Malicious Compliance

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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!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/serack on 2024-07-19 23:52:58+00:00.

This is not your typical malicious compliance. First a splash of context. My family is of various, distant European descent.

I was driving my young kids down to visit family in Florida a few years ago when my brother calls to arrange a meetup later in the week.

I put him on speaker while I drove and immediately regretted it as the next 30 seconds were nothing but a blue streak with my kids and wife listening.

As he wound down I heard "F&%#ing Siri" and after getting in "dude my kids can hear you." He tells me he had just tried to call me by telling his iphone

"Hey Siri, call mi hermono"

"Ok, I'll call you hermono from now on"

He informed me he has me in his contact list as "Mi Hermono" (my brother, you don't grow up in South Florida without picking up some Spanish).

A few days later when we met up for lunch I found out what he reprogramed her to call him in his frustration when she referred to him as A-hole. (not the edited word though)

So yah, if Siri can be malicious, she did a number on my brother.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Wooden-Ladder5851 on 2024-07-19 20:04:55+00:00.

Many years ago, during a corporate merger, I was responsible for transitioning a portion of business operations to a distant city. I was there for four weeks in an extended stay suite hotel with fridge and microwave. I had a meal allowance of $50/day and was required to submit a weekly expense report with receipts for reimbursement.

After a long day, all I wanted was to get comfy, chill out and fix something in the room to eat. On day one, I shopped at the local market spending $80 and day four $20. I submitted my weekly receipts for total of $100 and was told I had exceeded the daily limit and my reimbursement would be $70 vs $100. Finance insisted that $50/ day in receipts is max they would pay, even as I pointed out that the total was less than a third of what I could have submitted. They stood firm and refused to budge from the daily max.

At the time, my most favorite coffee beans were only available for purchase in coffee shops located in select areas of the country. As luck would have it, there was one close by; the name included cafe as they also sold sandwiches etc, and the receipt was not itemized.

Yep, you guessed it, the last three weeks, I bought bags of coffee beans every single day. In their effort to short me $30, it ending costing them $750. Classic example of a company being “penny wise and pound foolish” and jerking employees around.

In spite of incredibly attractive financial offers to relocate and remain with the company, I resigned once the transition was complete.

Shortly thereafter, I ended up in my dream job for the next twenty five years. My position was a new one and just beginning to emerge within the industry. As such, I had tremendous leeway in defining the role and budget. I was respected, my work was valued and my professionalism and judgement were trusted.

I’ve always been that way…… You want question, and nickel and dime me over nonsense, I will respond likewise.

If I receive respect and trust, I will have your back and will damn near kill myself delivering the best I have to offer. I’ll adjust my schedule, burn the midnight oil…….whatever it takes. All because I know that once we get through it, I’ll take some time for myself and no one will question my schedule or work ethic.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Go-Nuts-27 on 2024-07-19 17:36:30+00:00.

I worked for a 24 hour news organization. So someone needs to be in the studio at all times. As a staff monkey I had things like PTO and vacation time which I usually didn’t use too often but we were allowed to carryover 5 unused day each year, as long as we used those days in the first quarter of the following year. However, The end of the year is in high demand for off time because most people needed to burn unused vacation time the couldn’t carry over. Management, wisely, makes sure everyone knows the policies and schedules December well in advance so there aren’t any last minute converge issues around the holidays.

Since I didn’t use a lot of my PTO during the year, due to built up comp time and OT I generally used it the week between Christmas an new years and took about 10 days off around then.

One particular year I had 6 days left - one extra day. But since I already took off the time between Christmas an new years already there literally wasn’t a day left for me to use as a day off as no one was left to cover a shift if I were to take off.

I went to the scheduler and management and asked for either a one-time exception to carry over the extra day and I’d take it on January 2nd, extending off time by one day(no go - I didn’t do it with the required notice) or pay me one day’s wages for the unused time (also a hard no go).

Here’s the MC. Since I had so much built up PTO due to working holidays or comp time for OT work I had a ton of other days banked. Combining my already booked holiday break with my 5 carryover days and the 10 new ones I got for the new year, plus some holidays that come in the early part of the year, I figured I was able to take enough time off that I would leave for my Christmas break on 12/24 and not return until the last week of February - nearly March. And since I did it with enough notice, they couldn’t deny me. They now have to cover about 2 months of my shifts. The next day I put my time off in the system and emailed the scheduler a note saying have a great holiday I will see you in March!

The day following I eceived a call from the VP of the department asking me what they need to do. I said simple, let me carry over my extra day, I will use it on Jan second you have almost a month to cover one shift and we’re all good.

I got the carryover day and used it.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/mala-mi-2111 on 2024-07-19 17:14:17+00:00.

Yesterday was a weird day and I was a tiny bit shaken. I'm not sure I did my first malicious compliance or not. So tell me if it wasn't

There's [my company] and there's [the other company] and both cooperate once in a while. In my company I'm one of 2 people who have a monthly ticket for trams and buses. The rest travels by cars. The other company is in the old city zone where only cars with an official permit can travel and park. So if my boss needs any person to go there, it is my co-worker or I. 2 days ago he asked me, because I was around while the collegue was on lunch break. I was to deliver some documents.

It is faster than hiring a courier, because a courier must take a package to warehouse where it is registered and then goes out. So it could take a whole day, if a courier picks it up late. And if my collegue or I go to the other company, it is only 45-60 minutes.

The way my boss explained, I was to go to the other company and they set a time interval 15.00-15.30 so I was to leave around 14. Ok, all clear, my boss wrote an email when I was leaving, so they knew when I was to arrive, they confirmed, all was set.

I was there just after 15. I was to leave the package, no can do. Their lady manager was to check it and then notify my boss if some documents are missing. So where is she? I missed her. Whole 5-10 minutes. And I was to wait for her because not 1 person in the other company knows which documents were in the package. But it's all good, she'll be back in 15 minutes, not to worry. And don't tell your boss. That part was weird. So I grabbed my phone, wrote a message, something like "there's a misunderstanding, sending email", then a detailed email with description, but not blaming the other company. There must be a misunderstanding, because [and here I put what they told me]. The time stamp was 15.03 so I was definitely not late. What was even more weird, my boss checked the reply from lady manager, she confirmed. Not an employee, the lady in person.

So I sat there, grabbed a book on my phone, all perfectly fine. Some 30 minutes later my boss asks if I delivered the documents. No lady manager around. I asked and they weren't allowed to call her. But there is no need to notify my boss, they were sure she'd be here any minute. So I wrote another text, "no lady menager around, sending email", added detailed description including their statement "they weren't allowed" and kept waiting.

Next 30 minutes, no lady boss. My boss called them, they pretty much repeated what they kept telling me, I added another email "boss, I listened to your conversation, they aren't happy, but I couldn't wait outside, they insisted I was not to wander around with the documents", got "not a problem, do what they suggest and notify me immediately", I kept waiting.

They wanted to get me a mineral water, I drclined, wrote to my boss, got email back. Close to 16.40 the lady manager barges in. Why wasn't I earlier as they decided? I grab my phone, read the time stamp, read the email with set conditions, she went redish-purple, got the package, I can go. I'm sorry, I can't go, I was told repeatedly she was to check if documents aren't missing. She insists, I write a text to my boss, "[she] doesn't want to checks documents, sending email". And I read the message. She was not happy, but at last decided to check the documents. I thanked her, waited for her email to my boss and wrote another email immediately. Left only when my boss wrote back that she really confirmed all the documents were in the package.

Later she contacted the owner and blamed us!

So it was my luck that I wrote all the emails so religiously and when the owner called my boss all furious, it was easy to deliver copies. My boss asked me today to his office and let me read emails to/from the owner of the other company. There was a lawyer who explained that in normal circumstances I wouldn't be allowed to read it, but the lady manager insisted we did something wrong, especially me. And as it was also about me, I was to read this even if I wasn't the recipient. They also asked me to print the emails directly from my email account and screenshots from my mobile, plus write a detailed note from all of this including time stamps from my emails, which I did.

I don't know what it was. A weird power play? A way to discredit the other company? I don't even know if it was a malicious compliance or not, sorry. I don't think my boss or the lawyer will tell me more. Possibly if they try to sue, but why should they?

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/MorsInvictaEst on 2024-07-19 16:14:47+00:00.

While talking to a friend an old story came up that fits this sub perfectly, so I thought I'd share it with you. The whole thing happened 20-25 years ago, if I remember correctly.

The whole thing took place in the city of Aachen, also known under its French name Aix-la-Chapelle in the English speaking world*. The city's police department had ordered a new batch of police vans** and handed in the neccessary paperwork with the city's department of motor-vehicles. Unfortunately for the police the city clerk who processed the paperwork decided to play a little prank on them.

To understand the prank you have to understand German license plates. They are separated into three blocks: A regional identifier of 1-3 letters, a letter block of 1-2 letters and a number block ranging vom 1 to 9999. A typical license plate from Berlin would look like this: "B - MP 165". You can select the second and third block yourself if the combination is still available, but if you don't give a preference they will just randomly assign a free combination.

The prank: The regional identifier for Aachen is "AC" and just as you might guess right now, the clerk opted to insert a preference for the letter block "AB" into the paperwork. Thus the police department received new sets of license plates that all started with "AC - AB", the well known acronym for "All Cops Are Bastards".

The story subsequently made the headlines as a funny anecdote, but they didn't say what happened to the clerk afterwards. As a government official they could not be fired, but the German administration isn't exactly known for tolerance or a sense of humour. They probably got off with a warning and a secret thumbs-up from their department, unless the police pressed charges under our strict libel laws. The police requested new registrations and while the media didn't say what came of that, the DMV probably agreed just to avoid interdepartmental trouble.

* The imperial city of Aachen holds great historical significance for both countries as the main residence of Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, first Holy Roman Emperor (technically Carolingian Emperor, but he started the line) and King of the Franks and a whole lot of other peoples.

** Also known as "six-packs" in German after the popular pack of beverages, because our word for bottle, Flasche, also means loser or useless person, of which the vehicles in question can usually carry six in full gear.