store and ordered 47 double quarter pounders (this was right after the fresh initiative where all Quarter Pounders were made fresh so this was already a minor panic.) Immediately after that order, someone in the drive through ordered 75 - 20 piece nugget meal.

The amount of panic in the kitchen was palpable. I was comfortably lounging in a chair browsing my phone and enjoying my meal while the kitchen struggled to keep up with the orders. As ticket times began to soar, the Management did exactly as I expected. District Manager came into the break room and demanded me to end my break early and help in the kitchen.

My response was very simply: "I'm sorry but according to the rules YOU made, I can be written up or terminated for completing your request." I then continued browsing my phone, trying to enjoy the last ten minutes of my break. The Regional Manager entered the room and said that he would personally terminate me if I didn't do the thing that I wasn't supposed to do. The other employee who was on break with me immediately rose and clocked in despite still having ten minutes left on her break. She was written up for breaking the rule after the shift was over, so I felt good sitting in my chair and continuing to ignore them.

In the aftermath, the people who made the giant orders took what was made after half an hour and left with refunds for the unmade food. (Nearly $150 each.) Customers who were waiting for smaller orders were compensated with gift cards for their patience, yet many walked out without even getting their orders. (We paid out nearly $1500 in gift cards.) Because customers were walking out on orders without collecting them, we had nearly $5000 in food waste that night. (All of the closers went home with nearly two bundle boxes of burgers, fries, and nuggets.) Regional and District Manager were moved to a different region. The rule was edited to say that you were able to clock back in early at the manager's discretion in the event of a rush. Because I was the only employee who held his ground against the Regional and District Managers during the rush, I was rewarded with free meals and drinks until I moved away from my hometown and couldn't eat at that McDonald's anymore. (Although when I come to visit friends, I occasionally get rung up a manager discount by the few employees who still remember me.)

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ReactsWithWords on 2025-03-29 14:18:07+00:00.

When my second wife passed away, she left a LOT of magazines. This included a lot of knitting magazines. I had a co-worker who loved to knit, so this conversation ensued:

Me: (late wife) had a ton of knitting magazines. You want some?

Her, eagerly: YES!

Me: How many do you want?

Her: ALL OF THEM!

Me: Um, she had a LOT; are you sure...

Her: ALL OF THEM!

Me: Okay...

So over the next couple of weeks I gave her box after 35-pound box of knitting magazines.

As I was giving her the 10th box:

Her: Thanks, but, um, I think that's enough, I don't need any more after this.

Me: But you said...

Her: No, really, that's enough!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/laxceptional on 2025-03-28 17:01:59+00:00.

Lovely little clip of Bobby Lee just doing what the lady told him. He was playing a principal on a Nickelodeon rudely got sent to a room full of extras. He decided to stay.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/beingluna on 2025-03-28 14:22:21+00:00.

My bf always acts different around his friends, suddenly too cool, kinda dismissive, barely affectionate. Before we go out, he’s like:

“Babe, just act normal, don’t try too hard or anything.”

Okay..

So when his friends made jokes, I didn’t laugh unless they were actually funny. When they talked about stuff I wasn’t into, I just chilled and scrolled my phone. Didn’t hype him up, didn’t add to convos, just… existed.

Halfway through, one of his boys goes: “Yo, she doesn’t even wanna be here, bro.”

And my bf? Kept side-eyeing me the whole time.

Later, he’s like, “…Ok maybe not THAT normal.”

Oh? Like I was before?

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/thefarzin on 2025-03-26 04:59:24+00:00.

in university, we had a team project on programming. I was unlucky with my partner — he kept slacking off and did absolutely nothing. I tried to get him involved, but all I heard was the same thing: “I’ll do it later,” “I don’t understand,” “but you’re better at this.”

okay, fine — I did everything myself.

during the defense, I was supposed to present the project and answer questions, while he just stood there, nodding and pretending to understand. I even explained the main points to him, so he wouldn’t look completely lost. and then, just a second before I stepped forward, this individual jumps in front of me and, throwing over his shoulder, says: “I’ll do everything, you just enjoy it,” and steps onto the stage.

alright. I complied.

and it was fun.

he crumbled within the first minutes. he stumbled, mixed up terms, and explained the code wrong. the professors started grilling him with questions, and he just dug himself deeper into a hole. eventually, they turned to me:

“can you explain?”

without emotion, I replied, “sure. as my partner already explained…” — and gave a clear explanation of the project, looking perfect in contrast to him. I got a great grade. he got penalty assignments and a public dressing down from the professors. and yes, his lady in the audience looked at him as though he died right on stage.

and no, this isn’t the story where the strong take advantage of the weak. I was a healthy first-year student, and he was a skinny, weak, but overconfident student whose boldness outweighed his physical size.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/LutzExpertTera on 2025-03-25 19:28:50+00:00.

My wife and I have a son who is 2, turning 3 in a few weeks. He's an amazing kid and is already proving to be incredibly clever. He started skipping his nap a few months ago, so recently we introduced quiet time into his daily routine. We put some toys, puzzles, Tonie box, food, water, and a small potty in his room and have him play by himself for 30 minutes every afternoon. Some days he loves it and is fully engrossed, while other days he wants out and to come play with us.

The nightlight we use is called a Hatch. It serves as a clock, sound machine, and nightlight and is generally quite useful. My wife can change the color of the light on her phone and was experimenting with different colors during quiet time. She had the idea to keep the light red during quiet time and then change to green once the 30 minutes was up.

So we put him in for quiet time and say "you can come out when the light is green." He says okay, does a puzzle for a few minutes, and then through our monitor we saw him touching the Hatch. Then about 5 minutes into quiet time, he happily walks out of his room. My wife asks "buddy, was the light green yet?" and he gleefully says "yes!" He found a button on the back of it (that I honestly didn't even know was there) that manually changes the color of the light so he cycled through all of the colors until he got to green.

So, the light turned green and the little fella figured out how to make quiet time only 5 minutes that day.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/TheBreakUp2013 on 2025-03-25 16:05:56+00:00.

UPDATE (2025): The original post and update from a couple of years ago are below. Quick ironic update. There have still been no negative consequences for me. In fact the older generation from the original company has retired or died and the younger generation (who are around my age) have taken over and, though I have my own business, we have begun working together on projects again. They, obviously, have no clue about the original $1.8 million, which now occurred approximately 20 years ago.

UPDATE (2023): The original post is below. Only this "update" paragraph is new. There have been no negative consequences from the below, and no consequences (other than a few people DM'ing me with incorrect guesses). In fact, the remaining family members have reached out a time or two about some consulting work. They have no clue.

DISCLAIMER:

The names and some of the situations have been changed to protect the identities, but the dollars and general nature of the situation is completely true.

BACKGROUND:

A year out of school in the early-1990's, I procured a job as a business analyst for a large, family-owned tech company. This business was located in the booming heart of technology at the time and was very profitable. As tech took off over the next decade, the company thrived and remained family-owned. What was a rich family and company became exceedingly wealthy with a valuation/net worth in the high 9/low 10-figures.

The family that owned it was quite neurotic, very moody and had a reputation as very ruthless (greedy) when it came to financing, deal-making, employees, etc. I truly believe this is what held them back from ultimately becoming a household name as a company.

As I progressed in the company, I gained more and more face time with the owners. I worked on some projects directly with ownership that really paid off and gained me even greater access to their inner circle. Now, like a lot of people at the time and particularly those who worked in tech, I was heavily invested in tech stocks. I discussed some of my investments and gains with ownership as casual conversation, though investing had nothing to do with my role in the company.

That is until one day in late-1999 when the owner came to me and asked me if I would invest some of his personal money. He wanted me to take big risks to see if they would pay off using 1 million dollars of his personal money. I was a bit hesitant, but still being in my late-20's and wanting to prove myself, I said I would. I asked for a written agreement where they acknowledged this wasn't my role in the company, was a personal matter between the owner and me, and to document my compensation for this side arrangement (20% of all profits).

Around this same time and by working in the industry I started to notice the weakness associated with a lot of tech companies. They just weren't living up to their hype and stock price and some seemed like they were starting to run out of money. I had no inside information, just a strong sense of which companies were struggling based on my work in the business.

Based on this sense I started using both my money and the owners money to short tech companies just after the New Year in 2000. For anyone unfamiliar with shorting, it means if the value of a stock decreases, the value of the investment increases. I had a few long positions, but my overall position was very short.

Since the owner wanted big risk and big reward, I used his money and obtained leverage or margin from the financial institution where I maintained both his and my trading accounts. The accounts were separate, but both under my name (again, I documented this and gained consent).

Well, both my account and his suffered some moderate losses in the first two months of 2000 before the bubble began to burst and both accounts, but his in particular, began to skyrocket.

OWNERSHIP'S PETTINESS

In June, the company began to suffer a downturn. We were still profitable, but since we provided tech services and products we were not immune to weakness in the broader market. I had not informed the owner of my short strategy. He came to me one day and asked how his money was doing, saying he suspected it was way down like the general market. To his surprise, I informed him that while we still had some money tied up in options (puts) and shorts, but based on the positions I had closed, there was $1.35 million in cash sitting in the account that belonged to him. Again, I still had a bunch of open positions which, if memory serves, were worth about a million on that date, but the positions I had closed had yielded $1.35 million in cash just sitting in his account (which was in my name).

The owner, either through ignorance or lack of attention, said "Great, $1.35 million. Fantastic work in this down market. Will you please wire it to me?" I responded that I would, but would be taking my 20% of the $350,000 profit, or $70,000, before wiring him the $280,000. I also reminded him I still had open positions that had yet to pay off or close, but I didn't state the amount. He, once again, appeared not to understand or comprehend the open positions statement, but instead totally focused on and became incensed about my rightful claim for $70,000. He went on and on about how times were tough, I should be grateful for a job, particularly at my young age, and the entire $350,000 was necessary for him and the company. I knew this wasn't true based on my position within the company. Worse, this was my first time personally experiencing the greedy and corrupt nature that served as the basis for ownership's reputation.

THE REVENGE

Now comes the revenge. Since, after two separate conversations, the owner didn't seem to grasp that the open positions would yield at least some income, and thus additional profit, I decided not to mention it again. I sent him back the entire $1.35 million and continued to manage the open positions to the best of my ability. And here's the kicker, the owner never brought it up again. He seemed to think the $1.35 million payment was the entire value of the account and never understood or remembered that open positions still existed. He never asked for records, tax documents or any time of audit or financials. Given the fact that he was dishonest with me, I didn't feel the need to disabuse him of that notion.

Ultimately, after a bit more net gain, I covered all of the shorts and exercised all of the options (puts in this case) for an additional $1.8 million. I worked for the company for 3 more years and owner never asked about it during my tenure, after I gave notice, or since. I know it's a bit crass and even shady af, but given his dishonesty with me over the $70,000, I felt justified in keeping the additional $1.8 million. I paid taxes on the gain (long term cap gain), and went on my way with a fantastic nest egg. Nobody has asked about it since and I have only told the story to a few people (and even then only after the statute of limitations passed).

The final ironic cherry on top of this sundae is that during my remaining 3 years I gained greater influence with ownership in position within the company because they considered me loyal for giving the $1.35 million back and not making too much of a stink about the $70,000 profit. Little did they know I got the better of them. The company eventually folded due to family disputes, but my understanding is that ownership walked away in very good financial position. They likely could have been a much better and greater company had they not practiced the same dishonesty that they showed me with their vendors, clients and employees.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Abby-Norman on 2025-03-24 23:36:33+00:00.

So, many years ago, I had just gotten hired on as a rookie firefighter at a moderate sized city in the Southeastern United States. Other than the typical ribbing that rookies always get, my probie year was not bad. There was, however, a Lieutenant that NO one liked…at all. And wouldn’t you know, I got assigned to his engine company for a three month rotation.

He DEMANDED that I was to do all the station chores (which is normal), and he threatened to give me poor evals if I did not have coffee ready at all times for the senior firefighters. This was not normal, and the rest of the engine company knew this.

Me being a rookie, and not wanting a bad eval (note that I am not a coffee drinker), I decided to give him what he wanted, but as a non coffee drinker would make coffee.

I absolutely filled the coffee filter to the rim, like I had to scrape it off level at the top. I Then proceeded to use about one half to three quarters the amount of water needed.

The resulting coffee was so strong and so thick you just about had to cut a piece off after you poured it….completely undrinkable.

Two times. It took two times, and I was ordered not to make coffee anymore. I got terrific evals as well.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/isitaboat on 2025-03-24 17:29:33+00:00.

A story on another sub reminded me of a boss getting mad at me at a grocery store job I had when I was 16.

He'd ask me to make him coffee / tea. Not my job.

Engage 16 year old laziness / malicious compliance - he never asked me to wash the cup first - so I'd always use a random dirty cup from the sink. This went on for a long time, but would make me smile every time I gave him the cup.

One morning, the one I picked still had some noodles in it from someone elses lunch. Likely from the previous day. Gross, and wet.

He drank it and got noodles in his mouth. He was ultra pissed, but never asked again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/thefarzin on 2025-03-24 04:37:55+00:00.

recently my friend told me a story from his life that’s a perfect fit for malicious compliance, and i decided to share it from his perspective. this happened about five years ago when i was working at a small tech repair shop. our boss was this guy named sergey — a classic control freak who thought being the boss made him smarter than everyone else. he didn’t know squat about tech, but loved sticking his nose in and telling us how to do our jobs. usually, us guys in the shop would just nod and do it our way, but this time i decided to play by his rules — and here’s what came of it.

we got an order to fix an old industrial printer. rare beast, bulky, barely any manuals, but i’d worked on a couple before, so i knew right away what was wrong — a clog in one of the feed gears and a worn-out belt. disassemble, clean, swap a few parts — five hours tops. i laid out the plan for sergey, he listened, then launched into his usual: “no, you don’t get it, it’s an electrical issue, you need to check the board, test everything with a multimeter, i’m the boss here, do it my way.” i tried explaining it was mechanical, but he started yelling that i was “young, cocky, and clueless,” and if i didn’t follow his orders, i could go home without pay. fine, i thought, you’re the boss, you know best. grabbed the multimeter, took the printer apart down to the last screw, and started testing every circuit on the board — exactly like he told me. it was slow, tedious, and totally pointless, because i knew from the start the board wasn’t the issue. but i didn’t just test it — i documented everything for a report: wrote down readings, snapped pics of every step, even sketched diagrams so sergey could see how “obedient” i was. took me two full days when i could’ve fixed the thing in half a day. finally, i stroll up to him with a stack of papers and say, “sergey, checked it all, board’s fine, what now?” he turned red as a beet — the client had already called, furious about the delay.

at that point, he figured i’d sabotaged him on purpose (though he dug his own grave), and barked at me to “deal with the mechanics since you’re so smart.” i shrugged, went back, cleaned the gears, swapped the belt — the stuff i’d planned to do all along. a day later, the printer was done, client was happy, but sergey looked like he’d been through a week-long spin cycle. after that, he tried bossing me around a couple more times, but i’d just ask, “like with that printer, your way?” — and he’d shut up real quick.

moral of the story: sometimes it’s better to let someone dig their own hole than argue. i knew i was right, but i complied out of spite — and he ended up screwing himself. still crack up thinking about his face after that report.