Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/thisisdrivingmebatty on 2025-06-10 15:13:13+00:00.

Some years ago I did a brief stint as a mail carrier with the postal service. Every Sunday, people were mandated to come in on rotation to do Amazon deliveries, and the rotation was usually split in two groups 1:3 ratio, with 1 person from the tenured carriers and 3 people from the contract carriers per branch, with 3-4 branches reporting to our location as we were the sorting hub. This particular Sunday, we had the following complications:

• All four people from my branch were new/contract carriers, including myself, because it was Labor Day Weekend and the tenured folks could not be mandated in. This was only my second Sunday delivery and I hadn't really been trained
• our postmaster was subbing in at an out of state location, so we had someone filling in for her. the sub postmaster was out this day, so we had one of the lower supervisors filling in for him. a sub for the sub. this person had just come back from a two-month suspension for threatening to kill someone in writing
• our scanners weren't working that day, which also meant the auto-generated routes weren't populating on them (because it was Sunday, they were dynamic routes that changed every week based on what packages we had/where they were going). we had to go by printed routes (with no directions on them).

When we brought it up to the sub supervisor that the scanner gps wasn't working, she told us to "just use your phones." We were like what? No, absolutely not, it's bullshit to expect us to use our personal devices as work equipment and not get compensated for us, especially for those of us who don't have unlimited data plans. She insisted, so we called our union reps from our respective branches, who told us we were well within our rights to pack up and go home but that we'd not get paid for the day, but if we stayed and couldn't finish we'd get paid the full day+any overtime.

Three people walked out and went home and I don't blame them, but it did mean the rest of us had to pick up their slack. I stayed because I couldn't afford to lose the pay. I did warn this supervisor that as a young femme-presenting person I didn't feel comfortable going without any sort of communications so as soon as my phone died I'd be coming back and going home, regardless how many packages I still had left. She brushed me off, but off I went.

Sure enough, my phone died around 3pm. I messaged her when I had 1% left and told her I was on my way back; she frantically tried reaching out to me to tell me she figured out the gps and was sending another carrier out to meet me to show me how to do it on my scanner. I ignored them. When I returned she tried to write me up for insubordination/refusal to deliver. I refused to sign the write up, and wrote up my own undeliverable report detailing everything that had happened, including the instructions she gave and what our union rep told us. She refused to sign THAT in retaliation. I took her pen and wrote MANAGER REFUSED TO SIGN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT in all caps, and called the rep back right in front of her to let them know I'd be filing a grievance the next day, and went to go unload my truck. As I was unloading, I saw other carriers also coming back and having the same conversation with her; apparently they'd heard me tell her in the morning what I planned to do and decided to do the same.

The sub postmaster AND the district postmaster both had to come in to finish delivering the packages. I quit not long after this, but I heard from other carriers she was fired by the end of the year. I now have a newfound understanding for the bullshit the mail carriers put up with and have since started leaving snacks/waters for my mail carriers.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/DoctorGuvnor on 2025-06-10 14:27:13+00:00.

When I was a trooper, many, many years ago when you were on guard duty at the camp's main gate every person had to be challenged and show their ID. EVERY ONE.

In fact this meant that field officers and generals would drive up and expect the pole to be raised so they didn't even have to slow down.

One guy in our platoon was Trooper Koos Coetzee (care to guess which country?). Koos took life in the army very seriously indeed and followed orders to the letter.

Which meant that sensible sergeants never put him on watchhouse duty - until the new guy showed up, demanding Koos do 'his share' on the day the big passing out parade was held. You can see where this is going can't you?

However as the Briagadier-General swept up to the post and Koos stopped him, demanding to see his papers he shocked us all, complimenting Koos on strict attention to detail and being a 'conscientious chap'. Luckiest soldier I ever met, Koos.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Sorry-Charlotte on 2025-06-10 14:04:53+00:00.

So this happened about 12 years ago, but I thought it would be funny to post. I have a learning disability, and I’ve worked really hard to become successful academically, but when I was 14, I was still learning. So I worked really hard on this paper for my history class, and I was really proud of it when I turned it in. Two weeks later I have a zero, and when I ask why, my teacher says that I forgot to put my name in the correct spot, and he “Couldn’t find it” and “college professors won’t remember your name”.

Ok, cue malicious compliance. For the next 5 papers I proceeded to highlight, underline, bold and use red ink for. Every. Single. Assignment. It gets more obnoxious for every assignment, until finally I’m using clipart and pointing arrows at my name. Finally my teacher tells me I’ve made my point, and could I please stop. I do, but I also cheer when he leaves at the end of the year and is replaced by the man that made me go into history as a career.

Also, when I was getting my associates at community college, I forgot my name on a paper. My professor didn’t deduct points, and he wrote my nickname at the top.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/mdlapla on 2025-06-10 13:43:52+00:00.

Around 2008 I worked for a big multinational consulting company, setting up a development center in my country.

This center was meant to be "specialized devs, than can create code way faster than do-it-all kind of devs, for cheaper, on an offshore country".

The reality was, like in all consulting companies, very different (except for the "for cheaper..." part, that was true).

The team consisted of a truckload of recent graduates or university students that were given a 2-3 week course on a technology, plus a couple team leaders and probably around one overworked senior dev per team.

Oh, and a PMO/QA department. PMO means, for those who don't know, Project Management Office. The PMO had to make sure that those plans for a coffee machine ended up with a coffee machine being delivered instead of a coffee mug. Or that if the customer asked for a Porsche 911, it ends with a car, not a bike with a Porsche 911 sticker on the side (examples that everyone can understand, the company actually dealt with software).

I was part that PMO/QA department. When I say part it means me and another experienced guy handled everything PMO, and a QA senior and a QA junior handled all the testing plans of all the teams. So 4 people to do PMO and QA for around 80-100 devs, split between 14-16 teams.

To make things BETTER (worse) the top brass decided to certify the dev center with ISO practices, which meant that PMO work grew quite a bit and we had to be on top of everything much much more since we needed to have everything perfect for the appraisal.

The head of the dev center was ELJEFE. He was a spanish villanous lad who had a knack for firing, underpaying people and generally cutting expenses to the minimum.

He decided that a HR department was too much for the company, so he scrapped the dev center's one and had one IN ANOTHER COUNTRY handle everything, he scrapped aptitude and attitude tests and he conducted interviews himself. That's why the devs were the most random collection of... let's just say... curious human beings available for cheap in the market (including the narcolepsy albino goth metal guy, the former bodyguard, the guy that did parkour during the weekends and wasn't able to use his hands to type on a keyboard every monday, and so many more characters that would render The Office as a pretty normal workplace environment)

ELJEFE calls me and the other PMO guy and says "listen, the quality of requirements coming to the dev center is really lacking. ISO will fail us if they see what we accept. Draft a standard template and a guide on how requirements should be sent to us and I will forward it to all our customers. From now on, every single requirement that enters the center has to be evaluated and can be rejected if they don't met standards"

What ELJEFE doesn't remember, is that we're developing an internal app for the whole company, and requirements are being sent, via email, on a word document that has nconnected phrases and thoughts, directly from the CEO and CTO of the whole multinational company, that the dev team has to make sense of. So I say "Everything? are you sure? Because..."

Before I can even muster another word, ELJEFE burst into flames and says "Am I speaking chinese or what? Everything is everything! Do your effing job and don't bother me with this anymore!"

"Roger that" and we left, sent a quick meeting notes email to ELJEFE, drafted the template and guide according to ISO requirements, sent it to ELJEFE and carried on with our work.

Next week, update on requirements directly from the CTO. I don't even bother opening the document, I hit reply and copy paste the established message "Requisite rejected. Not compliant with established standards."

Literally 30 seconds after replying, the telephone rings: "THIS IS CTO, WHO GAVE YOU POWER TO REJECT A REQUISITE FROM ME? DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM"

Me: "Hi CTO, yes, I know who you are, ELJEFE told us that we have to reject every single thing that's not ISO compliant, no matter where it comes from. I have the notes from the meeting, I tried to tell him that we were doing things slightly different on your project, he said that EVERYTHING had to be done by the book, so I have to reject your request, I can forward you the template you have to complete again if you want..."

Not even answering, CTO finishes the call and I can hear ELJEFE's phone ringing. All I could hear from our desk is ELJEFE saying "yes... yes... no, I understand... but... I know... yes... please no... won't happen again... I will tell them... yes... sorry about that... thank you".

And ELJEFE comes out of the office, white as a ghost, slowly walks towards our desk and says "guys, the internal app project is excluded from the ISO scope, so we don't have to be strict with it."

TLDR: Strict manager makes the PMO/QA team reject a request from the CTO of the company, almost gets fired.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Unlucky-Pin9555 on 2025-06-10 13:41:09+00:00.

we got a new visitor policy last week. The email was bolded, underlined and said: “ALL GUESTS MUST SIGN IN AND WAIT FOR SECURITY CLEARANCE BEFORE ENTERING. NO EXCEPTIONS.” I work front desk. normally, executives just walk through. But hey, the email said what it said. So when the CEO came in early for a board meeting, smiled, and started heading for the elevator. I handed him the clipboard and said, “Sorry sit, i’ll need you to sign in and wait while I call it in”

He looked confused, maybe a little amused, but sat down. security took their time, ten full minutes. The next morning, we got a new email: “Use discretion for executive level visitors.”

Go figure

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Georgehull on 2025-06-10 12:50:55+00:00.

I'm a tradesman and worked for a company carrying out maintenance work in council/social housing. When carrying out drilling tasks which can create dust, the company brought in the manditory use of 'face fit' masks. These were masks which had to create a seal against your skin to ensure they work correctly. As part of this roll out our employer stated we all needed to be fully clean shaven to comply. Obviously alot of people were unhappy about this as alot of us had facial hair. To comply, many people shaved a strip of their facial hair in the place that the mask would fit to the face, or other wacky facial hair styles. Totally acceptable in terms of the mask would work correctly, not at all acceptable in the eyes of management. Everyone looked ridiculous and it was a marvellous thing. I myself had a huge handle bar moustache to which my manager would comment on how I looked unprofessional every day.

In what seemed like a back door attempt at having all employees clean shaven and looking 'professional , backfired in the most humorous way possible.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/andy_nony_mouse on 2025-06-10 11:44:45+00:00.

When I was 12 my mom got an Apple ][+ computer. I set it up for her after carefully reading all the manuals. Back that manuals were actually useful and contained a lot of good information. The computer had two external hard drives, a modem, a monitor, and a printer. Everything was connected with various cables. My mom used it for a couple days and then said to me in an exasperated voice “These cables are all over the place and it’s driving me crazy! Clean it up so there are no cables!” I had explained to her several times that the cables were necessary, but she just wasn’t hearing it. OK, I unplugged every cable from every external piece of the computer system and put them in a box. She walked into her den and said “Now this is what it should have looked like from the beginning. Keep it this way from now on.” A few minutes later, she calls me back into the den. “The computer won’t turn on”. “Of course”, I said, “there are no cables. There’s no way to get power to the computer and no way for the computer to talk to any of the other devices.” She grumbled for a moment, but then had me reinstall everything so it worked. Sometimes to get people to understand a concept, you have to give them exactly what they ask for.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/TheDragonDoji on 2025-06-10 10:49:31+00:00.

When I was 9 (the early 90's) we lived in a small countryside village, so I walked the 3/4's of a mile to school every day.

Both parents worked and as my mother was a teacher; she was, usually, home in time for when I got home.

However, one day she's not in and I am locked out. So I head to my friend's around the corner (he had Mario 3 on NES). An hour later, after I got home I was admonished by my mother for almost being late. So I asked for a key to the house...a request I believed was perfectly reasonable.

Spoiler alert; request denied "you're too young for a key to THIS house!"

A week or so later, locked out again.

My friend wasn't in, neither were the others nearby; so I sat on the front door welcome mat and waited.

I waited 2.5 hours for my mother to return from my little brother's Dental appointment; the entire time sat on the front doorstep.

Apparently! Having your child sat on the doorstep for several hours in clear view of the neighbours is very embarrassing!!

The best part...my Old Man found it hilarious as he was routinely irritated by my mother's utter obliviousness to anyone's schedules.

I had a key by the weekend.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/algloglo on 2025-06-10 10:28:42+00:00.

A few years ago I switched jobs - I was in pre-sales for a fintech startup. I was given a very small desk in a cramped office, and devised it would be better not to add a cramped desk to the mess, so I only put on my desk what was necessary for my task at any given time, and cleaned it up entirely when leaving the office. One day Grumpy Boss sees me leaving for a customer meeting and tells me that he thinks that I don't work much as my desk is always empty. Uh, OK. So I empty one drawer on my desk, basically my office supplies, and look at him. "Is that OK?" Blank stare. And so I empty a second drawer, paper files of customer docs and reports. And the unbelievable happens : he smiles warmly and says: "it looks better now." One month later I was out, fed up with the crazy management. I learned one year later that the company failed and was bought by its main customer.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/DeltaGemini on 2025-06-10 08:54:36+00:00.

Far too long ago I(m) worked a student job at a cinema under the most obnoxious location manager (m) I had ever met. We'll call him Bob. I worked front of house, got along well with people etc etc etc.

The schedule went up each week, two weeks in advance, and quite often you might find yourself on unfavourable shifts, or sometimes no shifts at all. We all negotiated amongst ourselves for shift swaps, updated management and all went well.

Except when I had a coursework deadline. I made it clear weeks in advance that I needed the weekend off to finish, planning ahead and very aware of the work I had left. The relevant schedule goes up and, lo and behold, I'm booked for the Saturday shift.

I tried to shift swap but nobody was biting, so I went up to my direct manager (f) and Bob, told them the situation and she said she would handle it. Then I had no shifts until the problematic day.

Cue two weeks later and I'm under pressure to get coursework done. Bob phones. He's never called me before, so I instantly know what this is about."

"Why you (sic) not in today?”

"I told [manager] weeks ago I wasn't available. I'm working on a deadline."

"You're on shift. Come in, or find another job."

Well, f*ck. Better do what he says, I need the money. So I got ready and headed to the cinema. I walked in there, went right up to him on the floor and said "You told me to come in, I came in. Now I'm leaving."

He couldn't say a word, I just turned and left.

Kept the job for another six months too, until I found something more convenient with better pay.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/GrimBarkFootyTausand on 2025-06-10 08:50:17+00:00.

About four years back I got hired as an IT consultant, with a job description that said I would spend half my time answering phones, and half my time modernising the processes and internal communication.

I've worked 1st line phone support before, and it's actually an amazing way of learning how it all works, what users actually need, what processes actually work, and so that was fine by me.

A week into the job I pull my manager aside and tell him there are some security issues that need fixing ASAP, but I get told that I should STFU until I've been there six months and know what I'm talking about. I also tell him that the department has a lot of 'single points of failure' which is things like only one person knowing how to fix all our old systems from the late 80s. Same answer: STFU.

I mean, okay I'll STFU, but these are extremely obvious and extremely dangerous issues. Like, everyone has the same admin password and it hadn't been changed for 10+ years. Disgruntled former employees have this password, and four months later, in which I only answered phones despite the job description, we found out the hard way that Russian ransomware hackers also had that password.

So the entire company shuts down. All our stores are down, HQ is frantic, and we're running ragged trying to get anything resembling a working system up. VERY expensive experts are hired, and I fail at concealing a smirk when they tell us that the very things I pointed out four months earlier were used in the attack, and their suggested solutions were pretty much exactly what I recommended back then.

A few very stressful months later the company is barely functional again. I get called in and fired, because the manager doesn't feel like I fit in. I immediately crash with the stress of the last few months catching up to me, and so I'm unable to finish all my projects.

The manager assigns my projects to other incredibly stressed out people who then also crash and/or leave the company, including the absurdly important single point of failure (that one IT dude that knows how all the old systems work), and the entire department collapses.

At this point I know it's already cost the company about 20 million dollars in lost revenue and consultant fees, but then roughly TWO YEARS later I'm called up by a recruiter who is asking if I'm willing to travel, and get a bunch of international stores running after a ransomware attack.

Me: It's not 'company', is it?

Recruiter: Erhm, yes, is that a problem?

Me: Oh boy yes, but it's not MY problem, and you can tell 'manager' that.

Then I hung up, did a bit of online searching, and found out that not following my suggestions had, at that point, cost the company about 10 years worth of net profit.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/jessicasergey on 2025-06-10 07:50:36+00:00.

This happened a couple of years ago at my old job. A pretty demanding corporate gig where we were always juggling tight deadlines, constant emails, and way too many meetings that could've been Slack messages.

Around early November, HR sent out one of those all-staff emails with a bright red banner and urgent tone. It read something like:

REMINDER: All unused PTO must be taken before December 31st. We will not be allowing rollovers this year. Please schedule your remaining days immediately or risk losing them.

No exceptions. No flexibility. No consideration for project timelines.

Now, I wasn't one to take a ton of time off during the year mostly because every time I tried, something urgent would come up and I'd get guilted into postponing. So by November, I had 10 full days of paid time off just sitting there. And according to HR's big red warning, I had about 6 weeks to use them.

Naturally, I did what any burnt-out, underappreciated employee would do: I opened the calendar and booked myself off from December 18 to December 31. Two full weeks. Right before the New Year. Smack in the middle of the most chaotic time in our project cycle.

A week later, my manager (let's call him Rob) came to me in a mild panic.

Rob: Hey, I saw your PTO request. I was hoping we could shift that a little. December's going to be a critical time for [project name], and we really need all hands on deck.

Me: Yeah, I get that, but HR sent that PTO deadline. If I dont use those days, I lose them. And I've already worked through enough vacations this year.

He looked uncomfortable but couldn't argue with the logic. I even forwarded him the HR email with the subject line: Using My Days. As Required :).

He escalated it to HR, of course. HR's reply?

We understand it may be inconvenient, but our PTO policy is final. Managers are responsible for planning around employee availability.

That reply felt like Christmas came early.

So I prepped my team as best I could, left detailed notes, and on December 18, I logged out, stress-free. While they were scrambling to hit deadlines, dealing with last-minute client requests, and working late... I was sipping hot chocolate, watching Netflix, and actually enjoying my holiday season for once.

When I came back in January, the project had been delivered barely. The team was exhausted, mistakes had been made, and the post-mortem meeting was basically 45 minutes of finger-pointing. But no one dared say a word to me.

After all, I was just following HR's rules.

Moral of the story?

If a company insists you follow policy to the letter, don't feel bad when you do even if it means watching the ship catch fire from your cozy vacation cabin.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/GlowLina on 2025-06-10 06:49:53+00:00.

I used to take a beginner level French course at a local community center. It was a chill class small group, older folks, travelers, a few professionals and our instructor, Mademoiselle Claire. She was a lovely but very serious Frenchwoman who believed in total immersion.

She had one strict rule: “No English in class."

This made sense in theory except this was day one, and most of us didn’t even know how to say hello properly yet. Still, she made it crystal clear, speak any English and you’d be punished. (Said it in English)

One evening, about three weeks in, she asked us to write short dialogues in pairs. My partner was completely lost, and kept whispering to me in English for help.

Claire overheard and swooped in like a linguistic hawk.

No English, not one word.

I tried to help but she cut me off

Silence, French only.

For the next week, I followed her rule. No English, not even when she herself lapsed into English to explain something complex, I’d just blink and say, “Je ne comprends pas.”

When she emailed homework instructions in English? I pretended I didn’t understand them.

During oral drills, I deliberately answered everything in broken, overly literal French, even when it made no sense.

Eventually, after I raised my hand and asked, in French, what “homework” meant again for the fifth time, she sighed and said in English: “Okay some English is allowed.”

Merci beaucoup, Claire.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ShineWithBela on 2025-06-10 06:40:15+00:00.

Back in university, I had this professor who treated the syllabus like it was some sacred, binding contract, the Word of God, as he liked to say (yes, he actually said that out loud). Any time someone asked for clarification or flexibility, he’d shut it down with..

It’s all in the syllabus, follow it to the letter.

Most students just tolerated it but I couldn't.

Midway through the semester, I noticed something weird. The syllabus listed the due date for our final paper as April 18th but also said due the last day of class, which was April 25th.

So naturally, students were confused. Emails went out. The class group chat blew up. And the professor never bothered to clarify it

So I submitted my paper on April 18th, exactly as one line said. Then on April 25th, I submitted another copy, slightly edited, better formatted, and properly cited, to match the other line.

A few days later, calls me saying he only accepts one submission and he’s docking points for submitting late. I showed him his own syllabus and said..

You said it was due April 18th. I followed the syllabus exactly. The second copy is just a bonus, you can ignore it.

He gave me full marks. Never spoke of it again. The next semester? His syllabus was half the length and ten times clearer.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/N0-Affiliation on 2025-06-10 01:17:04+00:00.

I used to work IT support at a mid-sized company that thought it was a Fortune 500. We were understaffed, underpaid, and expected to be psychic. People would call or corner us in the hallway saying things like “Hey, my printer’s acting weird, can you swing by?” while we were juggling five tickets and trying not to lose our minds.

Our manager, a guy named Curtis who had never touched a server in his life, brought in some consultant who told him we needed “more structure.” So Curtis implemented a new policy:

No work gets done unless there’s a formal ticket. No exceptions.

At first we were like, okay, whatever, more paperwork, but at least it protects us. Then Curtis took it further. He said if we did any task not in a ticket, even if it was five seconds to plug something in, we’d get a write-up. He called it “discipline for procedural drift.”

Fine. Message received.

The very next week, the VP of Sales—big name, big ego—storms into the IT office yelling that his laptop won’t connect to Wi-Fi and he has a Zoom call in ten minutes. I look up and ask, “Did you put in a ticket?”

He goes, “No, I don’t have time for that, just come fix it.”

I smile. “Sorry, we’re not allowed to do anything without a ticket. New policy.”

He scoffs and storms out. Two minutes later, we get a ticket: Urgent: VP cannot connect to Wi-Fi. Fix ASAP.

But here’s the fun part. The system had a rule. Tickets came in first come, first served, unless they were escalated by Curtis. Which this one wasn’t.

So I tagged the ticket and slotted it behind six password resets, two printer jobs, and one guy asking how to insert a picture in PowerPoint. Meanwhile the VP is pacing like he’s waiting for a kidney transplant.

Fifteen minutes go by. He calls Curtis. Curtis calls me. “You need to go help him right now.”

I say, “Absolutely. Can you go into the system and escalate the ticket?”

Long pause. “You know I can’t do that without a director-level override.”

“Exactly,” I say.

Forty-five minutes later, the VP has to call into his Zoom meeting from his phone. He sounds like he’s standing inside a fish tank. After the meeting, he comes stomping back in, furious. I point to the open ticket queue.

“We’re happy to help,” I say. “Just waiting for it to rise to the top.”

The next day, Curtis quietly changed the policy:

“Tickets are still required, but urgent issues may be addressed immediately at IT’s discretion.”

We kept the printout of that original policy on the office fridge for months.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/awesomealicex on 2025-06-10 01:06:10+00:00.

I (18F) work at a small café with a pretty chill team. During downtime, we usually talk while cleaning or prepping. Nothing crazy - just light conversation that makes the shift bearable.

One day, our new shift lead (who clearly wanted to assert dominance) snapped at me and said: “You’re not paid to socialize. You’re paid to work. Less talking, more doing.”

I said, “Okay.”

From that moment on, I went completely silent. No greetings. No “excuse me.” No warning when stuff was behind someone. Just silent working robot mode.

She asked me something later, and I just pointed. She asked, “Why aren’t you answering?” I replied, “I’m not paid to talk.”

Next shift? She told me, “Okay, obviously some communication is fine.”

Got it, boss.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/SenayiahSwoon on 2025-06-09 23:36:05+00:00.

A new policy was implemented was at my workplace where no personal phones would be allowed during work hours(on silent and out of sight) and I made sure to follow the rules

Turned off my phone, locked it in my locker before every shift, and went about my day .

And this continued till a few days later, my manager pulled me aside, annoyed asf and asked why I didn’t answerher call said she needed to check something urgently with me.

I just told her I was following the phone policy. My phone had been away like we were told.

She didn’t like that response. Tried to say I should have used “judgment” and answered if it was from her.

But I wasn’t about to get written off for breaking a policy she just finished enforcing .

Funny thing is, after that, the “no phones” policy suddenly got very quiet. No more lectures. No more reminders. Pretty sure I wasn’t the only one who let a few of her calls go to voicemail that week.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/CoffeeLovein on 2025-06-09 18:41:49+00:00.

I work at a place where staying late is “appreciated” but never actually required, they keep it vague so they can guilt you without saying it. one night we were super behind and two people had already called out, my boss stops by and goes, “you’re free to use your personal judgment on whether to stay.” not “can you stay,” not “wee need you” but just that.

So at 5:00 i shut everything down, said night, and bounced, next morning he’s like “wait, you left??” I go, “yeah…. i used my personal judgement. it told me to go home.”

there’s a new email now: MANDATORY OT THIS WEEK. guess they’ll be more clear next time…ttssskk

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/dedayyt on 2025-06-09 17:47:26+00:00.

Back in the days before computers, everything was documented with paper. There was no email, no electronic memos…nothing. Everything was typed or handwritten.

I was the office manager for a contractor. I was also the payroll department, accounts payable & receivable, accounting and HR departments. The owner’s desk was always a mess. Papers were scattered everywhere. Nobody had any idea what color the top of his desk was. He managed to work like that for years…until the day he snapped.

One afternoon, I was waiting for him to sign a stack of checks. He was interrupted by an urgent phone call and couldn’t find the contract that needed his immediate attention. He stood up, and used his arm to swoop every piece of paper from the desk to the floor in front of his desk. It was like watching a ticker tape parade in slow motion. I don’t remember ever seeing him so pissed off before. Then he yelled, “NOTHING GOES ON MY DESK UNTIL I CLEAN UP THAT SHIT ON THE FLOOR!”

Okay, funny man. We had 80 employees at the time who were paid weekly. Remember…this was before computers. We didn’t allow signature stamps on checks. All checks and legal documents required his original signature.

I hated to do it, but orders were orders. I tossed all paychecks, company checks, contracts, phone messages, bids, and contracts on the top of the pile of papers on the floor in front of his desk. I have to give him credit because it only took him two weeks for his stacks of paper to be in neat, organized piles on his desk arranged around his desk calendar.

Then he said my desk should look as organized as his. I told him to fuck off because my chaos was organized inside my head, and if he really wanted it cleaned off he needed to stop giving me so much work to do. I multitasked before it was a thing, and organizing my desk wasn’t included.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ventiwhybother1111 on 2025-06-09 17:45:44+00:00.

More lighthearted than malicious but I wanted to share and thought this would be a good place for the story.

My (F) wife made a joke yesterday about me being more “obedient” because I was giving her a hard time and asking truly silly questions. We had a good laugh about it.

Today I had my gestational diabetes test and I did not react well to the fasting and all that sugar. I ended up calling her and she suggested I take the day off and rest as she’s working from home today and can keep an eye on me if needed. She made a big deal of me needing to rest as we also had a packed weekend.

I came home, crashed for a few hours, and asked her to bring me some food in bed. She did and made a comment like “so you’re just going to stay in bed all day?” to which I smiled and replied

“Well..I was told to rest and you’re the one who wished for a more obedient wife”

She’s now resigned herself to her fate of refilling my water bottle and bringing me alternating sweet and savory snacks. I fucking love this woman.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Baileythenerd on 2025-06-09 16:48:55+00:00.

I'm sure I've posted this in r/talesfromretail at some point ages ago, but I figure it hits the definition of malicious compliance loosely enough, so why not share again?

Eons ago, I worked at Best Buy. It was my third real job, all tech adjacent or directly related, so I was very comfortable there. I was working in the cellphone/mobile department, and after a year or two I had quickly established that I had experience selling and troubleshooting phones and carrier issues. Eventually I'd have trained all of my coworkers and my assistant manager on the area.

Well, as with retail, managers come and go, and the assistant manager I trained left only to be replaced with my nemesis Emily. Now, for context, I live in a city renowned for being utterly informal and lax, that culture went with the jobs too.

I wore my blue polo, I wore my black pants, however, I rather enjoyed whimsical belts (typically featuring star wars, spider-man, and Deadpool), and I owned a nice comfy pair of work boots.

Emily did not like me. To be fair, I did strut around like I knew everything in the department (because I did). The first day she was assistant managing me, she attempted to inject herself into a transaction I was completing to 'correct' me about a carrier issue that I was navigating. Her 'correction' was less than accurate, and in my typical friendly fashion I clarified "I know, but I find that if I contact [our rep] they can resolve this pretty quickly".

She really did not like that, and from that point on, she took umbrage with my work clothes.

Before I knew it, I had gotten a warning, and then a write up for belts and shoes I had been wearing for over a year at work issue-free. I complained as such, and she referred me to the work dress code.

You all know how this song and dance goes; I studied the dress code meticulously. Much to my chagrin, she was right- the dress code did state that plain black belts and black shoes were typically required. Had I stopped reading there, I'd have been beaten- but the dress code did have ONE additional clause- The GM gets final say on all dress code disputes.

Irritated that I seemed to be the only person nitpicked so hard about the dress code, I went to my (and assistant manager's) direct manager, Mark. Mark did not spontaneously begin care about my belt or my shoes despite over a year of apathy. I informed Emily. She did not care.

So I went to the GM, Paul. Paul, much to my surprise, also did not spontaneously decide that the store's very well-being hinged on my purchasing another belt. I informed Emily. She did not care.

However, by this point, she was definitely getting more irritated with me and would dress me down every time I came in with the "wrong" belt (which was daily).

Eventually, holiday season started rolling around, and our store was going to be the Black Friday demo store for our region. That meant that various Best Buy Bigwigs, most of whom likely hadn't mingled with the peasantry for years were coming by for a walkthrough.

The day of the walkthrough came, and I roll into my spot at mobile sporting the same damn Spider-man belt I had been wearing for over a year. Emily began her daily lecture about it. Unfortunately for her, I was pretty well out of fucks to give.

Mid-lecture, I spied a bunch of people who were slightly over-dressed for Best Buy wandering around with the GM (we're typically a "business formal" kind of Best Buy) for those confused, this is a joke I recalled that our GM had been sweating about the VP of Best Buy showing up, so I rolled up to the most important looking person in the group, around whom the rest were orbiting and introduced myself.

Me: Hiya, I'm BaileyTheNerd!

VP: Hello? I'm (vice president of Best Buy).

Me: I figured, sorry, but I was hoping you could answer a quick question for me!

VP: Sure?

Me: I've had some disagreements with someone here about dress code, do you find this belt overly offensive?

VP: I don't really care about your belt?

Me: Fantastic! Thank you, have a wonderful visit

I strolled back over to the mobile department to find Emily, slackjawed, glaring at me. I informed her that the VP of Best buy was not offended by my belt!

I got a stern talking to about not embarrassing the store in front of fancy high up people, but after that, she stopped nagging me about my belt and boots. Eventually she moved to a different store, and I got the hell out of retail.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/StatisticianThese10 on 2025-06-09 15:39:52+00:00.

A new manager came in trying to make his mark, and one of his first “productivity” rules was that phones weren’t allowed on desks anyone. The email said’ work for word: Phones must not be visible on your desk at any time.

No explanation. No exceptions.

In annoyed everyone, but I decide to comply to the letter. I bought a cheap little tripod, stuck it to the side of my monitor, and mounted my phone there. It wasn’t on my desk, so it didn’t break the rule.

During a meeting a few days later, he tried to call me out in front of everyone. I smiled, pointed to the phone, and said, “Its not my desk.”

A few people chuckled. He looked annoyed but couldn’t say anything. Two days later, the rule just… vanished. No announcement, no follow-up.

Still using the tripod. It’s actually kinda convenient.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/BookOfMormonProject on 2025-06-09 10:13:55+00:00.

30 years ago when I was only about 20 I worked for a software company. It was a pretty rubbish company, their software was rubbish because they'd employ trainees and get them to do the development on it without a senior first checking their work.

Needless to say, the app often had problems. Every other month a memo would go out to all programmers asking us to come and work the weekend, and that any time we work won't be compensated with overtime but instead we can have the same amount of time off work later with pay (time in lieu).

I never used to take holidays, but due to undiagnosed depression I would often have a random day off as a sick day instead.

One month my manager called me in and told me that there were problems with the software that needed fixing urgently, and because we were approaching the end of the year he was talking to everyone who'd had too much time off sick and taking holiday entitlement off them.

I don't recall the number of days entitlement I had, but after deducting my unauthorized illnesses from my holidays I had only about 3 days left. I was told the aim was to stop people taking holiday they were entitled to and would have to take before the year ended and they lost it, thus giving them more work hours to fix the software.

I explained to my manager that I had no intentions of booking any of my holiday and would happily work those days + any additional required weekends (as I often did), but he insisted that this is what he had to do. I explained to him that I don't book holidays, I don't claim my time in lieu, and I just have a day off when I am having a bad day. Ultimately the company gains from this because I work more days than I am paid for and I don't like them treating me like this way, and if they do it then I won't work time in lieu for them again - but he insisted that from now on all days off must be genuine illness or booked in advance, and that overtime worked would be paid as time off in lieu.

I asked him how many holiday days he was taking away, and how many days in lieu I was owed. So I let him take my holiday away, leaving me with 3. I then asked to book those 3 days of holiday off + claimed the 7 days in lieu I otherwise wouldn't have taken.

(Edit: I remember now he refused to let me take the time off) - he told me I cannot have off the days I was entitled to. I told him if he didn't also stick to the rules then I would never work overtime again.

PART 2 - So NOW you want to pay overtime....kind of.

The directors weren't happy with how their plain to get more work had backfired, so sent out a new memo.

"We will be opening the doors until 8pm every work day and 8am to 8pm weekends. If anyone is willing to work more hours then clock in/out with Craig. If we meet our deadline, then there may be a reward for you based on how many extra hours you worked"

My boss asked "will you be coming in?". I said "no". He asked why not.

I told reminded him that I had said if they take away my days then I won't work time in lieu again. He pointed out that it would be time in lieu PLUS a bonus!

I pointed out that not only does it not say how much the bonus is, but it only says we MAY get the bonus, and then only IF we meet the deadline. Far too conditional for overtime pay, so I declined.

Lots of people worked lots of hours over the next week or so, one guy worked an additional 60 hours.

They met the deadline, and there was indeed a bonus!

For each hour they worked, each employee received a lottery ticket (at the time they cost £1).

The guy who you had to clock in/out with was working 12 hours per day, 7 days per week. He came over to gloat at how many lottery tickets he had, he said "potentially they've given me millions!".

I told him "Not only have they paid you £1 per hour overtime, which is less than half of what I got as a child working in a supermarket, they've not even allowed you to choose what you want to spend your money on".

One person won £10.

I am the only one who conformed to the requirements being forced on me, everyone else allowed them to take days away and still didn't claim their remaining owed days in lieu, and I am the only one who didn't get ripped off.

Yes, I did laugh at everyone.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/creomaga on 2025-06-09 10:07:57+00:00.

Years ago I managed a fast food franchise with a staff of teenagers. They were great kids and between all the horsing around and romantic subplots the work got done.

I ran things fairly loosely and we had a good arrangement where I'd pretend not to notice they were having a water fight out the back, but when I did go out to check all the dishes would be done. As long as nobody's parents called to complain about the sopping wet teenager that arrived home everything was fine.

Other managers ran things in a more traditional way, with rules and timeclocks. Also a valid management strategy.

My area manager would stop by at random. He was a fair guy that liked his checklists. Do x task at x o'clock. My crew were trained in all the checklists and all necessary food and safety stuff (and I did watch that pretty closely) but knew each other and their jobs so he'd show up and things would be in what I called "predictable disarray". This would annoy him.

I got word that he was coming (for once) and he was bringing along someone who was buying one of the franchises - using us as sort of a demo store. I was specifically asked to have my crew at their best, adhering to company checklists.

I asked, ok which do you want, my crew at their best or for us to follow your checklists?

"Both".

My crew did their best work vaguely supervised with godawful music piped in through an unauthorized mp3 player and a manager on hand in case a Karen showed up. Water fights and crude insults on the fridge door were common and they'd routinely lock each other in the walk-in freezer.

I was fine with all this, because when a bus of hungry football fans showed up 20mins to closing and ordered a feast my crew hustled, and we still got out on time. They knew their shit and did it their way. My cashiers would trade based on their needs, so everyone got a moment to have a drink or pee without interrupting service. My line cook would run all three stations from his station, ensuring perfect coordination and hot fresh food. I only interfered when it was necessary and was able to be backup for everyone.

But stick to the company issued checklists? Okay.

I pulled everyone off the line individually and revised the appropriate checklists with them to make sure everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing. I passed on the order that today's shift was to be run using the checklists, and everyone should do the best they could.

It was chaos.

Dinner rush hit, and bought a slew of just-off-duty paramedics from the nearby hospital. Fresh off shift, tired from a training session, and HUNGRY. But my checklist planning had only allowed for a Tuesday night dinner rush of people on their way home picking up dinner. I had reserves, but without a crew who worked in sync each taking the spot they were best suited to I was stuck with bodies in slots doing the best they could.

I had my newest crew member in the drive through being shouted at by customers sick of waiting, my best line cook standing miserably by the fryer and the bubbly pair that usually handled front counter having alternate nervous breakdowns in the drinks fridge.

No cleaning got done, I had nobody free to prep more food, customers were pissed at the lengthy waits and we completely ran out of some products. Instead of the usual finish time my crew got two hours overtime before I sent them home and took a photo of the remaining devastation to send to the area manager, who was already regretting his instructions.

The new franchise owner had been disappointed at the staff's "lack of initiative" dealing with an unexpectedly busy shift, and felt it was a lack of effective training. He was also uncomfortable at the amount of running around shouting a manager has to do when things turn to absolute shit.

I got a coffee the next morning, and something that could have been an apology if you squinted.

My crew got a round of frozen cokes, and "are you following the checklist?" became the new way to say someone had screwed up.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/HauntingTruck2659 on 2025-06-09 09:15:15+00:00.

I worked as an usher at a stadium where our uniform included a bright red blazer, tie, and slacks. It was 90°F+ on game days, and we were out in the sun with no shade.

One game, a few of us left the blazer off, still wearing name tags and ties because we were literally dripping with sweat. Our supervisor pulled us aside and barked, “Full uniform at all times. No exceptions. This is about appearance.”

Fine.

Next home game, it was even hotter. We wore the full uniform.

But this time, we took his words literally. One guy passed out. Another vomited in the hallway. I ended up in the first aid tent with borderline heatstroke.

Fans complained. EMTs wrote reports. HR called a meeting the next day.

Uniform policy now says, “Modified dress code allowed in excessive heat.”

You’re welcome.