Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Lucy_Bloom45 on 2025-05-18 13:46:34+00:00.

I used to work for a middle manager who hated reading emails. Every time we’d send project updates or questions, he’d ignore them. When called out on it, he loudly declared, “If it’s important, PRINT IT and hand it to me. I don’t read emails!”

Alrighty then.

Cue the malicious compliance. I printed every single email I sent him—reminders, client follow-ups, even memes someone accidentally CC’d me on. I’d walk over to his desk 6–8 times a day with a mini stack of paper like, “Per your request!”

Within a week, his desk looked like a filing cabinet exploded. He couldn’t find anything. He started snapping, “Why are you printing all this!?” I smiled sweetly and reminded him: “You told us to.”

Two weeks later, he sent out a company-wide email (yes, really) asking us to only email him from now on.

Guess he learned how to open Outlook.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/oliviamonro on 2025-05-18 11:28:33+00:00.

I work in quality control at a packaging facility. Part of my job is reviewing reports from the production leads before they get sent to clients. It’s usually small stuff typos, incorrect counts, mislabeled batch numbers nothing huge, but things that matter.

One of the leads, didn’t like me reviewing his work. Said it was “a waste of time” and that he’s “been doing this longer than I’ve been alive.” One day he flat-out told me “You don't need to double-check my reports anymore. I’ve got it.”

Alright. Your call, man.

So the next few reports I just filed as-is. Didn't even open them. Fast forward to end of the month client calls pissed because their shipment labels didn’t match the manifest. Turns out he had flipped two digits in every single report that week.

Management was not happy.

When they asked why I didn’t catch it, I just said “I was told not to double-check the reports.”

Now those same reports from that lead show up on my desk with a sticky note that says “Please review. Thanks!”

Guess I’m back to wasting time only now, by request.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Less_Walk_7101 on 2025-05-18 07:02:11+00:00.

I was not aware of that until informed in an angry voice by the person who read the meters. The type of meter as is on the side of a house. Having just said good morning to that person and offered them a cup of coffee I was somewhat taken aback by their angry words.

Silently I reached into my desk drawer (yes my office was in the utility room, thats how I ranked) and pulled out my tape measure. My job was that of a qc coordinator in a boiler shop. All I did all day was read codes and customer specs. I was somewhat familiar with the idea of malicious compliance.

I walked over to the folding tables covered in customer final documentation in progress. I extended the tape measure 18 inches or whatever it was I forget. I pulled the tables out exactly 18 inches. I walked back to my desk, sat in my chair, and sipped my coffee while she squeezed her much larger than 18 inch ass down the eight foot long gap from the end of the table to the meters. While she stared laser beams at me the entire way.

One of the more satisfying coffees I have had.

See? I had not had my coffee yet. She could have used one as well probably.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Significant-Colour on 2025-05-17 16:11:14+00:00.

I studied at the military university, in service - meaning before uni, we had basic training and we were getting salary; let's say "enough for a relatively comfortable student's life".

Obviously, they started the first year by teaching us the difference between being soldier and a civilian, including the legal stuff - what we are not allowed to do, what rights did we give up by signing up.

One of the lecturers was adamant that, because we are in salaried service studying state uni, we are not permitted to use a "student discount".

OK, if that's the rule, that's the rule. And I was careful to never request a STUDENT discount for the next 3 years.

However... there was no rule prohibitting us from having an ISIC card. I asked!

Solution was trivial: For the next 3 years, I would just ask for "an ISIC discount", as a law-abiding soldier; never for "a STUDENT discount".

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/franktrollip on 2025-05-17 14:34:07+00:00.

Years ago I was working on an IT contract with a bunch of some of the worst managers I'd ever encountered.

Malicious compliance: we discussed renewal of my 1 year contract and they said no, I was too junior (it was one of my first IT contacts). BUT they set me an impossible task and demanded that I finish it in the few weeks I had until my contract ran out. I told them it was impossible but they insisted they only needed a temporary solution so I should be able to do it, if not, I'd face disciplinary action and they would give me bad references for not being able to do the job. So I complied and set myself to do it, but I'd do it with an extra bit of functionality - like a sting in the tail. Here's the full story:

They demanded that I develop a system for them which was way out of scope for what I was being paid, and job description. It would require a huge amount of effort and stress. They said I can't get paid anything extra for it because it was only a "temporary solution" and that at some stage in future they'd get "real professionals" to come in and set up a "real" and permanent solution.

I did it anyway, out of a misguided youthful sense of duty, and it was a massively good learning opportunity. But it took its toll on my mental health because of the bullying and threats, and zero gratitude when I delivered a fine product that surpassed everyone's dreams.

I saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars in development costs, and my system immediately generated colossal revenues and savings.

My contract ended and they offered me an insulting bonus (way less than even my monthly rate). Once again reminding me that this was only a temporary solution until they got a "real" project and dev team in place to build the real thing.

But I turned the tables on them. I'd made sure from the start that all my code was inaccessible and then I'd set a timer so that after a certain time period since my last log in, the whole system would stop working.

Instead, it would generate a continuous repeating error message "CRITICAL ERROR: Overclock collision: Temporary Solution no longer temporary"

I heard it caused them a massive loss of business because my system had worked so well they'd decided to keep it instead of getting something "real". But never called me up to offer thanks or rewards.

So when the director phoned me in desperation when it broke I just said there was nothing I could do as I was fully engaged at this time and had no idea what that error was about - must have been something they'd done. I was as friendly as can be but basically put the phone down asap and ignored future calls, except a few where I'd fake it like "sorry can't talk, just boarding a flight".

Am I evil. No. In all the times they contacted me they never once expressed recognition for my fine work, the huge benefits I'd brought them, and no regret for the disgusting way they bullied and threatened me while working for them. In fact, on the first call, the director still spoke to me in a bullying and threatening tone. He only started to get polite at the point where he realised I was about to put the phone down after telling him I'm currently fully booked.

That was one of my first ever contracts. They were so horrible to me. I was young and inexperienced so didn't know how to deal with the situation at the time.

I hear they finally got a "real" system, but it took 3 times longer to get it up and running than I'd done alone, and they'd hired 3 developers to do the work.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Obvious_Time_1243 on 2025-05-17 11:03:58+00:00.

I work as a project coordinator. Basically I just keep track of what everyone’s supposed to be doing and make sure nothing falls through the cracks. My supervisor (we call him James) is fine at pretending he’s on top of stuff… but the dude forgets everything unless someone’s reminding him.

So I usually give him heads up when things are due. Like last week, I said “hey just a reminder, that report’s due Friday.” He looks at me and goes,

“I don’t need to be babysat. I know what’s on my list”

Alright then, you got it. So I keep my mouth shut. No reminders, no check-ins. I let him be the expert. Friday comes, nothing. Monday morning, he’s suddenly in panic mode cuz the director is asking where the hell the report is, he turns to me like

“Why didn’t you remind me?”

I just said, “You told me not to”

Now he thanks me every time I send a reminder lol. I guess we’re back to babysitting, but at least he asked nicely.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Wonderful_Rule_2515 on 2025-05-17 07:40:48+00:00.

The shift lead who said it, Adriana 20-something, tried to get me fired after dismissing me from my shift. I got the job at 16 because I was dating one of the other shift leads, already off to a terrible start I know.

My boyfriend was one of those characters that people either loved or hated. mostly hated if you come from a loving home, because he was admittedly a terrible person. And Adriana especially hated him. I’m sure she had her reasons.

One Saturday morning I showed up to work to find Adriana yammering about my bf calling out that day. He didn’t tell me he was calling out, and since Adriana was visibly upset already about his absence, I texted him to ask “what’s up? Why did you call out? Adriana is really mad about being short staffed on a Saturday and now she’s going to be yelling at me about it all shift. “

My boyfriend was a real shit stirrer and I was somehow incredibly fucking oblivious to this at the time. I texted him mostly to vent, but of course he used this as an excuse to start an argument with Adriana. He texts her something accusing her of “talking shit”, which for the record I DID NOT say she was doing, and I can hear from the kitchen she immediately started yelling into oblivion about how if I have something to say I should say it to her face. And how I’m a “stupid fucking dumb bitch” “literally so fucking stupid” “this bitch is the dumbest girl I’ve ever met why are you even with him”

So valid queen, I was a little dense back then I guess

Amidst her tirade about how stupid she thinks I am, she comes into the office, where I’m eating my pre-shift breakfast of boston market macaroni in total silence. This whole time I was just dissociating into my mac, because what the ever loving fuck else would I do? No only did I come from a home where yelling often lead to me dodging flying lamps and drawers, but I was genuinely scared she’d have her cousin jump me if I pissed her off, well before this even happened.

So she’s standing there, I’m eating, kinda smiling out of discomfort, just watching her tear into me even more about my intelligence. Why? Because my boyfriend called out of work. It was honestly so bizarre, had escalated so quickly, and I was so dissociated, life kinda felt like it was moving in slow motion in that moment.

She eventually says the magic line that snapped me out of my dissociation and freed me from my wage slave chains that lovely Saturday morning. “if you don’t want to be here then leave, because I don’t need you”.

Now again. This is Saturday morning. At a Pizza Hut. That is already short staffed. I knew for a fact that she was bullshitting not needing me. But I also knew that she said it right in front of the office cameras. So I’m thinking, that sounded like approval to leave early didn’t it? Especially after being fucking berated for 15 minutes straight, AS SOON AS I WALKED IN THE DOOR, for something I DIDNT EVEN DO.

She later tried to get me fired for walking out on my shift, and the first thing I did was tell the general manager to check the cameras. I should’ve just let them fire me honestly.

Adriana, if you’re out there, I live every day thanking god that I didn’t have to experience a phase of life that included screaming at 16 year old girls first thing in the morning at my big fancy Pizza Hut shift lead job. I heard you also got fired for assaulting a customer. It’s okay, I understand that being a shift lead at Pizza Hut is a very high stakes environment to be working in. No really, you don’t look insane at all screaming your head off inside a fast food joint on a near daily basis. Completely sane and very intelligent behavior right there.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/DiverseVoltron on 2025-05-17 05:59:51+00:00.

So I bought a house in 2018. I had to in a hurry so I could get my mother in my old home before her chemo got intense. My family had outgrown the one we were in, and we found one that needed some work but had 5.25 acres and a chicken coop. Neighbor (Dan) obsessively manicures his property and it is much nicer as a result, but the price and features worked for us on our side.

We fix up and paint the chicken coop, only interrupted once by Dan asking us to tear it down or move it. Surely the coop was well on our side of the property line, I thought. I politely declined and described how the only thing I'd be doing is building an enclosed run toward my house to protect the birds from predators after fixing some things inside the house that have been neglected. The previous owner was a serious alcoholic and there's a lot of work to do. Dan walks away angry but defeated.

A couple of years pass and the run is built exactly as described and our informal survey shows the property line about 20ft back, and I build gardens roughly the same distance from the property line. Dan has a survey done that suspiciously puts the back corner of the coop and about 1/3 of the run over the property line, but we agreed that it could stay so long as I don't encroach any further and I eventually move it which WAS my actual plan. He said to take all the time I need, declining my offers to buy the dirt or trade easements and reimburse him for the cost of the survey.

Another year goes by and Dan has changed his tune. He interrupts a target practice session with my two foster kids to demand that I demolish the coop and run soon, to which I said "I suppose I could push that project up to next fall (2024)". He isn't happy but seems pacified. I wasn't thrilled either but I'm a reasonable guy and would prefer to have a good relationship with a neighbor I don't like much.

Enter May 2024, six months before I agreed to do anything, and this guy shows up in my back yard wanting to talk about the god damned coop again. "You know, Dan. You said I could have all the time I needed and then demanded I tear it down, going back on your..." Cue the most childish temper tantrum I think I've ever seen. He was literally stomping on the ground with elbows out, screaming about suing me and how he'll own my whole house by the time he's done with me.

Malicious compliance: fuck you, Dan. I decided the best place for that coop is exactly where it is. It's been there about 20 years and adverse possession only requires 10. I can take that 12sqft of dirt from you and you'll even have to pay my legal fees. Only the run needs to move since it's only been there 5 years. That's exactly what I did. The new run connects to the gardens and the roof funnels the roosters' crows right to his house. Setback requirements say structures must be 5' from property lines. The back corner of the run is now exactly 5'2" away from the supposed property line and he gets to hear and smell my chickens every single time he's outside. He will not have peace until he dies or moves. I am well within my rights and while I do struggle with medical and PTSD issues from my service, I learned very well from the Navy how to be technically correct in a way that works only for me.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/blackwidow_211 on 2025-05-17 00:23:22+00:00.

Newer manager (we will call him Chuck) recently came on and immediately started throwing his power around. He's not my direct supervisor, but I deal with him directly often. I also have to mention I'm in the construction industry, so females are not usually given the same respect as our male coworkers. He decides he's going to try and manage members in my department (not his job), and most of them cower to him, and he finally gets to me. Email starts "Ashely (not my real name), get this done." I reply "Hi Chuck! My name is spelled Ashleigh. I'll get right on that as soon as I get my managers approval." They only get one chance. "Ashley, why isnt this done yet?" "Hi Charles! My manager has not yet approved this. I've copied her for your convenience." He storms into the highest manager on site's office to complain about me and my "disrespectful insubordination." I get called into my managers office with her manager there as well (whom I'm very tight with both of them). They asked me to explain my side. I told them he had been warned once that he had misspelled my legal name. He was the one being disrespectful, not me, as I was using his legal name. They agreed I hadnt done anything disrespectful, which pissed ol' Chuckie off... He kept misspelling and demanding things of me, which I ignored completely. He came to my desk and started raising his voice to bring attention to my insubordination. I politely replied, I had assumed he was speaking to someone else because 1. That wasn't my name, and 2. He was going around my (female) manager and he wasn't my manager. This had reached my GM. Well, my manager and I gathered all of our evidence on how many times he had refused to do or work with the other females in the office, but the males would ask for the exact same thing and he would do it. We had proof of all the times he had refused, demeaned, or worked around the women. And had it all documented with HR. We got an email the next day "Chuck Smith is now pursuing opportunities outside the company."

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/angelabirkin on 2025-05-16 22:15:39+00:00.

I (18F) worked part-time at a smoothie shop while finishing high school. My manager was this guy in his 30s who took the job way too seriously. He loved acting like we were working for NASA, not blending bananas.

One morning, I was 3 minutes late. Literally three. I apologized, clocked in, and got to work. He pulled me aside and gave me this dramatic speech like:

"If you're late again - even one minute - don't bother showing up."

I said okay.

A week later, I hit traffic and pulled into the parking lot 2 minutes late. I sat in my car, looked at the time, and remembered what he said.

So I didn't go in. I turned off the car, texted:

"Per your request, I'm not showing up today. I'm two minutes late."

Cue frantic calls, voicemails, texts. I ignored them all. Next shift, he tried to guilt me about it. I just said, "I thought you were serious. You made it very clear."

He never said that line again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Expert-Magician1531 on 2025-05-16 18:28:02+00:00.

I work for a Nissan dealership as a vehicle technician and I look after the high performance vehicles (GTR’s, 370Z) and about 13 years ago we fitted a set of front parking sensors to a Nismo 370Z and they didn’t work properly for some reason, these were Nissan branded sensors and we had fitted them on many other vehicles with no issues. After a while replacing the control unit and the sensors they still refused to work correctly so we got in touch with Nissan technical support and found out from them that they don’t work on the 370Z’s and the GTRS so please don’t fit them. We had to replace the front bumper of the Nismo 370Z and take the expensive lesson on the chin. A few months later we sold a new GTR to a to put it mildly an aggressive customer that had to have things his way and we were definitely perceived as the lower class. He wanted front parking sensors fitted to his new car and the salesman let the order through to us. The sting of what had happened before was still there and we told the salesman straight away that it’s not a good idea and tell the customer that they will not work. The customer knowing everything stated that they will work and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t he’s had them on previous vehicles and wants them fitted and at a reduced price for the stress we caused telling him he can’t have what he wants. So it fit them, they don’t work great but do to a degree and we tell the customer that we warned him they wouldn’t. He took the car away and was back in a couple of days saying it’s unacceptable and we need to get them working correctly or he will cause a big stink on social media and get his lawyer involved! So we spend a week tinkering with the car and no joy, they just wouldn’t work right by now he’s ringing in everyday to see if they are fixed, we would say sorry sir as we were told by Nissan and passed that information on to you they won’t work on your vehicle you were advised strongly not to have them. So he wants them removed and to fit them you need to put holes in the very expensive bumper. Obviously he isn’t happy with the 4 holes in the front of his car and demands a new bumper from us. Luckily all calls are recorded at our dealership and we had him on call requesting sensors to be fitted despite our advice, we refused to replace it for free, he stormed off threatening lawsuits. A few weeks later it’s back for a new expensive bumper at his cost.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/shieldtown95 on 2025-05-16 17:32:48+00:00.

This happened years ago. I was working in engineering and fabrication and my CEO was a classic micromanager who was also a salesman. To him “the customer is always right” even when the customer has no idea what they’re talking about.

We had a project where a customer requested a custom-built sheet metal rack to hold several heavy bottles. Their sketch showed a V-shaped piece to cradle the bottles. But these bottles are heavy, and a V-shape (especially out of thin sheet metal) would inevitably start to deform under load due to the force distribution.

I proposed an L-shaped design instead. It wasn’t as “aesthetic,” but it would distribute the weight better, resist bending, and still securely hold the bottles. The customer was fine with this once I explained the mechanics.

But then my CEO jumps in.

“No, we’re going with the customer’s original idea. Make it V-shaped. They wanted a V, they get a V. I don’t want to explain why we changed it.” He was actually visibly anxious that I wasn’t planning of giving the customer their exact design.

I pushed back, explained the issue again, and reminded him the customer already accepted the L-shape — but he doubled down. “Follow the original request exactly”

So… I did.

I built the V-shaped piece, precisely as requested. Installed it. Placed the bottles on it.

Within 24 hours, the V started to deform. Sheet metal bowed outward, and the whole structure looked like it was wilting under pressure. The customer called us and said, “Yeah… maybe your engineer had the right idea.”

Guess who had to fix it? Me.

Guess what design we went with the second time? My original L-shaped version.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/FlossingHorse741 on 2025-05-16 17:10:55+00:00.

I booked accommodation 2 months in advance for St Patrick’s weekend in Dublin.

It was a fairly ancient b&b but for €115 it was a place to sleep and cheapest option for the busiest weekend of the year in Dublin. It was one double bed for me and a buddy to share. It was pay on arrival.

3 weeks before the stay, the accommodation manager messaged me on the app I booked the stay on telling me there’s a problem, I can no longer stay and to cancel on my side immediately. No apology let alone help offered by them. This was followed by multiple phone calls daily, along with text messages in a harassing nature saying I need to cancel now so I can get my money back (once again, it was pay on arrival). I didn’t answer the calls or messages telling me to cancel.

Something felt off, so I checked the listing for the night I was supposed to stay and it just so happens the accommodation had been listed again for double the price. Likely the manager realised St Patrick’s weekend was a cash grab.

Maybe not immediately but at the property manager’s request, I simply rang booking.com, and told them I’d like to cancel my booking. The customer service rep asked why I was cancelling. I explained in detail all the above to her and things took an unexpected turn for the property manager.

Ultimately the rep agreed the property was acting in an unfair manner and the solution was that booking.com would find me accommodation within 1km (originally they tried to get me to stay waaaaay outside of the city but I wasn’t having it) of where I intended to stay. The original property would then be liable to cover any difference in cost.

Here’s the good part - finding accommodation 3 weeks before St Patrick’s Day in Dublin is about as difficult as trying to light a fire with flint and steel in the rain, near impossible. Everything within a 1km range was booked out except for a well known 4 star hotel.

The room alone cost 350€ per night, and had 2 double beds, much bigger room and in a nicer location. The customer rep had to get it cleared by her team lead, so I just sat on hold doing chores for 25 minutes. Eventually they came back and said it was all signed off on and they’ll send me a special link. What a treat, I gladly accepted their compromise.

This in turn meant the property owner that tried to force me to cancel on my end was now indebted €235 and we got a massive upgrade for the same price we originally had!

I had to pay the €350 upfront and had to keep receipts and show proof of payment to the booking partner after our stay but got my refund of €235 the following week.

TLDR: property demanded I cancel my booking on my end, they ended up having to pay an extra €235 and I got a free upgrade

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ConsequenceCold11 on 2025-05-16 15:10:31+00:00.

My team lead Dan told us to “document everything,” every meeting, conversation, and issue, to keep full transparency.

So I did exactly that. At first, I documented project updates and blockers like normal. But then I started adding everything he said in meetings, including his rants, insults, and bad takes. Stuff like:

• “Dan called Sarah’s question stupid.”
• “Dan dismissed John’s idea without explanation.”
• “Dan ranted about how kids these days don’t work hard.”

I quoted him word for word and added time stamps, just like he asked. The reports were shared company wide, including his manager and HR.

After a few weeks, Dan complained that I was making him look bad. I reminded him he told us to document everything.

Soon after, HR stepped in, and Dan was moved to a non lead role.

Moral: if you ask for everything documented, be ready to hear everything.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/EchoNyx32 on 2025-05-16 14:21:26+00:00.

A client demanded a very specific feature change that I knew would conflict with other critical functions. My teammate said, "Just do exactly what they say, no questions. "So I followed every detail no adjustments, no improvements. Predictably, their system broke down the next day, and the client pulled out completely. Now my teammate's stuck firefighting, but I'm safe because I gave them precisely what was requested. Sometimes the best way to comply is to follow orders to the letter.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/cjdubais on 2025-05-16 13:22:06+00:00.

So,

I was a contractor in a Government office. My background is extensive starting with multiple engineering degrees, and many years of designing, building and operation of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV's).

There was constant personnel churn in the office, and the contractors were the corporate memory. It's an interesting situation, I always likened it to a feudal society. Staffers (direct Government employees) were the royalty and contractors were the serfs. Sometimes it was bothersome, but the position paid very well, so that was some benefit. Most of the time, the staffers knew they were in way over their heads and gladly accepted our advice.

A woman staffer arrived one day as head of the department that managed our outside service contractors. Typically, I played a large advisory role in dealing with these folks as someone familiar with the industry and able to call bullshit if you will.

Well, this woman decided that I was conspiring behind her back with the contractors virtually on the first day there. Why, I never knew, but it was what it was.

Luckily I didn't answer to her, I answered to a guy who in a former life was a member of Seal Team 6. Basically a trained killer, Great guy, he liked me a lot, and we got along well together. When the foo foo started, he pulled me aside and said, "document everything you do".

So I did as he suggested. I had a notebook in OneNote that I would record whatever I did that involved this woman, including her increasingly anti-social behavior towards me. We would be in meetings, and not only would she not look at me, when I asked her direct questions she wouldn't answer. Several times, this happened and then there was this dead silence until someone else spoke.

About this time we got a new division manager who was very.... personnel "sensitive". He was a PhD type in an operations role and completely out of his league, so he regressed to what he knew, making the office "kinder and gentler". This was quite a challenge as we had an office full of ex-Navy types, and they weren't exactly used to being "kinder and gentler".

In a short period of time, the woman in question had skewered 5 other males in the office in her short tenure, with the result of them departing the office. Both staff and contractors. I would have been her 6th if she had had her way.

So, there was a lot of concern about my position. My boss was in my office one day talking about the latest anti-social behavior demonstrated by this woman. He made a comment, "boy, I wish I had documentation of all this". I laughed, went to my computer and printed off a 20-page dissertation on all the stupidity. His eyes lit up. Come with me, he said.

We went into the office of the new director and my boss gave him my dossier. It took him a bit to read through it all. I had used the word "harassment" (which turned out to be the magic word) in description of many of the episodes. He said, I think harassment is too strong a word for this behavior. I asked him if a contractor was exhibiting this behavior towards a staffer, what would you call it?

He didn't answer the question.

About a week later, the woman was reassigned to a different organization.

I always say, it's not good to go head to head with a trained killer....

LOL

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Own-Dragonfly-942 on 2025-05-16 13:21:11+00:00.

I worked in fast fashion retail for 9 years on the tills. Every year roughly the store manager would decide that water bottles weren't allowed behind the tills and we needed permission to go upstairs to have some. It would only last a couple of weeks before it became too hot in summer and the rules changed back.

The last time she tried putting this in place, I'd been diagnosed with diabetes and my vertigo had finally been recognised by my doctor. The main factors of both being if I get too hot or don't have water I can faint. I got told by my line manager (whose under the store manager) that I needed a write note from my doctor saying I needed it and until that time I couldn't have it with me.

So, I took a week off work saying it was causing health issues while I waited for my doctor to write me up a letter. I went back and had a sickness meeting with my line manager and before sitting down I passed her this letter, still in the sealed envelope. On the letter, it said "£10 charge before giving to patient" and my manager looked horrified that I'd actually paid £10 to do what I'd been asked as evidence by herself. At the time, my hourly wage was £9.50 and I didn't get paid for sick days, so that £10 letter ended up costing a weeks wage too.

The best part, in the letter it was stated that I could use the toilets whenever I needed without asking (another rule) and could have a quick 5-10 minutes paid break when I needed to check my sugers and have a snack or anything as needed. So I started doing exactly that, even when I had a good day and didn't need the snack I went upstairs to just escape. This went on for about three years until I quit last year.

The store manager (as far as I know) has never implemented the water bottle rule again, or limited when employees can take toilet breaks. Apart from things like this, the store manager is a nice(ish) woman, so it was always out of character when it came about.

I still have a copy of the letter in case my current employer tries anything, but they're a pretty decent lot, so no worries there. There's over things from this place, but this one always stands out to me.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Comfortable_Tooth132 on 2025-05-16 08:29:16+00:00.

Year 7 Humanities class in Australia. Students are asked to research the daily life of Spartan and Athenian women in Ancient Greece. Then they choose between creating a Venn diagram, an article, a poster about the topic or a dialogue between the women.

One student writes a dialogue. In Ancient Greek.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/kschmitz22 on 2025-05-16 04:33:13+00:00.

Me, a sysadmin. Spend 6 months making a finely tuned alerting system that tells us when anything critical to our company's operations goes down.

Corpo. Asks ChatGPT what our alerting policies should be and directly dumps it to us as directives to follow.

Me. Of course! Let me just turn it back to the way it was! Queue turning on absolutely every alert in the system as instructed. We had > 175 completely useless alerts within 8 hours.

Corpo. (Surprisingly) decided it wasn't actually good to spam there employees at all hours of the night for unimportant servers that don't make us money. And rolled back the policy the next day.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/82dsoldier on 2025-05-16 01:39:43+00:00.

I used to work in a transmission shop as a front wheel drive transmission puller. A friend of the boss brought his car in for a rebuild, so that made it a rush job. After getting the car in the air I find out that it has locking luggage nuts and he hasn't bothered to leave the key. I report this to my boss who screams "I DON'T GIVE A G*DDAMN HOW YOU GET THOSE WHEELS OFF, JUST MAKE IT HAPPEN NOW!" No problem, boss-man. I go back into the shop, grab my air chisel and start cutting the lugs off. This has the wonderful side effect of leaving large scars across his $3000 set of rims. I was halfway through the second side when the boss comes back into the shop and completely loses his mind. I very calmly remind him what he had told me earlier. He turns immediately back around and goes back into his office. To give the man some credit, he did come back an hour later and apologize to me for going too far.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Jolly-Bad-7892 on 2025-05-15 16:32:23+00:00.

A few years ago I was hired as Head of Bar Operations at a new resturant opening. A hugely successful even if quite average resturant group, opening a new 3 floor, 280 seater resturant. The opening was a bit of a shit show, I was drafted in late as they fired a lot of opening managers, which should have been a red flag big enough for me to pass on the opportunity really.

One of my many responsibilities was to write the rota/ schedule for our 30 odd bar staff. There were a few stipulations I had to stick to, importantly that I had to have a manager from the bar side on duty at all times. After a few weeks of doing so, a new area manager was hired who took over from the general manager on day to day operations. One of the things he implemented was that he would write the rotas, and just generally micro manage. He subsequently uploads a rota when in the first week there were 2 days without manager on duty. I highlighted this to him in person, where I was pretty rudely told to just do my job and work with what was passed down to me. In turn, I decided to email him, the general manager and one of the company directors explaining the issue and how it must be an oversight, but attached a new proposed set of rotas that would fix the issue.

The next day the new area manager pins me in the office and again tells me how I'm going above my station and should just "do my fucking job and adhere to the rota", he said he'd amended and sorted it all. So I did.

The following day is my day off, there was no manager on duty, and a general lack of staff in the building. My phone starts going off from 8am, and at about 2pm I decided to respond to some of the messages and highlight how I was doing what I was told. The next day, the area manager requests a sit down meeting, with a witness, and fires me- something he didn't have approval to do given I don't report to him. I get my dismissal paperwork via email, and naturally say I have some issue with it due to the reasons I've outlined and have the receipts to prove it.

I ended up getting a pretty decent payout due to being unfairly dismissed. Another few days later the new area manager has 'moved on' from the business with immediate effect. I don't think he was able to find work throughout most of Covid subsequently.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/wowthatssocool2023 on 2025-05-15 16:07:28+00:00.

The timekeeping system at my job runs on a 15-minute increment schedule. Basically, if you clock in during the first 7 minutes of the increment, it rounds you backward to the start of that segment. If you’re in the last 7 minutes, it rounds you forward to the end of the segment.

Example: You clock out at 4:52? Congrats, the system says you left at 4:45.

Now, if you clock in and out multiple times a day (like for lunch), that’s four punches—and potentially up to 28 minutes lost or gained depending on where you land in those increments.

Shortly after I started, I began getting flooded with emails about being “short” a few minutes on my timesheet and was told I had to submit PTO—even though I worked full 8-hour days, sometimes more. It didn’t matter that I was physically at work; if the system said I was short, I had to burn time off.

So I started paying attention. Really close attention.

Here’s the twist: my employer doesn’t pay overtime in cash, but they do give you 1.5x time off if you earn it. So one hour of OT = 1.5 hours of PTO.

With some strategic clocking in and out—always landing on the “helpful” side of the 15-minute window—I’ve gotten good at squeezing out those 28 minutes extra a day.

That adds up to 140 minutes (2 hours 20 minutes) of overtime a week… which, when converted at 1.5x, becomes 3.5 hours of PTO every week.

All for doing exactly what they asked: watching the clock very closely.

Thanks for the free time off!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Aggravating_Dot_5217 on 2025-05-15 15:00:15+00:00.

Here we have another IT story.

One of my many tasks is to create specific document templates that will be used by the company to show off achievements.  For some unknown reason, those that are in the higher up suites decided to change the look of the certificates.

I am given a copy of the certificate and told to update the system that will do the printing.  I start off by taking the existing certificate and try to match the new certificate to the template.  After much frustration, I decide that I will have to start over and spend some time redesigning the document template from scratch.  It takes a bit longer than I expected and when I did my first prints, the various field were out of line.  This is tedious work as it means checking, move the elements by little increments.

I get every thing aligned except for the date and no matter what I try the date will not move up or down.  I ask some of the guys in our development department and none of them can figure this one out. We are all stumped.

I do some research and discover that the problem is the renderer (the program that takes the template and inserts the data – for those non IT people)  One of the issues that is raised is that the renderer has a bug that will move items around at random and unless placed in a fixed location will just keep on changing the template.  The changes are very minute, probably no more than 1 or 2 millimetres.

I send the higher ups an email explaining all of this after.  I had reached a serious point of frustration as this task should have taken about half a day and I have now been at it for two days. I send my boss an email explaining what the problem is and if they may know somebody that can help.

Next thing I am called into a Teams meeting with the higher ups and asked what the problem is. I explain everything.  The higher up tells me to open the original template and we will redo that to match the new certificate.  I follow instruction and keep adding my few cents worth.  I am then told to do what I am told and get on with it. I am also told that I must stop any other work.

Now comes the malicious compliance part.  I do as I am told, make the changes as requested.  We work line by line and make the changes.  We then check that the change is correct on the certificate.  I am asked to print the completed template document to the printer in their office.  No problem, I do as I am told.  I stop responding to emails, doing other work while waiting for the people from the other office to do there thing and tell me what the next set of changes are.  This goes on for nearly a week.  The higher ups are losing their mind because every time we change one thing other things go out of alignment and we need to go back and fix them.

When I am not sitting at my desk looking at my computer screen. I am doing a bit of research to see if I can find a solution but not saying anything to anyone. Remember what I was told.

I am having dinner with the family and mention this to my son. (He is a software developer). He asks if he can look at the code and tells me that the code that I had been working on for the higher ups is seriously wrong. He gives me some tips on how to fix it so that the elements are locked in and will not move.

I sit down in just over an hour I produce a new set of code that, needs to be tested to see if it is robust enough.

Now for the outcome.  Today I go into the office, get pulled into a Teams meeting again to continue with the product that isn’t working. I make a passing comment that my son helped me with the template and has put in more robust settings.  The higher ups reluctantly agree to try as they say we have nothing to lose.  We made the first print and one of the items was out of alignment, made a change and the item held its position. Took a few hours and the template is now working like it is supposed to. I even got a well done from the higher ups

Sometimes there are others that know what they are talking about.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/DickFartButt on 2025-05-15 13:39:32+00:00.

I work for a major US airline, for a long time and at several different airports. There's an area behind the baggage counter where the bags get sorted for their respective flights after they've been checked, we're on our feet most of the time but we each have chairs at our work stations so we can sit and rest for a minute when there's a lull in bags coming down.

Every few years there'll be a hot shit new manager who's gonna turn this airport around and make it the best performing one in the system and they all seem to have the same idea; take away the chairs so the agents are always standing at the belt.

Now, the agents in this area are generally on the senior side as it's indoors and out of the elements, we've done the job for a while, we know how to do the job efficiently and we really do do our best to avoid fuck ups but as long as human error is a factor there will always be some. Taking our chairs does nothing but piss us off. Their bullshit excuse usually is framing it as a saftey issue, a tripping hazard. So that's where we start...smaller or oddly shaped bags get sent down in a plastic tub so they don't jam the belt, maybe you've seen them. We take them off the belt and stack them up on the ground for someone to come by and collect. Not anymore, we let them pile up on the belt making it a giant pain in the ass for the poor bastard collecting them, they're bitching constantly to the manager, we say sorry boss, they're a tripping hazard on the ground.

Next, we start following the rules...our employee handbook lays out very clearly what the company's expectations for us our in our job duties. We're only expected to pull one bag per minute and take bags out no later than 20 minutes before the flight departs. Maybe you've guessed already but those expectations are nowhere near good enough to actually complete these tasks so by the company's own rules we were already going well beyond what was expected of us. We start giving them the bare minimum, one bag per minute, 20 minutes prior. Manager was pissed, he and the supervisors were throwing bags and us being unionized we documented and grieved every single time it happened and the company a few days later had to pay out several thousand to agents for covered work.

Delays across the board, 1500 bags missed that day. The next morning the chairs were back in their spots and we continued as normal and afterwards no one would give that manager the time of day. A lot of passengers got fucked over that day but we were working exactly to the rules our company had given us so you can blame the airline and not the agents. The handbook was changed after a while but only extending it to 35 minutes prior instead of 20, it's still one bag per minute last I looked.

I was lucky enough to be apart of three of these events over the years but this was the most satisfying.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Additional_Trick_226 on 2025-05-15 09:11:50+00:00.

I've been working at this small marketing agency for just over a year now. It's my first "real" job after college, and I've been thrilled to have actual clients and responsibilities. Well, I was thrilled until we got a new account manager, Debbie (not her real name, obviously).

Debbie came from one of those corporate mega-agencies where apparently they micromanage the living daylights out of everyone. From day one, she had "concerns" about my communication style with clients. Mind you, I'd been praised by these same clients for being responsive and helpful.

Last month, after I sent what I thought was a perfectly normal email to our biggest client about a small scheduling change, Debbie called an emergency meeting.

"From now on, I need to approve ALL client communications before they go out," she announced with that fake smile managers use when they're being unreasonable but pretending they're helping you. "Everything. Emails, phone call notes, text messages, meeting agendas. Send them to me first for review."

When I pointed out that this would slow down our response times, she just waved her hand dismissively. "It's about quality control. Better to be right than fast."

Fine. You want ALL communications? You got it.

I started that very afternoon. Every. Single. Thing. If a client asked what time a call was scheduled, I drafted an email response and sent it to Debbie. "Awaiting your approval on this time confirmation." If a client texted asking for a quick file, I'd screenshot it and email Debbie. "Please approve my response to this text message."

I even created a special folder in my drafts called "Awaiting Debbie's Approval" and set up an automated counter. By the end of day one, I had sent her 17 approval requests. By the end of week one, it was over 100.

The best part? I stopped answering my phone when clients called. Instead, I'd let it go to voicemail, then email Debbie: "Client X called about Y. My proposed response is attached. Please approve."

After about two weeks, Debbie was drowning. She'd fallen behind on approving my communications, which meant clients weren't getting responses. They started escalating to her directly, which doubled her workload.

The breaking point came when our biggest client emailed both of us complaining about delays. I responded to the client with: "I've forwarded your concerns to Debbie for approval of my response. Once approved, I'll get back to you promptly."

The next morning, Debbie stopped by my desk looking exhausted.

"I think we need to adjust our approval process," she said, trying to maintain her corporate dignity. "Moving forward, just use your judgment for routine communications. Only send me things that involve project scope, timeline changes, or budget discussions."

"Are you sure?" I asked innocently. "I have about 30 draft responses waiting for your review right now."

She visibly cringed. "That won't be necessary anymore."

I've been happily sending emails without approval for two weeks now. Debbie barely makes eye contact in the hallway, and honestly, that's fine by me. The best part? My quarterly review is coming up, and all those approval emails are documented proof that I've been trying my absolute best to follow company protocol.

Sometimes malicious compliance is the best teacher.