Malicious Compliance

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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.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/TurkeyNinja on 2025-07-07 05:43:24+00:00.

I was a teacher at a middle school in 2014/2015 that was Title 1 School (extremely low income and test scores). The state government actually removed all administration staff two years prior, for the whole district, as the student outcomes were so low. The new admin came in with a micromanagement authoritarian directive to improve test scores. One of their brightest ideas was to put lanes in the hallways to manage flow and gets students to classes faster.

There were three lanes. Two one ways along the walls, and a middle "teacher only lane." Within about three days all the students were driving imaginary cars. They orderly followed one another, would let people in to merge, used turn signals, and generally was pretty fun for a few days. The teachers would direct students at intersections and played along for a bit. The flow did slow down though as students wouldn't pass each other and would have trouble merging into traffic around doorways. Another thing taking time was the students parking their imaginary vehicles outside the classroom. They would spend time backing them into spaces, or have trouble parallel parking.

The admin didn't like this and really started getting angry at the staff and students as so many kids were still tardy to class. They actively were handing out detentions and pretty angry at staff for playing along. This really triggered the students to start getting malicious.

The students couldn't cross the middle lane, so they would have to walk down long hallways and make u-turns to see their friends or get to their lockers/classrooms. They started cruising the long hallways with their tricked out imaginary low riders. They would have shock noises even. Some of the really popular kids started a bus system where they had a schedule to pickup other students and deliver them to other classes. They would hold shoulders and move as a block. Sometimes the bus broke down at an intersection and blocked traffic for everyone.

Drag racing started where they held up traffic and raced down the hallways. Police would pull people over and write tickets. The most annoying part was students needing to leave the classroom to check on their cars to make sure no one stole it. Sometimes a student would come back from the bathroom and ask if anyone was driving a type of car as it was being towed. The disruptions in class started to really get out of control.

Admin thought it was going to be a phase and students would get bored. The best part about school for the students turned out to be the time in-between classes. Everyone was tardy constantly.

Eventually the lanes (tape) were ripped up and they shortened the passing period time by 2 mins so students had to rush to class and couldn't spend any time in the hallways. The cars slowly died out and the new 'fad' was needing to use the restroom during class time because the passing period was like 3 mins long and not enough toilets to satisfy all the students legitimately. Students were written up for needing to use the bathroom so kids just started clogging toilets and peeing wherever.

Other car things: flat tires, emergency sirens, car accidents, gps problems, no gas, lost license, couldn't find keys, stole other kids cars, repo cars, towing cars

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/HeatDoll on 2025-07-06 15:51:13+00:00.

My manager sent out a remember that all meetings were mandatory, even if we were sick. Camera on to. So when I came down with the flu, I still logged in like they wanted. I turned my camera on. Red nose, pale face, watery eyes, wrapped in blanket. I coughed through most of it. They looks on their faces said it all. Nobody wanted to see that. Funny enough, nobody mentioned the camera rule after that.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Big-Try-2735 on 2025-07-06 15:05:40+00:00.

Worked in a pretty low key chill office of about five. Mostly younger women with younger children (that's kinda relevant). I asked if they would drop mail at the post office or make a bank deposit on the way to or from lunch (they always went out). Both were on the way to/from lunch. I told them to take an extra 15 min or so as needed so to not have them rush their lunch time. So, new woman starts and her and another person come to me and tell me that under Fair Labor Act, and various other rules/requirements they are to be additionally compensated, get mileage for vehicle use and so forth.... and Rules are Rules and they are there for a reason. Yeah, they probably were correct on that point. I removed the ask that they go to the bank and such. Now, some days later one of the staff come to me to say they will be in about half hour late on such and such day as their kid has to be dropped for something. No problem I tell her, but she might as well just come in at noon. Why she asks? Well Rules are Rules and the policy manual (same one they quoted to me) states that if they are more than 15 min late, PTO must be taken. A second policy, same manual, requires PTO be taken in blocks of four hours. This was not a well received announcement.

OK, some of you are already probably responding with this being a dick move on my part.

I gotta point out that these folks often had kid stuff to do (school events, Dr. Appt, kids missing the bus and so forth). They would need to come in late, leave early, and so forth. Usually an hour or two here and there. My attitude about this was always "do what you gotta do with your kiddo's, let someone know if you'll be gone and just make it up whenever." It was a complete honor system. Didn't write it down, didn't really pay much attention as I they were adults, honest, knew what was expected of them and I trusted them to do the right thing. Needless to say that PTO thing was my making a point. They quickly decided they didn't need all those demands formally made and we went back to them going to the post office and such when convenient for them and coming in late without penalty when needed.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/SatinTease on 2025-07-05 18:05:47+00:00.

A while back, management said no one was allowed to stay late anymore. They wanted to cut coat and said we needed to be out the door right at clock- out time. I usually stayed a bit after to wrap things up and get ready for the next day. But fine. I did what they said.

That night, I clocked out right on time. The unfinished work and mess? I left it all where it was. The next morning, boss came in and looked around confused. “What happened here?” I just said, “I left on time, like you asked.” Let’s just say that no staying late rule got a lot more flexible after that.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/clintonumbarger on 2025-07-05 13:56:04+00:00.

I recently started working in a very large packaging facility. Beginning there I was excited for the opportunities I would have working for such a major company. Early on I noticed alot of placating/patronizing things that sent a message of "you should be greatful you work here". It was overly obnoxious implementation too . Keeping my rosy colored glassed on I am working as hard as I can despite everyday equipment not working correctly, conveyer belts not running etc. Now there are alot of rules "for our safety and the companies". One of the major rules is that if you are not officially trained for it do NOT do it, even if a manager tells you to. Recently they have become draconian with thier rules, at least for the lower rung workers, not so much for management if it convenienced them. So you are getting "coached"(why I'm tattling on you) frequently.

Now there is a manager that should not have any leadership position whatsoever. He has zero interpersonal communication skills, anytime has has to talk to you he is demeaning, condescending and his voice/body language let you know how inconvenienced he is and can't believe he has to do it.

Yesterday I had enough, cue malicious compliance....

I'm packing items into boxes and putting them on the conveyer belt. I run out of a few size of boxes. So per protocol I turn on the help Light above my station and wait because I need those boxes. Manager(m) comes by:

M: what's up

Me: I need these boxes

M: well do you know where they are? Or you can go get them from another station.

Me: I was told not to do that

M: what do you mean? You can't go get boxes? Ok I'm asking to go get boxes

Me: I am not supposed to leave my station and that is "this persons" job that I'm not trained for.

M:fine.

The look on his face was blank but turning slightly red and I thought I could see steaming rage come out of his ears. In a few minutes I get my boxes(delivered by M) and continue work. Shortly after I see him showing around the person responsible for stocking our boxes.

Not much time passes and the conveyer belt stops running and it fills up so we can't place packages on them. Before today I would stack them around my station and keep working/find a manager and find a solution. Our work area is not supposed to be cluttered and I'm not supposed to leave my station. So I turn the light on and stop working.

M: Hey what's going on

Me: I have no place to set my packages

M: what do you mean put them right here. points at the floor next to my station

Me: I was told to not put anything on the floor it's a tripping hazard.

M: I can't beleive.....stammer who told you that?! When I worked at x locatuon...stammer........

Me: I had three trainers on separate occasions and situations tell me this.

M:stares at me for a solid 3 seconds and looks around that station over there, walk over and stack the packet there. I'll put them on the conveyor belt when I get back.

The station is about fifty feet away and I'm on the end nearest it so i start jamming out walking packages over. I hear him telling the rest of the station to do the same. In the fifteen minutes it takes for the belt to run again there is at least 75 packages piled up in ther other station. All various sizes and weights. Manager walks by and stops dramatically, staring at the dragons hoard before him mouth open incredulous. The first package he picks up must have been heavy cause he stumbles a lil picking it up. The only place to put them on the line is right next to me. He proceeds to slam each and every one down on the belt huffing and puffing. I don't even aknowlede his existence but inside laughing my ass off.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/a1icewills0n on 2025-07-04 22:37:00+00:00.

I (18f) work at a small gift shop that sells candles, journals, mugs, etc. The owner is sweet but barely around, so the assistant manager (let’s call her Megan) runs the show. Megan is… controlling.

One afternoon, while tidying the shelves, I moved a few items around to make the display look cleaner and more balanced - literally just moved a few candles so they weren’t all crammed into one side.

Megan saw and snapped: “You’re not a designer. Stop rearranging things.” I said “okay” and never touched the layout again.

Cue the next week: a corporate rep visited, looked at the messy displays, and asked who was in charge of merchandising

Megan proudly said, “That’s me.”

Rep goes: “It looks inconsistent and rushed. Might want to let your team help.”

Megan didn’t say a word. But the next day, she asked me to redo the candle wall “like I did before”

Sure, boss 😌

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/wollysquelch on 2025-07-04 22:16:12+00:00.

I used to work in an office of about twenty-five people. The majority of us were under 40 and the atmosphere reflected that. The work was challenging and emotionally draining, but very rewarding (except financially). The way we coped was through banter, sarcasm, and the occasional well-intentioned collegial insult. There were also three older colleagues in the team, all over sixty. Two of them fit in very well. They weren't so much work parents, more like the work auntie and uncle. They gave as good as they got, laughed at the same things we did, and never seemed fazed by the tone of the office.

The third was our office manager. He was kind, thoughtful, and genuinely cared about the team, but he didn’t quite share our sense of humour. Swearing made him wince, and he had no time for the darker jokes that got the rest of us through the day. He liked things to be a bit more... civilised. Still, he was well liked and deeply respected. He had a quiet authority about him—the sort that didn’t need raising his voice. When he disapproved, he didn’t scold. He just gave you that look. The one that said, “I’m not angry, just disappointed... and maybe a little tired of your nonsense.” On the rare occasion I heard him swear, it was both mild and muted, often under their breath and closely followed by an apology.

One week, I was late to a team meeting. About fifteen minutes late, because an unexpected work emergency had needed addressing. When I arrived, I apologised to the group and said, “Sorry I’m late—got caught up in some bullshit that wouldn’t untangle itself.” A few people laughed. A few others looked around awkwardly. I noticed the manager glance up from his notes. He cleared his throat and explained that, just before I arrived, he’d introduced a new policy: a swear jar. Anyone caught swearing in the office in his presence would owe £2 to the jar. The money would go to a local charity we sometimes worked with.

I didn’t think it was entirely fair. I hadn’t been there when the rule was announced, but I decided against protesting. Besides, the charity did good work, and I was happy to support them. I took out my wallet, pulled out a £5 note, and handed it to the manager.

“Here’s a five,” I said. “Keep the fucking change.”

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Mean-Avocado4922 on 2025-07-04 20:03:08+00:00.

This took place at the end of my senior year of high school. Throughout the school year, we would be given paperback copies of the books we would be reading on the syllabus (IB English). We were told to keep them and have them ready to return at the end of the year. My teacher specified that she wanted the books returned to her class in a cardboard box. June finally rolled around, so I gathered all of my books. However, I didn’t have any cardboard boxes at home, so I put them in a brown paper grocery bag instead. On the appointed day I brought the bag of books with me to class to turn in. My teacher refused to accept the books because they were not in a box. Super steamed because I had to lug the books around the whole rest of the day, I complained to my friends about the situation. One of them had a suggestion. That evening he found me a box that would fit all of my books. Being a photography student, he had access to some super strong photo mounting spray. We sprayed every flap of the box and sealed the books in tight. Once dry, we tested the box and found that, to our satisfaction, we couldn’t open the box with our bare hands. I returned the books with a smile the next day. I only regret that I couldn’t have been there to see her struggle in vain when it was time for her to check in my books.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/postmodernistweasel on 2025-07-04 19:07:26+00:00.

This happened about 10 years ago when I worked at a restaurant. The place had only been running under current management for a few months, and had an unconventional working culture. The boss spent as much time as he could upstairs working on other projects, and staff did not have clearly defined duties, but all chipped in wherever their abilities allowed. I was hired as a bar manager, but also helped clearing tables, cleaning, maintenance, doing admin, and anything else that cropped up. We were encouraged to have creative ideas.

For the most part, everyone was quite happy, but when the boss did come down, he could be pretty stressy and irritable, especially if anything went wrong. Also, sometimes there were gaps or flaws in the smooth operation of business, as there were things no one had skills for or didn't think of, and their roles weren't organised thoroughly.

At some point, I decided I was going to tackle an issue that bothered me: the menus were pretty haphazard and not very professional.

The menus were stored on a shared document that any staff member could edit and print. The menu would just be black text on a piece of A4 paper. Staff had varying degrees of computer literacy, and the menus would end up totally messy - full of typos, and containing many different fonts and formatting styles.

Also, the boss would frequently ask the chefs to change up the menu choices, as he thought it would get boring. Or, he would buy different stock on a deal, that needed to be used. And, nobody would bother coordinating with the kitchen to check that the menu matched what was available.

So, naturally, there would be a LOT of silly situations that arose once customer orders had been taken to the kitchen, and waiting staff would have to go back and get customers to order something else. Basically, they would find issues by trial and error during service. Only after this, they would alter the shared doc and print new menus out. However, it could be very hard to get time for editing and printing during a busy shift, so the staff would often deliver erroneous menus to the customer along with a verbal list of alterations and additions.

Anyway, despite being bar staff, I decided to do something about the menu problems. My motivation was that I loved my job, loved the team, and loved the restaurant. I wanted customers to have a good time and could see there were easy ways to make the system work a lot better for everyone.

Firstly, I started arriving earlier, so I had time to discuss menu availability with the chefs and do all the editing that was necessary before service started. If we had a quiet spell, I started training the waiting staff to edit menus well, and resolve formatting discrepancies. It was not altogether easy to get everyone on board, as they were all used to the haphazard way of doing things , but they were a good bunch, and they humoured me.

In addition, I started working on prettier menus, in my own time, at home. Now, I'm far from being a publishing expert, but I had an old version of Word that I was very familiar with and I spent an awful lot of time tweaking and messing around to produce, I have to say, some very pretty folded card menus, with little designs and borders and nice colours.

I knew these menus would not transfer well through the shared doc and the work printer, and the formatting would likely go caput. So, rather than tackling the regular daily menu, that everyone would need to be able to edit and print at work, I focused on special menus that were for one-off events. For instance, our upcoming Valentine's Night and Mother's Day menus, and the Steak and Curry Night menus (which rarely changed). The boss had decided on the dishes for these nights, according to his whim, so, I was working from his draft.

I showed the nice menus I was working on to the chefs, and got them on board with collaborating to make sure our actual offerings and our menu matched up. During which process, we found a few catering difficulties with the dishes the boss had proposed, so we worked to find something agreeable to both boss and kitchen and had everyone working on the same plans.

I found an old, wooden display rack in a store room, and fixed it front of house to display the special menus, and we handed them out to all our customers as advertising.

At this point, service was running much smoother due to the extra effort on the daily menus. Much less stress, happier customers, happier kitchen. The boss didn't really notice much, as he was never usually around to see the mayhem! The Valentine's and Mother's Day events were roaring successes, full house, everything went like clockwork, and everyone was happy. We had loads of excellent reviews for these nights.

Time rolled on, and I worked with the kitchen to launch a daily kid's 'pick and mix' menu. The customers loved it. Then there was Christmas Day, which again was a great success. Of course, I am not claiming all this success for myself - our chefs made great food, and the staff were lovely, friendly, and hardworking. But, I guess I didn't even realise until I did it, how much the work on the menus would help pull everything together.

Soon, it was time for Valentine's Day again, which was a really big night for us. This is where a boss shaped spanner got in the works, and malicious compliance ensued.

I had again produced a beautiful menu, with a cupid on the front and a border of little red hearts. I would print them at home, in my spare time, at my own expense, as well as the other special menus, and keep the display unit stocked up.

On the fateful day, I arrived at work and I see immediately that the boss is in a foul mood. It transpires that he had wanted to give a Valentine's menu to someone, and there were none in the display rack. I have brought a bundle with me, and I also apologise for them running out. But he's still unhappy.

He accuses me of trying to control the menus in order to make myself indespensible. He complains that the pretty menus are not in the shared doc. His tone is so mean, meaner than I've ever heard him, and it stung. I try to explain that the menus won't hold their formatting, but that the text only version is available on the shared document. He says, in that case I shouldn't be developing them on my own computer, it should only be done on the business computer.

There's a lot I could have said to defend myself, and he clearly doesn't realise that it's not something I have time for during working hours. Nor am I very adept with the software available at work. But I don't even want to bother explaining. He was so condescending, so accusatory, over something I've done UNPAID, to help his business, that I don't even want to engage with it. I decide there and then never to have anything more to do with a menu.

I share my Word docs as requested, and that's the end of it. I run the bar and clear the tables, and clean and fix stuff. But, I don't do anything in my own time, and especially not with menus. Before long, the display rack is empty.

The waiting staff gradually slide back to their old ways of working. No one coordinates with the kitchen. Service is frequently chaotic. And Mother's Day approaches. I see the boss's draft menu, and I can see issues with it, so I book that night off. And it is a TOTAL disaster.

The next day, the boss is lamenting to me how embarrassing it was. He doesn't seem to realise at all that it had anything to do with me withdrawing my 'job protection racket'. He's not mad at me; he doesn't understand what went wrong. He says I'm lucky I wasn't there. A lot of the stuff on the menu ( black text printed on A4 paper) had not been available. The kitchen hadn't even seen the menu until the morning of the event, and didn't know how, or have the equipment, to make some of the dishes.

Christmas Day arrives, and is even more of a disaster. The advertised menu doesn't tally with what is served, the boss get's stressy and falls out with staff. Customers are beyond disappointed.

Over this last couple of months, my daughter was ill, and I had to take a lot of time off. Actually, my boss is really good about my situation, and even continues paying me. But, eventually, I feel like it's better if I leave.

In the next months, the restaurant gets ever more erratic and disorganised. In less than a year, the business folds. Not because I left, but because the boss is moody, the staff fall out with him, the service gets ever more erratic, and the customers dwindle. But, I do think my leaving had some part to play, as I used to be quite good at thinking ahead, at organising, and at keeping the peace between the boss and the staff.

Anyway, that's my malicious compliance story.

TL;DR: I stopped working for free in a way my boss disagreed with, and it led to disorganisation and disappointed customers, but didn't teach the boss anything at all.

Edit: typos

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/CostumingMom on 2025-07-04 14:46:31+00:00.

Obligatory not my story, but my fathers.

My father told me this tale of his childhood. He was a young child at the time, so this would have happened sometime in the early 1940s.

He grew up in a farm house, and he and his sisters were often shooed outside to play, especially when their mom was busy with chores such as making dinner. However, the previous few days it had been raining, so she hadn't gotten those breaks and tempers were flaring a bit.

The rain finally let up and she sent them all outside, but there still was an immense puddle almost directly in front of the front door. Therefore, she admonished them to stay out of it.

Well, my father really wanted to play in that puddle, but he was old enough to have made the connection with what happens when you don't obey mom, so he did what he was told and stayed away from the puddle.

Now I don't know if he'd already figured out his mother's preferred phrases, or it was happy coincidence, but he was planning on the following from the beginning, (or so he told me).

As the afternoon wore on, he played here, then there, and as he became aware that it was getting close to dinner time, he made sure he was on the opposite side of that puddle from the door.

Dinner time came, and mom called the kids in. His sisters went in fairly promptly, avoiding the puddle as requested. He, however continued to play on the other side, ignoring the call.

When she realized he was still playing, she called again, (obligatory not real name), Johnny! Come in and wash up for dinner!

Nope. No response, just happily playing away.

Then she said it, and boy was he ready.

John Michael Smith, you come straight here! Right now!

And so he did. He ran straight to her, right through that immense puddle that had been calling to him all afternoon.

Fallout was a through scrubbing of a bath and a cold late dinner, but he still remembers today the joy of that splashing run.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Illuminatus-Prime on 2025-07-04 10:04:10+00:00.

tl;dr: Someone did nnot like my choice of Christmas decorations, and it ruined his Christmas.

(The previous "Ugly Car" story reminded me of this little holiday wonder.)

I had move in the previous summer (late July) into a non-HOA community and didn't have any rpoblems with any neighbors until the day after Halloween, when someone left a snarky note on my door about not having any holiday decorations up, and if I couldn't even afford a loust pumpkin on the porch, I probably was too poor to afford living there.

Thanksgiving came and went, and I got another nasty little not saying I had "better" start showing some community spirit "or else".

Neither note was signed, and the cops just took my statement and said there was nothing they could do.

(That was my cue for enacting some Malicious Compliance.)

I went out and bought some lights and garlands and started putting them up when the neighbors started putting up theres. Every couple days I'd add a few more, until the front of the house was practically covered in glitz and glitter. On Christmas Eve, I added one last piece, switched on all the lights and left them running until morning.

Christmas morning found me waking to the sound of an angry voice and someone pounding on my door. I cracked open the inner door and left the security door locked.

Dude objected to my Christmas star having six points instead of five. He launched into a racist, hate-filled tirade against me an anyone displaying a six-pointed star.

Right about then, a cop car pulls up to the curb and two uniforms quietly walk up while the idiot continued to rant, with many expletives, racist slurs, and some very violent threats. He musta seen I was smiling at something over his shoulder because he truned around and stopped in mid-rant.

(There's gotta be fallout, of course.)

The neighbor was last seen sitting in the back of the patrol car as it pulled away.

Yeah, I went downtown and signed the complaint. Later sat in on the hearing and had to admit under oath that a six-pointed star is a legitimate symbol for the season.

Dude got a fine and community service. I got to put up the same decorations without hassle for two more years before moving out-of-state.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Bard24601 on 2025-07-04 07:53:06+00:00.

Background: I was on a family phone plan with my folks well into my adult years. My dad liked to take the lion's share of the data plan and would send out a passive aggressive "oink oink goes the pig" if anyone but him was using too much data. The rest of us had to connect to WiFi whenever possible. We all had better had a good reason if we got close to using up a quarter of the shared data plan (4 people on the plan and split 4 ways but he liked to take his half out of the middle). The four of us paid into the plan each month and in theory it was cheaper than an individual plan.

Story: For a birthday he announced that I was getting kicked off the family plan because I needed to "be a man" or some other grown up nonsense. I think he may have mentioned something about how he hated that my grown relatives were doing something similar and needed to grow up. The details are fuzzy but this wasn't the first time, nor the last that be would announce unpleasant things at birthdays and holiday family gatherings so I took it in stride and switched to an independent phone plan. I got the cheapest, most basic data plan and it ended up being comparable to what I was paying into the family plan. I also realized just how little I actually use my data and the plan was actually fairly comfortable for my needs so I stuck with it.

Fallout: A year later he brings up the idea of getting me back into the family plan because getting me off the plan ended up not only costing the individual more money per person, the phone carrier also had a deal going on where the more people connected to one plan, the less expensive per person the overall plan would be. Some sort of wholesale or group discount or another. I told him that I was perfectly happy with my independent phone plan paying my own rate. I also reminded him that the only reason why I got off it to begin with was because he didn't think I was being a responsible grown adult. I simply wanted to "prove to him" that I can manage all of my own bills like a "real" adult unlike others in my family he liked to complain about. He tried asking me a few more times about it throughout the months because it would be so much cheaper for him but I continually brought up how much he hated my relatives that "refused to grow up" and that he wanted me to not be like them per his "gift" on my birthday. I stuck with it because while I could have access to more data that I "could" use, the absence of snarky texts about being a data hog was more than worth the price.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/FirefighterSea6973 on 2025-07-04 07:11:59+00:00.

So I work as a social media manager for a small boutique that sells overpriced candles and crystals to suburban moms. It's actually not a bad gig - the pay is decent for entry level, and normally I'd have a lot of creative freedom to post whatever fits the vibe.

Enter my new manager. She got promoted from sales to "Digital Marketing Director" (aka my boss) about three months ago, and she has absolutely zero experience with social media. Like, this woman still uses Facebook to post blurry photos of her breakfast.

Anyway, she decided that every single post needs her personal approval before it goes live. And I mean EVERY post. Instagram stories, comment replies, even liking other accounts' posts. Her reasoning? "We need to maintain brand consistency."

At first I tried to explain that social media works best when you can respond quickly and authentically, but she just kept saying "I need to see everything first."

The problem is, she takes forever to respond. I'd send her a simple post about our new lavender candles, and she'd take 2-3 days to get back to me with "looks good!" Meanwhile, our engagement is tanking because we're posting maybe twice a week instead of daily.

After about a month of this, I decided to maliciously comply. If she wanted to approve everything, then I'd make sure she got to approve EVERYTHING.

I started sending her approval requests for:

• Every single story I wanted to post (sent individually)
• Each comment reply, even ones that just said "Thanks!"
• Requests to like other accounts' posts
• Approval to follow new accounts back
• Permission to use different hashtags
• Requests to share user-generated content to our stories

But here's the kicker - I also started requesting approval for platform maintenance stuff. Like, "Can I approve this tagged post to appear on our profile?" and "Should I archive this expired story highlight?"

Within two weeks, she was getting 15-20 approval requests per day. Her phone was constantly buzzing with my messages. She started taking even longer to respond because she was overwhelmed.

The breaking point came when a customer left a complaint in our comments about a delayed order. I sent her a message asking for approval to respond, then waited. And waited. Three days later, the complaint had been seen by hundreds of people, and other customers started chiming in with their own complaints.

The owner saw the social media disaster unfolding and called us both into a meeting. My manager tried to explain her "brand consistency" strategy, but the owner just looked at our analytics showing our engagement had dropped by 60%.

I got to explain that social media requires quick responses and that the approval process was killing our online presence. The owner asked if I felt confident managing the account independently, and I said absolutely.

My manager is now in charge of "strategic oversight" (aka she reviews our monthly analytics) and I'm back to posting freely. Our engagement bounced back within two weeks, and I even got a small raise.

The best part? She still occasionally asks me to send her drafts of posts "just so she can stay informed." I happily send her screenshots of everything after it's already been posted.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/catrosenburg on 2025-07-04 01:20:15+00:00.

When I was 19 I worked at a waterfront bar where sexual harassment was part of the job. KPMG were our neighbours and the investment wankers were totally entitled.

I was waitstaff which had the added bonus of having to wade through a dancefloor with plates only to get grabbed, blocked and grinded up against. Management would tell us to laugh it off.

Then, they decided that for functions female staff would be required to wear black cocktail dresses with heels. Staff pushed back over the heels - it was an OH&S suit waiting to happen given the wet floors and staircases, so management reluctantly dropped that demand. But they were adamant we had to wear cocktail dresses.

I really had no interest in dressing up for the sleazy men that frequented that bar, but for whatever dumb reason I had at 19 I wasn’t quitting the job. So I wore a cocktail dress - a black boob tube thing. I also decided it was time to grow out my pits.

They never directly confronted me about my new body hair. They just put me out back to cut lemons for drinks all shift every time there was a function on. I’d do it happily, hanging out with the kitchen staff in my totally inappropriate strapless dress. Those shifts were the best part of the job.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Visual_Session599 on 2025-07-03 07:04:44+00:00.

This happened when I was around 13 and it still cracks me up till date.

Every Sunday, we had lunch at my grandma’s house. She always went all out pot roast, collard greens, spicy gumbo and whatever else she felt like making. But she also made a separate batch of kid food, usually some mac and cheese, chicken tenders or grilled cheese sandwiches for the younger cousins who were picky eaters.

Now, I was the oldest of the kids and one day I decided I was too grown for children food. I dramatically pushed away my plate and said, I didn’t want kid food anymore. I want what the grown ups are eating.

Grandma gave me this long, slow look over her glasses and asked, You sure about that, sugar?

I nodded like I was signing a contract with the president.

She didn’t argue. Just scooped a huge portion of her extra spicy gumbo, poured some collard greens with vinegar, added some cornbread on the side and handed me a big glass of unsweetened iced tea.

That gumbo lit my soul on fire. My nose was running, my eyes were watering and the vinegar from the greens wasn’t helping. But my pride wouldn’t let me ask for help, and you better believe I wasn’t about to admit I missed the mac and cheese.

Grandma walked by, patted my shoulder and whispered, Next week I’ll fix you some chicken nuggets again, unless you’d rather eat like the adults.

The nuggets were back on my plate the next Sunday.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/RedApplesForBreak on 2025-07-03 04:17:27+00:00.

It had been a hot summer day, but by this point it was early evening, the temp was going down, and there was a nice breeze. So, when my bf asked what we should do this evening, I suggested we go out for a walk. He was a little hesitant, but with some light prodding he reluctantly agreed.

We decided to go to Island Park (not its real name), which is a large city park/wildlife sanctuary that spreads across 1,200 acres with 30 miles of paths along 9 different loops. It’s a popular spot in our town, but large enough to still feel secluded.

As we’re parking, he’s grumbling a bit about how we always go to this park, how far are we going to go out, it’s going to be hot, etc. etc. etc. We get about a half mile out and he asks me how far we plan to go. “I don’t know. Would you like to turn back?” “No, it’s fine,” he says, and we continue on. I decide to follow his lead, since it sounds like he’ll likely want to end the walk before I do, which is fine.

We go a little further and we’re starting to reach portions of the park I’m not as familiar with. But my bf used to jog in this park all the time and so he knows the paths better than I do. “Does this path loop around?” I ask, and he assures me that it does.

We continue on for another mile, and we’re in a part of the park I didn’t even know existed.

“Well, yeah,” he admits, “I took you out the long way so you would regret making me go on this walk.”

Oh, malicious compliance. If I wanted to go on a walk, he was going to make sure it was a long one. He wanted my feet to hurt and my legs to ache, so I’d think twice before asking him to go out in nature again.

Let me tell you… this path was beautiful! The trees were tall and luxurious, the views were outstanding, and the bird were singing their hearts out. I couldn’t have been happier.

Then he got lost and we ended up walking four miles to the parking lot.

But it was a great walk and a fun adventure.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go ice my foot while I watch seven episodes of Star Trek TNG.

Note: No boyfriends or girlfriends were injured in the making of this story. All grumbling and malicious compliance was done in the spirit of good natured joshing.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/whoknewidlikeit on 2025-07-03 04:08:46+00:00.

years ago i worked in an isolated location, all energy industry related. due to the extent of the isolation, the client company had its own medical facilities, one of which i worked in.

so one contract company had a thing about needing excessive paperwork for their guys who were sick. see, the medical care was a line item in the client company budget - so nobody saw a bill. this made for a system that was easily abused, what with no financial dog in the fight.

so this one company's guys would come in periodically, appropriately sick. they weren't burning time, they only made money on duty, so they wanted to work. we'd see them, and often give a day or two of bed rest before returning to work; everyone there was typically on a 2 week tour of duty due to logistics, so a day or two like this wasn't uncommon or unreasonable. patient would be seen, given a note for the boss, go get some rest and take your meds.

but that wasn't good enough. maybe for every OTHER contractor, but nnnooOOOOoooo, this contractor was SPECIAL.

so even though they'd been seen by qualified medical staff, and given prescriptions and a note on when they could return to work, this company wanted them evaluated AGAIN and ANOTHER note saying they could actually go back on duty, even if was 12-24 hours since the first visit. remember - no cost, so what do they care; right?

this didn't sit well with us. we had long hours and busy days, often 18-24hrs awake and on duty (with a two week tour of duty), and this was BS paperwork and time wasting because someone felt like it - not because it was medically necessary. if we've seen the patient and given you a note on when they can go back on duty, my due diligence was done.

so we decided, after a couple of months of this pattern, to accommodate them. on our terms.

guys would come in, ready and willing to go back to work, but still needing another note, because apparently the first one wasn't nearly good enough and the boss said so. so they'd get one, on our terms. after we'd see all of the morning sick call patients. after our scheduled morning appointments. they'd be on the clock until we saw them again, sitting in our waiting room, on the clock and drinking coffee.....which was typically around 3 hours after the clinic opened. each and every one of them, which was typically 2-3 guys, every day (they were a big contractor).

they were surprisingly slow to pick up on it. took about a month of this approach. and once they put it all together they were PISSED. clearly we were wasting THEIR time, and ours? wtf did that matter, we were on duty and the care was free so fuck our opinion.

but our bosses backed us 100% - essentially saying "if you went to your doctor and paid for a visit, would you pay again to be told the same thing the next day?"

after that, the paperwork from the medical staff was honored the first time, and everyone's work days were more efficient.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Belz-Games on 2025-07-03 03:15:42+00:00.

So the place I work at had mandatory lunch hours we're supposed to take between certain hours based on what hours we're working. I'm an operator, so it's not like I can just walk away from the job if somethings going on. My duty is to keep the plant running, and make sure nothing bad is happening to the equipment. So, after constantly having to call the old manager about missing my clock ins or clock outs because I got busy with something, he told me about this survey I could fill out whenever this happened that basically said "I took my lunch, I just didn't clock out for it" and payroll would adjust it accordingly. So, on that note, if you're on an official clocked out lunch as an operator, and an alarm goes off or you're interrupted for any reason, you have to clock back in and address the issue, and then either clock out again and retake your entire lunch, or just call a manager/fill out the survey and you're basically paid for your lunch. So, I filled out the survey every single morning, choosing to just skip the whole ordeal of trying to remember my lunches. That's literally what the survey is for.

Now, onto the MC. New manager comes in, a month in he pulls me aside and says I haven't been clocking out for lunches. I inform him of the survey. He tells me that's only for the occasional missed lunch. I disagree with him, the writing clearly states "I voluntarily choose to skip my meal". He basically orders me to start clocking out for lunch. Sneaky MC ensues. So for the next two weeks, since I have a two hour window to take a half hour lunch I waited until about the last half hour and then specifically wait until I see a certain piece of equipment drawing close to a nuisance alarm level, and then clock out for lunch. Somewhere between 5-10 minutes later the alarm goes off. Oops, guess I have to clock back in, and go silence that alarm. Oh no! Not enough time left to restart my lunch! I did that for two weeks straight, forcing the company to pay me for my half hour interrupted lunches. New manager tried to ignore it. Until HIS boss (who was like..old old manager, but got promoted a few years back) comes down to ask me why I stopped filling out the survey. I inform him of New Managers instructions, to which he rolls his eyes and tells me to go back to using the survey. Never heard another word about it.

And the cherry on top? We just got all new time clocks a few weeks ago. The survey lingo pops up when we clock out now, instead of just a name and a time. . So I STILL don't have to clock out for lunch. Now I just click 'Ok', agreeing that I took my lunch at some point, and I'm good to go. *fist pump*

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Alarmed-Grass569 on 2025-07-03 01:59:46+00:00.

I work at a call center and my manager Brenda is obsessed with our "time theft." She monitors everything and questions any time we're not at our desks. Last month she started making people clock out for bathroom breaks longer than 5 minutes.

This policy is ridiculous because sometimes you can't control how long bathroom breaks take. Plus it's degrading to have to explain why you were in the bathroom for 7 minutes instead of 5. But Brenda insisted it was company policy.

I decided to follow her logic to its natural conclusion. If we're being that precise about time tracking, then I should document every single minute I'm working. So I started keeping detailed logs of everything.

I log when I arrive (usually 5 minutes early), when I take my mandated 15 minute breaks (I take exactly 15 minutes now), when I help coworkers with questions, when I stay late to finish calls, everything.

Last week I presented Brenda with my time logs showing I worked 2.3 hours of unpaid overtime in the past month. I explained that since we're tracking time so precisely for bathroom breaks, I wanted to make sure the company was also tracking all the extra time I work.

She tried to dismiss it but I had everything documented. Dates, times, what I was doing, witnesses for when I helped coworkers. I told her that if bathroom breaks are time theft, then unpaid overtime should be compensation theft.

Now she's backtracking on the bathroom break policy because she doesn't want to deal with everyone documenting their unpaid overtime. Sometimes you have to follow stupid policies to their logical extreme.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/BornGasSnuggler on 2025-07-03 01:23:20+00:00.

My boss recently told me, “From now on, you only take breaks at your assigned time. No exceptions.” Before that, I was always flexible. If we got hit with a rush, I’d wait on my break and help out because I didn’t want to leave my coworkers hanging. So I did exactly what they said. The next busy shift came around and when my break time hit, I went. I watched the line build up and the boss scramble to manage the chaos without extra help. I sat there sipping my coffee thinking, well, I’m just following the rules like you wanted.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Meancvar on 2025-07-03 00:08:09+00:00.

Bored of the repetitive posts maybe from bots, I have a different story about economic incentives.

I used to work for a multinational that allowed to fly business class for intercontinental client trips. It must have been some accountant worrying that employees could trade the ticket in, fly coach, and pocket the money, because the policy stated that the boarding passes needed to be included in the expense report.

Since people hated to spend 6-10k USD on a ticket and get reimbursed a month later once they could produce boarding passes, they all bought their tickets at the last minute, thus paying $10-15k. (this is the economic lesson: people respond to incentives).

So the company ended up overpaying for plane tickets because it didn't trust the employees. The policy changed when people started using electronic boarding passes and forgot to ask for paper ones. Genius bean counters must have found significant savings in the average flight costs, but probably they were too dumb to figure it out.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/FaeWhimsyGlow on 2025-07-03 00:20:52+00:00.

This happened at my sister-in-law’s birthday dinner a couple months ago, She has a habit of being passive aggressive toward me ever since I married her brother, Classic mean girl energy masked as just being honest, she was hosting a big family dinner and messaged the group chat asking everyone to bring something, so i replied offering to bring drinks and a dessert, she messaged me privately (not in the group) and said, "actually, just come as a guest, I don’t want anything store bought or half done like last time just enjoy yourself and let the rest of us handle it", Cool, Message received, so i showed up, empty-handed, Sat down, Chatted, Scrolled my phone, when they ran short on drinks and someone asked where the dessert was, she gave me a glare and said, “Didn’t you bring anything?” I smiled sweetly and said, "oh, I thought I was just a guest this time, didn’t want to ruin the vibe with something half done", cue awkward silence and a few muffled laughs from my husband’s cousins, who definitely caught the shade, the best part? Later that night, she complained to her mom that “people didn’t contribute,” and her mom replied, “Well, you told her not to, don’t be rude and expect favors". Next family event? She asked if I could please bring my brownies again.