Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/topppits on 2024-07-25 12:41:20+00:00.

Years back I had a temp job at the reception of a hospital. The concept of the hospital was that external doctors could book rooms for surgery and for their patients after surgery, if they had something bigger to do that they couldn't do in their own medical practice.

There was also a sleep laboratory, run by an external practice, where patients stayed over night for their examination/measurements. For that usually the technician and the patients started coming in at around 7pm and they all left at 6am. Usually anything besides the measurements during sleeping were done in the medical practice, which was in walking distance in the same street.

Setting: Random day, somewhere way before 7pm, where usually nobody is in the sleep laboratory.

Nice woman (NW) comes in and asks about the way to the sleep laboratory. I'm pretty sure that she's at the wrong location and I explain that to her. I ask her to take a seat nearby and to give me a moment so I can check with the practice where she needs to go. She thanks me and takes a seat. While I'm still typing the number of the practice enter awful woman (AW). AW asks the same questions as NW. I try to explain the situation, same as before, but she agressively interrupts me and slams something along the lines of "..it can't be so hard to answer a simple question, tell me where the sleep laboratory is NOW!" in my face. Cue malicious compliance - I smile and tell her the way - 'first floor, to the right, ..' and so on. AW walks off.

I call the practice and they tell me that, as I expected, nobody is at the hospital that day and that every patients should go to the practice. And that they all should also know that, because it's on their note with the date and time for the appointment.

I inform NW and she gets going to the practice, probably still in time for her appointment.

AW comes back after around 15 minutes and tells me that nobody is there. I just shrug and go back to my work.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Divayth--Fyr on 2024-07-25 12:26:59+00:00.

Working at Pizza...Shack? years ago, when a gentleman came in to order carryout. We had a special going on one-topping large pizzas.

He was a bit...loud. Not mean, exactly, just very forceful, and didn't like it when anyone talked except himself. He had this way of waiting for a question, then loudly answering it halfway through.

"OK, and wh..."

"MEAT LOVERS!"

"And the si..."

"LARGE!"

And so on. So I got the order, and so did everyone in a three mile radius, of three large Meat Lovers pizzas. I don't think he was deaf, he seemed to hear me just fine, but it seemed like he just could not stand it if anyone else said more than three words.

"And the cr...."

"PAN CRUST! With NO PORK!"

Umm...now that was a bit of an issue. The Meat Lovers came with pepperoni, pork sausage, italian sausage, beef, ham, and bacon. I thought perhaps he meant specifically he wanted to leave off the pork sausage, but it was hard to tell when I was unable to form an entire sentence.

Eventually, after half the windows in the place had shattered, it became clear that he wanted no pork products on his pizzas at all. So that left...beef. Everything else on it is pork, apart from the cheese and sauce. I attempted to explain this.

"NO PORK!" he mentioned once or twice. OK then. I tried to tell him the price difference, but my head started to hurt.

So he paid for three Meat Lovers, which cost a lot more than one-topping pizzas, and they came with beef on them. Basically burger pellets. I left any further explanation up to my manager, who had heard the commotion from his home three states away.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Ancient_Educator_76 on 2024-07-25 04:08:38+00:00.

This one should be short and sweet. I teach during the school year and supplement my understandably-shitty income with various jobs, grocery cashier at your Arizona hometown grocer.

Every day I encounter at least ten customers who are less than pleasant, but we manage to get through the transaction unscathed. Today was a day like no other.

My job is to make the customers experience a pleasant one as They spend their money , putting food on my table. I don't take that for granted, promise. I appreciate even the ahole customers. But this particular lady devoured every morsel of my patience.

She started with an "oh, you ARE open!", followed by a harshly yelled "don't bag any of my things!!"

I acknowledged this statement, then shed her for her phone number for her savings card. She interrupted me before I could get anything it by saying "I said don't bag them!" When I clearly was just setting them aside.

I started to ask her again when she interrupted the picosecond I spoke by saying "you know what go ahead and bag them paper in plastic " Okay fine. No problem. But man I need to get this lady's number for her savings. What am I gonna do?!?!

I decide to give some grace here. I ask her one more time with as much syrupy sweetness as a 47-year-old man can muster "ma'am can I get your Savings Num-"

Right then she spat out at me "what's my total?" I tried to tell her that without the savings card she'd be paying 85 dollars more than she originally intended. It was super clear she was shopping for the digital sales because that's all she got, bags of chips that somehow need to be bagged paper in plastic on sale for sixty percent off, then Coke 12 packs that were buy two get three free, four iterations of them. But no no no, she wouldn't let me talk. She saw that I was done scanning and repeatedly and indignantly demanded for me to tell her the total. I didn't want to lie to her and say it was the price it should have been with the sale when it wasn't but I didn't want to indicate to her that clearly the price was wrong.

She said "tell me the total NOW!" So enter malicious compliance.

I told her the total was "296.37" with that sweet intonation that the price was so good. I don't know if she was flustered because of how hot and heavy she was about , well, everything , but she went right along handing me three hundreds and I gave her her change.

I handed her the receipt, and as soon as her and her friend walked toward the exit they started to scan the receipt slowly as they trodded out. She shook her fist at the sunset. I guarantee there will be an update to follow.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/chels0394 on 2024-07-25 01:37:38+00:00.

Back in my high school days the school decided that the parking lot speed limit for cars would be 5mph. In theory a good thing. Reduces the chance of collisions greatly and any that happen should be very minor. Now here's the thing. The number of people that followed that is exactly zero. Not the parents, not the teachers, not the students (we are a k-12 school so it was mostly parents).

Now the administration (who has since been going on monthly power trips) didn't like that and decided to start handing out speeding "tickets" (written warnings that you would lose your parking pass and get an email home). So we, the 30~ (of 100) high schoolers who had cars decided to play around with it.

Now normally, car line takes about 20 minutes between when we leave (we get out a few minutes early so our cars are out of the way) and when car line is mostly done aside from a few stragglers, and that's with most cars going at about 10-15mph in the giant parking lot we had (which couldn't be used for parents to park???). Well, thats to short we decided.

So, we complied in the most malicious way possible. Every high schooler with a car did < 5mph through the parking lot. Normally by the time the smaller kids got into their cars, we were gone. But not anymore. We were crawling through the parking lot at idle speed. What normally took 5 minutes to clear 30 cars now took ten. And it had consequences. The entire car line for the other 500 students was not also moving at idle speed. Car line started taking 30 minutes on a good day.

Too say parents were livid is an understatement. Complaints filled the Facebook page, and the sassier parents reminded everyone that we just followed rules set by the beloved admin (beloved everywhere but the high school). With only one way out (and us having to get out before parents because we were literally in the way), our change screwed up the entire car line. Infact, it got so bad that the school was told to fix it by the city or there would be consequences since we started backing up a major road during rush hour.

At the start of the next year the habit fell out since most of that 30 people had left and we went back to going a safe but above the speed limit speed in the parking lot. It's been two years, not a thing has been said.

TLDR; the school wanted us to do a slow speed limit and we were the only ones who got in trouble for it, so we backed up carline for everyone else making it take much longer and got the school in trouble with the city.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/compile_commit on 2024-07-22 18:20:27+00:00.

Note: This is a repost. Earlier post got removed due to rule violations. Added clarifying details at the bottom.

Backstory: I was recruited by an IT MNC during Covid. My manager is extremely chill and an outstanding leader. My grandfather (Manager's manager) is a stickler for rules. For the purpose of this post, I will address my manager as Sam & my grandfather as Murad. I work as infrastructure and configuration manager. Work passes through my gate first, and if I don't pass it, it doesn't go to the next team. I act as a choking point of sorts, and any dip in my productivity becomes several folds down the line. However, apart from Sam, management is blissfully unaware of this dependency.

Story: When I joined, there was no office in my city. My joining was at a city over 1100 miles away. All joining formalities were done online. Since then I have never been to the office, except for a 2 weeks' workshop, for which I was flown in by the company. 3 months ago, a new office has opened up in my city with just 14 people, my official location was transferred here to show the minimum number 15 required to open an office as per bylaws.

We are an IT MNC that provides service to an automotive corporation. My work is completely remote, so I never need to go to the office. I also really enjoy WFH. The company started elective WFO last year & hybrid at the beginning of this year, but everything was mostly dependent on Manager's approval. Sam is onsite in a different country. He has never asked any team member to work from office. Murad on the other hand, expects everyone to return to the office fulltime. Usually we are protected from this by Sam.

Recently Sam has transferred to a different team in the same project, and a different guy is now managing our team. Sam remains as my manager, but I no longer get to collaborate with him on my work, which is a huge bummer. The new guy is new to the company and easily swayed by Murad.

Murad is originally from my city and decides to come back to his city to oversee the new office. The first thing he decides is everyone in this city should work from office. The other 14 are not affected, as they were already working from office. They work with specialized hardware that is only available at the office. The only one affected is me. I try to tell him that this will reduce my productivity. He is not convinced. I discuss my situation with Sam. He sympathizes, but is not in a position to do something about it.

Now, I am a tall guy with several orthopedic challenges. I need my workstation & chair of specific dimensions. At home, I have set it up over the last 3 years, but setting the same thing up at a new office is troublesome. However, I have been ordered to return to the office. Cue MC. On my first day at the office (~16 days ago), I talk to the building manager and present him with my workstation requirements. Each requirement mentions the corresponding OSHA violation if not adhered to. He tells me it will take 45-60 days to create/acquire my workstation up to the standards mentioned.

I spend the next 2 weeks at the office relaxation zone, which has a chair on which I can be seated without hurting my back. However, it is not a work-desk, so while I am at the office, I cannot work. Suddenly everything is running really slow. Teams are sitting idly because work is stalled at my gate. There are biweekly deliveries across multiple milestones. About 6-12 deliveries every month. We miss 7 deliveries during that window.

Murad is pissed, but has no idea why things are stalled. The new manager is also confused. This is escalated to the CEO and he asks Sam to consult for his old project to see what went wrong. It takes Sam 30 mins to realize that my gate is stalled. He asks me on teams to join the call to discuss what's wrong. I am obviously not on my laptop. It takes a lot of back and forth, but eventually Murad himself gets out of his room and searches for me. However, the office relaxation zone is on a different floor. He cannot find me, and decides to have a separate call the next day. He exits the call and catches me on my mobile.

The conversation goes like this:

• Murad: Where are you? I couldn't find you in our floor. Can you please come to my room?
• Me: Sure. I come to his room and tell him what the issue is.
• Murad: Why didn't you tell me this 2 weeks ago?
• Me: I did. I told you making me come to the office will reduce my productivity. And the workstation issue is a building manager issue, it has nothing to do with you, hence I did not inform you. My manager knows about it (I had informed Sam when I joined the company).
• Murad: Please work from home until your workstation is ready.

Next day, which was last Friday, I am WFH. The call with Sam happens before lunch. CEO joins the call as well. Sam asks me why things are stalled at my gate. Before I say anything, Murad jumps in and says that it was a minor issue and that work will be cleared fast. But CEO wants to know what's what. So I present my case. Sam agrees with me when I mention my condition. He also mentions that this was specifically mentioned in his handover to the new manager when he left the team. I am then asked to leave the call and go back to my work.

After lunch, there is another call among Murad, Sam, building manager and me. Building Manager informs us that it will cost the company ~$2500 to set up my workstation. Since it is a non-standard workstation, it needs to be placed in its separate room. Room will be charged at $20000 annually. It will take 30 days to get everything ready if we decide to go ahead. Murad tells me he will let me know what is decided by coming Tuesday.

It's Sunday today, and I decided to write this up after I received a call from Sam in the morning. Apparently, Murad is done working in his city and will go back next week. I can continue working from home. My workstation, chair and separate room will be ready by the end of next month, and I am welcome to work from office whenever I want.

Clarifications: I will add answers to some common queries:

MNC: This stands for Multi National Corporation. Quite a common acronym.

Grandfather: Manager's manager is called a grandfather in my culture. The hierarchy is described like in case of a family. Great-Grandfather becomes Grandfather's manager and so on. We don't actually call them using these titles, but rather refer to them using the titles in conversation or mails or official documentation. For example, an official documentation about mobile bill reimbursements may say: mobile bills up-to $50 is approved, any higher will require grandfather approval.

Room Charge: Since there are only 15 employees, we have office space rented in a building where several small scale companies rent. An additional room is not in the contract and will have to be rented separately.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/GeckokidThePaladin on 2024-07-23 09:03:02+00:00.

My office has quite a casual dress code policy and in general kinda chill about what we wear. However we are not allowed shorts. So in the UK here we get about 5 hot days a year that we get to enjoy/endure. One of my colleagues got an HR email a while ago for wearing shorts in the office (he has great legs, who could blame him) when the weather was sweltering. The women in the office wear short skirts and dresses and showing shoulders all the time without any bat of an eye (and yay for them), but somehow shorts in men are just no-no. Oh well, I’m not commuting in 30+ degrees Celsius in jeans.

I’m very proudly queer but I have never worn a skirt before, but I bought some fabulous skirts and wore them twice to work since. Once just to a regular office day, and then last Friday when we had a summer party.

No one has spoken to me about my wardrobe choice yet, but my legs were so free. Some male colleagues told me they are inspired and we might see more skirts in the office when it gets warm again.

Edit: yes I know kilts are a thing, but they’re heavy and woolly and absolutely wouldn’t be nice in the heat 😄

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/compile_commit on 2024-07-23 04:10:23+00:00.

Backstory: Another story about Sam & Murad. My manager (Sam) is extremely chill and an outstanding leader. His manager (Murad) is a stickler for the rules. I work as infrastructure and configuration manager. I also love automation, and automate everyday tasks for myself, my team and sometimes management as well. Most of management loves it. Murad is not a fan though, he wants me to focus on my own work and he loves doing things manually.

Story: This is from November, 2022, My son had been ill for 2 weeks. He is on the mend, but requires constant monitoring to take his meds and fluids every hour (you cannot expect that discipline from a toddler). I have taken a leave for a week to focus on his recovery. In my absence, Sam has been handling most of my work. I check and reply to mails at the end of the day (I am not required to do this, and Sam asks me not to, but I do it anyway, just to get ahead of potential issues the project might face due to my absence).

At the end of the week, a management meetup is scheduled. Now, only management (team managers, scrum masters, system architects) is required for the call, but this type of management meetup is a potential goldmine for automation ideas, so I usually join in. In the previous 3 months, by joining this monthly meeting, and taking automation ideas that came out of them, I had saved the project (and management) ~100 hours of cumulative work weekly.

The meeting starts on Friday morning. It's a regional holiday for a lot of people, so most have joined from home. About 20 people have joined, I have joined as well from my home. My son is seated beside me, and I am teaching him how to play chess. The meeting doesn't really take a lot of focus from me, so my son doesn't mind. He is actually fascinated by most of my work, even though he is too young to understand any of it. Most of my teammates and Sam knows my son, having interacted with him during several calls.

Suddenly, Murad joins the call. He is usually never in this call, as he rarely gets along with the agenda or the way the call usually goes (the demeanor is usually pretty casual - people calling each other by names instead of official salutations, people talking in native languages sometimes). Murad, being everyone's boss, and having a giant poll up his rear, commands a serious tone from every meeting he is in. However, on this very occasion, it seems he wants to join in on the casual camaraderie. He wants everyone to turn on their cameras.

Everyone takes a minute, and the screen starts to light up with everyone's video. It seems most have hastily put on a formal shirt. Sam chimes in asking me to keep my camera off, because it's not required. Murad cuts in. the conversation goes like this:

• Sam: OP, you can keep your camera off, it's not required
• Murad: OP is here? Must be to take minutes. He can turn his camera on as well.
• Me: Actually I am on leave today. I joined in case my input is needed for any automation
• Murad: That's fine, but please turn on your camera, it would be good for everyone to see everyone else.

I turn my camera on. Both my son and I and the chess board between us is visible. I am using a wide angle camera. My tee reads - "I work for money. For loyalty, hire a dog." Murad's face was at its widest and it came to rest after 6 seconds with a reduction rate of 1 mm/s. The rest of the conversation goes like this:

• Murad: OP, that tee is not office appropriate.
• Me: It is quite appropriate for home though, where I currently am.
• Murad: You also seem to be playing chess. I would suggest you take your work seriously. Please focus on the matter at hand.
• Me: You are right. I should focus. (Disconnect)

In a call later, Sam said that while he explained to Murad that I was on leave, at that moment, in front of 20 other people, the sound of my disconnection felt surreal.

It's 2024, my automations have saved the project ~430 hours and the company ~250 hours weekly. Murad never joins that call anymore.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/undercover_union145 on 2024-07-23 02:32:58+00:00.

I used to work as a supervisor in my last job and was directly working with a union. Some of my managers really didn’t want to deal with things when it came to workplace injuries so I had to deal with most of them. If you have worked with a union before this is a very long and time consuming process, while important, very tedious.

So that brings us to that one evening, I was on my 2nd double in a row of 3 and very much ready to go home. As I wrapped up my area my evening manager texted me to assist another supervisor with an Injury. The supervisor was newer and needed to be taught, I informed them I was already there on a double and needed to come back on the morning and was there anyone else or could they help them? This manager who was notorious for passing their work on others, he texted me no and I “had to stay until it was done”. Ok I have written documentation of a directive? Who am I to say no.

Alright well then since I’m teaching I’m going by the book. I opened up the union and company policy on workplace incidents and followed it set by step. By the time we got to the drug test portion the local clinic we use was closed and we needed to call it in. This is important because if you don’t use the local clinic the out of area one takes 4+ hours to come out.

While that was processing I did a lengthy investigation with the union. I spent the entire night going by the book, taking pictures, and documenting everything I could. By the time I finished and the drug test finished it was 7am and my shift started in 30 minutes.

This is the time the morning manager came in, they are one of my favorites and why I pick up mornings all the time. When she saw me said “oh you’re in early!”, I said “I never left”. Her face dropped because they have a rule that while management (including supervisor) can work more than 16 hours if they work more than 20hrs they need a 24hr reset. (I wasn’t in the union but still “hourly salaried” and got OT over 8 hours in a day).

So not only was I going to not be able to make my morning shift I couldn’t make my evening shift either. I was still gonna be paid for both while being sent home. She asked me who told me to do this and I showed her the message from the evening manager telling me to “stay until it is finished”

I went home and enjoyed my extra day off into weekend. When I came back I had an interview about the incident with the senior manager. After showing my messages, which the manager tried to delete but only did on his side, I was dismissed without any issues. The manager was written up by the senior manager, and they had to pay me my two regular shifts plus 24hours of overtime.

Needless to say I stopped picking up after that no matter how much they begged.

Edit: Massage to Message 😂, and this is a throwaway

Edit 2: I may be good with union rules but apparently bad at spelling and grammar thank you all for the help.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Immediate-County-558 on 2024-07-22 20:10:19+00:00.

I worked for a company that located individuals that didn't want to be found. As a lead investigator, I found d they systems and databases used in performing this work to be a complete mess. Nothing tied together, and made a 10 minute process take an hour with the back and forth.

I created a program that would pull all the information from different databases into one single platform, effectively eliminating 50%+ of the time required. Everybody loved it, including the VP (my direct supervisor) and the CEO (his supervisor) after using my program for about a year, not only were they dependent on it, but specifically sourced other databases (at a super high cost) that were able to have their information pulled into the platform I created.

When the time came for a promised raise, they said they couldn't do it. Maybe next year...

I explained how much I had streamlined the company, saved them time and money, but they insisted a raise couldn't be met. So, I walked into my office, removed my program from the server, and quit on the spot.

To say things went to s@it quickly is an understatement. They called me begging to reinstall my program, then resorted to threatening lawsuits, etc. Eventually they did take me to court, and of course, I could prove I wrote the program, and they had no legal right to use it in my absence, so I won.

On top of having to pay my attorney fees, they signed a contract with my to allow them to use my program via yearly contract for the EXACT amount my salary would have been had they given me a raise, all without me having to step back in that building ever again.

So, if by any chance you are reading this Bradley, its 84 degrees on the beach right now, but I have a margarita to keep me cooled off...

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/compile_commit on 2024-07-22 19:54:57+00:00.

Backstory: My new office reimburses mobile bills up-to $50 per month. It is actually part of my total compensation. I am used to submitting the bills at the end of the financial year and usually take an annual plan.

Story: So I joined a new company in the middle of Covid. My last 4 jobs were pretty similar when it came to mobile bill reimbursements. Each reimbursed a mobile bill up-to $30 monthly or $90 quarterly or $360 annually. I used to take an annual plan and submitted bills at the end of the financial year.

My new company provides this reimbursement as a part of total compensation. It provides $50 per month, and actually keeps $600 separate for this. At the end of the financial year, whatever amount I have applied for reimbursement is reimbursed, and the rest of the $600 is added to my last month's salary. The reimbursed amount becomes tax-free.

At the end of 2022, I submit my annual phone bill. It's ~$360. Accounts department rejects it. Apparently a single reimbursement request cannot be more than $150. They suggest that I submit this monthly. I wonder, how does a monthly reimbursement go as high as $150? Let's ask them. Accounts cannot give that info. I get in touch with Finance and HR, and after going through several hoops, I find out that they updated the policy regarding monthly mobile bill upper limit as $50, but forgot to update total reimbursement amount and reimbursable categories. Apparently you can reimburse not just mobile bill, but a lot of other stuff, such as:

1. Internet bill, up-to $50 monthly, as long as you can show at least 4 days WFH in a month
2. Electricity bill, up-to $50 monthly, as long as you can show at least 4 days WFH in a month

Only $50 monthly mobile bill is part of my total compensation, the other reimbursements would be additional pay on top of everything.

Now, I mostly work from home. I have been to the office a total of 10 days since I joined this company in March of 2022. Cue MC.

At the end of 2023-24 financial year, I had reimbursed the following:

1. $600 of mobile bill. Plan includes Netflix, 4 child numbers (wife, both parents, 1 additional for me)
2. $597 of Internet bill
3. $597 of Electricity bill

I submitted bills at the end of every month, and always kept the total at $149.50. Every other month Accounts would reject it saying it has gone above $50, and I would reply back with all the unchanged policy documents. In the middle of the year, they decided to update the policy. They only kept the mobile bill policy in the intranet, removed the rest. But I had the documents downloaded, so it was no problem. Whenever someone would say that the policy documents were no longer valid, I would ask for updated documents, and they would fail to provide one.

They finally updated all policy documents in June of 2024. I am yet to inform them that I got a promotion, and the documents that are applicable at my level are still not updated. They will find that out once I submit this month's bills. My limits have doubled since my previous position.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/compile_commit on 2024-07-22 19:06:22+00:00.

Backstory: This happened almost 10 years ago. I was looking for a change from my 1st job. My first company had a great WFH policy, so I was looking for an opportunity with a similar WFH policy.

Story: Back in 2014-15, I was looking for a job. 2 years had passed in my 1st job, and I was looking for a better opportunity. At the time, I was working as a Java developer at a company that is known as a Telecom service provider. I was finding several opportunities, but none had a good WFH policy, and I had grown quite accustomed to the policy my 1st company had. This was years before Covid normalized WFH, and it was hard to find a good WFH policy at most companies.

Eventually I had to forego of my requirements. I was about to join a company, and I asked the HR about WFH and received the most strict response that I had received of all the companies before - it is a strictly WFO opportunity. The pay was really good, almost twice what I was making, so I tried my best to look at that bright side. I also ask HR to add this "strictly WFO only" in my contract. Thinking they have got the better of me, they oblige. This additional clause would later lead me to the MC in question.

After joining and getting inducted into the project team, I found out that the team was short at least 4 people. Due to this, everyone was overworked, and people were working 60-70 hours' weeks while getting no OT. I was the only one with my area of expertise, and I was taken as a replacement of someone who was about to leave. Beginning of the second week, and there is a meeting where the domain lead comes up and congratulates the team regarding their latest success, explains how the project has made the company a hefty profit and how we are going to get a pizza party soon. I realize right then and there the toxic culture the company has, where people overworking without additional pay or promotion/bonus when it makes the company money.

I make sure to get a locker at the office and start leaving my laptop at the office locker at the end of the day. For the first 3 weeks, this poses no problem, as I am getting training (knowledge transfer). Once my training is completed and the person training me leaves, I get my first batch of work. The work volume will easily take 80 hours - that's 2 business weeks. I am given 6 days to complete it.

I work at my normal pace. At the end of the 6th day, lead asks me for the delivery of my part, and I say that I am only 60% done, and it will take me another 4 days to complete. Apparently that's not gonna cut it, and I am pulled into a meeting with the project manager. He wants to know what the problem is. I tell him - this requires 80 hours, I have done about 6 days of work, which is 48 hours. I need additional 4 days. He says, and I quote: "Work at home, that's why you have a laptop that you can take home." Cue MC. I politely apologize and say that I am unable to do so as my contract says that I am prohibited to work from home.

Manager is not convinced. He schedules a new meeting the next day with me and HR to go through my contract. There it is, in black and white: Working from Office only, Working from home not permitted. I mention that I had tried my best to get WFH before joining, and was vehemently denied the opportunity to. Manager is at a loss of words, HR is also dumbfounded.

Long story short, for the next 8 months, I worked at my normal pace. During end of year salary review discussion, I am given the opportunity to work from home. I ask them to add OT clause that would pay me additional for every hour worked after 8 hours everyday. They disagreed, I disagreed to take WFH. Every other team mate refused WFH in their salary review and asked for OT clause as well.

We stopped getting pizza parties.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Repulsive-Fig2505 on 2024-07-22 19:01:21+00:00.

This happened many years ago when I was about 14.

I am the youngest cousin of my extended family. And the youngest child in the immediate family. Family members would often ask me to do things that inconvenience themselves.

Myself and five family members went to see a movie together. This movie theater had a popcorn station where you could add your own butter to the popcorn you ordered.

Before the movie started, I had to butter the popcorn. Halfway through the previews I had to run out and butter the popcorn again. About 15 minutes into the movie I had to do it again. This got quite annoying as I wanted to watch this movie. Obviously. About an hour into the movie they ask me to butter the popcorn for a third time. At this point I am getting annoyed. And I say fine.

I go to the popcorn station and but as much butter on this popcorn as humanly possible. Every kernel soaked in liquid butter. This popcorn was given to us in a flimsy bag. By the time I got back to my seat I could feel the butter seep out of the bag. I simply handed the popcorn over to enjoy the rest of the movie.

As the movie went on the popcorn bag was set on the ground. You could see a pool of butter form and then eventually a stream of butter. At the end of the movie everyone had to watch their step otherwise they would slip in said butter.

A small act of malicious compliance. But my 14 year old self got to enjoy the rest of the movie.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/WindieBean on 2024-07-22 17:30:52+00:00.

Just a wholesome post about my late grandpa. My grandpa had a lot and I mean a lot of health complications including being prediabetic. He had an enormous sweet tooth which my grandma had the absolute patience to deal with. Whenever he was able to visit, I live in a town with high pollution so they couldn't visit often, we would have to hide our dessert.

Enter the afternoon of the story. We were having a dinner with my immediate family plus grandma and grandpa and had moved on to dessert. We were probably having some kind of cake and had the ice cream out. My mom, his daughter, was scooping the ice cream. When it came to his turn, he said "Five scoops of ice cream please." My mom had a stroke of genius idea. Opening the drawer, she grabbed one of those tiny scoops you would use for making cookies and scooped out five scoops. "here you go!"

"(mom's name), That's not what I meant!"

My mom giggling, "What? You have five scoops of ice cream!"

He grumbled, sucked it up, and went to the table (all playful). It's still my favorite story from him that I remember and I thought it was perfect for this subreddit.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/[deleted] on 2024-07-22 08:57:02+00:00.

I used to work at a cash centre. All the security trucks would collect cash from businesses during the day. We would open the packages credit their accounts and the cash would be bundled and shipped back out to banks and cash machines. I worked the night shift and it became an unwritten rule that when you finished your work you could go. Well one evening we had a new manager singled me out to stay and help the team who loaded the money for cash machines. Now this was a job I had never done before. I tried to ask a few questions like how much do we put in each bundle how much should, we have in each box only to be met with an aggressive “just out the cash in the box. It’s not rocket science”. Ok you’re the boss. So I put the cash in the box when the box was full I pushed the cash down and fit even more in. I kept going until I physically could put another note in and used all my weight to close the cash box.

Well it turns out they were only supposed to contain £100k and the shit hit the fan when they did the last checks and they thought they were £65k short. They ordered a full recount of all the boxes. When the one I had packed was opened it practically exploded, there was cash everywhere, one of the girls who worked the section was stunned you could actually fit that much in one of the boxes. I would like say I had the told you so moment of being confronted but the manager said nothing and once the boxes were re packed I went home. I never got asked to cover that section again though.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/christianmoral on 2024-07-21 23:05:03+00:00.

All these stories about vacations and/or annual leave reminded me of something that happened to one of my workmates a few years ago.

A new manager was hired for our team and quickly he wanted to impose his way of doing things (daily stand up meetings, people having lunch at different times, etc) so he didnt start off well with most people in our team… then he started going after people who had accumulated annual leave (here in Australia you get 20 days annual leave per year), I had none left so no problem with me but this friend of mine had been working there for nearly 8y and never took a day off, he had months worth of annual leave!. This manager wanted to make an example of him and ordered him to plan out vacations and/or sell back to the company some of that time (perfectly legal but with tons of conditions), my friend didnt want to take any time off but was being pressured constantly by our manager, every day at our stand up meetings, the first item would always be pending annual leave and would just fixate on my friend.

One day my friend just had enough of this guy and gave him 2 options, he told him he wanted to go for extended holidays back to his country and take it all at once… or sell the whole thing back to the company, the manager accepted the first option… only to come back next day after checking with his manager to say that wasnt possible as he would have to go for nearly 6 months and we had plenty of projects in the pipeline, then he said you’ll have to sell the whole thing back to the company… only to come back the next day after checking with HR, one of the conditions says that you can only sell a maximum of 20 days.

Cue MC, from that day onwards, every morning my friend started emailing our manager copying HR and the head of our department, asking him for an update on his annual leave arrangements, stating he had given him the options he was looking for and was waiting for his response, he would also bring it up and push for an answer everyday at our stand up meetings, he never got a reply from our manager but weeks later got a reply from the head of our department indicating they will review other options and let him know, they never did.

The following year my friend had his first daughter and ended up taking extended leave then (3 months), the pushy manager had already resigned as he never felt comfortable in the team and found another job somewhere else.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/teddyzniggs on 2024-07-22 00:24:19+00:00.

TL;DR - a small e-comm I worked at had a horrible tech group that made a massive mistake. After getting roasted by everyone, they retaliated by blocking everyone’s ability to download/update any software/call any API’s without their approval. We retaliated by increasing API calls and library updates, costing them hours every day and getting them yelled at by the CEO for all reporting breaking.

I worked for a small e-comm company that had an odd dynamic between the CEO and the head of tech. There was a messy divorce between the two and the CEO and CTO and the CEO hired a new director of Tech who hired another guy as his head of BI and DE. Initially they seemed fine and they talked about all their plans about how they were going to fix all the old code that did make the systems and website slow and potentially crash. But as time went on, we all learned that these guys were literally just talk. They couldn’t deliver anything they promised, were very arrogant and took to taking 2-3 hour lunches at the bar and getting drunk. But because they kissed the CEO’s ass and because he hated the old CTO, he kept forgiving them, in spite of frequent protesting from the other teams in the company.

One day everything seemed to go awful. I lead the DS/Analytics team at that time and had a report that pulled in internal stats as well as API calls to google and adobe. Our live reporting showed that our conversion rate had fallen off and a quick check with the members of tech that were old hires of the old CTO and very reactive and competent confirmed that the website had suddenly gone down around 9:30am. We called director and the BI guy but nobody could get ahold of them. They rolled into work much later after the issue had been resolved. Everyone was pissed we could reach them but they claimed to just be heroes that quickly handled the issue which they stated definitively was a DDOS attack that they eventually managed to thwart. But soon the other tech guys that were there shared data that showed certain metrics were not acting consistently with a DDOS attack. After some pressure, we learned the head of BI was taking some randos through a tour of the offsite servers, saw a loose cable on the ground, picked it up, and just plugged it into some slot, which created a feedback loop or something that crashed the site. They had then gone to the bar and when they noticed the calls, they raced back, unplugged the cable and then rebooted the servers, causing everything to work again. They got ripped to shreds for their awful behavior, even the CEO piled on. The two jackasses never fully admitted this was the cause, claiming that it was a DDOS attack AND a coincidental and exactly timed feedback on the servers.

This is when they got petty. Claiming security was bad, they removed everyone’s ability download/upgrade/call any API without them signing off on literally everything. They hoped this would punish us all and initially we were really upset but the CEO was back to supporting their shenanigans. That’s when inspiration hit. Everyone impacted tried to do as any new downloads and updates we could possibly do. In particular, my team (using primarily R and Python at the time) began to require checks to upgrade every library in our code base, and created several scripts that had no real purpose other than to load lots of libraries, hit API’s and make plots. These tech guys didn’t know how to read either language and while they suspected shenanigans, they couldn’t prove it. It got so bad they would have to spend hours every morning with our team approaching every check with a password entry. The best came when they went into our code that WAS functional and commented out all API calls. The scripts failed to run and an important automated report couldn’t be updated, leading to the CEO being unable to update his presentation for the board. We showed him the commit that the BI guy had made and what he had done without consulting us. The ceo screamed at the guy for 30-40 minutes and was threatening to fire the guy. The arrogant jerk was reduced to tears and was crying and begging to keep his job. They immediately announced a new security patch and let us all download everything. I got a new gig shortly after but found out the two eventually were fired for incompetence and being drunk on the job. One of the awesome original tech guys is now running everything and as near as I know, there haven’t been any major problems since!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Due-Explanation-7560 on 2024-07-22 00:02:29+00:00.

Around 20 years ago I was in the Marine Corps. This was not my MC but a buddy of mine. In the military, for holidays you are usually granted leave in block we call 72 for 3 day and 96s for 4 day weekends. I don't remember what it was for but we had an upcoming 96 and my buddy was driving back home for it. Most units would, say you are getting Friday-Monday off, let everyone leave Thursday night and be back for Tuesday formation. Our unit did not. They insisted on a formation at 8am on Friday morning for a safety brief and 5pm Monday evening to check back in. This cut down on a lot of time for many of the guys. My friend had car trouble, called our platoon SGT to let him know and said he can't make the Monday formation but will do his best tomake it by Tuesday morning and will keep him updated. Most reasonable SGT and above would be ok with this but not here. He told him if he doesn't make formation he will make sure he gets a NJP for being UA. UA is unauthorized absence, same as AWOL in the army. NJP is nonjudicial punishment and is common for less sever infections. Usually you lose pay, rank and maybe go on restriction or get extra duties or both. The thing is there is a max punishment for NJP to your COs discretion and there would not be much of a difference between say 1 day UA or 28 days. Any longer you fall into the deserter category and this is much more serious. So my buddy took a few weeks off at home before coming on back to his UA punishment. He did lose rank and pay but everyone had to agree it was a great f u to our platoon SGT everyone hated.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/fmintar1 on 2024-07-21 23:22:30+00:00.

I (34M) had always been doing multimedia for my church for years and years, so displaying lyrics and creating powerpoint slides are second nature to me. I was scheduled to take care of the multimedia this morning, so as usual, I came & created what's needed. I set up all of the lyrics, bible verses, and the slides that was sent from the speaker before I went to the restroom. When I'm back, I saw the guy who usually plays the bass (Nate) but he wasn't on schedule today. He was having a conversation with another person behind the multimedia station. I went back to my station and started pre-displaying everything on the screen to make sure that I can read everything, so that's what I did before I noticed that Nate is looking at my station.

5 minutes before we start, Nate suddenly asked what I prepared. I showed him everything, the lyrics, the bible verses, the slides, just to satisfy his curiosity. Side note: I don't really like Nate for several reasons. He believes in a lot of conspiracies people shared on social media & when someone questioned him, he argued nonstop. Most of us just try to avoid starting a conversation with him entirely, including me. Also, whenever he's schedule to play bass, he tuned his amp's volume quite high, higher than the other musical instruments that I can feel the vibration every time he plucks his bass & the multimedia station is at the very back of the room. He's just super obnoxious.

Apparently, his obnoxiousness is at a high rate today, because as soon as he saw the slides I prepared, he said that the font size is too small. He didn't say "It might be too small", no, he said "It's too small". I told him that it's fine, it's the regular font size we all use week after week, but he wouldn't drop it. By this time, the service started, but for some reason, he didn't go to find an empty seat in the audience. Rather, he sat on a stool behind my station, while repeatedly telling me that the font is too small. By this point, I was listening to his font mantra behind me while displaying the lyrics for the singers.

After a couple minutes, I asked him if he's planning to sit with the audience & I kid you not, this is his response. "OP, your font is too small, you need to increase it". I can't believe it, he's so fixated on my slides font size that he refused to leave me alone until I fulfill his wishes. By this point, even the pastor's wife asked him to please have a seat in the audience, in which he told her that it's better for him to sit there because if he sat in the audience, he wouldn't be able to see anything.

I had enough. Malicious compliance initiated.

While still controlling the displayed lyrics, I also edited the slides while he watched, so I'm multitasking. Mind you, the service has already begun, so I can't actually display the slides just to make sure. I increased the font so big that the slides look ridiculous. Before, there were only 10 slides & one slide could contain 6-7 lines of 2-3 bible verses with a translation section below it. Now, there are about 40 slides with 15+ lines that contains only 6 words in each, I can barely fit the translation part & each slides could contain only 1 verse. It looked totally atrocious. After witnessing his destruction, he patted me on my back, gave me a thumb up, and went to find an empty seat. I looked at the pastor's wife & even she shook her head.

During the sermon, it was extremely awkward. The speaker was having a difficult time reading from the screen because he kept on pausing after each line. I also have to switch the slides quicker than before because each only consisted of one verse, which interrupted the speaker's pace. After 10 minutes, the speaker gave up, and just read from his own bible, which most audiences follow suit. I witnessed many audiences pulled up their bible app from their phone and just read from there, even Nate. I texted Nate "Why are you reading from your phone. I thought you wanted the font bigger so you can read from the screen" and in response, he turned and glared at me silently.

After the service was finished, the speaker approached me & asked if everything is okay, because the slides didn't look like what I usually made. The pastor's wife approached us, was very apologetic, and explained everything, then we looked for Nate, in which we couldn't find him in the crowd. I guess he was too embarrassed to admit his monstrosity.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/PipsqueakPilot on 2024-07-21 19:00:09+00:00.

I was racing between things one day, and didn't have much time for lunch. At the time McDonald's wasn't absurdly expensive, and one was on the way to my next stop so I decided to hit the drive through up so I could eat on the way.

I placed my order for a Medium McThing and got asked if I wanted a large (which most McDonalds don't do anymore) and I said no. When I got to the window to pay the price seemed high which I thought was odd but maybe I just did the mental math on the taxes wrong or mis-remembered the price of the item. And then the cashier didn't hand me a receipt. Weird as well, but whatever.

When I got to the window to receive my food it all clicked as they handed me a large. Which I politely declined as I really had 0 interest in paying 2 dollars for a few more fries and soda. At this point the manager appeared and stated, "We don't do refunds here." That was when I realized what was going on. Having worked fast food before they were probably doing some sort of 'upcharge' competition, ring up the most larges and you/that manager get a reward.

I was slightly flabbergasted but the manager repeated that nope, no possibility of a refund. I politely smiled and said, "That's okay. I'll call my bank on speaker to do a charge back. I'll need you to talk to them. Since it's on speaker you can just tell them you can't do refunds." And then proceeded to sit at the window, calling my bank, during lunch hour at a very busy drive through.

Turns out they can do refunds, and they can do them so fast I didn't even make it through the phone tree.

And yes, I did file a complaint with corporate but it's not like that actually does anything.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/kiltedturtle on 2024-07-21 18:17:35+00:00.

To add to the vacation day theme of the week:

I worked at a company that had a lot of people that had worked a long time there. It was pretty common for new chemistry or chemical engineering grads to come in as their first job after college. At 20 years they got 6 weeks (30 days of vacation). Some people liked to work and simply rolled vacation days into the next year. The max you could ever carry over was 45 days.

At some point some bean counter figured out that the 45 days were a liability to the company. (If you are selling a chunk of a company off and those people have 6 weeks of vacation and another 9 weeks in the bank, that's 15 weeks of time that the new owner could be on the hook for.) So they decided and put out a proclamation that there would be no carryover from one year to the next. Much unhappiness swept the company. Lots of people tried to plan how they were going to use it.

One of the key people I worked with came up in October and said they are going on vacation, and how much they liked working with me. Which was kind of odd, so I pressed a little on why this sounded like a "forever good-bye" and not a "see you in a week". So I got told (under strict confidence) that they had found a new job.

New job started in 2 weeks. They had enough vacation days to cover them to Jan 1, and the next years vacation and holidays covered the first two months of the following year. So they were done. I wished them well and they were gone.

But they were not as good as I am in keeping secrets. There were suddenly a number of key people, also with 6 weeks vacation and large vacation bank that were gone. Lots of unhappy people in HR. HR could not say no to the close out vacations since they had decreed the rollover freeze.

But HR decreed "You must return to work to be able to collect the vacation in the next year."

Turns out most of the people got jobs in very cool companies, they all scheduled a vacation day so they could "come back to work for a day". They came back en masse. Co-workers scheduled them all into meetings, so they had things to do on the day. (It was mostly a party day with an all day food fest).

As an added bonus, senior management had indeed planned to split off a division, and the sale fell through because of all the people that had bailed out.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/HeidiHole1234 on 2024-07-21 02:53:50+00:00.

This is a story my dad told me a while ago about one of the outings he had with his brother in-law, we'll call Kyle, many years ago. He didn't provide too many details, but it's just enough to share this story.

For context, my dad and my uncle Kyle were very different people. My dad was very much a DIYer who learned a lot about how to try to fix things himself and what to do if something happens with tools, like nails, hammers, fishing hooks, etc. My uncle Kyle was the opposite. He was one of those people who just paid other people to do things for him or just complain when he couldn't get his way. Basically, never let other people tell him what to do if they weren't trained professionals.

One day, my dad and Uncle Kyle went on a fishing trip because my mom and aunt wanted them to hang out more and get some "bonding time" in. They didn't really have much in common except for their wives being sisters and having kids of their own.

During this, uncle Kyle somehow managed to get a fishing hook through his thumb with the end of it poking out. Uncle Kyle started screaming and rocking the boat, yelling "THIS HURTS SO MUCH! CALL AN AMBULANCE!! NOW!!" My dad said "you know, I know how to get that hook out of a finger, it happened to me before. What you need to do is get a pair of pliers and cut the hook part off and pull it out of your--"

Kyle: "I DON'T CARE! I'M INJURED!! TAKE ME INLAND, FIND A PAY PHONE, AND CALL AN AMBULANCE!!"

Dad: "Are you sure? I have the tools to--"

Kyle: "NOWWWWWW!"

Dad: "Well, if you insist."

So Dad rowed the boat to shore, found a pay phone, and my uncle Kyle called for directions to the nearest ER. My dad drove them both there and my dad waited patiently in the waiting room for uncle Kyle to come out. Not ten minutes later, uncle Kyle came out with a bandage on his thumb and a scowl on his face (which was pretty much his resting face). Before the doctor went back to his area, my dad went up and asked him how they got the hook out. Turns out they did exactly what my dad was going to do: cut the spikes off the end of the hook and pull the thing out slowly. The only difference was that it cost my uncle Kyle $200 and an "I told you so" from my dad. My dad said that after that, they never did any solo trips ever again. My uncle blamed my dad for the whole ordeal, even though he was the one putting the hook on the line (he was fine, he just complained about everything).

Miss you, Dad. Thanks for a fun story to share

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Muad_Dib_of_Arrakis on 2024-07-20 05:10:24+00:00.

At my work, there was recently a rash of thefts by an employee dropping product on the ground near the exterior garbage compactor, then coming back later to pick it up. VP of the company passed word down to "lock that door" and when I asked for clarification, an action plan, what locks or security measures, I was simply told to make sure it can't be easily accessed by line employees.

The door in question is a typical roll up door, with an electric switch and a manual backup. I removed the switch and rolled the wires back up. Throw on a building key lock and pack up. What manglement didn't know was the manual backup has a ridiculously low gear ratio, meaning it took a solid minute or so of pulling the chain just to move the door a couple feet.

Manager comes up, unlocks chain for an employee and they both immediately come to complain about the changes.

I refer them to the c-creature that wanted the door locked, and trash starts piling up around the door. A week later, my manager passes word to me to revert the changes.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/sunburn_t on 2024-07-20 04:22:45+00:00.

I think this counts as malicious compliance, but honestly the ending was positive for everyone involved so take that as you will.

…

I started working as a waitress in a dine-in pizza and pasta restaurant.

The food was really overpriced for the quality, but they got away with it because it was the only place open late near the cinema, and also the portions were extremely oversized (by Australian standards). But, we didn’t have many regular patrons, so people would be shocked by how big their plates of pasta were, and since nobody could finish it, it produced a ton of food waste.

The first time I went to management to ask them if I could give a cardboard takeaway container to a dine-in customer, they told me (sternly) ‘hmmm, we’ll it’s ok this time since they asked for one, but don’t hand them out unless the customer SPECIFICALLY REQUESTS it, they are really expensive!’ (FYI, they were not really expensive, management were just stingy and also generally among the meanest bosses I’ve had… and don’t ask me why they were ok with the cost of food waste, I guess they felt it gave them a good image to give large serves).

Anyway, I really hated to see all this waste each day, and it was clear that the customers did too… so, whenever i cleared a table with a large amount of food left and the customers were looking regretful about it, I would say quietly: ‘you know, we do have takeaway boxes available, in case you would like to REQUEST one. Just let me know if you’d like to REQUEST one!’

Almost invariably they would be grateful, like ‘oh, that would be amazing, I felt so bad wasting all that food, I didn’t know we had the option to ask for a box! Thank you!!’

I think realistically, the fallout was a positive one for the restaurant since some of these customers did indeed become regulars, and didn’t mind paying the exorbitant prices if it took care of their lunch the next day. However, the management did ask me what was up, and why we were going through so many containers. I said, ‘I dunno, people just keep requesting them all the time lately! I guess people are becoming much more conscious of food waste!’.

The ‘zero waste’ movement was actually taking off at the at time so I got away with nothing more than a raised eyebrow from the boss 😇

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/coughE4me on 2024-07-20 01:58:26+00:00.

My company sends everyone to training every year & it’s usually for about a week. You’re put up in a nice hotel and your meals for dinner are reimbursed.

The hotel has breakfast in the morning and you have to eat there. Your lunch is covered by the training department & it’s usually a catering company.

For dinner it’s common to go out and spend a lot. I don’t know what the limit is, but some people have had an $80 dollar meal and it was covered. I’m pretty simple & a sandwich would keep me happy.

I’ve been with my company for years, but my first time there, I woke up thirsty one night and wanted some bottled water and went to the hotel lobby and bought a couple bottles of water for about 2 bucks. No big deal, it will be reimbursed or so I thought.

After I got back and turned in my receipts I got an email from some corporate lady a few days later saying that everything will be reimbursed except the bottled water.

Now maybe in the email context was lost, but I asked why the water wasn’t covered. A simple answer explaining that “only if purchased with meal” would have sufficed, but this woman said that my room should be accommodating or something like that.

I don’t remember verbatim what the response was, but I took it as snarky & it seemed if she wanted me to drink from the sink.

Now for the MP. Fast forward a year later when I went for my annual training, the first night I went out I made sure to go to a nice steak house that rhymes with malt glass. In that meal I ordered not one but 2 large glass bottles of water to take back with me to my room. These bottles were about $17 a piece, but in the end I was reimbursed because it was “purchased with my meal.”

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Chocolate_Bourbon on 2024-07-20 00:40:05+00:00.

This post made me remember my time at a company about 15 years ago. Per diem food was $15 for breakfast, $25 for lunch, $50 for dinner. We were told to buy the food with your company card and submit photos of the receipts using your phone.

One day I spent $35 on dinner. And the photo of the receipt was a little fuzzy. By the time I noticed it (when I went through the photos and assigned them to meals) I had lost the paper copy. So I got reprimanded by our VP. All photos must be clear and easy to read. He also confirmed that meals under $25 didn't need receipts. All righty.

Before I got that email, I had thought over our per diem policy and its potential loopholes. That was the day I decided to begin exploiting it. Challenge accepted and malicious compliance begins.

I have very simple tastes. Give me a flip top can of chili and a plastic spoon and I'm fine. Plus that way I can just go back to the hotel and rest. I don't have spend the time at a restaurant or hit a drive through on the way back. So about $10 a day is plenty. But the company was offering $140 and receipts were only required for transactions over $25 dollars. (EDIT: My math was off here, the company actually offered $90)

So the first day of travel I'd go to Walmart or Costco and get my food for the week. I'd do three separate transactions, one for $15, one for $25, and another for $25. That took care of my food for the week. I always went as cheap as possible, since any extra money I spent on food was money I couldn't spend on something else.

Then I'd spend the rest of my travel days buying whatever I wanted, never spending more than $25 per transaction. Costco and Walmart were ideal. They offered cheap food, food I liked, and also all sorts of other things. I knew I couldn't be greedy. If every day I came right up to the max of each meal per diem, but not over, and never submitted receipts, that would seem strange. So I'd ensure to bucket them into only one or two transactions per day. I did this for years. As long as each receipt added up to less than $25 and I only had one or two (allocated to lunch and dinner), no one cared. For a while.

Then there was an outage for an airline where I had to stay an extra week onsite. I had no clean clothes. So I went bought some clothing at Walmart, more or less as I had done before. I had a new boss and new VP by then.

My new boss noticed and freaked out. He and I spent hours on the phone together trying to slot each receipt into some acceptable category. It was hopeless though. It was impossible to disguise those Walmart purchases by mixing them in with all my other Walmart purchases. No matter how much canned chili you eat, it's still canned chili. So I sent in my expense report, in all its Walmart glory.

My boss made it sound like someone would roll up to my desk with a siren on their head. But nothing came of it. I laid low for a few months after that and ate some really nice expensive meals. Then my boss got transferred. I got a new boss who had no knowledge of this history. I went back to my old ways.

Over time I bought kitchen towels, bath towels, water bottles, sippy cups for my kids, stuffed animals for my kids, books, tools, glasses, pants, shirts, jackets, a toaster, walkie talkies for my kids, headphones, etc etc. And I probably saved the company a couple hundred dollars each trip (I always came for just under a week.) So it was a win-win.

Thank you for largesse old company. And you're welcome for my thriftiness. The money I saved you went right to the bottom line!