Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/kyle1234513 on 2025-07-16 02:03:49+00:00.

Background several years ago I worked night shift for big pharma producing injectables. Theres very limited people running the place at that hour.

I was relatively new there and only had limited training on things i was allowed to do and things i wasnt. the buildings were designed with air flow direction and flow patterns to prevent biological contamination, cant go the other way or its a shut down and a cleaning for about 3-4 hours, nobody wants that.

my compliance was being instructed to go get raw material X from an earlier room. so for me that meant doing practically a full loop of the building, exiting completely and starting over. fine. only takes about 15 minutes. but the catch here is everything is "more clean" as you progress through the stages of the building going through airlocks.

going through the airlocks means spraying objects what youre bringing in with bleach, giving it 10minutes of contact time, wiping it down, then proceeding.

my malicious compliance here is when i informed manager on duty the prior airlock had no bleach he just interrupted me and said "NOW!"

so i do as im told and hurry up, exit. go around. wash up, change my scrubs. the works. i get the material and just as expected. i get stuck in the airlock with no bleach to wipe down a cart of raw material.

what manager wasnt aware of was I wasnt trained on mixing and making bleach, yeah easy enough in practice. but its still a signoff i wasnt "trained" on so I simply couldnt.

I was in there a good 2 hours until the manager found me, all I could do was point at the empty bleach container on the wall as he stared through the glass.

(he had to leave, do a lap, make bleach himself, wait another 30minutes or so for bleach to settle then join me in the airlock for another 10minutes of contact time together. in silence)

((TLDR stuck in airlock for nearly 3hours, cant leave the totes unattended, and I wasnt trained yet on how to make bleach to actually do what the manager wanted me to))

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/MoistCurdyMaxiPad on 2025-07-15 19:54:58+00:00.

I worked at a restaurant. We had a front salad bar, a buffet with a salad bar, as well as things like a juice bar and ice cream counter and a small alcohol room with a bar. It was so popular and also a bit expensive but somehow so underpaid, understaffed and poorly managed.

Jenny is the daughter and the only child of the owners of the restaurant. She's extremely spoiled, she almost always gets her way, and she has a temper where she will get pissed off and just lay into the person for an hour straight. She used to come in screaming at everyone for nothing and made racist or nasty jokes. She'd pushed people to come in sick then ask why they were so slow. Just the typical manager from hell.

Marco, one of the kitchen managers, is the son of a family friend and a beloved member of the community. His management consisted of micromanaging, criticizing our work, blaming random people for things, giving extreme time constraints for tasks, encouraging everyone to smile, and going around asking people (while they were in the middle of working their 3 jobs) when they wanted to come in the next day or if they'd like to cover a shift on Saturday or whatever. He would forget to do things and then blame other people, then he would go around criticizing people for their time management or responsibility. Anytime we reported that something was broken or something wasn't working, he just told us to figure it out and nothing would be done about it until Jenny came in screaming at everyone and narrowed it down to Marco.

We had other managers coming in and out, they couldn't take it. There were people who were suddenly hired to take on big positions despite having no idea what they were doing or joined with less than a full day of training just because the place was desperate. The waitresses were paid less than $4 an hour and some of them were doing part of the dishwasher's duties, front manager duties, cleaning jobs including kitchen and employee bathroom. I want to say dishwashing was the worst as three different people would come to work drunk or high everyday just to tolerate everything. My coworker DJ kept up even when other dishwashers weren't working, helped me or the waitress clean, and literally had to monitor food that was cooking and he'd keep track of orders because the manager Marco and the chef wanted to mess around or go stand by the door and smoke. There were days where staff members would break down or get sick pulling a double shift and he did everything for them, there was no choice.

My job was preparing and filling food items for the main salad bar in front everyday, and some days I also did salad bar in the buffet. I had other things to do as part of my normal salad/buffet job including making food for reservations, preparing and stocking juice bar, and helping move stock into the freezers and fridge. On top of that I was packing non salad food for delivery and takeout, helping maintain and stock up to half the buffet, helping waitresses keep up with serving and bussing, doing ice cream and desserts, cleaning the whole kitchen and storage areas and customer bathrooms, helping the bar staff, helping at the front desk whenever I was out, and preparing ingredients or fetching things for the normal chef/buffet chefs. All for a little more than minimum wage. I fell every day because I was running on wet floors and I had a heat stroke and even had to go to the ER for injuries. On buffet days I had a partner but that didn't matter, she just stood around right in front of the manager Marco, talking to her cousin who worked there while watching me work and both she and Marco would take breaks every now and then to criticize my work or my speed.

Everything was held together by DJ and me. We were teenagers on Rockstar drinks so we took whatever was coming to us. We kept everything going so well that we got scheduled to work almost every day then every weekend. Jenny gave us free soda privilege and we got raises two times in 5 months, which were only 10c, but did look good to me because my dad praised all of my paychecks, he didn't know what was going on and that I was working crazy hours and he thought I was overpaid. Most of the customers were very sweet so we tried our best to be of service, and a lot of them were regulars or people who came in to support Marco or everyone.

There was always so much pressure on DJ and me. Also DJ isn't white and he would always get racist jokes and comments towards him, Marco and Jenny either did nothing or were the offenders. Most of the criticism or Marco's projection went to him despite him doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing and occasionally messing up due to extreme stress or time constraint. After a certain point almost every criticism was race-based in some way.

One horrible Saturday, there were 3x as many reservations as usual, on top of all bars and buffet being open. I clocked in and found out one of the managers let go of DJ the afternoon before. Absolutely no one knew why including DJ and I'm really assuming it was Marco. I already had zero hope for the day and the only thing fueling me was the customers and my paycheck of course.

In just the first hour, I passed Marco at least five times trying to get things done. There was one time we accidentally made eye contact while I was helping a waitress. But at some point I went to the freezer in the back to help load some ice cream in and he happened to walk in at the same time that I was standing there for 3 seconds 'doing nothing' waiting for my coworker to bring in the dolley. He gave me this frustrated look like "Get back to work". He caught me maybe a half hour later while I was coming into the back of the kitchen (near the freezer) to mop up some spilled water. The final time he caught me, I was in the freezer again looking at the inventory to see what fruit we had enough of, because I could only serve what we had enough of in case people requested more, and Marco had enough. He said "The place is busy as fuck and you're in here just standing in the freezer for like 4 hours. Go home." I gave him this look like wtf and he reiterated that I was done for the night.

I was not arguing with Marco. This was not my problem. I just said thanks, took my apron off, and headed out. Both the employee doors were blocked by trash cans and my partner standing there with a whole cart of things talking to her cousin, so I went to use the main side door in the front of the restaurant.

Jenny saw me and asked where I was going. I put on a smile and said, “Man, Marco is the best guy ever. He just randomly came up to me and told me to take the night off.” Jenny's face went from confused to shocked to livid in the span of one second, she quickly told me “Don't go just yet.” and she stormed into the kitchen screaming “MARRCOOOO!!!”

I pretended to not hear her over the music and customers, and I just turned around and left.

I got over 10 phone calls but I simply let my phone ring. I waited until my partner updated her Facebook status with “FINALLY closed, girl night time!” or something like that and I finally texted Marco back and gave an apology that sucked up in the most condescending way, but in a way that was personal that only he would understand if he were to show it to someone. I came back the next morning and it was a complete disaster. Marco and Jenny came in looking dead tired because they spent the rest of the night and overtime busting ass, trying to keep things going. There were actually dishes and trash bags piled up and both the buffet and kitchen were wrecked because Jenny and her dad didn't want to keep the workers late and pay them overtime.

The restaurant had to close for the summer. They posted all these job opportunities in schools and on Facebook and eventually opened back up, but I never answered and DJ didn't accept amends so it was a whole spiral. Because of me leaving and DJ being fired, they had to close down their ice cream and minimize their buffet and they now close earlier because they can't handle it. There are less customers supporting Marco and there were even customers saying they aren't coming back until Marco or Jenny leaves. There's a waitress who joined during my time there and it was her first job ever, now she is the only previous employee left, and she ended up getting appointed as a manager at some point, I think they had to offer her a lot of money to stay because she bought a new house. Marco is the only other manager now. Marco is still asking me to come back and since I deleted Facebook, I kept that phone number open with prepaid service on my old phone just for the purpose of reading his texts during my lunch.

TLDR: Horrible place accuses me of doing nothing, loses everything

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/robertr4836 on 2025-07-15 19:25:11+00:00.

I've commented about this, I think it fits here. In the late 80's I was asked to work at my pharmacy job full time during summer break from college. I was the only young full time worker and the only male among a clique of mom to grandma aged women mostly working mothers hours.

My half hour lunch was supposed to start at noon but for some reason my relief just wouldn't show up no matter how often I paged them. Fifteen minutes, a half hour, an hour or more. It didn't bother me so I didn't complain about it.

That first Friday I finally get to break a little after 1PM and the store manager comes in and starts telling me she has had MULTIPLE complaints that I have been screwing up everyone's break schedule and how disappointed she is in me. I try to tell her that my relief is not showing up and she actually does the hand thing where she just puts her hand in my face and says:

SM: Starting next week I want you back on main register at 12:30 SHARP. NO EXCUSES!

So next Monday I start paging my relief at quarter of. At five of I call for second or backup register who is surprised since there is only one customer. I tell her to open second register. I close main, lock my drawer in the office and punch out right at noon sharp.

About ten minutes later the store manager comes running into the break room in a panic asking why main register is closed, there's a line and more importantly WHY IS MAIN REGISTER CLOSED?

Me: On Friday you told me I had to be off main register at noon sharp, NO EXCUSES!

SM: THAT'S NOT WHAT I SAID!

Me: Did you say starting next week I have to be back on main register at 12:30 SHARP. NO EXCUSES!

SM: Yes! That's what I said!

Me: And is my break a half hour long?

SM:...

SM: Can you please punch back in and take care of the line? I'll find your relief.

My relief showed up at five to noon for the rest of the summer.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Few_Tangerine5417 on 2025-07-14 07:00:49+00:00.

Ah, summertime. Sunshine, ice cream, and for working parents like me — a logistical nightmare wrapped in a childcare puzzle from hell.

A couple of years ago, I realized I was going to hit a problem over the 7-week school summer holidays. My co-parent and I split our annual leave to cover as much of it as possible, but we still had a 2-week gap with no childcare coverage.

Here’s the kicker: my kids were at that delightful in-between age where they don’t need 24/7 hand-holding, but you also can’t just leave them home alone for 10 hours a day unless you enjoy visits from Child Protective Services. They’re perfectly capable of entertaining themselves, but not quite old enough for full independence. Basically: no babysitter needed, but still need a warm body in the house. You know, just in case.

So I did the reasonable, adult thing. I submitted a formal work-from-home request 4 months in advance. I explained the situation clearly, provided specific dates, and even included a list of tasks I’d be working on. I made it as easy as humanly possible for my boss to say yes.

But no. That would be too simple.

Instead, I get called into a meeting where my boss (no wife and no kids), puffed up like a proud pigeon, says, “I’m not approving this. Your job can’t be done from home.”

Cue blinking.

“My job is literally a laptop and an internet connection. Why can’t I do it from home?”

“Because you’re an office-based employee,” he replies, as if that’s some sacred unbreakable vow, not just a line on an org chart.

I reiterated that this was a short-term request, I could absolutely manage my workload, and it was to solve a real-life problem involving, you know, actual children. Still nope. He tells me if I can’t come in, I’ll need to take unpaid parental leave.

Cool. If that’s how you wanna play it, let’s play.

So I took the unpaid leave. Stacked with annual leave, I was out for 5 full weeks. No emails. No meetings. No “quick check-ins.” Nothing. I didn’t touch a single work-related thing. My work phone and laptop were switched off and remained in a cupboard untouched for those 5 weeks.

Fast-forward to my first day back. My inbox looks like it’s been through a war. There are missed deadlines, forgotten follow-ups, and a whole bunch of “who was supposed to handle this?” floating around — spoiler: all of it was mine, because no one else does what I do.

Boss is fuming. He comes over and says, “I thought we agreed you’d stay on top of your emails while you were off, so you wouldn’t be so behind.”

I stared at him like he’d just told me the sky was green.

“Uh… what? You told me my job couldn’t be done from home. And I was on unpaid parental leave. That means I wasn’t working. At all. Per your instructions. Remember?”

He did not like that answer.

But hey — you made the rules, buddy. I just followed them exactly. Maliciously. Compliantly.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/CandleGleam on 2025-07-14 06:14:24+00:00.

My sister-in-law is intense. She’s very particular and wanted a minimalist baby shower. I offered to help since I throw events professionally and could’ve made it amazing, I really wanted to, free of charge. But she insisted: No decorations. No streamers, no balloons, no themes. Just a clean space, nothing extra.

Cool. I asked her three times to be sure, and she kept repeating it: No decorations

So I followed her wish to the letter.

I booked the venue, set up tables, white disposable tablecloths, plain paper plates.

No flowers, no centerpieces, no color, no banner, no music, no cake topper.

Just space and silence.

Guests showed up confused, thinking they had the wrong room.

She pulled me aside, looking panicked:

Why does it look like a conference room? I said, You told me no decorations. I honored that.

She spent the whole party apologizing to people and trying to liven things up with paper napkins.

Afterward, she admitted maybe she should’ve trusted me.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/SL1MECORE on 2025-07-13 20:18:58+00:00.

This happened years ago when I worked as dishwasher/semi janitor for a bakery. Essentially my job description was just to clean.

One day someone spilled raspberry filling all over the wall underneath the handwashing station. My boss asked me to scrape off the excess and sanitize, so I did that. Unfortunately the stain was left, because raspberry filling is actually radioactive or something.

She asked about the stain. I then explained to her that I could tell the filling had stained the paint and if I scrubbed any harder, I would scrub the paint off the wall and the wall was likely stained underneath as well.

She told me to scrub harder.

So I did. I scrubbed to my heart's content until the paint came off. Then I scrubbed the wall underneath for good measure. Again, raspberry filling is... like, nothing else. These fillings stained everything immediately.

When she looked back at the area, she complained about the paint being ruined and told me I had scrubbed too hard.

Fuck you, Laura

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/raw_lea on 2025-07-13 16:17:14+00:00.

worked as a front desk at a medium size company. Id been here for 2 yrs now and aside from answering phone calls. I quietly fixed tech issues, helped schedule meetings proofread reports whatever needed doing (like I was doing a more than my job description because I love the people here).

One day our (ex)manager (let's called him Derek, were not close bec he's too highly of himself) overheard me helping someone format a document n said, Why r u doing that? U r just the receptionst. Stay in ur lane.

So I did.

The rest of the week I politely declined everything that wasnt listed in my original job description haha lol (thats my role, no more, no less)

didn't reset wifi router

didnt refill the office printer paper

didn't track package or help schedule meetings

let callers ring endlessly while I was away from the desk (y? it didnt even listed as part of my job description haha lol)

chaos ensued. Derek was the first to complain, My response? "I'm just the receptionist" (i let him take his own medicine)

Then the CEO ended up calling me into his office... to promote me to Office Coordinator lol. it happened. Thanks to him. simple matters but has a big effect

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/PumpkinCrouton on 2025-07-13 03:51:33+00:00.

I worked at night fixing machinery. Easy gig. When something broke, they would call me and I would fix it. Oddly, things refused to break on a schedule. Often I would clock out for lunch just before the end of the shift, clock back in, then clock off and go home. For me, my lunch was flexible. If I was fixing something, with many people standing around not able to work, I fixed it. Occasionally I had to warm my lunch in the microwave several times before I had time to eat it. Most nights were slow and I could eat anytime I wanted. Sometimes I'd get a call during lunch and I'd go fix it. Somewhat awkward to keep looking at the clock, stop what I was fixing to go clock back on. I was yelled at. I was told I had to take a full 30 minute lunch off the clock on schedule, and couldn't work when I was 'off the clock'

I mentioned that when I worked a different job at the same company years before, the truck stop down the road had great steak and eggs. Maybe they still do?

Boss said I can't leave the property...

I told him One, if I'm off the clock, you damn sure won't be seeing me because I won't be here. Two, in 10 years I've never had a scheduled time for lunch. Three, you pick the 30 minutes during the night when absolutely nothing gets fixed because I'm off the clock and/or gone.

Never heard another word.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/2BallsInTheHole on 2025-07-12 17:30:40+00:00.

Long time listener, first time caller.

I ran the mail department in a good-sized commercial printing company. Most of my day was filled with taking customer mailing lists and processing them so that they get discounts at the post office, but occasionally I produced consecutively numbered items (read raffle tickets).

Now, raffle tickets are small. Maybe 1 by 4 inches, too small to run to the machine by themselves. We decided to run them four across and two high, so eight raffle tickets per sheet. I created a spreadsheet in Excel that had eight columns (one for each raffle ticket position).

The raffle tickets in this particular case were printed on a special type of paper that has a holographic background. Very expensive.

The process of setting up the inkjet machine to print the eight numbers in two spots on each raffle ticket is to find the appropriate XY position for the first ticket number to be placed on the customer portion, then copy that number to replaced on the part of the ticket that is ripped off and given to the administers of the raffle. Now I have coordinates that I can extrapolate to the remaining seven positions.

Having copied and pasted the original two text boxes using extrapolated XY coordinates, they were all showing the exact same raffle number, the first row/column in my spreadsheet. While I was going through the process of changing position two to reflect the data in the second column, position three to reflect the data in the third column, etc. my always-in-a-hurry manager showed up and, right in front of my entire department, yelled "why is this machine not running yet?" I was currently halfway through updating the 5th out of 8 tickets.

I told him that it wasn't set up yet, I still had some work to do to get it ready. He looked at the screen and could see that there was data for all eight tickets, all 16 positions had a text box associated. Never mind if the text box contained the correct data or not, they all had data associated.

Happy to tell you, I pushed back hard. I didn't give him specifics, just that the setup was not complete and cannot be run as is. He asked, I shit you not, "what's it going to take to get this machine running right now?"

Easy! I'll simply comply!

I handed him the last piece that came out of the machine (mind you, positions 6, 7, and 8 all contained data for position one, and position 5 was only half right) and said, "if you want to put your signature on this piece, we can run it right now. But I'm not signing off on it until I verify the accuracy of all 16 positions." 😇

The next day was hell. More special paper had to be purchased delivered FedEx overnight first a.m. delivery, rush job to print and cut and deliver to my department, rush to imprint (correctly) positions five through eight, cut to final size, box and deliver to the customer. Job was late, we lost any profit we were looking forward to through overnight delivery, reprint, etc etc etc.

I just smiled and did my job, never said a word, but the look on his face when he told me I had to redo half the job was priceless.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ImpressiveSentence26 on 2025-07-12 12:59:50+00:00.

I worked for a large property management company many years ago. The property manager was a terrible person. He was cruel to residents (low income housing) and "ruled" through fear and intimidation. He'd get in his employees faces, swear at them and generally try to get people to quit so he could fill positions with friends/minions.

He was doing everything in his power to get me to quit. I hated going to work every day. But, this was during the recession. I had a baby at home, so quitting was not an option.

At one point, he told me I had to keep a detailed log of everything I did, all day long, broken down every 15 minutes. I knew he didn't think I would do this. I also knew he'd likely wait months before asking for the documentation. I also knew that he assumed that he could fire me for insubordination if it was not done to his specifications.

I was correct, he waited about 3 months and randomly asked me for the documentation. I told him to give me a minute and I'd print it out.

When I returned with the full log, he and the assistant manager, (who was in cahoots with him), just stared at it with dumbfounded and defeated looks on their faces.

A couple of weeks later, I left that property and moved to another job within the company.

A few months after that, he and the assistant manager got caught for fraud and stealing money.

Payback's a bitch, I guess. 😉

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/pissfilledbottles on 2025-07-11 22:33:21+00:00.

This happened a few years ago but I ran into an old coworker and we talked about this story.

I was working at a Ford dealership in parts, and we hired a guy, we'll call him Paul. For a little bit, he was a fairly decent worker, he learned quick and was mostly doing shipping and receiving freight in the mornings, and running parts to techs.

I began to notice when I was working by myself on Saturdays, parts we received for stock weren't put away, he'd leave them for me to do. This was never allowed as it was the shipping and receiving person's job to do this every morning. He started doing this during the week as well, because he knew I'd end up doing it before I left at night. Finally I brought this up to my boss, and he had a talk about it with him. It stopped for awhile, but then he began doing it again.

I finally chewed him out about it, because I already had a ton to do during the day and I told him parts are just going to start piling up from now on if he doesn't do his job. I walked away after we came to an understanding, or so I thought we did.

Two days later, my boss pulls me aside and tells me Paul brought him a doctor's note this morning that stated he could no longer lift anything heavier than 10lbs due to a back problem. My boss's hands were tied and I was pissed because I knew he did this out of pettiness. For about a week I'd put away all of the heavy parts, flustered about it but I did it anyway.

Until one night he made a snarky remark about his lift restrictions, and it got my gears turning. If he wanted to play this game, I'd play it right back.

Every day after he left, I'd go in the back and start weighing all the parts he left behind that day. If it was 10lbs and up, I'd put it away. If it was under 10lbs, I'd write the weight on a sticky note and leave it there for him in the morning.

After a week of it, Paul started complaining to my boss about what I was doing to him, but my boss had my back. He told him I was simply going off of what his restrictions were, and putting away the parts that were too heavy for him. My boss also found it hilarious.

A few days later he put in his two week notice.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/BookGnomeNoelle on 2025-07-11 17:55:14+00:00.

One of the offices I work for is moving to a new location. I started at this location, worked at it for four years, until I was transfered to a closer office. Since they're officially moving next week, they have been packing things up through the week to carry five miles away over to their new office, and I have repeatedly offered to help. Yesterday, I made suggestions about helping, offering my truck to carry things, go grab boxes, etc. Every time, I was turned down, and the supervisor finally said, "Look, we need you to sit there and deal with patients. We don't need your help with the packing, we have this."

Cool. I turned around, did my work, completely ignored issues they were having. They needed another set of hands a few times and would call my name, but I was suddenly busy with a patient or the phone or whatever else was needed. When they asked about packing some items in particular, I shrugged with no answer. Finally, the supervisor asked if I was going to help with anything, I answered, "Nope. I'm going to sit here and deal with patients like I was told. As you said, you don't need my help."

Today, guess who showed up with a sore back and hobbling?

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/cynical-mage on 2025-07-11 15:06:40+00:00.

Going back through the mists of time to the days of working with my father in law as a builder's labourer for this little story.

To start this, my fil/boss had a habit of going to B&Q for [insert random non critical item], when in actual fact it was a handy excuse to go to a cafe for a sausage and bacon sarnie while the rest of us got on with the work.

He had one golden rule; all other tools were whatever, but his precious DeWalt drill was his baby. Never, ever, ever touch the DeWalt!

This fine morning, he decided to toddle off, leaving me, the plumber, and the plasterer to our various jobs. My task was to sort out the arcatrave and hang a door. After getting the hang of builders banter while being a gasp girl (give as good as you get, and you're sorted lmao), I thought I'd sort out the cheeky bugger. You see...don't touch the DeWalt. The only drill in the building. Fine, suits me.

Fil waltzes in, suspicious stains on his shirt, and what looked to be ketchup on the corner of his mouth.

'Why the hell isn't the door done?!'

'Well, I did what I could, but you said I wasn't to use the DeWalt'

He spluttered a fair bit, the plasterer fell off the steps from pissing himself laughing, plumber quietly giggled, and I stood there pulling the most angelic face I could manage. And then I was finally given permission to use the damn drill.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/SWANDAMARM on 2025-07-11 12:12:04+00:00.

This happened a while ago, but its my favorite and most genius maliciois compliance ive committed

. I was working for a site work/excavation company as a laborer on a pipe crew. I'm not a phone at work kinda guy. I don't like texting all day while at work and I'm not that involved in social media so all I would use it for was to pull it out of my pocket to real quick to check the time.

Foreman I was working with said I can't be on my phone while on the clock. I told him I'm not on my phone I'm just looking at the time. He responded that if I wanted to look at the time to get a watch.

Ok

I went to like 5 pawn shops until I saw a relatively cheap pocket watch and bought the shit out of it. Next work day I overly exaggerated my efforts to look at the time making it look like I was trying to hide "phone use"

Of course my foreman jumped right down my throat, "I told you no phone even to to check the time"

"It's not my phone it's my new pocket watch" I said with a shit eating grin

He seethed as he walked away. Never bothered me about anything else and I went back to my usual crew shortly after and it was no longer an issue.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/PastelWitchys on 2025-07-11 06:59:39+00:00.

I used to work for a small regional sales company where part of my job involved visiting clients across the state. I had my own reliable car, kept in great condition, and I always preferred using it for work trips, more comfortable, better mileage, plus I knew it inside out.

Well, one day the new manager came in with a bunch of new rules. One of them being that all employees must use the company car for any work related travel. No exceptions.I explained that I preferred my car and even offered to waive mileage reimbursement, but nope. Policy is policy.

Next time I was to travel for work, I grabbed the keys to the company car, a crusty old Ford Focus with 170k miles, held together by zip ties and corporate optimism. Barely any AC, brakes squealed like a banshee, and it reeked of stale coffee and despair.

About an hour into my 3 hour drive to a client, I hear a loud clunk. Then smoke. Then the car just dies. On a remote highway. No signal. I end up walking nearly two miles to get a bar of service and call for a tow. Client meeting? Missed. The company had to reschedule, reimburse the client for the inconvenience, and cover the tow and repairs. Manager wasn’t pleased. I reminded him I had offered to take my own car because I trusted it. After that, the mandatory company car rule got quietly retired, and I never heard about it again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Marshmelty on 2025-07-10 20:23:01+00:00.

Growing up, my younger brother was obsessed with his privacy. Totally fair except he took it to an extreme and was rude about it.

He used to yell at me for even walking near his things. One day, I tried to grab his phone to hand it to him because it was ringing right next to me. He snatched it out of my hand and shouted

Stop touching my stuff! Never touch anything that’s mine. Ever!

Alright, message received.

Sometime later, he left his laptop on the edge of the table, charger stretched across the floor. I noticed it was going to fall and crash. I reached out to move it… then remembered his rule.

So I didn’t touch it.

About 30 seconds later, he walked by, tripped over his own charger, and the laptop crashed to the floor.

He lost his mind. Why didn’t you move it? He asked me

You told me never to touch your stuff. I reminded him.

He was furious. My parents backed me up. Rule’s a rule. Guess who stopped making blanket demands after that?

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/soondoongdoriontop on 2025-07-10 17:55:57+00:00.

This is kind of a short one, and not my experience, but:

Homosexuality was classified as an illness in Sweden up until 1979. In protest, Swedes started calling in sick to work, claiming that they couldn't work since they were "feeling kind of gay". Just a fun fact I saw on insta and wanted to share.

Credits: @/queeerrs on Instagram!!!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Geehzin on 2025-07-10 16:03:39+00:00.

A few years ago, I worked as a tech support guy/salesperson at a small, family-owned computer store in my hometown. It wasn’t a franchise, just a local shop. The owner? A mustached, arrogant dude who could never admit when he was wrong. No matter what went wrong, it was always someone else’s fault. That constant blame game was a big reason why I ended up quitting, but that’s another story.

At the time, my main job was delivering products to clients and doing on-site tech support at their homes or businesses.

Now, for some context: My boss was obsessed with the idea that I was “too slow” during client visits. No matter how long I actually took, be it 5 minutes or 2 hours, it was always too much in his eyes. He couldn’t seem to understand that tech problems vary and can take different amounts of time to fix.

And of course, he loved to compare us to past employees. “Back when So-and-So worked here, he was way faster than you!” Funny thing is, I knew that when So-and-So worked there, the boss used to say he was slow and someone else was better. That was just his thing: guilt-tripping whoever was working for him at the time.

Fast forward a bit: One day, he was in an extra bad mood and decided that from now on, I should message him every single time I finished with a client and wait for his reply before moving on. Same thing when I arrived somewhere, message him to say I’d arrived. He wanted this done through WhatsApp, SMS, or even a phone call. If I didn’t have credit, I was supposed to make a collect call (where the person receiving the call pays, not sure how common that is elsewhere).

Basically, he didn’t trust that I was working and thought I might be wasting time between clients or just riding around town. Spoiler: there’s not much to see.

I was annoyed, but sure, whatever. Rules are rules.

Day one: I followed the rule to the letter.

Arrived at a client? Message. Finished the job? Message and wait.

I lost way more time waiting for responses than I ever did between jobs, but okay.

Day two: same deal. Morning went by. After lunch, I loaded up the bike with deliveries and gear and headed out.

First client of the afternoon: Messaged when I arrived. He replied.

Fixed the issue. It didn’t even take 30 minutes, so I messaged when finished.

No response. Waited 5 minutes. Nothing. Called him. No answer. Waited another 5 minutes. Still nothing. So I sat down on the curb, under a tree, and waited. Watched some videos, scrolled through Facebook, chatted with friends. And I waited. And waited.

Almost 3 hours passed. I just sat there, doing nothing, waiting on the guy who demanded that I never move on without his go-ahead.

Eventually, my phone rang.

Boss: “Where are you??”

Me: “Still at client X’s place.”

Boss: “STILL?? He was the first one this afternoon! The day’s almost over! Just go back here.”

Me: “On my way back now.”

I got back to the store and was greeted by him practically foaming at the mouth.

“Why the hell did you take so long?! You’re so slow!”

I looked him straight in the eye.

“I was following your rule. You told me to notify you every time I finished a client and wait for your reply before moving on. You didn’t respond, so I waited. I’d never go against your orders.”

He froze. Just stared at me. He didn’t know what to say.

Then he tried to backpedal.

“Well, you should use common sense! If I didn’t answer, it’s because I was busy!”

Turns out he’d spent the whole afternoon dealing with contractors and problems at his house renovation, and just completely forgot he’d given me that rule.

Needless to say, that rule was never mentioned again. I went back to the old way of doing things.

But, of course, he still kept complaining that I “took too long” with clients. Some things never change.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/CasyD on 2025-07-09 22:36:45+00:00.

This is a long one but I still enjoy it. Long ago I was dumb enough to rent a house within the control of an HOA. I have since learned better. This property was managed by a company called (city I lived in) properties they had purchased the house within the HOA and rented to us but given that I wasn't actually in the HOA I was just a renter it became a really conveluded mess very quickly. We were told that we would need to adhear to the HOA guidelines, but we couldn't talk to the HOA directly nor would we be able to receive a copy of the rules but that it wasn't that serious most of their tenants didn't ever hear from them. Should have said no right then but I was young and dumb.

The day I arrived at the property to move my stuff in I was informed by my landlord that I was being fined 100 dollars for my trash cans being visible from the street. Apparently because my trashcan was delivered by the city two days prior to a place I didn't have access to, it was my responsibility to have driven across town and broken into the backyard to move the trash cans. The first infraction is a warning they never passed on the second is 100 dollars. They said I was responsible for it especially after the warning I literally never received. Then they told me that they would only accept payment in person going forward even though my deposit and first months rent were paid online, and it must be through a money order in person. Then they informed me the office for (the city I lived in) properties which I'd never been to is actually a two hour drive away totally not in (the city I lived in.)

I told them this is my first day in I got the keys a hour ago there's no way I could have done this correctly. Surely it could be explained to the HOA that this couldn't be my fault. They said no I couldn't talk to the HOA because I wasn't a member couldn't see the rules I was supposed to follow because the HOA only allows copies for members. Then they pointed me to a single line in the rental agreement that said I would follow the rules. After far more back and forth than should be required for something so ridiculous we came to an agreement that they would cover the fine but for some reason it was impossible to wave the record of the infractions and I would be half way to eviction on day one. All of it counted against me but they'd do the 100 dollars. I asked if there were any more rules that I needed to be aware of up front since I couldn't get a copy of the rules. They told me I had to mow every Thursday because that and the trashcan thing is what typically gets people in trouble. They do a "walk by" Fridays if we mowed on Wednesday it would be too long by then if we did it Friday they'd count it as not done.

I mow the lawn every Thursday for months and kept my head down I never even spoke to a neighbor or did anything to draw attention to myself. Around 3/4ths of the way through the lease I get a 400 dollar fine on a Friday with a photo taken nearly in my backyard of my grass with a ruler next to it which I had just mowed the day before. I'd missed a single tuft of grass behind the AC unit it was less than half an inch above the rest of it they'd walked through the yard to the back corner with a ruler to find an issue. They said this puts me on my final warning before eviction unless I could prove it was cut by a specific landscaping company owned by someone in the HOA. Apparently the HOA only accepts work from them and it's the only way to reverse a fine. I fought it hard but ultimately I paid it because I was almost out. Then I started to pay to have it done by that company and kept receipts just in case

Around 2 months or so left in the lease I get another notice this time it's a 600 dollar fine and a formal letter stating that I would be evicted and a picture of my grass fully mowed. No ruler no indication that anything was really wrong just a wide shot of my house with cut grass. Since the last time I was told that a receipt proving it was done by them could clear it up. I called the landlord up offer to show them the copy of the receipt told them to look at this picture or come by with a ruler but it was done correctly. I figured it was a misunderstanding and there's no way I'm actually getting evicted over this.

A woman who I'd never spoken with answers the phone and comes in hot from the get go. I calmly explained the situation to her, she isn't having any of it cuts me off mid sentence says I have to pay 600 today then they are going to evict me. Refused to look at the receipt or the photo tells me the buck stopped there and it's my fault for being a bad tenant and to just save my breath and start packing. I told her I didn't recognize her voice and that I had been dealing with someone else. I asked how long she'd been there. "2 days I just started." I ask to speak to someone else who might be more experience. "There's nobody else. We don't need to continue any further than you giving me my money" I started to say I think that I need to speak to someone else again "Nobody else works here and no one cares what you think. Stop trying to get out of it and be a man" I'm a pretty easy going guy but now it was the principle of the thing. I was like I'm pretty sure someone cares what I think and I know they didn't just hire you and leave you alone in the office. "Then go write your opinion on Google or something where we can all go back to ignoring you, if you call back you're only ever going to talk to me because this isn't worth anyone else's time." I said oh don't worry I will get right on that and I promise you're going to care in the end. Then this woman started listing off review websites saying that they don't care and no one cares about me. Go to yelp go to this place and this place because no one cares. I wrote them all down. Asked for her name, she gave that too and I wrote that down. Then I told her I'd be in touch.

Cue the malicious compliance. This was early in the morning and I had to go to work but it was an office job that allowed me some leeway in when my work could be done as long as all of it got done before the end of the week. I cleared my whole day I didn't get a single other thing done. I found every online site that even halfway mentioned them and I wrote an entire scathing review on every one of them. Not just copy and paste but fully hashed out in every single place fresh. I even contacted the local news organization though they never got back to me but the attempt was made. I ripped them a new one in every method I could. Their website, yelp, Google, Zillow every single place that had a message box. I was doing it in bed up to the point I passed out late that night.

Most of these places had no reviews or one 5 star review so it definitely didn't go unnoticed. 8am I get a call from the VP of the property company. She'd flown in from Florida where she was on vacation to figure out why they suddenly had all these super negative super specific reviews. I said "oh so there is someone else who works there?" The VP tells me that she's read the reviews and that while she's sorry this was my experience that this was liable or whatever since I wrote it in a public place and that they'd sue. I told her it's not liable if it's a true account of my experience which it was. I added that her new employee even told me the places I could write my opinion because no one was ever going to care what I said. I was just following instructions. They were also evicting me based on something that was demonstrably false so it's not like I had anything to lose. She got really quiet then puffs herself up and started getting an attitude says I'd be hearing from her lawyers soon. I said oh great, were they on vacation too? She hung up.

I think it was an hour or two later I get another call from the president of the property company this time. They looked at my receipt for the lawn care and looked at the photo and saw that it was very obviously wrong and were dropping the charge, we were not going to be evicted. Not only that but they'd straightened it out with the HOA and the first two infractions were also dropped. My 400 dollar infraction was actually only a warning as a first infraction so I'd be getting that money back, and to top it all off the wretched woman who told me that no one would ever care what I think was fired by him personally before the call which is what took the hour or two. Apparently she was in tears. They asked if I would take down or at least revise some of my reviews so it didn't ruin their companies reputation. I left them all up even after I moved out and never answered another call from them again. Someone's dog may or may not have also taken a dump underneath their door mat and accidentally stomped on it after a two hour drive to drop off the last money order. Impossible to tell really but who cares anyway.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/al1cewillson on 2025-07-09 22:16:19+00:00.

I (18F) worked at a call center for about 3 months, mostly helping people reset passwords and answer basic questions.

During training, the told us to “sound natural and conversational.“ Cool. I did that and got great feedback from callers.

Then we got a new supervisor who flipped if we didn’t read the script exactly as written. She said, “If you deviate even slightly, you’ll be written up.”

Okay.

Next call, a guy says, “Hey, my account’s locked, can you help me real quick?” I respond (robot mode): “Hello, thank you for calling. My name is [NAME], and I hope you’re having a wonderful day. How may I assist you with you technical concern today?”

He paused and said, “…Are you serious?”

I kept going exactly word for word. Even even the weird fake empathy lines like, “I completely understand how frustrating this unique situation must feel.”

Mid call, my supervisor walked by, and actually stopped to listen. She tilted her head, looked confused, and asked after the call, “Why were you talking like that?”

I just said, “You told me to stick to the script.”

She didn’t have a comeback. And funnily enough, the next day, she told our team: “Okay, just make sure you cover the key points. You can be natural again.”

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/brookssofi on 2025-07-09 21:18:58+00:00.

I used to work at a luxury watch store in mall. We closed at 9 PM, but most nights we’d be done with all the cleaning and closing tasks by 8:40. With no customers around, we’d just quietly wait out the last 15-20 minutes.

One day, our regional manager walked in unannounced around 8:45, saw us sitting and talking, and got mad. Next morning, we got a new rule: “No closing tasks can begin until after 9 PM”. He wanted us “working until the very end”.

Fine.

We stopped doing anything before 9. Every display, register, cleaning task all of it waited until the clock struck 9:00. Which meant we didn’t finish until 9:30 every night. And since our contracts gave us paid overtime if we stayed late, we started racking up extra pay every shift.

After two weeks, corporate started asking why labor costs had spiked. But we kept following their instructions exactly. It wasn’t until senior exec watched us standing around doing nothing for 20 minutes before madly closing up after hours that they finally dropped the rule.

New policy: “Use your judgment just make sure the store looks good until closing”.

Amazing how fast common sense returns when budget take a hit.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/BikerJedi on 2025-07-09 14:02:47+00:00.

I first started teaching over 20 years ago at a high school, so this was roughly May of 2004. As a new teacher, I was the low man on the pole and ended up in a portable classroom instead of the main building. If you don't know, it is what it sounds like. Kind of like a small mobile home trailer. They are meant to be used temporarily at best, for overcrowding or emergencies and the like.

The big problem is that Florida is hot as hell. We have two seasons: Summer and Hot Summer. This particular year, our AC in the portable couldn't keep up. The insulation in the building had been damaged in a hurricane the previous year and had not been repaired yet. As a result of those two things, it was hotter inside the portable than it was outside in the shade with a breeze. So I said "fuck it" and moved class outside and taught math in the courtyard for a few days.

One of the assistant principals saw us, and asked to see me later. He asked why I was teaching outside, and I explained. "Teach in your classroom." I tried to negotiate. What if the front office has my cell number? What about the media center, can I teach there?

"Teach in your assigned classroom." Bet.

That weekend, I went to the home improvement store. I bought a 50 gallon trashcan, a large standing fan, a small pump and some copper tubing. I rigged it up so the chilled water would be pulled through the tubing that was zip tied to the front of the fan. Then Monday I went to work early and got a bunch of ice from the cafeteria to put in the trash can. I filled the cooler with water and dumped that in there with the ice. I now had enough ice water to make cool air.

When the kids showed up for first period, we had some air. It wasn't as good as a real air conditioner, but it helped. The kids thought I was a mad scientist, and that actually made me think about switching subjects to science later. No kids I am not a mad scientist, just basic thermodynamics here. By third period kids are telling each other about it.

We went that way for about a week and a half before it ended. I got called in to the office.

"Why am I getting phone calls from parents about some science experiment in your MATH CLASS, Mr. Cobb?" It seems some of the kids had been talking about my DIY solution at home.

"It's a home made air conditioner. I told you ours was crappy. You didn't want to address the situation, so I did."

I was told to disassemble it, and by some miracle, I had a newer AC unit in my portable the next day.

The principal was PISSED I "made the school look bad" and she non-renewed my contract at the end of the year, so I had to find a new school.

My son goes to that high school now. Those same portables are still in use.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Newbosterone on 2025-07-08 23:51:33+00:00.

We’re still mostly remote at work, with more and more of the coordination done over chat. Meetings are mostly audio and shared screen.

One unpopular program manager has begun to make it a point to ask everyone to turn cameras on “for better communication”.

He called me out today and I discovered a lovely bit of maliciousness. I turned my camera on, and we immediately discovered why TV announcers dress simply. I was wearing a golf polo with fine horizontal stripes. Every time I moved, a moire pattern danced across the screen. It was the most obnoxious, attention grabbing thing I’ve ever heard. Cue five minutes of razzing me about my shirt.

I spent the rest of the meeting fidgeting in my chair. I can’t wait for next week’s meeting. I have several more shirts with similar patterns.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/LushPetalz on 2025-07-07 23:03:46+00:00.

So my 13year old daughter recently got super into baking cupcakes, cookies, banana bread, you name it. She was doing great, but she does tend to leave a little chaos behind, flour on the counter, spoon in the sink, oven mitts everywhere.

One day after cleaning up yet another post-cookie explosion, I snapped a bit and said:

"If you can’t clean up properly, then just don’t touch anything in the kitchen at all!"

She nodded. "Okay."

The next week, I came home from work to… silence. No sweet smells, no baking music from the kitchen. I figured she took it seriously.

Then it hit me. The dishwasher? Still full. The garbage? Overflowing. The sink? Piled with dishes. The groceries I asked her to unpack? Still sitting in bags.

I asked what was going on and she goes: "You said don’t touch anything in the kitchen, remember? So I didn’t."

Touché.

We renegotiated the rule now it’s: “You can bake if you clean like a pro.”

She agreed. I got cookies. She got victory. Fair trade.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ViniciusFromBcn on 2025-07-07 18:33:02+00:00.

Not me but my friend Erin. She works in client support for a logistics company, mostly handling delivery issues and scheduling fixes between drivers and clients. It’s a chaotic job especially because stuff always goes wrong after hours. Always.

For months she was basically on call every night. Clients would call at 6 or 7 sometimes even 9pm and she'd pick up fix things save contracts all unpaid. She brought it up to her manager who hit her with that corporate tone saying if it’s such a problem then stop answering after 5. If you’re not on the clock it’s not your responsibility.

Okay. Bet.

So next time a high profile delivery blew up at 6:15pm the client got the wrong product the driver was MIA it was a real mess. The client called her personal number. She didn’t pick up. They emailed. She ignored it. She wasn’t on the clock. She made dinner and watched Netflix like a queen.

The next morning her manager storms in hot. Client's furious, shipment's ruined, and they lost a pretty big account. Manager asks why she didn’t step in.

Erin smiles and goes, well you told me not to answer after 5. I clocked out at 4:58.

And now guess who suddenly has official on call hours, a stipend, and backup coverage after 5. That’s right. Erin does.