Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/alchemistgamer on 2024-09-23 17:11:58+00:00.

I have always hated mowing the lawn. At the same time, I don't want to be that neighbor so I do my best to stay on top of the lawn. However, while I started out strong this summer, I had a series of medical issues that left me in a state that mowing was a bit too much than I could handle. Add in a few other excuses on the few remaining times I could mow, the lawn was making me look like I was the neighbor I didn't want to be. I decided I'd pay someone to mow for a change and then pick it back up once it was back under control.

My first mistake was when the company I contacted had advertised a one-time cut but when calling to schedule service, notified me they have a three-cut minimum. I should have backed out then. I didn't.

The first mower showed up and cancelled the mowing claiming my lawn was 100% over 23" and as such for excessive height and proceeded to list that they'd charge me a 500% markup for the service. The photos taken were of the few higher points in the lawn (all my front yard) with a tape measure you couldn't read the numbers off of. I was annoyed to say the least and I tried to originally cancel here but hit with the whole contract bit. So I told them I'd mow it and I'd just use them to end the season and take it easy. I actually only mowed the front lawn and even then, not the whole lawn. Miraculously, two weeks later, the mower that showed up did the whole lawn and somehow didn't see the back yard, that I left untouched, was a problem.

The next mowing day came and went and no one showed. So I reported it and cancelled the mowing through the app. Despite cancelling, someone showed up the following day. I'm annoyed and I want out so I go into the app and try to cancel my service again. It looks like the service was cancelled and I saved screenshots.

Then, today, I get a message saying my mower is on the way. Here's the thing. We have had a drought for the last month or so, its the end of the season and my lawn hasn't grown even a half-inch in the last two weeks. I am, beyond furious at this point. I wait until the guy shows up, I talk to him. He's a great guy. He's a contractor for this booking company (which is what I thought was the case). He tells me he gets this all the time. He lets me know he's going to send a message to the company. I felt bad his time got wasted, but there wasn't much I could do about that.

An hour later, I get a message showing I'm rescheduled for tomorrow. I'm done. So I call them up and after speaking with one agent, I get to the escalation team. He tells me my service is cancelled, but I still have one mowing as per the contract. We go back and forth for a bit and he won't budge. I ask him if he would schedule snow removal in the middle of summer so why should I schedule mowing when it isn't needed? Nothing.

"Fine. Schedule me for June in 2047."

"June when, sir?"

"June 4, 2047. I'm sure I'll need my lawn mowed then."

"We can't schedule that far in advance."

He's insistent it has to be this or next year. But I keep pushing. And I remind him, that I agreed to a three cut minimum and no where in any of the conversations did the company specific a restriction on when. So I wanted to schedule it on June 4, 2047 and he needed to schedule it happen.

"One moment sir while I talk to support."

I wait for another few minutes and then he comes back. "Your service is fully cancelled. No one is coming out."

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/alchemistgamer on 2024-09-23 17:11:41+00:00.

I have always hated mowing the lawn. At the same time, I don't want to be that neighbor so I do my best to stay on top of the lawn. However, while I started out strong this summer, I had a series of medical issues that left me in a state that mowing was a bit too much than I could handle. Add in a few other excuses on the few remaining times I could mow, the lawn was making me look like I was the neighbor I didn't want to be. I decided I'd pay someone to mow for a change and then pick it back up once it was back under control.

My first mistake was when the company I contacted had advertised a one-time cut but when calling to schedule service, notified me they have a three-cut minimum. I should have backed out then. I didn't.

The first mower showed up and cancelled the mowing claiming my lawn was 100% over 23" and as such for excessive height and proceeded to list that they'd charge me a 500% markup for the service. The photos taken were of the few higher points in the lawn (all my front yard) with a tape measure you couldn't read the numbers off of. I was annoyed to say the least and I tried to originally cancel here but hit with the whole contract bit. So I told them I'd mow it and I'd just use them to end the season and take it easy. I actually only mowed the front lawn and even then, not the whole lawn. Miraculously, two weeks later, the mower that showed up did the whole lawn and somehow didn't see the back yard, that I left untouched, was a problem.

The next mowing day came and went and no one showed. So I reported it and cancelled the mowing through the app. Despite cancelling, someone showed up the following day. I'm annoyed and I want out so I go into the app and try to cancel my service again. It looks like the service was cancelled and I saved screenshots.

Then, today, I get a message saying my mower is on the way. Here's the thing. We have had a drought for the last month or so, its the end of the season and my lawn hasn't grown even a half-inch in the last two weeks. I am, beyond furious at this point. I wait until the guy shows up, I talk to him. He's a great guy. He's a contractor for this booking company (which is what I thought was the case). He tells me he gets this all the time. He lets me know he's going to send a message to the company. I felt bad his time got wasted, but there wasn't much I could do about that.

An hour later, I get a message showing I'm rescheduled for tomorrow. I'm done. So I call them up and after speaking with one agent, I get to the escalation team. He tells me my service is cancelled, but I still have one mowing as per the contract. We go back and forth for a bit and he won't budge. I ask him if he would schedule snow removal in the middle of summer so why should I schedule mowing when it isn't needed? Nothing.

"Fine. Schedule me for June in 2047."

"June when, sir?"

"June 4, 2047. I'm sure I'll need my lawn mowed then."

"We can't schedule that far in advance."

He's insistent it has to be this or next year. But I keep pushing. And I remind him, that I agreed to a three cut minimum and no where in any of the conversations did the company specific a restriction on when. So I wanted to schedule it on June 4, 2047 and he needed to schedule it happen.

"One moment sir while I talk to support."

I wait for another few minutes and then he comes back. "Your service is fully cancelled. No one is coming out."

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Inner_Radish_1214 on 2024-09-23 17:10:40+00:00.

Bosses and upper management constantly refuse my PTO. Shit lapses and expires come next summer, so I'm not particularly stoked about how difficult it has been to use it.

I recently got real sick. Shitting all day, puking for the rest of it, etc. Boss refuses to submit any sort of PTO to make up for my missed hours. Says he expected me to call out while I had a river of steaming fire coming out of my rectum. I called him ASAP:, within an hour of my shift starting.

That's cool bro. My company has a severance payout policy. I just won't show up at all for the next few days, get laid off, and now you owe me a couple thousand instead of a couple hundred. Crazy.

Update: HR emailed me this morning with an option to regin and they said they'll cash my PTO out next check. Hell yeah. Fuck you.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Ok-Pea3414 on 2024-09-21 20:22:19+00:00.

I work in the apparel industry and one of our customers is a company who frequently finds itself on lists of top 10 in the Americas.

From our location, one of their gigantic distribution centers is only about 90 mins away.

Once, when we did a very small order for them, result only about 10% of or MOQ, we thought instead of shipping it through a ExpressEx, why not just drop it off at their DC, since the shipping address was to their DC. It would get there faster than by ExpressEx and cheaper too.

When our driver went there, the DC refused to take delivery. No problem, we called the person in charge on their side with our company, and we laid out the problem. Well, the person was extremely rude and simply said,"We do NOT intend to accept any deliveries made other than the contractual method of using ExpressEx". And shot off multiple emails to our VP, President, and our holding company's CEO about not following contractually required methods.

So, our driver comes back, we ship the product using ExpressEx.

3p weeks ago, a frantic call and a decently large order, but extremely urgent order. Okay, we have our time estimates to complete the work and the shipping date we would be able to manage. Agreed upon, in email.

We shipped it through ExpressEx even though it was said to use any means necessary to try to get it to them by the shipping date. Enraging phone calls and screaming duels, our holding company's CEO, went over the vendor manager's head, and to their purchasing and inventory VP. Complained about the manager's behavior and their previous email about only using ExpressEx as contractually stated and our adherence to the shipping date, as we packed the trailer and locked it with a seal and date on it. The ExpressEx semi came at 1:00am to pick up the trailer, not our fault. We followed the contractually stated rules.

Guess who just lost 9 major universities in college football from their vendor management portfolio?

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/tenderbabyribs on 2024-09-21 19:44:22+00:00.

I have quite a flair for finding cheap travel and accomodation. My travels on a strict budget have taken me to three continents so far so I'd say I've picked up a few tricks.

Nowadays I get the pleasure of doing short trips with my work when attending conferences and seminars. As I prefer not to waste money I've arranged the trips privately and then requested it payed back afterwards. It worked out well for all of us, budget wise. Then we got new directions for handling travel costs...

We all had to go through a new travel agency whenever booking, well, anything. The top brass held a talk about it and everything. We were warned that onwards, any application for money back after a trip booked privately may be outright denied. I had tried to use the travel agency before but found that it only allowed a few overpriced airlines and hotels, and it wouldn't let you book anything outside of their "approved" connections.

Cue malicious compliance. Where I previously combined train and bus tickets to reduce cost I now just selected the top option. Oh, five times more expensive? Too bad. A nice low range hotel that covered my needs? No longer available, choose suggested option. I guess I will stay at the Hilton then.

I just got back from a trip that costed five times what I could've paid if I had been able to do my thing. No flights were available the day I could've left so I went a day earlier. No afternoon flight was available after my meeting, so I stayed an extra night. I was basically off work half a week extra because of that travel agency and the trip ended up costing more than my monthly paycheck.

Oh, and the travel agency? They were apparently the lowest bidder on the contract, claiming they'd supply the cheapest travel options.

I enjoyed the complementary champagne.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Realistic_Sorbet2826 on 2024-09-21 17:11:02+00:00.

About a dozen years ago, I was working in a banking call center. The company was informed of some governmental change that required us to have a tax ID number for everyone with our business credit card account and we had some ridiculously short timeframe to be in compliance. There were tens of thousands of accounts with this ID missing (it hadn't been previously required).

A big group of us were given lists of customers and told to call them and ask for the tax ID number. If they had it, we added it to the account and all was well. If they didn't have it, we were to switch them to a consumer (non-business) card. If they didn't want that, we'd cancel on the spot. Due to the short timeframe for compliance, the customer had to tell us on the call which they preferred. Another nifty caveat was that were were only making TWO calls and were not leaving messages (we couldn't drag this out waiting for people to eventually call us back). If we got the person on the first call, we were done. If we still didn't get them on the second call either, the account was auto cancelled.

This sounds like a horrible job to do, but it was actually going really well. 99% of the people I called were happy to comply or switch accounts. Then I called Karen.

The phone rang and rang and I was about to hang up when I heard that pause and double ring that tells you the call was forwarded, so I waited.

Karen: WHAT?!! (I could hear background noise like she was out in public)

Me: Hi, this is Jane Doe with XXX bank and -

Karen: Why the F%#k are you calling my cell phone?! Are you F%#*ing stupid? I've told you people to NEVER call this number!

Me: I didn't, the call was --

Karen: OMG, now you're going to LIE to me? Pay attention, NEVER CALL ME AGAIN! I use your credit card for EVERYTHING and pay it, so you have NO reason to call me! Got it!?

Me: Yes, but -

Phone disconnects.

Malicious compliance kicks off. Okay, so I spoke to you (maybe a dozen words), you didn't provide your tax ID, and I can't call you back because you said to NEVER do that. Next button? "Cancel" Notes? "Customer did not provide the tax ID and demanded we never call her again." I really, really, really hope she was out shopping and had fun when her card was declined at the next store.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/xFritsy on 2024-09-20 22:18:18+00:00.

So, a little back story. I work for an internet provider company as a lead in the internet repair department. This means that I get calls from agents who work there that either need help with a situation because they are stuck and don't know what to do, or when a customer escalates the call asking for a supervisor, manager, or someone above them. My department mainly handles internet issues like being offline, outages, replacing equipment, etc.

So, the other day was like any other. I'm getting calls from agents needing equipment transferred from one account to another, scheduling a technician for customers who refuse to do any troubleshooting, the list goes on and on. One of my main calls is an agent asking for me to run a special tool that corrects the speed being sent to a customer. This usually happens when a customer upgrades or downgrades their internet speed and it doesn't take right away, and this only takes a couple minutes. This comes in later.

On this particular day, I get a call from an agent that says her customer wants to speak to a supervisor because he is not getting the speeds he pays for. This happens quite a lot, usually because most people don't understand how the internet works and all the factors that come into the result of a speed test. This can include a lot of things, like how far away you are from your router, if you are testing on Wi-Fi or directly connected, how many devices you are currently using, and even things like how your residence is built, because stone and concrete do not allow Wi-Fi signals to travel through. When I looked at the customer's account, I see that he is currently subscribed to 100mbps, (megabits per second). Our normal plans are 300, 500, and a Gig, which is 1000. I asked the agent what results he was getting, and she told me it was 437mbps, which is way over what he is paying for. I told the agent to go ahead and transfer him to me, and I'll continue the discussion.

Once the customer gets to me, we'll call him Darren, I introduce myself and ask how I can help. Darren immediately begins yelling and cursing at me about how he is not getting what he pays for and is extremely upset, and even demanding credit to his account because of this. I begin to try and apologize to Darren and explain that speed test results can vary based on certain conditions. He cuts me off and states that he is recording the call and will be posting everything I say on social media. I tell him that that is fine, as all our calls are recorded for quality assurance purposes as well, and everything will be documented. Darren then proceeds to continue cursing stating that this is unacceptable, and I should be ashamed of myself for working for a company that does not provide the product people are paying for. While he rants on and on, I noticed that he had recently changed his internet plan from 500mbps, to 100mbps two days ago.

Now, as I mentioned before, sometimes the internet changes don't happen right away, and we have to run a specific tool to fix it. This can happen when the modem has not been reset to reflect these changes. I try to tell Darren that he is receiving more than what he is paying for, and again, he cuts me off stating that he will be reporting us to the FCC, BBB, and filing a lawsuit about this, all while recording our conversation. Now, normally I wouldn't care, and Id allow the speed to continue going through until the system automatically fixes it. But his attitude and rude demeanor made me feel otherwise.

Queue the malicious compliance:

I respond to Darren saying "Sir, you are absolutely right. And I am so sorry you are not receiving the speeds you are paying for. I will get this fixed right away"

Now, this plan that Darren was on, the 100 speed, is a plan that only certain customers can get if they are financially unable to make normal payments, meaning he had to apply for this program and be approved, based on his low income. So, I run the fix tool on his internet and reduce the speed down to 100 as he requested. I then ask him how his speed results are now. Darren then responds, "It's even worse than it was before! What kind of trick are you trying to pull on me?!"

I responded, "Sir, you told me you were not getting the speeds you were paying for, and you were right. You recently applied for financial assistance to be downgraded to 100, and I fixed that for you. It was absolutely wrong of us to be sending you 500 when you were only paying for 100. I apologize for the inconvenience."

After a few minutes of silence, Darren then muffled to himself "this is ridiculous" and proceeded to disconnect the call. I left notes on his account so any future agent would know what had happened that day, and that he was not entitled to any credit on his bill.

All I can say is, be careful what you complain about.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/wisecrack33 on 2024-09-20 17:02:54+00:00.

This story isn't quite as malicious as certain other submissions, but it shows what a pedantic, easily-annoyed little shit I could be as a kid, so I thought it might fit. My dad and I love to cook, so we tend to have a good variety of ingredients, especially herbs and spices. When I was in (I want to say) middle school, we discovered garlic powder, and we used it on almost everything that it could possibly taste good on. To my annoyance, my mom insisted on calling it "garlic salt", even after I explained several times that that's a different seasoning. Finally, I had my dad pick up a shaker of actual garlic salt and waited. Eventually, my mom asked me to bring her the salt, pepper, and "garlic salt" for whatever she was eating, so I did just that. When she inevitably asked why her food was so salty, I explained to her that I brought her exactly what she asked for: salt, pepper, and garlic salt. She never called it "garlic salt" again, and I felt SO satisfied with my smartassery.

Edit: HOLY CRAP!!! I never expected this to blow up like it has! Thank you for all of your responses (except for the guy who decided to shit in the punch bowl; you need to touch grass, my friend). This has made a stressful week a little better. Keep being awesome 🤙

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Morty_IS_Rick on 2024-09-20 02:27:25+00:00.

tl;dr- engineering manager tells me to work somewhere else, so I left the next day.

About a year ago I Was working for a manufacturing company that had mismanaged itself into a zero operating cash scenario long before i got hired on. After all the managers who had hired me in got fired with no notice, i got nervous and started looking around for other employment. At one point, i was trying to update a customer with status regarding some in-process issue that landed squarely in the newly appointed (but formerly as well) Engineering manager’s responsibility, and he told me I should never have brought it up and that i should just keep my mouth shut. I told him it was too late for that, and that they wanted a update- but he was too busy watching tv on his ipad, which as far as i can tell is all he ever really did… so i told him that i would just reach out to his contacts for the update myself. He said “ yeah, do that. And if you don’t like how long it takes me to respond to the customer you should just go somewhere else “.

Little did he know i had an interview the next day. I have never quit a job with no notice in my life… until that day. Get fucked, Timmy.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/McSmashley on 2024-09-19 15:41:08+00:00.

TLDR: my former boss, in a fit of anger, told me to get a new job because his business was failing, regretted it the next day and told me not to leave. I left anyway to work for his friend's law firm.

My former boss didn't realize that to actually make money, he had to show up for work. Instead, he came and went as he pleased and expected me to pick up the slack and essentially try to play the role of receptionist, paralegal, office manager and attorney (I never gave legal advice - he just expected me to and so did his clients).

His friend was my divorce attorney and worked in the same building so he'd pop in just to chat, see how things were going etc. but he started noticing my boss was absent more than not and questioned how things were going. I started confiding in him that I was really concerned because I could see former boss shelling out more than he was making and his clients were less than pleased at never being able to speak with their attorney. Then former boss started doing some unethical and shady things to move cases along and I started getting really nervous about what would happen if former boss got caught and what it meant for me. I told my attorney/former boss's friend all of this and he said that his own firm needed extra support staff but he didn't want it to appear like he was poaching me from his friend on purpose and that I had to talk with former boss about the state of the office and see if there was a way to salvage things.

I never really got that chance though because later that day, former boss stormed into the office and told me I needed to start looking for a new job and to just take the first offer I get because he was probably going to have to shut his doors in the next 90 days and he couldn't guarantee me a paycheck.

I spoke with my attorney the next day about it and he shrugged and said for me to just give my two weeks notice and call it a day.

Later that same day, former boss came into the office and told me to hold off on finding a new job and to give him a month to turn things around. Sorry but I've got bills to pay so I'm not going to sit idly and wonder if I'm going to see a next paycheck or not.

I drafted my two weeks notice (only because my attorney asked it of me as a professional courtesy to his friend) and gave it to my former boss at the end of the pay period.

Cue surprisedpikachu.jpg look from former boss.

"You're leaving? But why!?"

"Per our conversation on (that date), you advised me to find other employment so I did."

"Where?"

"(Friend's law firm)."

"Seriously? When I make this business work, I'm going to want you back. Is that going to be a problem?"

"Good luck."

"What's he paying?"

"Less than you and half the hours. But at least I know his checks won't bounce."

I heard from my replacement on his first solo day (I trained him during my last week) that my former boss regretted telling me "on a whim" to leave because I was the only one who knew anything about his cases. Sucks to suck. He shouldn't have left me to run his firm without help, knowing I'm not an attorney or licensed paralegal, while he went on lavish vacations and ignored all his clients.

Even if former boss wanted to try to get me to come back, I've already been bumped to full time hours and gotten a raise in less than a month and there's promise of a second raise very soon to put me at what I was making at former boss's but here I get paid holidays, PTO and sick leave. No way on God's green earth would I go back to former boss.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/daschande on 2024-09-18 18:26:07+00:00.

Not very satisfying, but MC nonetheless. Years ago, I was working at a corporate chain sports bar. One of the managers famously had "short man syndrome"; where he HAD to be right at all times and didn't allow anyone to deviate from his edicts.

One day, a server was asking him to go talk to a customer due to our mistake; when asked which person to speak to, the server replied "Table 300, the black guy wearing..." as she was cut short by the manager yelling at her "WE DO NOT REFER TO PEOPLE THAT WAY!!! We DO NOT see race, we DO NOT see color, they are ALL customers at this company! Do you understand me?" Manager was sure to nitpick absolutely everything and micromanage her for the rest of the night.

Fast forward a few weeks, same issue with the same server. Remembering his previous screaming fit, she told him to talk to "The guy wearing orange at table 250."

It was football season; virtually everyone in the building was wearing the home team's orange. Manager had to awkwardly ask the customers who had an issue, deeply embarrassing him.

Once he was back in the kitchen, he REALLY laid into the server for embarrassing him before firing her on the spot. The next day, we all verified his previous instructions and her malicious, but correct, compliance; so the general manager was forced to call her up and offer her job back. Manager was not disciplined in any way, but that's restaurant life.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/MUSTARDUNAVAILABLE on 2024-09-18 16:27:27+00:00.

So we're getting a couple of storms and it's been heavy rain and wind for the past week. It's bad enough that certain areas are evacuated.

I live in a pretty good house that can stand that level of wind and rain, where it's located flooding is not a concern.

So relatives, friends, and neighbours are welcome if they need a place to stay.

In comes Aunt Kay (60s) , my mom's sister, and her 3 children (F32, M28, F20) with their children.

Aunt Kay is a hassle and honestly I'd rather not deal with her. But her place isn't in a good spot.

So I let them stay at my place until the storm blows over.

Aunt Kay has been nagging and complaining nonstop. All she does is laze around on her phone complaining about everything she can think of. Her kids have told her to stop which turns into her becoming a raging screaming witch.

So one day while we're in the living room Aunt Kay comes in and was talking to another aunt, Emma. Aunt Kay was complaining about my place and Aunt Emma was trying to tell her off but ain't no stopping that word-vomiting hag.

Aunt Kay then says she can find a better place, mind you it's been raining all day and the winds have gotten stronger. You go outside and you'll be pelted and maybe fly off if you aren't careful.

As her oldest is telling her to stop, Aunt Kay just keeps on going and tells me my house sucks and whoever built it had shit for brains.

That set me off as the house was designed by my parents and they out their heart and soul into it.

So I told her to leave and find a better place then if she doesn't like my place. Aunt Kay looked offended and started telling Aunt Emma what I had just said. Aunt Emma told her off and then hanger up.

Aunt Kay looked at me and just tried to go back to her bde but I told her she had to leave and find another place.

She didn't want to apologize and told me I was being sensitive and needed to respect my elders. I told her she didn't respect me and since she could find a better place she ought to leave.

I wasn't backing down so she went and got her stuff and when she saw her kids and grandkids weren't going with her she was not happy.

I gave her an umbrella and some cash.

That happened at around 9 am, she came back at around 2 pm drenched and defeated.

She gave me a quiet apology and begged to be let in.

Turns out she went around to some of her friends places and even her bf's but they were either gone or telling her off for fucking around in the storm.

She now just lazes and keeps quiet. I don't care if she still complains but at least I don't have to hear it.

Edit: This happened in the Philippines. She did return the umbrella but not the cash. It was $5 (250 pesos) for fare. This is nothing new from her, she'll try to push boundaries to get her way but if I'm near I call her out on it.

She's a big believer in respecting your elders but what she did is seen as a massive fuck you. You don't insult hospitality, she's been getting verbal smackdowns from other relatives for what she did.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/femalemechanic92 on 2024-09-17 16:29:05+00:00.

So I (31F), have worked in the automotive industry for a long time and I've worked my ass off to prove myself to be a competent mechanic. I do brakes, transmission work, engine swaps, whatever is need of me that day and I'll help out the counter guys when they get backed up. I was helping the guys up front because they were backed up and I was waiting for a part to come in so I didn't really have anything else to do. My boss comes out and tells me "Your place is in the shop. Get out of the office." Okay... I go back into the shop and sit down while I wait for the part I need. Fast forward a week later...the front guys are slammed and I'm looking for something to do but I'm in the shop where my place is. My boss came out and asked if I'd help out. I replied with "No, my place is back here in the shop. I'm following orders. You'll get caught up." And starting sweeping in the back. The other techs thought I was in the right but my boss wrote me up for failing for follow orders. I'm confused; I stayed in my place.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Honigmann13 on 2024-09-17 13:33:09+00:00.

A few years ago my colleagues and I attended a training course. Part of it was communication. (More theoretical than practical)

The thing is, before this job I taught communication, among other things, for several years at a nursing school. That's why I just sat there quietly during that part of the training course. I didn't want to ruin this part of the training for my colleague or the course leader. During the short introduction round, I mentioned that I had taught communication and that's why I was holding back.

Apparently the course leader didn't like that. She asked for participation and I said again that I didn't want to mess up her lesson because I probably already knew what she was getting at. She then said something like "If you don't participate, you won't pass the training course." She then went too far with the sentence "My course is very advanced, you can't do that."

OK, if you have to.

She had already written the letters "S" and "E" on the board. (The standard beginning for the classic blackboard picture for Schulz von Thun's four-ears model.) Her last comment made me no longer want to be nice. "Should I go to the blackboard or join in from my seat?" With a triumphant smile, she pointed to the blackboard.

Well, I basically explained the model from memory the way I used to in my lessons. Including the standard example, easier-to-understand examples and hints as to where the difficulties in understanding this model lie.

After that, she explained at length to everyone that everything I had said was nonsense because I had not used the correct technical term for an "ear" but a different word that meant the same thing.

Somehow the rest of the communication part was very monologue-like because my colleagues were no longer interested in their lessons.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/MediumSavings4968 on 2024-09-16 20:59:44+00:00.

Cheap beets

Short and fun story. recent story in the last few months. One time thing (so far).

Preface: my father and I share horrible handwriting. I have really curdy cursive. My dads can be worse. And so He’ll write in “print”. So one of the more recent cursive mixed/print written times involving a grocery list where i made a funny. Ok it was a prank

Story

I was at the store with this badly written grocery list. My dad was nice enough to break the list down into sections so I didnt have to run department to department. So when I got to the meat department I saw something written as “Cheap beet”. In actuality my father had odds are written Cheap beef. Translation:  “Go check the managers special section for whatever is cheap. I dont care grab it." Still I called to double check. 

Me: “Dad, Hey did you write cheap beets or cheap …?”  

Dad (sounding half asleep, cutting me off): “huh? What? Listen Im in the middle of working on something. You need to pick up whatever I put on the list.”

Me: “but dad I just need to double ch–”

Dad: “look im busy, just either buy what i have on my list and we’ll sort it out later”

Cue malicious compliance.

Me: ok dad 

I hang up and decide to have a bit of fun. First thing I do is I buy a cheaper cut in the manager special section. (cover my butt, so dinner isnt ruined) then when im in the Produce section, I look for beets. Guess what? Organic is on sale.

I call up dad again.

Me: “Dad How many cheap ”

Dad (cuts me off) : “Look either buy 2 or double, or guess ok? Good god!”

Me: “can you at least tell me if you want organic?”

Dad : “yes organically grown or grass fed is fine”

I took everything to the checkout and paid. As I waked in the house to drop off my fathers groceries he starts double checking it. 

Dad: “Hey where's the …

Me (I finally get to cut him off): right here!

I hand dad the bag of cheap beets. Cue Surprised Pikachu face

Me: “You said everything on the list and guess what…. They were cheap!”

Dad looks at his list (sees his mistaken “T” for an “F”) and looks at his bag. Continuing Surprised Pikachu face. We had a good laugh and a few minutes later brought him the real beef. Dad admitted he was actually asleep when i called earlier. So I woke him mid nap half flustered and annoyed.

No fallout except I had to find an inventive way to cook beets but thought the prank be worth it to slug through one beet dish. though now dad checks his list and even walks up to me and says "its cheap beef son." he still laughs.

(Hope someone laughed from this one.)

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Electrical-Pay-3098 on 2024-09-13 21:34:29+00:00.

All freeway. All, state trooper tickets. Before when I drove, I would go with the flow...Safe.

Got a speeding ticket. Paid it. OK, 65mph from now on. Not as safe.

Another ticket. Cop lied. Nothing I can do. Paid it. Got a dashcam.

Another ticket. Cop lied. Court ignores my dashcam footage with speed stamp....wtf.

Another ticket, Judge says I was 1mph over the limit, so, GUILTY... ok.

Another ticket for exceeding 65, ignoring an imaginary road work sign(55zone), having too many imaginary head lights, and an imaginary illegal vehicle color scheme. (Car is one color.) Showed the court this was all wrong, gave them photos of evrything. Court found me guilty on all charges....🤷

Ok...

Malicious compliance time. I now set cruise control to 50 - 55max.

Fallout. From having caused no accidents, in my entire driving history. To, so far this year, having directly or indirectly caused 6 accidents on the road around me, that I know of. Just staying in my lane and keeping it steady. Lots of road rage against me, but I can't afford another ticket.

So far, no more tickets though. Even when a trooper almost rear ended me.

So next time you see somone 55mph or under, thank a cop for keeping you 'safe'.

Edit: I used to think cops were ok. I now distrust, hate, and fear cops, and the "justice system". You should too.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/no-go-away-4 on 2024-09-13 15:47:09+00:00.

This happened about 2 years ago when I was still in dental school. I'm sorry about any mistakes, English isn't my first language.

I want to start by saying that I'm a very nice dentist, I'm not a nice person at all but I'm very nice to my patients. I'm also pretty good at my job. I won't say I'm the best but I know that I'm good. That day however I was NOT in a good mood.

A lot of terrible things happened to me in the morning that ruined my day and as if that wasn't enough, I went to my job just to find out that Doctor Smith (fake name obviously) is the attending doctor. He is the worst. He will show up 15 MINUTES after we start working on our patients. I don't think he realizes that we are just students and we might need help.

Anyway it just put me in a worse mood.

So the secretary gave me a patient. One thing you need to know is that if the patient wants a same gender doctor because of religious reasons then we HAVE TO give them a same gender doctor but if the patient wants another doctor for no good reason then it's up to us, we can sent them to another doctor or we can tell them that it's either me or no one and they are free to leave if they don't like me.

I got the patient, I put on a smile and approached her, she looked at me and said "Hi I'm waiting for doctor Jones" I said "Yeah I am doctor Jones" She looked at me again, clearly disappointed and said "oh I assumed Doctor Jones is a man" I tried to use my nicest voice while answering "Well you were wrong"

There was silence for a moment while I prepared my thing then I heard a fake short laugh from her "Look honey I'm not saying you are bad at your job, I'm sure you are really good at it. But I want to extract my tooth and that requires lots of strength and I believe it would be better suited for a male doctor" Now I'm so angry but still trying to be nice "I assure you I have extracted many teeth before and I can do it as well as any man" She didn't say anything.

I left to get some more things that I needed and as soon as I left I saw her jump from her chair and went to the male NURSE and begged him to extract the teeth instead of me, who calmly explained to her that he is not a doctor and she should just let me do my job. Now I'm fuming.

I went back to her and said "Do you want a male doctor?" She said yes I do. I said fine then.

I looked around and there he was, the exact person I was looking for, Kai. Kai is one of my classmates and he sucks at his job. He is absolutely terrible. We even had a bet on when he will be kicked out.

I took the patient to Kai and asked him if he wants to have my patient. He was more than happy to do so.

Then I sat back and watched and to my delight, Kai was also with doctor Smith, which means he wouldn't get any help for the first 10-15 minutes. It was like Christmas come early.

It was a disaster, I loved every second of it. I don't want to go through how much pain the patient was in but I will say that she was in tears when it was finally done. It's a pitty that Kai dropped out shortly after. I would have sent all of these kinds of patients to him.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Tough-Painting6400 on 2024-09-12 02:27:31+00:00.

Many years ago, over 20, my wife and I kept a boat at a lake near our home. The marina had a restaurant that had an “all you can eat fried catfish” on the menu. These catfish were whole and just about the size of a grown man’s hand. We had been eating there 3 or 4 times a month for the past 3 years. I held the record of 17 catfish consumed and Pete, the owner/cook always said that I was maxed out and could never better my score.

Now comes the malicious compliance. Wife and I had 10 family and friends visiting for my birthday and we all went to the marina for dinner. I boldly and loudly announced that I was going to beat my record of 17 catfish. Obviously Pete overheard my braggadocio and took our orders. A lot of beer was being consumed. Pete brought out 9 platters, turned to me and said “beat your record and everything is on the house”. With cheers all around, Pete then said “fail and you have to give Gail and Debbie a 25% tip”. Everyone, including me, agreed and just knew we were getting a free meal.

Pete went back to the kitchen and brought out my first catfish. That sucker weighed 5 pounds, I could not even eat the one! Everyone laughed and we did have a great time. And yes the girls got their tip and I never messed with Pete again. Pete and I remained friends until he passed away last year. He never tired of telling this story.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/RevolutionFriendly56 on 2024-09-11 23:03:37+00:00.

I am a worker bee in a company that got bought out by a much bigger company earlier this year. Even though we were a small company, the teams were flexible, and everyone helped each other, and the company was profitable. Not to the new ownership though. Apparently our company was shit, and needed to be immediately fixed with "structure, hierarchy, and order".

The managers I've worked so well with over the years are gone.

The new owners promised no change, nothing to worry about, everything will be the same. Except that within a month, all the experienced managers who made the workplace so great to work for are let go.

What is worse, they've been replaced by emotionless walking husks resembling ghosts, with hammers as their only tool, and we're all nails.

Nevermind the incessant preaching of company spirit and loyalty and respect and company values. We all moan at these pep talks. We all yawn at the townhalls. Then the less subtle threats: Oh, you're not a team player if you don't do X, Y, and Z.. You need to work OT, or else that's not fair to everyone else. You're leaving on time, again? The culture certainly has changed. For one, I didn't even dare to take off early to pick up my kids from school anymore.

Finally, the toxic culture of fear and backstabbing. Every words said against the direction, even off the cuff in a chitchat, and every little facial or non-verbal gesture against the flow are immediately and harshly met with reprimands. For example, another worker bee was recently let go for restructuring, despite stellar work performance. He just couldn't keep his thoughts to himself I guess.

I hope I painted a good picture of what life under the iron fist is like.

Many of us are contemplating of leaving, but the job market is quite depressing in our area. The cost of living is high, and we are afraid of being the neck that sticks out. So everyone suffers in silence.

The company recently appointed a new CEO who, in his opening introduction to everyone, demanded undivided loyalty (to him). It means we must follow his every direction. It means we must smile in his presence and be super upbeat. I think the expectation here is we must cry like North Korean women in the presence of the supreme leader KimJongUn.

You want us absolute loyalty? I believe loyalty goes both ways. But we can show you loyalty.

We all got the message. You want us to play oscar winning actors and actresses instead of actually getting work done and speaking our minds to make the company better? You got it!

For those of us who read and trust each other (but we still need to be careful), we would have hours-long meetings with each other, on topics that sound important, but don't actually matter. We make sure our days are jammed pack full of discussions on how to move initiatives forward, but never actually discuss anything of substance and never have aggressive action items to follow-up on. We absolutely never forget to praise the leadership in the meeting minutes. Off the books, though, there's lots of small talks - for the sake of teambuilding.

Whenever we're questioned by these husks of a ghost, we'd pull out the corporate roadmap and point to the initiatives we've spent so many hours working on. We'd defend our time with the budget that recently got rolled out, look we're on-side. We've gone so far as requesting additional resources in next year's budget to ensure our very busy initiatives continue to make headway.

We're basically creating a public perception of busy, without actually doing too much.

We were a lean small company. Now we're a fat, busybody where everything is bloated and compartmentalized.

We shut our faces and we nodded.

We clapped the hardest after every presidential speeches.

And we lost money in the last several months.

That's the price we pay to give one-sided loyalty. We're still looking for other jobs.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/TheMurderedGirdle on 2024-09-10 13:45:40+00:00.

This MC was five years in the making.

While my job employs many people, there are only two people whose roles affect me: PERSON-A and PERSON-B.

I can cover for PERSON-A and PERSON-B, and either of them can cover for me, but I'm the only person at my company's many locations who can cover both roles when they are off at the same time. This usually happens 3-5 shifts a year during emergencies, so I'm happy to help.

During a meeting for a pay raise, I mention I'm the only person in the company who can cover PERSON-A and PERSON-B at the same time, and how this has been helpful in a pinch.

In their infinite wisdom, my boss tells me I am to no longer cover PERSONS-A-and-B, and to focus on my core responsibilities.

ASIDE: I still got a pay raise, but I think they wanted to prevent my argument from resurfacing again in the future, in the event I wanted to leverage another raise.

I knew this policy would bite boss in the ass, as a matter of "when," not "if."

Fast forward five years, the boss double-booked vacation for PERSON-A and PERSON-B. Boss asks me to cover both shifts for one day, as there is nobody else to cover.

"As per your instructions five years ago, I am not to cover the responsibilities of PERSON-A and PERSON-B during a shift."

The most chefs-kiss part of this interaction was something I learned from Reddit: DOCUMENT EVERYTHING.

When they instructed me five years ago to never again cover PERSON-A and PERSON-B, I asked for confirmation via e-mail. I keep these e-mails in the event I'm seen as uncooperative.

During a minute-by-minute emergency, I forwarded boss' own e-mail back to them, mentioning that I would focus on my "core responsibilities."

Thankfully, they were able to provide coverage that day (someone came in on their day off), and boss and I had a frank conversation about their rule-making several weeks later.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/loveabc109 on 2024-09-08 22:51:46+00:00.

My sister (25ish at the time) worked for a big box store for a few years . She was walking by the automotive department one afternoon shift, when she heard the familiar sound of the price gun.

"sh-chunk"

"sh-chunk"

"sh-chunk"

She then saw her friend, an assistant manager of that area,"Leo," labeling every item on a shelf. Reading the label on a bottle of oil, my sister noticed it said "Gluten Free."

"sh-chunk"

"sh-chunk"

"sh-chunk"

"What are you doing man!!?"

Leo smirked and said, "management wants every item in our departments marked 'gluten free.' I made sure that's what they wanted, and I was told that is what they said, so it should be done."

"sh-chunk"

"sh-chunk"

"sh-chunk"

He didn't get in trouble, the manager being a decently humored fellow, and he was told to remove all the stickers with "gluten free" on them.

My sister said that five years later, a new assistant manager of automotive (Long after Leo left for a new job) took a large brush used to clean off snow and asked her why it why marked "gluten free"?

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/68Cadillac on 2024-09-06 17:10:03+00:00.

Got my first career job in a local government, keeping tabs on it's real estate and the legal documents relating to said real estate. I'm wet behind the ears, my first 40 hour per week career job. This was a time when “multitasking” was a huge buzz word in business and it seemed every single job I applied for required someone with good “multi-tasking skills”. I thought it was bullshit. I worked best when only working on one task at a time and managing my work-load via a daily time allotment schedule. That is, I'd schedule my work in 15 minute lumps when I got in in the morning and work on those tasks. That way, I never missed a deadline, or had a project fall between the cracks. For example, some tasks got slotted 2 hours. Some whole days. Some just 15 minutes.

I loved to keep my desk clean. All tasks that appeared in my physical inbox were sorted and prioritized. The paper work was then filed, and the task scheduled, for later that day, or later in the week depending on how urgent it was. Consequently, my desk was always empty, save one folder, and a few maps related to the folder. Once one task was done, that folder and it's maps were filed, a new folder and it's maps were retrieved.

One afternoon my direct boss walks in, looks at my desk with it's one folder and two maps, looks at my clean topped filing cabinets, looks at my empty in-box (physical one you actually put paper/folders in). Grunts. Walks out.

20 minutes later, my boss strides back into my office, drops 18 inches of folders and papers onto my inbox. States proudly and firmly, “, it doesn't look like you have enough to do. THIS should keep you busy.” He smiled and strutted back to his cluttered office.

It was busy work. 3 weeks of mind numbing, paper work. Nothing outside of my work description. Just more like duplicate files, old contracts, unorganized paperwork, and/or outdated maps.

In dealing with the Dump's aftermath, I learned my lesson. While doing my actual job was important, it was equally important that hard work appear to be happening, so I could do my actual job. I started saving old files, old maps, and old legal documents. I rebound up papers, that normally would have been recycled, into legitimate looking folders. I transformed my office into a duplicate of my boss' chaotic, file & paper, hellscape. My inbox always had papers and folders in it. Height and number would vary, daily. Never empty. I had folders piled on top of the file cabinets, folders in stacks on the floor. 24 of those white office boxes packed with with 'files' towering around my work area. I even had a map rack with old maps rolled up in it. My office looked utterly cluttered. I even took to walking everywhere with a steno pad, a file folder, and sometimes a map under my arm. Didn't matter where. Getting coffee? Pad and file. Pooping? Pad and file. Pointless meeting? Pad. Two files. Actual necessary and productive meeting. Pad, relevant file, relevant map.

Every morning, right after scheduling my real work, I would shuffle the fake folders and paper around my desk and work area. Move the boxes about every two weeks. But in all that visual chaos I kept one area of my desk clean, where the real work happened.

One day, my boss peeked into my office, the door bumping into a stack of 3 full, white boxes placed behind it preventing it from fully opening. A single file fell off the top spilling its guts all over the floor. He looked around, paused at the mess he just made, then, “Uh, sorry 'bout that. What you working on?” I rattled off 3 of the highest priority property's on the current weeks schedule and the tasks for each. “Alright, um, I'll give this to someone else” and walked on down the hall. I'd already completed those tasks.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ZZZ-Top on 2024-09-06 16:37:27+00:00.

140$ seems steep but keep in mind this was a 22 year old Chevy SUV. No only did it need a oil change but its already suffering from bad piston slap which we documented. It got dropped off for overnight oil change and first thing in the morning the customer showed up for his truck. When he heard the price he got upset and said he wasn't paying that and to put the old oil back he doesn't care how after explaining it wasn't possible.

He gave off huge Cunty vibes, and judging from the condition of his truck he's always been a prick. When he left I had a talk with the other tech and he was confused about how we're putting the old oil back when it was so bad it looked like burnt oil. I told him we're gonna pump the top of waste oil enough to fill his truck. All the waste oil is mixed synthetic, axle, and standard oil is mixed was waste and generally not a good idea to reuse it but he insisted when he said he didn't care how.

We put his old filter back and put desert heat aged old oil back in it and as added measure one of the techs he pissed off put axle grease on the top of his catalytics(doesn't damage anything or smoke, it's smells fucking horrible when it's heated). We put his truck down and put it outside and gave the keys to the owner of the shop. When he came to get his truck the owner was outside waiting and told him not to come back again. The boss is still worried we might be on the hook for his engine if it blows and we showed him all the paperwork and the documented piston slapping. We figure his truck might last another year at best if he changed the oil by now .

Edit for those wondering about the break down in cost

12 Quarts of T6 70ish(you keep the extra)

Oil Stabilizer 10$

filter 12$

Oil plug 12$(only part he left with for free)

plus labor and disposal fees

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/floatingawaste on 2024-09-05 17:59:43+00:00.

I twisted and sprained my ankle Monday morning packing up our camp from Labor Day weekend. Having done this a few times in the past I didn’t want to bother to have it checked out (who wants to pay $1,000 for urgent care to tell you to rest and ice it!? Yay America) so I went to work Tuesday. I got morning stuff done and explained the situation to my boss, told him I’d need to take the day because it was swollen and painful and I needed to rest and be off of it in order for it to heal. He gets in a tizzy because god forbid anyone needs to miss work for anything at all ever, and snaps at me for not planning to go to the doctor.

Wednesday I go in to work, still limping and still wearing improper foot wear (I can only fit the injured foot into a croc without unbearable pain). The first thing the boss says is “don’t you think you should get that checked out? I don’t understand why you don’t want to just pay for it”. I explain again that I’ve had this injury in the past, it’s definitely not broken and honestly not even as swollen as it has been when I’ve done it before. I want to be at work to keep up on things and make everyone’s job less difficult I would just need to take it easy for a couple days which isn’t a problem considering I can do 90% of the job from my desk and the 10% slack is beyond easy for everyone to pick up (especially when not being there makes them pick up 100% of it). This gets met with more attitude so I ask if I’ll be getting paid sick time for the day I missed yesterday. He says no, not without a doctors note (you can visibly see the injury clear as day and I’m trying here so wtf!?).

I’m fed up by this point so a little later on I say okay and leave to go to the doctors for the note he wants so badly knowing full well what they’ll say to treat it and that I’ll need to be off of it for 3-5 days. After and X-ray and getting the “yup it’s sprained, keep doing what you’ve been doing” I let them know my boss asked for a note for missing a day of work to rest it. Doc asks if I want to be at work to do what I can and stay off of it as best as possible, I said that’s what I’ve been trying to do so I’m fine with that I do have sick time if it would be more beneficial to be off of it for a couple days. She comes back with a note that I may return to work on 9/9 which would be Monday.

I took a picture and shot it over to boss man, just the photo. He replys “what wrong with ankle” which I met with no response considering none is needed, he got his note. I just wanted a day of sick time, 8 hours. Now he’s paying me 4 days, 32 hours. He can’t refuse a second of it.

TL;DR sprained my ankle, tried to work and do what I can. Boss gets snarky because he can’t understand a person that makes $600 a week not wanting to pay $1000 to be told something they already know. He insists on a doctors note to pay one day of sick pay, doctor writes note to take me out of work for the week.

ETA: I have an HSA and I’m on a high deductible health plan by choice, I’m not losing any “real” money in this situation and it was well worth the price either way.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ShelLuser42 on 2024-09-05 05:25:52+00:00.

Hi gang!

(edit: now with tl;dr at the end)

Backstory

I live in a town in the Netherlands with a university and a few years ago my gf's cousin got accepted as an overseas student. My gf is Japanese, her family (father, mother, her sister and herself) moved to the Netherlands while she was younger. Her cousin still lived in Japan when she applied, got accepted and is now living in a student room in the Netherlands. We don't really have dorms here like in the US, but the building she lives in is maintained by the university itself.

Said cousin is doing quite well for herself, got good grades and is well on her way to get her diploma. Partly because of this the overseas family decided to have their vacation in the Netherlands this year, both for leisure and a bit of a family gathering.

This story takes place during the family gathering. My gf's parents and the cousins parents plus yet another family had a meeting in a restaurant in my hometown. They had 2 little kids in tow (sisters), these looked like 8 or 9 or so to me but my gf later told me that they are actually 11 and 12 but did look younger than they were, probably also because of their school uniform (at least that's what it looked like to me, I really don't know).

Anyway, the idea was to catch up with the family and my gf was asked if she would be willing to keep the two young kids busy for a few hours since she was the oldest of the lot... my gf and me are in our 40's, her studying cousin is around 25 and as said.. the two kids are around 10 (11 and 12). My gf didn't mind but did ask me if I wanted to come along as well. Her cousin didn't mind (the three of us had met a few times before already) and well, it was all about keeping the young kids busy anyway.

Oh, for the record... the two young kids basically only speak Japanese, they do understand bits of English and can even speak some but it's mostly Japanese. My gf's cousin speaks both Japanese and English and has even learned quite a bit of the Dutch language as well (seriously... for the few years she's been here it's IMO quite impressive). My gf speaks Japanese, English and Dutch and as for me... Dutch (obviously) and English, but over the years I also managed to pick up a decent bit of Japanese as well and I can often (not always!) understand the general jist of things, as long as it's not too quickly spoken or too complicated.

So basically it was all English and Japanese between us.

A bully shows up

We took the kids for a walk through my home town and they were quite interested, but when we went past a playground... that also quickly got their attention. So the three of us decided to go sit on a bench and let the kids have some fun. There were several activities like an air balloon castle, swings, a sandbox for younger kids to play in... just plenty of things to do. The two wanted to go into the castle which was fine with my gf as long as they made sure to only use the entrance/exit which was located on our side so that they wouldn't get lost and we could keep track of them.

The three of us talked quite a bit but also kept eyes on the castle. So... around 15 or so minutes later I spot the two again by accident near the exit with a little kid in between them. I have no idea but I'd say she was around 8 or so? I can't really tell exactly what's going on but I did see the kid point to the area of the sandbox and that's where the three of them headed next.

Before I can say anything to my gf a young lady walks up to us and asks (in Dutch) if we have seen a little girl passing by. This seems way too coincidental to me so I ask: "Is she wearing a pink dress by any chance?", the woman's face lights up as I tell her that she seems to be with my gf's younger cousins and I point to the sandbox.

But when we look over we now also see an older boy near the girls (I'm not good with guessing ages, let's just say that he was bigger than them?) and he's clearly harassing them. The small girl is visibly crying but also comforted by one of the two younger cousins while the other is keeping the boy away from her.

We all walk over to the sandbox just when the boy manages to shove one of the cousins out of his way and he's clearly trying to bully the young girl (in the pink dress), but now stopped by the other cousin. Which is when we arrive. The woman who is with us berates the boy and tells him to stop picking on young children. But the little brat clearly isn't very impressed.

The incident

Next moment his mother (so I assume) storms over yelling, and she has every appearance of a Karen. Or... a "Tokkie" as we tend to call them over here. A little argument ensues, mainly between the mother of the girl in the pink dress and our Karen/Tokkie. It goes back and forth but it's apparent that according to his mother the brat did nothing wrong by picking on a girl half his own size and this "fine" example of a mother even has the audacity to blame the other mother for "raising such a weak little 'c-word'". Basically... "Dat krijg je ervan als je domme huppel 'katjes' opvoedt".

And then the Karen says: "Kids will be kids, just let them sort out their own problems already!", but she does take the boy with her as she walks away. The mother gets ready to grab her kid and leave, but in the mean time the girl has completely calmed down and is actually having a great time with the two cousins.

Unknown to anyone else yet at this time my gf decides to comply with the earlier suggestion. First she asks the mother to reconsider leaving because the kids are having so much fun together. My gf also comments how amazing kids are because... they clearly don't speak the same language yet they seem to understand each other just fine and are having a good time.

The mother agrees and my gf now addresses both her cousins in Japanese. And it sounded very serious to me, something about the tone, the way she talked and also looked at both girls ... even a bit sternly. They both nodded, and clearly said "haaai", aka "Yes ma'am!". I think I even saw a small head bow, but I'm not too sure.

Our little group goes to sit on a bench nearby and for the next 5 minutes nothing happens. We're just having some smalltalk.

Then the bully returns.

The mother of the small girl wanted to stand up but gets stopped by my gf who tells her that she has nothing to worry about because her kid is completely safe: "Just watch, trust me on this". The mother is visibly uneasy but does remain seated.

Which is when I noticed that the behavior and stance of the two cousins has completely changed. They seem much more confident and relaxed. The boy starts making a fuss while one of the cousins stands up, points to him and yells something at him (in Japanese, obviously). He, once again, tries to shove her out of his way but this time.... she's faster. She steps aside, does something with her leg and gives him a huge shove. Next moment he's eating sand. No, literally.. he gets up visibly angry while his face is covered in sand.

This time he becomes violent and actually tries to hit one of the cousins with his fists. Yah, tries... She evades one attempt, then grabs his hand, spins it around and the next moment the boy finds his arm twisted behind his back and he starts screaming.

The other cousin now also stands up, pats the young girl on her head, makes another move and once again the boy gets shoved to the ground, this time by both cousins. Hard.. When he looks up the other cousin actually makes a moving gesture as if she wants to kick him but without actually moving her legs or anything. She's obviously just threatening him.

My gf pokes me with a huge grin on her face and tells me: "Surely that deserves a point for self restraint, don't you agree?". She's visibly loving every moment of this.

Apparently the boy isn't totally stupid and he runs off, while one cousin immediately turns to the young girl again who is clearly still having a good time. Not at the least upset with the bully.

"Wat was dat in godsnaam?!!", the mother asks... Oh, sorry: "What the hell was that?!", she asks. My gf tells the mother that her cousins are taking the same self defense classes as she and her sister once did, and that she had decided to "pull ranks" by telling her cousins that it was ok for them to actually defend themselves ...as long as they didn't overdo it, of course.

The mother wanted to know more about these classes but unfortunately for her my gf had to tell her that the actual school was located all the way out in a suburb of Tokyo so... not something her daughter would be able to attend.

Mommy returns with a "BOA" (guard)

We're chatting some more for the next 10 minutes after which the bullies mother storms over to us with a "BOA" in tow. BOA is Dutch for "Bewust ongeschikte ambtenaar", errr... sorry: "Buitengewoon Opsporings Ambtenaar" which basically means so much as a being a deputy but without the proper training nor having any weapons. Generally speaking most of them usually handle ticketing people.

He tells us that he has gotten a complaint from the woman about "people beating up her kid" to which the mother of the young girl immediately snaps: "Whatever happened with letting the kids sort out their own problems?".

Now, the funny thing is... apparently the whole spectacle didn't really go unnoticed and before we could say or do anything someone else...

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