Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/kiltedturtle on 2024-08-09 22:32:59+00:00.

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A long time ago, when mainframes ruled the earth, I was asked to go give an all day presentation at a military school that had our hardware. It was going to be about our latest networking hardware and software, and as someone that knew lots about it, I was selected.

Get set up in the large lecture hall. Pretty soon everyone files in a military fashion, gets seats and I get the nod from an officer that I'm good to go.

Because Mom taught me to be nice, I started off with a "Goodmorning I'm Kilte...." and was drowned out by a loud "Good Morning Sir". Wow. Ok, so it's going to be like that.

So I get started again. And I'm soon in full marketing / professor mode with gestures, arm pointing, pretty much full kabuki theater.

Cadet stands up. I stop, and go "Hi do you have a question?" "Sir, no sir". Weird but ok.

Back to my interpretive dance routine describing a three letter networking environment with multiple physical and logical units. Soon another cadet stands up.

I stop, and go "Hi do you have a question?" "Sir, no sir". Ok, stay calm Kilted, this will be fine, it's going fine.

As I turn back to my slide with pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the side, another cadet stands up.

Three times a charm, maybe a question? "Do you have a question?" "Sir, no sir".

"Ok, I have a question, why are you standing?" "To keep from falling asleep Sir." Ahhh the penny drops.

Turn to my first standee, "Is that why you are standing?" "Sir, yes Sir!!" A quick look at the final standee, with my eyebrow in a full Spock arch, and they respond "Sir, Yes Sir!!!"

"Ok, let us take a 20 minute break then."

The officer assigned to explained to me that falling asleep would earn punishment, but standing up and then falling asleep was fine.

I made sure we had extra breaks for the rest of the day.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/compile_commit on 2024-08-09 16:15:27+00:00.

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Backstory: This is another story about Sam and Murad. My manager, Sam, is extremely chill and an outstanding leader. His manager, Murad, is a stickler for the rules. I work as an infrastructure and configuration manager and happen to be one of the more expensive resources on the project from my domain. This story takes place in January 2023. The company was undergoing some restructuring, and most of our contracts included a "Last In, First Out" (LIFO) clause by default. When I joined in March 2022, I took a 10% pay cut to remove the LIFO clause from my contract because I was seeking job stability. Although I was still earning more than I did in my previous job, it was only 20% more instead of 30%.

Story: As the infrastructure manager, I am responsible for maintaining all the product licenses the project uses. One of these product licenses requires a digital signature to function. Typically, such tasks require the use of service accounts, which are owned by users. When someone leaves the organization, their service accounts are automatically transferred to their manager. Unfortunately, service accounts cannot have digital signatures, so I had to use mine in this case. The product activation process involves using the corresponding digital signature certificate (DSC). Since I already had a DSC for tax purposes, I decided to reuse it instead of obtaining a separate one. In India, DSCs are encrypted and require a one-time password (OTP) from my mobile number every time they are used. This mobile number must be associated with my National ID (AADHAAR), as that’s how most encryption services work in India.

Sam was on vacation, his first in five years. Apart from taking a one-day leave in 2018 when he moved from India to Europe, he had never even taken a sick day. He recently got married, and for his honeymoon, he took a two-month vacation to travel all over Europe with his new wife. In his absence, Murad was overseeing the project. Management asked Murad to cut 15% of his workforce.

If you've read my previous posts, you would know that Murad was not pleased with me. So, the inevitable happened. I was called into a meeting with Murad and HR. Murad asked me to voluntarily resign, or else I would be let go. This is a tactic companies in India often use, as getting fired is considered a much bigger deal than simply losing a job. It's a cultural thing, I suppose—being fired carries a stigma that most people want to avoid. HR usually tries to persuade people to resign voluntarily so that it doesn’t become public knowledge that they were fired. This tactic often works well, as resigning saves the company from having to pay three months' salary, which they would owe if they were to lay off an employee.

However, I knew better, so I refused his request. Murad was quite taken aback by this. Since I had called his bluff, he had to double down to show he meant business. By the end of the day, I received my termination email, with instructions on how to return company property I had. Here's the MC: I replied to the email, asking to schedule the return of the laptop promptly, as I needed to leave the city for a few days (fake excuse). My objective was to have them pick up my laptop from my place and format it as soon as possible. This will be important later. By the end of the week, my laptop was picked up. I had already backed up a copy of my DSC, so there were no issues on my end.

Fast forward to mid-February, and there was an issue with the product. A support ticket was raised, and the support team wanted to upgrade to the next version as this was a known bug that had been resolved in the next version. The product was used once a week to create a weekly report, but no one really looked at it except for Sam, who was still on vacation. So, its absence wasn’t likely to be noticed for at least a full month. The end-of-the-month report would bring it to upper management's attention.

Now, support SOP requires a license check. Hence it required decryption of the existing license. Long story short, I received a call asking for the DSC & OTP, and I rejected. Murad eventually was informed, who asked the support team to provide a new license. The product support team informed him that they couldn’t provide a new license without the company purchasing one. The license cost for this product was $200k. At this point, Murad decided that they could live without the report. He mostly handled the team side of the project, so he wasn't really aware of the impact of this report.

Sam returned from vacation at the end of February. By the first week of March, he noticed the missing weekly report and promptly called me. I informed him that Murad had fired me. Sam was quite perplexed, to say the least. Unlike Murad, he knew that the current license needed my DSC to work, so he asked if my DSC was available. I told him that my laptop had a copy, but it was taken. He checked the system, and sure enough, the laptop had been formatted. He asked me if there was any way to resolve the issue. I informed him that even if there were a way, I couldn't help him without being an employee. He asked me to wait for a few days.

There is a quarterly meeting that takes place in the middle of every third month, attended by the CEO and top brass. At the March meeting, everyone noticed the missing report. The CEO asked why this important project was missing the report. Sam informed him (there were about 90 people on the call) that a key person had been let go, and the report couldn’t be prepared without spending $200k on a new license. Now, I heard the recording of this call after rejoining, so I’ll share the relevant conversation below:

CEO: Is this related to the layoff?

Sam: Yes.

CEO: Why wasn't this person's work backed up? Why was he on the LIFO list if he was so key?

Sam: He wasn't on the LIFO list.

Murad (jumps in): He joined less than a year ago; he must be on that list.

CEO: Let's discuss this offline after the call.

I don't know what transpired in the offline meeting, but two days later, I received a call from the head of HR offering me my job back. I asked for the following:

1. A 100% raise & promotion to next level.
2. Out of LIFO, obviously
3. Permanent WFH mentioned in contract
4. I keep the termination payout
5. Since it will be counted as a new job in my profile, a joining bonus (20% of annual salary)

I joined back at the 3rd week of March. I received a brand new laptop within 30 mins of joining, hand delivered at my home by someone from IT in my city. It took me 10 mins to decrypt the license using my backed up DSC, 30 mins to upgrade the product to next version. By end of lunch, CEO had the report in hand.

My new (promoted) role offers a 60% increase in my medical insurance amount, a take-home company car, option to purchase company stock and lots of other upgrades. I personally thanked Murad on my first week for the promotion (and recognition by CEO) in a team wide call (the same 90 people, minus the top brass & CEO).

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Atrocity108 on 2024-08-09 00:06:17+00:00.

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Like some of my previous stories, this tale revolves around my time as a supervisor in a call center, Han employee who didn't like me called Jamers, and my malicious compliance with HR

Jamers was a a new hire, probably about 21 at the time. Young kid, whom, you could tell grew up privileged and entitled. But hey, I didn't do the hiring and everyone deserves a chance starting out somewhere. I just wish this guy was hired somewhere else.

Now, I prided myself as being a fair guy, friendly, and understanding. Jamers , however, was always the victim and nothing was ever his fault. Customer complained on his service, not his fault. Incorrect information given, he was told the wrong information. Called off, something had come up beyond his control. On and on it went with him. Nothing ever his fault.

The issue with me came to ahead when I had to correct him on a call he took. The information he gave was so incorrect and potentially damaging to the client, I had to call the client and give them the correct information while apologizing for the misinformation. Company policy,at the time , caused this to be an automatic write up.

I brought Jamers to an office, door opened mind you, to tell him he was being written up and why. At first it started with every excuse in the book, then it started with him asking why I was being hostile and mean ( I wasn't) and why was I yelling (again, I wasn't and the door was left open so there would have been multiple witnesses). He refused to sign the write up. That's fine, it would go in his file regardless.

As we were done, he marched up to HR. About half and hour later, HR called me into their office. They asked me why I yelled and cussed at Jamers. Wtf, now my bad for not having another sup with me when writing him up, but everyone would have heard me yelling had it happened. I'm a big guy and my voice carries . I denied this, of course. HR told me they were throwing out this write up, since , to them it wasn't a big issue. This act efficivly neutered me, which caused a ripple effects. It was now known if I did my job, HR would just reverse anything I did .

HR also told me from here on out, if Jamers had an issue or infraction, they would handle it.

Ok. So here is where the malicious compliance comes into play.

They had 0 idea how many side conversations and other crap I had to deal with when it came to Jamers.

Needed to call off, sorry, go talk to HR. Got a complaint, I'd tell him to go to HR and I'd send them an email why. Requesting a day off, off to HR you went. It became a fact that HR had to deal with him once to twice a day for months. Anything even slightly minor, I sent him to HR . I know it was driving them insane, as they hated to be bothered.

Finally, HR asked me to have a meeting with them. They told me Jamers called off and he was going to be put on a final, and they wanted me to do it. I reminded them they asked to be put in charge of him. We came to a compromise (as I wanted to play nice) and said we both would.

Jamers was brought to the office and told he was being put on a final for attendance. But, it wasn't his fault, he cried, he had to go to the doctor. HR asked for his doctor's excuse. He said he would bring it tomorrow.

The next day, Jamers came in to HR and said " this isn't working out, I quit"

HR got a hint of what I delt with and the trash took itself out

I love the justice.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/The_LMG on 2024-08-08 22:56:04+00:00.

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For context: I just went into my old workplace and remembered this story. Five years ago I used to work for a large electronics store in Scandinavia. We sold everything from TVs to dishwashers. Being a physical store, we had a lot of display items and often sold them at a lower price when the product was discontinued. please note that we rarely had the original packaging or manuals lying around, this will be important.

This story takes place a late afternoon about 30 minutes before closing.

I worked this shift in the computer department and was asked to help at the camera section of the store, as I was the go-to person for cameras. I was greeted by a couple, who I would guess were in their late 50s, and they were looking at one of the display models. I walked them through the camera's specs, let them test it out, and explained that while we had all the necessary accessories, the original manual and packaging were thrown away. They seemed perfectly fine with this, especially after I offered them a fantastic deal on the camera.

We headed to the checkout, where they paid, and everything seemed to be going smoothly. That is until the husband turned to me and asked, “Where’s the manual?”

I was thinking "Oh shoot, maybe I didn't explain it well enough". I started to explain again, reiterating that we didn’t have the original manual but that it was easily accessible online. I had even included a link to the manual on their receipt.

This was not taken well by the husband, who started raising his voice at me, and said, "Online? I brought this product and I want the manual physically so I can read through it at home."

Which I do understand, and tried explaining that I normally would print the manual. However, the manual for this particular camera was about 650 pages. Please note, that they both are more than capable of looking up the manual, as I saw them browsing the web looking at reviews for the camera.

The husband angrily started to barade me for about 5 minutes, about how this wasn't a way to run a business and how he wouldn't leave without it. I tried explaining, that the manual was 650 pages, how long that would take to print and we were closing in around 10 minutes. But he was having none of it and he wouldn't leave without it. Now, I am normally a kind and respectful person and would do everything to fix a problem, but he was being disrespectful and I was paid by the hour anyway. So with my best customer service voice, I told him "Sorry sir, of course the customer is always right" and started printing the 650 pages, while the husband looked smugged at me, probably feeling like he had won over the big man.

But the thing was, the printers we had at the sales desk were only meant for printing receipts, so they couldn't print double-sided and though they were relatively fast, they were not 650 pages fast and only held around 300 sheets of paper at a time. As the minutes ticked by. With each sheet of paper that emerged from the printer, the man’s smug expression disappeared. His wife, who had initially seemed passive, began to look annoyed and a bit embarrassed. Then the printer ran out of paper, and you could see the relief in their eyes as they thought the printer was finally done, but that was quickly gone when they saw me coming with a huge stack of paper to fill it up.

20 minutes and 400 pages in the wife started to look even more desperate realizing that they were the only customers in a store that closed ten minutes ago. The husband was beginning to realize his mistake and nervously began to ask when it was done printing. I just smiled with my best customer service smile "We were about two-thirds of the way". He sighed and just continued to look at the mountain of paper that slowly got bigger and bigger.

Another refill and 200 pages later, the husband’s defeat was evident. He finally asked if he could just take what had already been printed and leave. But by then, only like 50 pages remained. so I told him "That we were almost done, and I would hate if he left without the last pages, in case he would miss something important."

When the printer finally stopped, I handed him the entire 650-page manual, still smiling, and said, “Here you go. I hope you have a great day and enjoy the camera.” They quickly left the store silent and defeated. And I never saw them again

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/rvralph803 on 2024-08-08 16:16:29+00:00.

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The Background:

At the end of last year we were informed to greatly reduce our print requests sent to our district printshop because costs had gone up, and we had spent something like $20k in printing. We were informed that it was "acktuhalllllly cheaper" to print on-site because of the stellar deal they worked out with Toshiba (their name be praised).

Three days ago in our all-site meeting we were told in no uncertain terms that the only jobs to be sent to print shop were things that absolutely could not be accomplished on-site. Things like posters or bound documents.

Welllllll....

My needs:

I run my course off of a set of carefully curated guided notes, activities and labs that I have developed over the course of years. One packet per unit, and it includes most of the necessary content. These packets range from 10-25 pages, printed front and back, hole punched and corner stapled.

All told I will need to print 11 classes worth of packets, for 10 units, with an average page count of about 15 pages. That works out to around 50,000 pages, or five full boxes of paper.

The story develops:

As a result I have tried to kindly ask for an exception in my case as this is an enormous amount of printing and resource required to accomplish a full year's worth of packets not just for me, but also for the new guy who is using my curriculum. I have talked with the power players on campus and at every turn I've been told that there is just no way because the cost would come out of instructional funds.

I even did a price comparison of what it would cost if I had to print these at Staples. $1000 per unit, vs the $45 from our own print shop. Somehow it's still "cheaper" to use our printers, paper, toner and staples... not to mention my time.

The Malicious Compliance:

Today I set out to print my first unit of packets. There is only one printer on campus that has all the functions I need to complete the task. It's in the main office suite.

So Ioad up all of the remaining paper left on-site because of course they haven't ordered enough or there is a "shortage" or whatever... and then I let this job rip.

I timed the first copy going through. One minute ten seconds. 70 seconds for one. for the 160 I need that's roughly 3hrs of print time disregarding any minor bullshit I need to attend to, that I will need to babysit this stupid printer to make sure it doesn't spontaneously combust or something stupid.

About 20 copies in a lady walks in and just looks nonplussed by the fact that things are being printer on the printer she needs. Oh did I mention it's the only color copier as well, and she only needs one sheet. "I'll be done in about two hours" I tell her. Fuck em. I told them I'd piss people off if they forced me to do this.

30 copies in the printer starts screaming that it's got zero black toner left. So not only do we now have no paper, but we also have no toner, because why would you order toner?

40 copies in and a few guys from my department walk in to print something in color and watch in awe as I explain what is occurring. They congratulate me and step away.

50 copies in and the printer is angry and making unhappy noises, beeping non-stop telling me of some impending disaster.

60 copies in and it happens... the printer just can't do it anymore. I have driven it past its abilities and it has collapsed, both empty of paper and toner. It's unquenchable thirst for toner has been its demise.

I hope admin has a good time making copies later because this shit is going to be hilarious when I do it again in two weeks.

Edit: Oh, and for those who will say "Why don't you go digital" -- Because we were told that we don't have enough computers for kids this year. So we are not going to be 1:1 in the classroom.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/plogan56 on 2024-08-08 16:10:15+00:00.

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For context: the software development company i used to intern at uses a sheet to estimate the cost of building a certain software or update for a client. This sheet includes: employees working on the project, how long they estimate it'll take, yada yada yada. After an intern goes around the departments collecting this info from the various employees we then calculate the cost & send it to the client to "accept" or "reject".

Note: Since our company is so popular in the area we have a pretty long query sometimes, so if you reject the estimate, chances are you might have to wait in the queue all over again to request a new one.

So the day was slow & they mostly had me man the phones and go on coffee runs, typical intern stuff; then a client calls in saying she wants a piece of "Clock in" software for her employees so she can more accuarately track their work hours. By this point into my internship, i had done at least 4-5 of these sheets at least and i was taught by my supervisor how to identify which departments would be needed for which projects so after gathering the details from the client i hang up and translate the needs for the employees(essentially explain it in programmer jargon).

Half an hour later, i'm done with the sheet & i have checked the calculations 3 times so i email it to the client and i swear not even 2 minutes later i get a "Estimate Rejected" message on the company smartphone i was given. She added a reply stating "This estimate is non compliable with me" so i respond to it with "We are sorry to hear that ma'am, please enjoy the rest of your day" and then i go about my business. Roughly an hour later she emails the phone again asking "is that all you have to say?" By this point i realized what she was trying to do and report to my supervisor that ms.karen was trying to haggle the price.

My supervisor calls Karen's phone and asks if she would like to have the estimate resent to her so she can accept & Karen outright tells her she wants a cheaper price; to which my supervisor tells her the price is non-negotiable and to take it as is, so Karen uses her signature move of "let me speak with your manager, but my supervisor simply informed her that she'd get the same response and just hung up on her.

Karen eventually did call back and even showed up to the building to "renegotiate" the price but was shot down, but she was able to get a meeting with the manager to file a complaint for "poor customer service & unproffessional behavior". My supervisor & I were called in and asked for our side of the exchange, we just gave them the chat log and proof that she rejected the estimate initially sent to her. She had no color in her face after those came out and couldn't even look at him, she was given a blacklist for us and reccommended other companies.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/VerminJerky on 2024-08-08 15:58:29+00:00.

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I’ve worked my way up the ladder at the company where I work, but when I started, I was a support agent.

By the time this story happened, I was a team lead of some kind, I don't remember which. What matters is that I still worked directly supporting customers, but I also had a fair amount of agency. I didn’t have to ask for permission or assistance to do anything related to my job.

We’re a software company, but we used to sell a specific small Bluetooth accessory that worked with one of our apps. It came in several bright colors and we sold multipacks. (It was the kind of device you might need more than one of, and it was a popular gift.)

One year during the Christmas season, our manufacturer fucked up gloriously. They didn’t deliver all of the inventory we were supposed to get, and worse, much of what we did get was messed up and had serious defects. It was a horrible mess and a serious detriment to our small company. I was on the front lines of cleaning it up.

We wound up severely backordered at the busiest time of year, having sold units that should have been delivered, but that we either never received or found to be defective upon arrival. We had to contact people and let them know their orders would be delayed until after the holidays. Some people wanted refunds, some people wanted their items late. We tried to be helpful and bent over backwards to be apologetic while trying to keep this debacle from becoming a catastrophe and incentivize people not to cancel.

There was one man who wanted us to perform magic, however. He wanted his order - our largest multipack - and he wanted it now. I don’t know how many times he contacted us, but I wound up being the only one to deal with him because he’d always be escalated to me.

I told him over and over again that we couldn’t send his order even though we very much wanted to, so we’d be happy to refund him. If he wanted to wait, there were (many) others ahead of him to get their orders. He demanded that he get his order first, he didn’t care who else had to wait. He would berate me and try to literally command me to do as he said almost daily for a while, no matter how many times I explained why I literally couldn’t. Eventually, I opened the spreadsheet where we were keeping our backorders and moved him to the very bottom. (Yeah, I was prolonging my own suffering but he had me feeling petty.)

After the holidays ended and upper management waged a nuclear war with our manufacturer, usable stock started rolling in. I bumped a few deserving or eager customers to the top of the list but mostly sent them out in order. He’s the only one I bumped down, but I had something ready for the next time he decided to scream at me.

When he inevitably did, I told him we had stock, but others were receiving theirs, first, and we hadn’t yet gotten in the colors he ordered in his multipack. I was sort of planning to do what I did, anyway, but he was kind enough to give me explicit permission.

“I DON’T CARE WHAT COLORS YOU SEND, YOU’RE TO SEND THEM TO ME IMMEDIATELY.”

Our colors included Susan G. Komen pink.

The customer was gloriously smug and condescending when I told him we’d go ahead and fulfill his order right away. He definitely thought he had won some kind of victory. But sure enough, the day his package arrived, he sent an email complaining.

“I know I said I’d accept any color, but really? You sent me, a man, an order of nothing but pink? I want these replaced, send me something else.”

I told him that’s all we had available for him and that the conversation was over. And so it was, I never heard from him again.

It took a few years before I brought it up, but I’ve told that anecdote at workplace meetings a few times, including to my boss, the CEO. I wouldn’t take another support job to save every orphaned puppy on Earth, but that story was worth the misery.

Always be nice to support agents. For your own sake.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/KJWeb8 on 2024-08-08 00:21:11+00:00.

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I worked in a factory years ago that had what we called the 'wall of shame'. It had pictures, taken by a professional photographer, of all office and floor personnel. As you would expect, the floor personnel were all in dirty factory clothes, office people in dress attire.

This was done when that plant opened, and new hires were sent to the photographer's studio for their picture at the end of their first year. I worked third shift, and was told that I and another coworker had to go after our shift to get it done. Tried to get out of it, but was told in no uncertain terms that we had to go.

Cue the seemingly harmless malicious compliance. The coworker I went with was a drinking buddy. I told him at the bar the day before to bring a shirt and tie. He asked why, and I told him it would upset the plant manager. He was in.

The next morning, we went to the studio, and the photographer gave us a puzzled look. He said he thought he had two floor workers scheduled, not office workers. For those that don't know, floor workers at most factories are considered extremely stupid trained monkeys. I innocently said we didn't know we couldn't look nice for our pictures. He dubiously took our pictures and sent us on our way.

The fallout: About a month later, my coworker and I were called into the plant manager's office to explain our pictures. He was ready to explode when I again explained we just wanted to look nice as our pictures were being professionally taken. He turned a deep shade of red when I added I didn't know it was against the rules for floor workers to dress up for their pictures. He dismissed us while trying not to flip out on us. My friend and I barely held our laughter in as he slammed the door behind us. It gave me great amusement to look at those pictures until they closed the plant.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/rdking647 on 2024-08-07 22:23:03+00:00.

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many years ago i was a trader on the floor of a commodity exchange. at the time the dress code stated you had to wear a shirt with a collar and a tie. this was to promote a so called "business environment". if anyone is familiar with what the floor was like back then it was a lot of pushing and shoving yelling and sweating. far from a so called business environment.

so me (and a lot of others) followed the rules to the letter.

polo shirts and hawaiian shirts have collars. so for years until they got rid of the rule thats what id wear . an ugly ass hawaiian shirt and a tie usually with a comic book character or some other tie like that. never bothered to untie them i'd just loosen it to slip in my pocket for the next day. a real business like environment.........

they eventually got rid of the rule but it was years later.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Crazy-Mission3772 on 2024-08-07 20:05:01+00:00.

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Hi yall. This is my first post and I don't know of this is really malicious, but the title is as reads. I'm a manager making $10 an hour with a family of 3. Thankfully my husband makes more than that but we have a mortgage/rent plus the usual bills and we split everything proportionally to what the other makes. My dad gave me the money to buy these work boots that are waterproof and non-slip 8 months ago. My other shoes were falling apart.

My district saw my brown work boots and immediately questioned if they were dress code appropriate but only mentioned the safety. She later brought up they had to be black. Now my last pay check i only had $25 after all my bills were paid to last me the week. It's like this almost every check cause of food and other random expenses. So hearing the news had me sobbing.

But I went online and discovered leather paint! So I decided that the best solution was to paint them. Not sure if this is really that malicious but my shoes were $54 and bought my dad. I'm a 26 year old mother and my parents all have their own financial issues and I don't want to burden them every time I turn around with an issue. Especially over some rule I've never heard before. My problem went from being $54 to just $12. And yeah I am extremely underpaid at my job. I won't say more about the company though to avoid trouble.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/AaronCorr on 2024-08-07 09:09:47+00:00.

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Hello everyone, I'm on mobile so formatting isn't great, also English isn't my first language. Regardless, here goes my story.

Background: I went to university in Germany. A part of my curriculum were courses in sociology and philosophy. A lot of those were marked down as "successfully attended" without getting graded. Usually you proved attendance with a list you signed everytime.

The characters:

• Pissed and Angry: the two professor's assistens, who were probably forced to teach the course
• Me
• the roughly 100 other students

The situation: Pissed and Angry had to teach a course about important figures in sociology. It was already a dry topic, but the real issue was their behaviour. When Pissed talked, you could hear the hate drip from her every word. When Angry talked, it felt like getting yelled at. We hated just being there, but we needed to complete the course.

The first two times, like usual, the list would go round, and we wrote down our names, student id, and email. The third time however the lecture was almost over and the list hasn't gotten to me yet. So I raised my hand and asked about it.

Me: Excuse me, the list didn't get around to us yet.

Angry, very annoyed at the interruption: What list?

Me: The one for attendance.

Angry: That wasn't an attendance list. We needed your names and email to send out the assignment to complete the course.

The assignment was just a three page essay about a randomly selected sociologist. Nothing you couldn't do with just google.

Me: So, there isn't a mandatory attendance?

Angry: No.

I think you can all see where this is going.

Malicious Compliance: I looked at my buddies, they shrugged, and we just up and left. What I didn't see coming was, how almost everyone else saw this as their cue to leave as well. I will never forget the dumbfounded faces of Pissed and Angry.

Aftermath: A while later we got our assignments, finished them, and sent them in, thus successfully completing the course. For the rest of the semester only 3-5 students still showed up so Pissed and Angry had to teach a practically empty class room that could fit around 200 people.

[Edit] typo

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Impossible_Mine2065 on 2024-08-05 23:45:36+00:00.

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Back in the late 1990s, I was doing my banking at Solomon Smith Barney, which had a unique credit card. It wasn’t a normal credit card or a debit card; it was a true credit card that wouldn’t let you spend more than what you had in your checking account. This meant the money was earmarked but not deducted until the due date.

One day, I needed a cashier’s check for $1,500 and went to a branch of my personal bank (rhymes with Bells Bargo) across town (not Solomon Smith Barney). I had to go to the customer service desk and requested a cashier’s check, planning to pay with my Solomon Smith Barney credit card. The lady at the desk, who was not particularly kind, snapped at me, saying, "You can’t put a cashier’s check on a credit card." I understood her reasoning, but her attitude was unnecessary.

Desperate to get the cashier’s check, I argued a bit, but she was adamant and almost seemed to enjoy my predicament. Then, she asked if there was anything else she could help with.

Cue malicious compliance.

I slid my credit card back to her and asked for a cash advance of $1,500. Back then, they used the old manual credit card imprint machines, so she had to go through the tedious process of imprinting my card, getting the paperwork approved, and doling out the cash.

Once I had the $1,500 in $100 bills in my hand, she asked if there was anything else she could do. I said, "Yes, I need a cashier’s check for $1,500." She started to repeat her earlier refusal but stopped mid-sentence when she realized I now had the cash.

Dumbfounded, she had no choice but to process my cashier’s check. I walked out with the check in hand, feeling very satisfied with outsmarting her and getting what I needed despite her initial refusal. It’s a story I’ve cherished for decades.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/FionaKerinsky on 2024-08-05 17:59:21+00:00.

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This is pet related rather than people related, but I thought it would fit.

Around 8 am my time this morning I had my legs pinned by the dog on one side and one of the cats on the other. I told them to quit pinning my legs, the dog just looked at me like I was crazy, but the cat did what sent me here. Rather than leaving the Sebastián (the cat) pounced my feet, pinning them and started purring. I eventually did get my legs free, but it took awhile.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Reformingsaint on 2024-08-05 15:16:13+00:00.

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I don't know if it's considered malicious or not so I apologize if it doesn't fit. I felt like it fit since I'm being a little gremlin about it.

As a middle child, I grew up with often times having to hide from my older siblings. As a result, I've learned how to walk quietly and not to leave a trace. I've gotten rid of this habit for the most part except when I'm told to be quiet.

I work at a warehouse store that helps the way you live. I enjoy my job because often times I am successful in helping people and I enjoy helping people. It's like a little high I enjoy every now and then. The pay is shit so having this perk makes me stay in the job at the worst days. Now, I know I am a quiet person so I often talk out loud. Often times, it's little conversations to help me remember things and let's people know I am nearby. Which often helps them find me in order to help them. I also wish to point out that I am a loud person because I lived with my grandfather for four years who was nearly deaf.

Last week, a customer came up to me and complained I was "too loud and noisy". I apologized softer and promised I will do better. I have become quieter since then but they have gone to complain to my direct supervisor. He asked me to become less talkative while at work. You want me to be quiet? Okay.

The following has occurred this past week: 18 customers have complained I wasn't in my area when I was an isle over, 16 cashier jump scares (1 resulted in a punch in the arm), 5 supervisors screaming after a jump scare, and 25 customers jumping back. I have heard new words in Spanish, Navajo, and English that didn't know existed in real life and read only in stories like these. And yes, when I say jump scare, I mean they either scream, shouted, or cursed at me. I have started to begin conversations with, "I'm sorry about that. Is there anything I can help ya'll with?"

I wish to point out that I am not a small man, 5'10" 300 lbs. Think of your standard bald redneck with a huge beer belly in pure black shirt and shorts in a red vest. Hopefully that paints a picture as to why I can't really be hidden in a very well lit indoors building.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/VanillaLaceKisses on 2024-08-05 04:58:38+00:00.

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I hope this fits here, but I was reminded of how much of a smart ass I was as a kid just to piss off my mom. (Long story short, she’s a classic textbook narcissist and any victory I could take, I grabbed)

We were at one of my mom’s friend’s house and they had egg nog. Oh dear lord did I love egg nog. Still do. I get all giddy and celebrate every year when it hits the shelves. So I asked for some. Mom says, “only 1/4 cup”. Literally measured it out and everything.

I happily drank my 1/4 cup, but I wanted more. So I went back into the kitchen, poured another 1/4 cup, drank that, poured another 1/4 cup, and was just about to enjoy when they finally saw what I was doing.

“I told you only a 1/4 cup!”

Smug pre-teen me, “yeah but you didn’t say how MANY 1/4 cups I could have.” As I sipped on my final 1/4 cup.

FWIW: Yeah I know was a shit head and looking back it was very rude of me to drink so much of someone else’s egg nog.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/reverendball on 2024-08-05 01:08:53+00:00.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/darwhyte on 2024-08-04 22:09:25+00:00.

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[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/reverendball on 2024-08-05 01:08:53+00:00.

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As the only boy in my family, it was up to either me or Dad to deal with any bugs in the house, as my sisters and Mum would all squeal and run away at the sight of them

most of the time it was just a case of getting a cup and paper and moving whatever creepy crawly back outside to the garden

but i definitely remember one particularly big spider that freaked out my Mum when i was about 8 or 9

(note: flipflops are called thongs in australia)

she shouted at me "take off your thong and kill that thing!"

and i went to go get a cup to take it outside, but she screamed at me for trying to leave the room

she repeated "take off your bloody thong and kill it already!"

so, with my best kid-logic, followed her instructions to the letter

i took my thong off my foot........ and i stomped on the spider with my now bare foot

mum lost her mind and ran out the room

turns out she wanted me to kill the spider with the thong in my hand, but the instructions werent as obvious to me as she thought they should be

i wasnt even trying to be funny, but she still tells that story decades later

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/darwhyte on 2024-08-04 22:09:25+00:00.

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Things we obeyed as children we can laugh at now

Sometimes as children we found ourselves in a bathroom crisis.

This is my story of Malicious Compliance.

When I was 6 years old I was with my parents when they parked In front of a store. They told me they were only going to be in there for a few minutes, and they wanted me to wait in the car. They made it VERY CLEAR that I was to wait for them to come out and UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES was I to leave the car and come into the store, so I waited in the car, as I was told to do.

A few minutes later I had to use the bathroom REALLY bad. REALLY BAD. I thought about going into the store but I was worried about getting into trouble for leaving the car, so I contemplated what to do, then I saw a brown paper Zellers shopping bag on the floor.

Hallelujah!

I pulled down my drawers and deposited a HUGE Cleveland Steamer right into the brown paper bag.

Relief!

But the satisfaction of relief quickly passed as I realized that now I have another problem:

What do I do with the bag of shit that is now in the car? I knew if my parents found out that I did that I would be in trouble, so the solution my 6 year old brain came up with was to slide the bag under the front seat to hide it, so that’s what I did, slid the bag with the fragrant log in it right under where my Father would be sitting while he drove the car.

A few minutes later my parents return, with me sitting innocently like a little angel in the back seat. My parents got into the car and told me they were proud of me for being a good little boy and doing as I was told.

Dad settles into his seat, starts up the car, then starts sniffing. He sniffs some more and looks at my mother and says, “Carolyn, do you smell shit?”

“Yes Bobby I do!”, she replied.

“For the love of Christ, get him in the tub as soon as we get home!”, my father gasped.

So we get home and I am promptly put in the tub.

The next day we get into the car to go somewhere. My Father just gets settled into his seat, then looks at my mother and says, “Jesus Christ Carolyn! I thought you said you washed him yesterday!”

“Yes I did Bobby!”

“Well you didn’t do a very good fucking job then, because he fucking smells like a ripe fucking shithouse in a Goddamned heat wave!”

“Shut up Bobby, I’ll wash him again when we get back home.”

So we went about our business as the smell in the car was intense and unbearable. We had all four widows down, but the July heat kept things good and pungent.

We FINALLY get back home after being accompanied by a CONSTANT chorus of foul language coming from my Father.

Back into the tub I go.

My Morher cleaned me extra good, and really scrubbed my bum. I leave the tub clean as a whistle, not a hint or a mere sniff of shit smell. Problem resolved.

The NEXT time we got in the car we were going to pick my grandmother up to take her somewhere.

My Father settles into his seat.

Starts the car up. A few seconds later, he slams his fist down onto the dash, looks at my Mother, and roars, “I STILL SMELL SHIT! I STILL SMELL FUCKING SHIT!!!!!!”

“Bobby! Calm down! I fucking told you I washed him! AND, I checked him before we got into the car, and he did not smell like shit! I smell shit too, suffering Jesus, but I can fucking tell you it IS NOT coming from him!”

“Then where’s it coming from, Carolyn?”

“I don’t fucking know Bobby!”

We pick my Grandmother up. The smell in the car is PURE TORTURE! I could tell my Grandmother was REALLY suffering as we MARINATED IN THE STENCH, but she did not want to be rude, so she suffered in silence with the rest of us.

Finally my Father comes right onto the brakes, pulls the car over, breaks the uncomfortable silence and screams, “I can’t take it anymore!”

“THERE’S SHIT SOMEWHERE IN THIS GODDAMNED FUCKING CAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!”

“I FUCKING KNOW IT, AND IF I HAVE TO TEAR THIS GODDAMNED FUCKING CAR COMPLETELY APART TO FIND IT, THAT’S WHAT I’LL GODDAMNED DO!!!”

We all get out of the car and he starts sniffing around. He noticed the smell was stronger closer to the floor.

When I slid the bag of shit under the seat, I didn’t roll up the end of the bag, so one end of the bag was open.

My Father is sniffing around and feeling around everywhere.

He slides his hand under the seat on the passenger side and feels around.

Nothing.

He slides his had under the seat on the drivers side and feels around........

Something.

Something soft and squishy.

As he was feeling around under the seat, he slid his hand right into the open side of the bag.......

Then an expression of PURE PANIC comes across his face as he recoils his hand in horror!

He leapt out of the car, stood on the side of the road with traffic driving by, looks at his hand right in front of his face, SHIT all over his fingers!

“FFFUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKMMKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

After a VERY SOUND yelling at, I did indeed survive and live to tell this bathroom emergency story and laugh about it years later.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/UtahCyan on 2024-08-03 03:21:37+00:00.

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Bit long, sorry, but but hopefully interesting. Nothing is particularly punched up and this is pretty much how it occurred.

For the record, I think acronyms do not save time and make communication more difficult. They only have sense in printed communication with a first time use definition. It also assumes that everyone knows the acronyms you are using. I think people who use them constantly are just trying to make what they are saying around not important.

Background: I had a manager who I was significantly more experienced than. Like by 15 years. I was put under her because I was a department of one (1), she was passionate about what I did even though she didn't know anything about it actually doing it, and no one else wanted to manage my specific work.

I liked her a lot, though her inexperience showed through. She would make herself seem more knowledgeable than she was by constantly using acronyms. I would point out that a lot of her acronyms were obscure or department specific, and I or other people could be confused. But she was insistent that that's how business communication is done.

Que MC: I was asked to attend a conference that was fairly important in the company's industry. I wasn't well known for my work in the industry, but for my specific area, sustainability. Because of that, I was basically there to be the pony in their dog and pony show. I was to make contacts, log those contacts, and follow up on the contacts. Because I'm well known, I would likely end up talking to a bunch of random people so my manager wanted me to not waste time talking to anyone and focus on a specific type of contact. I don't like this because I feel like I'm intelligent enough to know who's worth talking to and how to move on from those that stuff. It also makes networking kind of awkward. You really never know where a good contact will come from.

She asked me to talk to SMEs. She didn't clarify what SMEs was supposed to mean. Now I know SMEs in this context means Subject Matter Experts. But this conference had a lot of non profits, NGOs, government reps, and religious orgs, along with businesses. So SME could also be Small and Medium Enterprises. This is in contrast to SMBs if you are talking on about for profit business.

So I spent all my networking time talking to random, small groups. I collected the data and returned my report to my manager... She looked at it and was confused. I explained that I accomplished what she said and talked to SMEs, small and medium enterprises. She just glared at me. She was not happy.

The CEO was actually a friendly guy and I met with him once a week to provide strategy, and insight to working with activist shareholders. So he brought up the contacts I made. I explained what what happened. He rolled his eyes.

I told him in my off hours I got drinks and food with a lot of Subject Matter Experts that were in my extended network and they would be happy to talk to you. I gave him a list and told him to let me know and I'll set up the intros.

Afterward: Every time she presented, she had an acronym list page, and generally avoided them.

I actually felt bad for her. She didn't realize that she advanced so fast not because she was good at her job, but because she was the CEOs type. This was the third company she followed him to. He had a cadre of young, smart women, who all looked exactly the same, and a trophy second wife who looked like them, only a little older. So she just kept getting advancements because of him beyond her experience and skills.

Everyone under her left, she became a department of one, is basically put in a corner at meetings, and told not to fuck things up because she did several times.

I like her, but a feel so bad because she doesn't realize what that the CEO, everyone likes, is also keeping her around for eye candy. So she'll never get the experience she to get into similar high levels in her career out from under his protection/shadow.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Ancient_Educator_76 on 2024-08-02 15:43:17+00:00.

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I'm sending a special shout out to all teachers who are starting the new school year!

I was at a training yesterday morning. 24 hours prior my wife broke her ankle. Pretty badly. Like it had to be reset. I was with her all day that day, and yesterday during the training she was recovering from her surgery while I learn how to use "IXL", a math program that's pretty easy to figure out for the most part.

The night before the training my wife and I discussed the financial aspect of missing days, and though I took the day off when she broke her ankle (obviously), we both decided I would go to the (aforementioned/yesterday's) IXL training.

I get there a minute early (or fourteen minutes late according to the USAF) and situate myself. I open up all the websites they say to, do the padlet AI welcome page drawing they request of me, and get ahead of the program. The rest of the room is jibber-jabbing as the presenter the other district personnel meander around the room. I see a text from my mother in law, and as she's at the hospital with my wife I decide to look at it. "Gina" my wife is asking about my pay. Her phone got an alert about a payment (my Rapid Card has an alert that goes to her phone) but her phone died before she could see how much. I decide to log in to my Access page to see how much and tell her whether we are covered for the deductible that they haven't collected yet. It literally took like twenty seconds to do this, and of course this is when miss Low Glasses decides to pretend she's my teacher.

She pokes me on the shoulder repeatedly (I'm pretty sure she thinks she's tapping me, but it's uber aggressive) and says "You need to look at the screen she's showing you!". I start to comment back by saying "Sorry I was j-"

When she interrupted me abruptly, shouting enough for God and Satan to hear "You need to get your priorities straight!!"

Enter Malicious Compliance

I was so embarrassed and pissed at the same time (Empissed?). It was totally uncalled for. It was when everyone was jibber-jabbing, and it was to check on an important time sensitive thing. It made me realize that, yes, I DO need to get my priorities straight...

I replied, just as loudly, as I had everyone's ear now: "You know what? I DO need to get my priorities straight. My wife's in the hospital! I'll be leaving now." and I walked out.

The lady looking at me through her lowered glasses scoffed, and the other district personnel pulled her aside and chided her as I walked out. One of my homies yelled out "Love you OP. it's gonna be fine text me" as I left.

More to follow.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/AgarwaenCran on 2024-08-02 06:16:43+00:00.

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background: I work in security and our company has many different clients and no fixed posts, so I jump from site to site. the site in question (client) is one of the more complicated sites for us and has an awful work atmosphere.

we man the gates and next to the normal truck traffic, there are also multiple visitors coming, some of them so often you basically know them by name and we just open the gate for them, because they are here every day

one of the middle managers (power) from client is one of those people that think they are the most important person in the world as soon as they get a little bit of power. for example when power got into middle management.

now the story: power decided that this way everybody could just come and go in. so we got the new order to not let anyone external in without getting the okay from the person "responsible" for them. every external you say? oki-dokey

this alone made dhl, ups and so on not happy since we stopped them now and first called the people who take the packages from them, making them also really annoyed.

the it happened: some very important people came for an appointment with with power first thing in the morning. something much money was hanging on. the good girl I am, I tried calling power for 15 minutes. no answer. welp, guess I can't reach power. means I can't let the very important people in. I told them, so, so sorry. obviously they were not amused, but my idea that they could bill client for their wasted time made them less un-amused.

power came 15 minutes later, his car had issues. he told me that he has an very important meeting and if very important people come, they can go directly to him. I then told him the sad news that they were here already and I tried to call power for 15 minutes, but after I couldn't reach him I did send them away as our new I structions demand me to do.

the instructions were very quickly withdrawn to the earlier system, where we could let people in if we know who they are without needing to ask first

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/xlovechrisx on 2024-08-01 20:29:41+00:00.

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I work for a visitor attraction in London. Generally we are out on the floor answering questions etc. We had a dedicated team that worked in the control room, usually supervisors or those that wanted to become supervisors. Normally one or two people in the control room. They were never ever on the floor if they could help it.

They watched the cctv and controlled the breaks, lunches, etc. For instance if a visitor sets off an alarm they would call us and we would investigate the alarm.

Management decided to pull the supervisors out onto the floor and train floor personnel to be In the control room. Good idea on paper but in practice?

Supervisors didn't want to go on the floor and those on the floor didn't want to go into the control room.

Some of us already worked in the control room as we relieved them for breaks, lunches etc. Basically if you were in the control room you stayed in there.

First training week went something like this. Someone that knew the control room training 3 or 4 of the floor people. Needless to say that put us short staffed on the floor and management had to go on the floor to cover. As "how hard could it be", it will only be a week then I can go back to my cushy desk job.

First day I was training 3 or 4 floor staff and management/supervisors were on the floor. Management told me treat them like normal floor staff. Ok no problem.

I asked everyone that I was training "normal floor staff" we all got big smiles on our faces.

Not even 10 minutes goes by and radio call. "Can one of you bring the keys for the front door so we can let the public in?" It's a 5 min walk from control to the front door. I radio one of the management on the floor. "Come to control and pick up the keys and take to front door." I get a phone call " just have so and so bring them over, there's 4 of you in there" As per procedure nobody is allowed out of control room.

Management take 5 min to get to control and then take the keys over to front door. So we are late opening. Next radio call. "Which key is it?" It's number xx . They open the doors. Alarm goes off. "Control why did alarm go off" You need to call control to let us know exactly when to take alarm off. Procedure

All of this is written down. Procedures must be followed. Now that the public is in, alarms start going off for various reasons. The public loves going through doors that say 'Door is Alarmed'.

Normal stuff. I start radio calls to management on the floor. "Charlie 3 go to door x" , "Charlie 3 go to door x" etc etc. "Delta 4 relieve Charlie 3 for thier lunch"

Lunchtime, I get phone calls from people who haven't been relieved for thier lunch on time. Management hasn't figured out that travel time between your post and the break area is NOT included in your lunch/break. If you have an hour lunch and it takes you 10 min walking time to get there then basically your lunch is 40 min. 10 min to go from your post to break room and 10 min to go back to post.

Normal control room staff knew this and would start lunches early to give everyone as much as possible a full lunch.

More radio calls "Charlie 3 can you check the tiolet, report of water on the floor " "Charlie 3 can you go to x Visitor wants to use a voucher", "actually Charlie 3 go to door x" but "I'm with a visitor ", " Doors take priority Charlie 3"

For the rest of the day we ran management crazy. Everything in the procedures was adhered to. Count the empty spaces in the car park. Check locks on the emergency gates. Check toilets, mens and womens to see if they need to be refilled with tiolet paper. Look for lights out, Fill in your task book. etc

Next day needless to say i wasn't in the control room. Didn't matter. The tone was set. Didn't matter who was in there. The rest of the week went by the same. Everyone that followed me ran management nuts.

Management to thier credit changed some things after that. Black sneakers can now be worn. More break rooms closer to posts have been opened. Procedures have been loosened up. Control people are back in control and floor people are on the floor. Everyone is now trained in the control room but they only have to work it if they want.

Still was a glorious week!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/thebladeofchaos on 2024-08-01 07:26:04+00:00.

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So I'm living with my mother in a house we moced into three years ago now. Coming out of my room into the living room you go through a hallway passing the dining and bathrooms.

Well apparently this day I was quiet as Mum got the shock of her life turning around in the living room to see me. And the immortal words 'can you make some noise when you leave your room so I know your moving"

Well, for 2 years now I've done just that. Whistling, singing, silly noises. I've been tempted to get a slide whistle. She hasn't said a word but I can tell by her face the regret

ETA: For those bringing up hearing loss on her part, I appreciate the concern but it's not that. If anything her hearing is better then mine. She can hear just fine

She does laugh about this too. If anythingbshe got revenge by buying me a giant cactus (I call it 'the flat earth society' points of you get it but it's British)

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Marinaisgo on 2024-07-31 20:24:22+00:00.

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This happened many years ago when I was a field organizer and I ended up with a manager who had explicitly said she didn’t want to manage anybody, but a series of events meant I was her direct report.

In our initial meeting, I went over everything I’d been doing up to that point, where to find my weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual reports, how to keep track of where I’d be, and how to give me feedback between our monthly check-ins.

She was not used to working with field organizers and was shocked that I wasn’t going to be in the office except for meetings and to turn in my reports. And it’s fine to not know things, but then she went and said “if you’re not in the office where I can see you, how will I know you’re working? You could be doing anything you want and I’d never know.”

Over and above what kinds of assumptions that makes about my character, whether or not someone looks like they’re working is a terrible metric for measuring what work is actually getting done. But I kept that to myself. Rather innocently, I offered to have my task tracking app send her an email whenever I accomplished a task. She agreed.

The thing about me is I am a fast worker. I always have been. It’s been a bone of contention with people who I work with. I create backlogs. I make other people feel weird about how much they do in a day. I used to get upset about this and wish everybody was as fast as me. By this time in my career, though, I learned to keep it to myself and spend some portion of my day pacing myself with others, or to find jobs where my pace wasn’t that strange.

This job was the latter. We were doing underfunded community driven work where the failure or success of a project sometimes meant that the people we served couldn’t pay their rent or afford food. So I was blazingly fast.

After 3 days of hundreds of emails a day notifying her the second I completed a task, my boss decided that she actually didn’t need to know whether I was working or not.

We actually became good friends after that because we realized we had a lot in common and we teamed up against the other bosses who kept making shitty decisions and putting us in bad places because they knew we were both competent enough to solve their problems for them. Neither of us work there anymore, we’ve moved on to much better things, but we’re still friends today.