Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/thedatagoat on 2024-07-15 16:13:52+00:00.

I’m glad I can finally talk about this.

My company was contracted to write and illustrate books for a well known client.

My do-nothing editor gave me the assignment to write and illustrate the book.

I wasn’t given any instruction on the plot, characters, or message to convey. The assignment just said 24 pages, 24 illustrations. “Sure thing boss”

One may assume, the books subject matter should be written to support the client’s best interest. But as a trans female, this client eliminated some of my rights in my home state. Also my boss has been a total creep since I started.

So I wrote the book. 24 pages, 24 illustrations. It spoke about the client’s message however the tone was a parody, a farce.

My editor just glanced at it and passed it to the client. I guess nobody looked at it over at the clients side because they gave us the order to print 10,000 copies.

I just received my copy today, and nothing changed. When people receive this book from this client, they are going to be quite surprised about the message.

I have already put my two weeks in and I’m moving someplace far, far away.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/wetsunshine21 on 2024-07-15 13:27:15+00:00.

I had to stay hydrated while taking medication a few years ago, so I drank a lot of water. resulting in numerous trips to the restroom. When I had to go at the time, I would just go and wouldn't give a damn. The manager of my department was quite controlling and insisted on always knowing what was going on. He told me he was writing me up for not telling anyone about my restroom breaks after a few weeks. Thus, *insert malevolent compliance* (prior to my ever understanding its nature).Over the next few days, I made sure to walk him straight every time I had to go. I was heard by everyone in the store who had their walkie talkies on.

"Hey manager, you needed to be aware of my bathroom schedule. I'm about to use the restroom. I appreciate your enquiry about it.

"Hey boss, I need to go pee right now. Should my urination cause pain?

"Manager, I have to finish tasks #1 and #2. Wishing for a smooth outcome." (After a short while:) *flush* "Looks good, I'm back on the floor."

As I'm urinating, he yells for me "Hey, manager, you were looking for me? In the bathroom, I am. I'll see you in a moment; I have to use both hands right now."At that time, HR and store managers intervened and advised against taking the TMI path. "I don't want to get in trouble...," I said, wide-eyed and as innocent as I could. My manager informed me that he was in dire need of knowing about my bathroom breaks. I was just following instructions."They promised to take care of it, and I was told explicitly not to report restroom breaks in the future.

For weeks, my colleagues couldn't stop giggling at this.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/stinkybear1 on 2024-07-14 21:43:52+00:00.

I used to work property manager for a semi large investment firm. I was in charge of several apartment complexes which included a 55+ section 8 complex. One tenant in the complex has been a royal pain all the time. He had a habit of calling the city inspection department anytime he had a problem in his apartment instead of filling out a work order to get faster service. (300 unit building so if it was a minor issue it would be first come first serve for non emergency or safety issues) he actually called the city once for a dirty outlet cover. On this occasion I got a visit from the inspector because his patio door was not functioning. this I would definitely consider a safety issue. so I immediately go up to his unit with the inspector in tow. the inspector had been there before coming to see me and confirmed the door was stuck in the open position and would not close. But thought it a bit odd that he had 2 doors which confused me a little since each unit only has 1 patio. Upon entry we go to the patio and sure enough there are 2 patio doors. Side note: the tenant had been there long before I started working there so this was the way it was long before me and he had floor to ceiling curtains which obscured the second door which was always in the open position yet hidden from view. So when I entered I clearly see a door that seem perfectly fine. I go over to the working door and test to see that it is sliding and locking properly and it is, and ask the inspector what seems to be the problem. He points out the other door behind the curtains which I now clearly noticed. It had been slid into the open position and was not obstructing the egress at all. It seems that proir to me someone installed a new door but never removed the old one they just extended the frame. Which in effect fixed the problem in a half-assed way. but in my opinion it was a working door and not a safety issue which the inspector agreed with. The problem was we have a city code that clearly states any door must be in working condition regardless of if it's used or not. The inspector said I either have to fix or remove the door and gives me a 5 day compliance order. By chance I had a crew remodeling the unit across the hallway and as the inspector was filling out the order I went to the other unit asked one of the guys to use his maul and Sawzall. I went back into the tenants apartment and proceeded to smash out the glass and start cutting the the aluminum door with the Sawzall and had the door busted out in less than 5 minutes making a hell of a mess in the process. All while the inspector was filling out his paperwork and the tenant was watching in complete shock. I turn to the inspector and ask does it now comlpy and he sort of chuckles and says legally yes it does and I say good, problem solved and he agrees and signs off on the order. I have the guys across the hall clean up the mess and went with the inspector back to my office. in the elevator he says he'd never seen something like that before but since he was about as fed up with this guy always bugging them as I was over minor infractions he thought it was a hilariously creative solution albeit not a very nice way to go about it. Not long afterwards the tenant got arrested for an assault and got a jail sentence and became late on rent which gave me the perfect excuse to evict him. Now comes the second malicious compliance where I live the sheriff is required to remove belongings after an eviction but the limit the items to a set value, and leave behind anything under the value threshold. So it's up to me and my crew to haul out the junk. While one of the guys was cleaning out his bedroom closet he opens a box and it was stuffed full of pictures of children in different states of compromised situations and several letters from a young boy that were quite disgusting. So, of course I call the sheriff's back, and they took the evidence for additional charges to tack on to his jail time. One more note about the eviction is he also had a cat and the cat was still there and I found out his neighbor was feeding it in his absence. Now the cat had to go. This cat was old and ugly and our local shelter is definitely a kill shelter, and I knew he didn't have a chance of being adopted so it was a certain death sentence. Now me I'm a huge animal advocate I have 3 rescue dogs and 5 horses and a few barn cats and felt pity for the poor guy and thought one more barn cat wouldn't hurt so I took him home. When I got him there is when I found out he was declawed on all 4 paws and knew he would never make it in a barn setting. He lived out his remaining days comfortably inside our house.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Scared_Fun258 on 2024-07-14 23:48:50+00:00.

I was at a local gas station and it has a self checkout system. It also takes food stamps. The rule is you have to go to the to the register not the self checkout to use the food stamp card. I was there today with a food stamp card getting me some lunch and the guy was manning the self checkout it came to my turn and the following conversation happened.

Cashier: Come on up

Me: oh I’ve got to use the register I’ve got …….

Cashier: no you can use the self checkout now come up your wasting time

Me: sir I have a foo……

Cashier: you must use the self checkout come up now or leave

Me: yes sir

I walked up and scanned my items and tried to use my food stamp card and like I knew it would it did not work.

Cashier: what the hell is going on with this dumb thing

Me: (showing him my card) sir i was trying to tell you I have a food stamp card I have to use the regular register

Cashier: come over here and let’s get this over with next customer can use this one

I walked over paid for my items and left. All I could do is walk out the door and laugh

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/RMaua on 2024-07-14 09:25:05+00:00.

About 10 years ago, I was working in a big organisation with lots of different departments. I was a subject matter expert working across different departments. I saw my job as making the people I worked withs lives as simple as possible. And my clients loved me for that. – Unfortunately, this came back to bite me because they started expecting me to perform miracles.

Before I started at this job, someone had decided to split up a department. Except they didn’t really do it properly. So, all the systems still saw them as a single department. The two department heads despised each other.  – My solution: create a work around in the system I had control over so that they looked separate from each other and no one saw the other area’s data. But in every other system, one department looked like it fell under the bigger one. And if you looked closely at my reports, you could very clearly see the work around.

Department head of the smaller department was really sick of this and asked me to fix it. I explained that the issue was at the organisation level. She needed to write to the higher ups and get written authorisation to change the official org structure. Then once that was done, the rest of the systems would follow suit. If I changed it in my system, then something would break and she would have bigger problems than just having to ignore a header that I would hide or delete from her reports.

She insisted that if I changed the structure in my system, it would start a domino effect and everyone else – who was less helpful than I was – would have to listen to her when she said that she wanted their system changed to mimic mine.

I tried to make a joke of it explaining that I know I look like I’m all powerful because I can get stuff done for her, this was not going to work out that way. She actually needed to deal with the organisation bureaucracy BS. Trust me, I can’t help with this one. This response only frustrated her more.

We went around this for about a year and she finally lost it with me. She called me late one Friday afternoon and told me I had to make the change or else. I explained again that things would break but she wasn’t having it. She cut me off and told me to do as she asked ‘or else’.

Cue malicious compliance:  I asked her to put her request in writing. (Always cover your arse.) She promptly sent me an email. I responded straight away saying doing this is going to break stuff. We have discussed it before but since you insist. I’ll get the changes sorted ASAP.

I organised for the change in my system. Stopped by my boss’s office on my way out to tell him what was happening and to prepare for the fallout. (Again, always cover your arse) He chuckled and wished me a good weekend. (The change was easily reversable. And the problems would be very frustrating but minor. No one was going to die so neither of us were too concerned.)

11am Monday. Department head calls me in a huff. Apparently, she wasn’t able to see any of her staff in the HR system. I said, that sounds about right. Now that my system and HR don’t agree…”computer says no”. Remember how I told you things would break… this is things breaking. I’m happy to switch my system back. She simply hung up on me.

Word is, she called the HR person who said the same thing and told her what I had to be done and she spent the rest of the day pulling favours to get the process I told her about months before fast tracked.

By our next meeting, things had been changed properly. The situation was never mentioned again. But from that day onwards, if I told her that I couldn’t do something, she took my word for it.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Kingdo7 on 2024-07-14 08:04:57+00:00.

I was at my bf's house for a week, bf has planned a card tournament with his friends. Since I'm not interested in card games, I decided to stay in the bedroom, playing games on his computer. I could hear them talking, but I didn't listen until I hear my name.

Basically, the friends wanted some coffee, no big deal until one of them specifically wanted me to serve them. BF told him it was a bad idea, but he shrugged him off, saying that it was natural. The friend come to the bedroom and ask me to serve them coffee and I say “sure”.

When I come to the living room, bf and all the others boys were shocked. BF ask me if I was alright, and I told him with a BIG smile, “sure”. BF started to try hiding a smile before telling his friend I shouldn't have to serve them in his home since I'm a guest too. The others friends were awkward, but the one insisting on me serving them double down saying he was right, and it's natural that as a woman I serve them.

The group told him he went too far, but I agree with him. The place of a woman is in the kitchen, with fire, blades, household product clearly not meant to be swallowed.

Do you wants a classic coffee or an aromatic one ? Bf has hazelnut, Irish and caramel coffee too. By the way, did you know that cyanide actually smell just like almond ? Maybe that why I never saw an almond coffee, we wouldn't notice if there is cyanide in it. Bf birth out laughing, the friend was dumbfounded, and I just continue. (they choose a classic coffee)

Sugar with the coffee ? When I think about it, the most used weapon by women is poison. You know that product, antifreeze, apparently it cannot be detected in the autopsy, that why he was so much uses to poison people, mainly husbands by their wife. The issues were so big that now we do a test specially to see if antifreeze is in the body. (they choose no sugar)

They ask that I change the subject, so I oblige.

Did they know the movie “Black widow” ? (The English title is Lamb to the Slaughter thx biold and Rare-Bumblebee-1803) An very old movie in black and white. It's about a wife who kill her unfaithful husband with a freezing leg of lamb with a hit on the head, just like a baseball bat. She then cooks the lamb and even gives it to eat to the police when they investigate. It's fascinating how she uses her environment, the kitchen, to commit a crime.

Do you wants a cloud of arsenic in your coffee ? Oh, did I say arsenic ? I'm sorry I wanted to say “a cloud of milk”. Don't worry, it's just a little slip of the tongue because I talk about poison for a while now.

Someone ask why women uses poison that much. I just answered. That make sense, after all, some men expect women to serve them and confidently eat everything they made.

I don't know why, but at that very moment, the friend rush to the kitchen, escort me out and say he will make his own coffee. I ask if he was sure, after all I don't mind, I still have a lot of funny stories to share. Is it because of the mention of arsenic and cyanide ? Don't worry, I'm sure bf doesn't have that in his house.

BF was trying to regain his breath while laughing, he managed to say “I told you so”. I got forbidden to enter the kitchen until their friends left that day. I wonder why, I would have made these coffees, I just wanted to share my interest on investigations and crimes. ;)

EDIT : typo

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Best-Cardiologist949 on 2024-07-13 20:26:23+00:00.

When I was in college I worked nights as a housekeeper in the local hospital. The hospital had a cafeteria that closed at 8 pm and a snack bar that only closed from midnight until 1 am. It was always a bear to clean and the floors were the worst part. Once a week some guys would come in and make the most amazing omelets. 10 times as many people came on omelet night and I couldn't start cleaning up until they left at 1230 am. This gave me only 30 minutes to clean. To help me out one of the floor crew guys helped me stack the tables and chair, quickly sweep up the crap on the floor with his humongous dust mop and then he drove his riding floor cleaner(we called it the zamboni) and floors were done in 10 minutes. He didn't have to do this and I was greatful every time he did. 2 years later he retired and I got the job driving the zamboni. I loved that job and was always ahead of schedule. Since that was the case I decided to help out the new hire girl who was now in charge of the snack bar cleaning. We got along great and I really felt like I was helping out. Boy was I wrong.

I'm a large man 6'2" and 250 lbs. I'm also a combat vet and despite being a "big teddy bear " as my wife calls me some people are intimidated by me. I get to work one evening and my boss calls me into the office. It's the first time I 2.5 years that he ever has. He asks me about my relationship with the new girl who cleans the snack bar. I relate how I was always grateful when my predecessor had helped me with it so I tried to pass it along. I asked why. She had filed a complaint against me for sexual harassment! I was stunned. This lady who was old enough to be my mother said that I sought her out every night and forced her to talk to me for 15 minutes or more every night and she feared for her safety. It was inconceivable to me. She never acted at all intimidated and our conversations centered around our jobs, kids, etc. Normal work talk.my manager advised me to stay away from her and not to speak with her again. CUR MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE That night was omelet night. I usually didn't get one because I was always cleaning up after them and didn't have the time but tonight I was famished and ordered 2. I sat there eating them with my trainer who was a sweet old lady my grandma's age. I had of course bought her an omelet as well. We ate and got up just as the omelet guys were leaving. The place was a mess. On our way out the new girl asked me when I would bring the Zamboni by to clean up the floor. I just kept walking as though she wasn't there. As I did my trainer told her oh he's not allowed to do that for you anymore. New girl said but it's his job. That's when my trainer let her know in the sweetest old grandma way that it had never been my job but instead was just me trying to help her. Now however I was supposed to avoid speaking to her at all costs so I would never be doing that again. I didn't stick around to watch her reaction but my trainer said she almost cried when the trainer told her what did you expect when you threw a good young man under the bus. Learned a couple weeks later that she was after my spot on floor crew and thought her accusations would get me fired. I ended up changing jobs 3 months later. I heard through my friends that she tried to get my spot on floor crew and made a big stink when she didn't get the job. She quit shortly after that. It still hurts my heart a little when I think that she would do that to a 23 year old kid with a family. Thank God I had managers who trusted me.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/AppropriateRip9996 on 2024-07-12 17:18:32+00:00.

I was a kid with a snow shovel. I went around the neighborhood and offered to shovel the driveway for $5. I was getting paid. Everyone seemed grateful. One house had a resident with MS and they were happy to pay.

There was one snow-covered driveway left but the boy there refused the $5. He wanted to pay a quarter and I mean $0.25. I had no other driveways to shovel, but I thought to myself that the kid was told to shovel himself and wanted to get out of it for a quarter. I took his deal knowing he would get in trouble if I took a long time to clear the driveway and his mom came home. I took his quarter up front.

So I'm shoveling for a quarter, but for a quarter you get half hearted effort. I'm taking my time and doing an excellent job. Occasionally he yells at me to hurry up. Yeah yeah. Sure. You do remember you paid me a quarter. I'm getting there.

Eventually I'm almost done and mom comes home. She is furious. She demands to know why I'm shoveling the driveway she told her boy to shovel. I told her that her son agreed to pay me a quarter to shovel the driveway. She was furious and gave me $5 before going into the house yelling at the kid.

I probably spent all my money on candy.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Naromyx on 2024-07-12 06:31:27+00:00.

When I take money from a customer and it's multiple bills I always count it to verfy. Not so much because I think they cant count, but because sometimes bills get stuck together. I had a customer come up and buy a pack of cigarettes. Total comes to a little over $6. She throws a handful of ones down, grabs the pack and starts to walk out. "Ma'am! Just a moment! I need to verify..." "I can count! Keep the change!" So, I put the 7 $1 bills in the till and pocketed the $20 that I found between them.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Ok_Pomegranate_4344 on 2024-07-12 05:19:30+00:00.

My neighbour's rent their lower suite to their adult daughter, her partner and their child. The daughter has main character syndrome, has yelled at me to stop doing work outside repeatedly, called bylaws on me (for cutting my grass at 4pm on a saturday) and more. She also refuses to help her senior parents do their yardwork, so I continue to cut half their lawn and completely care for the area below their retaining wall. No biggie, it's 1/4 the size of my front yard and flat.

Daughter dearest, however, has continued to scream at me any time I pull out the mower or trimmer, in my own yard. It's aggravating to say the least. At the end of May, she lost her mind for mowing the lower area of the yard and screamed at me to stop, threatening to call the police. So I did exactly that, and I stopped. Then I sent my neighbor a lovely text explaining that her daughter was clearly distressed and asked me to stop. Now each week, I mow to the property line, no further, and that yard has gotten bad. Last week, Daughter Dearest asked me if I could start mowing their lawn again, because her mom was really mad. I declined, said it's too loud and I might get in trouble.

Today, she was out there, manhandling a huge gas mower down 9 stairs and took 25 minutes to mow what takes me 3 minutes, before struggling to get the mower back up.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Platinum_68 on 2024-07-12 01:28:16+00:00.

So I work at a convenience store and our pos system is in fact a POS so sale prices have to be punched in manually, they don’t register when items are scanned, this includes promotional discounts for buying more than one of a product.

Now most customers understand this and don’t pay it any attention, however there are the odd few I have to explain this to.

One such customer refused my answer and demanded I rescan all her groceries because I’m “ripping her off” I told her that this will actually increase her total cost because she wouldn’t be getting her discounts. She doesn’t believe me so I just do as she asks and scan everything the “proper” way and she was livid when her total was higher.

I end up pawning her off on the manager who explains the exact same thing I had earlier, she gets her original price, and wastes about an hour of her life arguing in a convenience store.

TLDR: Customer accusing me of ripping her off, almost pays extra when I do it her way.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Legitimate_Employ995 on 2024-07-12 01:05:56+00:00.

It’s been a decade since this happened so I can finally confess my malicious compliance.

I worked at daycare in my early twenties. This was a small independently owned center. Not one of the big companies so there is no one above the big boss. I HATED this job. I was so miserable being in that toxic environment. Yes, toxic in a daycare. The boss would sit in her office and just watch the classrooms from the cameras in the rooms. Now that is a standard practice. Every other place I had been to offered a live feed to the parents. Not this lady—- she was the only one allowed to watch the footage. Her favorite thing to do was watch the footage live, find a reason to call you into her office so she could write up. I got written up for a kid who bit another kid. I was in trouble because even tho I wasn’t in the room, I should have corrected that.

Their time off set up was awful. If I remember correctly, you couldn’t request time off unless you had been there for a year. They didn’t offer PTO either. My bf (now husband 🥰) surprised me with a week long trip to Colorado. I had to go. I needed a vacation. Plus I was poor and it was a free trip. Duh Because of the policy I knew they were not going to let me take off for that. So I lied and said I have to go to Colorado for my aunts funeral.

They legally had to let me take off. But said that I had to bring proof when I got back. I was scared because I wasn’t expecting that. I asked what kind of proof? She listed a few things and funeral program was one of them.

My bfs father had passed the year before and he was put in charge of making the programs. So we came up with a plan. My bf and I got nicer paper than printer paper and made a program for my “aunt Betty”. We needed pictures of her. So I went on Facebook and tried to find someone who matched any descriptions I had given people. After many many many many clicks down the rabbit hole I found a nice, sweet elderly lady and saved some of her pictures.

Now I will remind you I was very young. this was also before people catfishing on dating apps was a thing. So I really thought it was a victimless crime. I have learned and grown and have been put back on the straight and narrow path. Shall we continue?

We made a very convincing program that included her favorite bible verse and a favorite poem. Multiple images showed how vibrant my “aunts” life was. The topper was to make sure it looked like it was stuffed in a bag.

No one ever found out. So shout out to aunt Betty for literally making my vacation happen May you rest in peace 🪦

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Lucario_Stormblade on 2024-07-12 00:39:23+00:00.

Hey Redditers. I get to share another small anecdote of my life as a truck driver, and dealing with bouts of MC, and whatnot. This one took place yesterday, but only heard back from the aftermath of it today.

As a lot of people who dive into my post history, I am a truck driver, been one for almost 10 years now, and have started with a new company late last year. Usually, I have no qualms with this company; until yesterday.

A couple of runs I’ve done in the past with this company has had duplicate paperwork attached to the Bills of Lading; so, to save time and headaches, I usually scan in the signed version, and call it a day. That usually doesn’t cause problems, as Payroll is aware of duplication, and they completely understand.

Recently, our company was acquired by another company, and we have to do things “their way”. First thing they did, was crack down on the duplication issue, requiring ALL pieces of the Bill of Lading to be scanned in, and not just the signed versions. Ok, as my BOLs are only about 3-5 pages, 10 at the most.

Well, I finished my first 4 stop run yesterday, and the shipper, in their infinite wisdom, thought it would be a brilliant idea to duplicate the first 6 pages of the BOL, for each stop! On top of that, there was also some miscellaneous sheets of paper pertaining to each particular stop, attached in their own cluster. In case you lost track, that’s 24 sheets of paper, just for the duplicates!

Naturally, when I finished the last stop, I called payroll, and asked them if I really needed to send ALL the papers for the BOLs, or could I get away with just sending them the signed portions. Nope, “according to new policy, all the paperwork included in the BOL must be scanned in, or you won’t get paid on the load.” Fine then. You wanna drown in paperwork, be my guest.

Cue the MC!

I pulled into a truck stop, to find a TRANSFLO kiosk, as it would be the only thing that would be able to handle such a daunting task. I stack my papers neatly, and start the process. 77 pages later; I was done TRANSFLO’ing everything to Payroll. I double checked my work, and submitted.

This morning, I get a phone call from Payroll. “In the future, when you have so many pages in your BOL, if you could eliminate all duplicate pages, and just send us the signed forms, that would be great.” Okay… guess you didn’t like that wave of paper any more than I did sending it…

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/microwavable_rat on 2024-07-06 00:18:29+00:00.

TL;DR - Bosses wouldn't honor the days off they agreed to. I quit and there was nobody in the company who could easily replace me, causing a domino effect that cost them a lot of money and other employees.

Longer story: I've spent the last few years working in fabrication, running some very specialized machines(industrial laser cutters for sheet metal). I'm very good at my job, and have worked my way up to a fairy good hourly wage.

I started working for this new employer in the fall last year. They specialize in HVAC ducting with an insanely quick turnaround time, and when I applied with my previous experience they were excited to have me.

For background, I have a medical condition that requires weekly appointments and followups. I got into a treatment program I fought for months to get into and it has been a lifesaver for me. I was 100% up front about this with my new employer, stating that I absolutely needed Fridays off for medical appointments, but they could run me ragged through the week as long as I got that day off consistently. I provided documentation from my doctor backing this up. They agreed, and I worked an evening shift starting Sunday and ending Thursday morning, anywhere from 50-55 hours a week.

This worked fine for a few months until the company started an expansion in its business and started taking on way more than they were able to comfortably accommodate. They were hiring people for my shift left and right, but could never seem to retain anyone after two months or so because the work/life balance was non-existent. I remember one welder, a good hard worker, coming up to me as he was quitting because in his words "I've seen my kids a total of fifteen minutes in the last two weeks." At the six month mark of my tenure there, I was the most senior employee on my shift except the supervisor. The turnover rate was so high there was no point to put in the effort to learn someone's name before they were gone.

Throughout all this expansion, they never hired another laser operator. The machine was essentially running 24/7 between myself and two other people, and it was the most important machine in our workflow because nothing else got done unless those parts were cut out.

At the beginning of the year, they wanted to move me to a traditional Monday-Friday shift, 7am to 7pm. I refused because I wouldn't be able to continue with my medical program, nor get anything else done during the week.

Around the middle of spring, they got backed up because one of the machines went down. I was asked if I could make an exception to my day off and come in on Friday, pretty pretty please. Me, being an idiot, I agreed to it and cancelled my appointment that week, thinking it would be a one-off because the machine was only down for a day. Shit legitimately happens.

Once I made an exception the first time, you can see where this is going. A few weeks later they asked me to do it again - not because the machine went down, but because they had just overextended themselves on a really expensive contract with a very big company. I objected, stating my medical exemption, and they pulled someone else in to work the shift. This happened a few times, and I did end up rearranging a few appointments because, again, I was an idiot.

Things came to a head at the end of spring. The shift as a whole had a meeting that week and decided they wanted to put it to a vote to take that Sunday off and work on Friday instead for the week. I was outvoted, wanting to work the original shift, and it was suddenly decided that everyone would be coming in Friday. The next day (a Monday) I go in and talk to HR and make them aware that this is a recurring issue; the HR manager says he'll handle it and get back to me the next day.

I talk to my doctor and let him know there's a chance I'll need to reschedule again; I get a phone call from the medical office stating that I've ended up rescheduling or cancelling a lot in the past few months and if it kept happening, I was at risk of getting dropped from the program. I cannot and will not allow that to happen.

I go in the next day and talk to HR, letting them know that I was promised this wasn't going to be an issue. I reminded them they agreed to my scheduling and I had provided them documentation that I could not work on Fridays. HR calls in my supervisor.

For context, my supervisor was one of those people who don't really see value in anything but work. He got married last year, and he took no time off for his wedding - he worked a full shift on Friday, got married Saturday, and was back at work on Sunday morning. He expects everyone underneath him to adhere to this insanity disguised as work ethic and is one of the reasons our turnover was so high.

What follows is a heated argument about how he needs me to work that shift and he won't even try to call in someone else. I tell them I'll come in on Saturday; that won't work. I tell them I'll do four 14 hour shifts that week to make up the production, as this company has absolutely no qualms with handing out overtime to anyone who wants it. That won't work either.

Supervisor stands firm, HR looks at me and shrugs, telling me there's nothing he can do. I'm pissed at this point and go to work my shift, updating my resume and seeing what other jobs are available in my field, and there's a lot.

The plan was to get a new job and turn in notice, but then the supervisor comes up to me and tries to be buddy buddy. He starts a long winded yarn about how sometimes we have to sacrifice for work, and that there are things expected of us as adults in a functioning society, and then tells me "You need to make a decision."

I have heard that phrase a handful of times in my life, and nobody who ever says it to me does so out of concern - it's always a "you need to decide to do what I'm telling you to do of your own free will."

I grunt and say "Yeah, I guess I do."

Asshole then slaps me on the back, smiles, and says "Great! See you Friday."

That was the breaking point for me. I did work the rest of my shift, but at the end of the night I drafted up a resignation letter effective immediately, left it on HR's desk, and walked out. Went home, put my phone on silent, and slept like the dead. I'm almost 40 and that's the first time in my life I've ever quit a job on the spot.

I had four missed calls from my company the next morning - two from HR, one from the boss of the company, and one from my now ex-supervisor. Never returned them.

I did end up getting a new job at a company that respects my hours and has a much better work/life balance, and a raise in my salary to boot. Six weeks had gone by, and I stopped in at the gas station that all of us would go to on break to grab a drink. I ran into one of the only coworkers that I liked, and he told me what happened.

When I quit, they didn't have anyone else on my shift who knew how to run and operate the machine. They started leaning on the other two people, causing one of them to quit, and on top of that half a dozen welders and other fabricators quit as well in a domino effect. The entire production completely backed up because of this, and that big client that I mentioned earlier? They're named after a particular rainforest in South America and were building a bunch of new distribution centers in the area - our company landed the contract to do their HVAC work on several, with a possibility of extending it outward to more depending on how the initial partnership went...and it went poorly. They missed the target date for the production run and the penalties for doing so ate up any profit they were going to get from the job that they underbid, along with causing Rainforest Company to cancel the contract after the initial work. Nobody got bonuses that quarter...causing even more people to quit.

The company has several locations across the US - in one quarter they went from having the highest profit numbers to being dead last. I can't even imagine the shit that the C-suite execs threw at my old boss and HR supervisor over that happening.

Now, when I look at their company page on Indeed, they're desperately looking for people but the salary ranges are down about 20% from when I applied when things were good.

All I wanted was for them to honor the one day off I needed and they agreed to.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/LaTommysfan on 2024-07-11 16:00:31+00:00.

I worked at a major consumer products manufacturer as a maintenance electrician. We handled electrical repairs and troubleshooting for the whole factory. The front end department started having production problems and the plant manager was not happy. Now the front end was very dirty and noisy so we as electricians didn’t want to spend a lot of time there, but we took our responsibility seriously and worked quickly to address electrical problems. Well the front end supervisor’s decided that the electricians were the problem and requested an electrician be stationed there 24/7, when the real problem was the lack of mechanical maintenance on the machines and poor repairs by the mechanics. Our boss was absolutely no help and he agreed with the request.

Now on to the malicious compliance, we decided to embrace the assignment with a twist. Since we were required to spend our 12 hour shift on the front end we started a log. We documented every mechanical problem on every machine and brought that log to every production meeting. Pretty soon the production supervisors were getting called on the carpet about the mechanical problems and then they decided that they didn’t need the electrician’s stationed in the front end.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Dr_____strange on 2024-07-11 15:35:38+00:00.

During my internship in 2020-2021 we needed to get our internship completion sheet signed by heads of the respective departments and then submit it to the main office from where we received our internship completion certificate which is a necessity to become a RMP in India.

Now it was back breaking to say the least, but i was a decent worker and got though all the departments smoothly except for one, but thats another story. After one department's internship was over i needed to get my internship completion sheet signed by the head of department {HOD}within a couple of weeks to months, but i missed a couple of departments becuase it was just so tiring plus i needed to do laundry daily and cook too.

After the entire year was over i went to all the departments that i had missed the sign from. The professors/ HODs asked the senior residents about me, {just normal questions about my attendance, work and behaviour} and then signed off the sheet. Now comes the turn for department of anesthesiology, i went and sat there waiting for the HOD. He comes out from the chamber and sees me.

HOD What are you doing here?

Me Sir i am here for internship completion.......

HOD When did your internship finish ?

Me In july.

HOD What month is it now?

Me. March.

H OD Why didn't you come earlier?

Me Sir just after your department, Obs&Gyne started and i was assigned to {insert most difficult unit in the department}.

HOD Okay, wait here we are having a meeting right now.

Me. Yes sir

HOD now goes inside and then comes back out in around half an hour, sees me sitting and scrolling my phone, goes back inside. He does this 3 more times in around 2.5 hours i was there.

HOD {after nearly 3 hours, clearly irritated} Don't you have anything else to do today.

Me. { Before i can tnink of a reply this slips out of my mouth} No sir.

HOD. {Stares at me for 10 seconds} Where i have to sign ?

Me {handing him the papers} Here and here sir.

HOD. {Signs}. Okay, now go away.

Me Thank your sir.

If someone doesn't get it the guy wanted me to go away that day and come again next day and repeat this for 2-3 days before signing off my papers.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ilpalazzo64 on 2024-07-10 17:48:17+00:00.

Okay so years ago I was working for a government facility which was undergoing a massive transition as majority of the employees were reaching retirement age (this place only did a mass hiring to replace people once every 15 years or so). One of the new hires was coming in to replace the current training department head and was given the title of deputy department manager while he trained for the new role and prepared to take over (We'll call him E)

Dude was the biggest prick I have ever encountered. He was constantly finding reasons to write people up and spoke down to everyone with a lesser title than himself. His first actions as a deputy manager was to change the way we did training and change the hiring process to micromanage who could get hired to this already in depth vetting process (Job required a Top Secret clearance).

I was part of the class previous to these changes (training could take upwards of 3 years to complete) and he immediately had it out for anyone from our group that didn't meet his criteria. One day we all started getting called one by one into the training manager's manager's office for a meeting with the Department head, HR, and E. Now I know what's going on as the people getting called are the "problems" E has been trying to get rid of, so I pull E aside

"Hey E, I have an idea of what's happening but just so I'm not blind sided are you guys writing us up for something? If so what incident so I can make sure I know what went wrong?"

E: "I'm not allowed to talk about that as per the Employee Handbook only your direct manager can discuss that and as Deputy Manager, I am not your direct manager"

Cue MC.

So I get called into said meeting and yup, they're writing us up en masse for thing we had already been written up for. Apparently E had convinced HR that writing everyone up again for all the offenses in a single writeup would make it easier to track (this place could only hold a write up against you for termination purposes for 1 year, this scheme effectively reset the clock on a lot of those previous write ups.)

In my meeting was Department Head, HR, and E with a huge grin on his face. I looked at HR then looked at E and asked HR why E was here? They replied to observe. I asked but doesn't the handbook say that only my direct management chain and HR are privy to these meetings? If so I'm not comfortable with E being here and would like him to leave. His demeanor instantly changed especially since HR agreed with me and had him leave the meeting. Now without him there I was able to make a case as to why the new write up was invalid and violated the Handbook, Department head had no clue (or at least feigned it) that we had already been written up for these offenses. Ultimately got the whole lot of the write ups for everyone tossed out. Made myself target numero uno for this guy who eventually got me fired a couple years later but not before I got him demoted.

TLDR: "Boss" tries to write me up for things I had already gotten reprimanded for, informs me he can't discuss meeting because he's not my boss, then I get him barred from the meeting he scheduled since only my boss could be there. Write ups get thrown out since he can't defend his case.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/uncoolcentral on 2024-07-10 16:46:54+00:00.

Gift NYT Article

“With the help of ChatGPT, Dr. Tward now types in a couple of sentences, describing the purpose of the letter and the types of scientific studies he wants referenced, and a draft is produced in seconds.

Then, he can tell the chatbot to make it four times longer. “If you’re going to put all kinds of barriers up for my patients, then when I fire back, I’m going to make it very time consuming,” he said.”

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Birdspotter_4 on 2024-07-10 16:43:30+00:00.

I am an administrator for an institution that works in the public sector. The hierarchy of this structure is slightly complicated because of the nature of the job (criminal justice).

I oversee around 20 employees. Those employees are supervised by four individuals with rank for four different shifts. Each supervisor has another ranked (lesser) person to assist them so basically each shift has a primary and secondary supervisor.

They all report to one individual who ranks beneath me and I oversee all of them. I report to the individual in charge of the whole institution and that person reports to an elected official who manages the entire department. The tricky part is the department has two divisions and while this elected official oversees all of it, they really only run the other division.

We have an employee who is very intelligent, however his book smart is vast and his actual experience in this line of work is minimal. He is a ranked assistant on one shift, so he works with the supervisor of one shift. He sends weekly emails complaining about all the other shifts and their mess-ups. He will write down everything from someone forgetting to remove trash, to someone making an error on a form or even someone interpreting a directive differently than him.

He makes it clear that his way is the correct way and anyone not doing things his way should be written up. He shouts “accountability” constantly or sends condescending emails after a directive is put in place (usually because someone messed up) and advises me to “you need to speak directly with the individual that caused this change otherwise they won’t have a clue it’s because of them”, basically telling me and the head administrator how we should be doing our jobs.

He targets employees and complains about them demanding demotion and accountability and badmouths us for “doing nothing” about poor performance. Meanwhile I have submitted multiple demotion requests and write ups to HR for accountability but the union steps in and dismisses many of them. This individual does not know or see any of this because personnel issues are not open discussions and it really isn’t his business what discipline is put in place but it’s being done, he just does not see it or hear about it to protect the privacy of that employee.

Recently he has started attacking a shift supervisor on the opposite shift. Anytime something is off he sends an email with her opus accusations to that supervisor all of which turn out to not even be true or from that shift to begin with. He ranted about how he never sees the administrators and in order to run a good facility administrators need to be visible and involved on every shift-even citing “it’s not that hard to come in late and stay late to speak to your employees” basically telling us how we should be doing our jobs.

He wants monthly supervisor meetings instead of quarterly because this will eliminate misunderstandings of directives that the other shifts are doing wrong. Little does he know we had monthly meetings for a long time and no one was able to make them and nothing came of the meetings so they requested quarterly meetings.

I agree that visibility is important and I stop in twice a month with night shift to “check in” and see day shift every day but he never gets up to come speak to me during my rounds (he sits and reads or plays on his phone which is allowed due to the nature of the job). He commented “I can’t recall the last time I saw any of you” demanding that admins come in more to micromanage better. I was in a week prior so that kinda upset me as he won’t acknowledge me.

So I started coming in more and told him “why are you sitting? You should be managing? There are things to be cleaned and sorted, you can count inventory of supplies. We don’t pay you to sit around!” This upset him because we do pay them to sit around until needed (if they have an intake).

I then asked him why he was sitting in a restricted area. He stated it was quiet in there and common sense shows he’s not violating the rule because he didn’t go past a specific point so he can sit there (it’s a corridor leading to another part of the building not owned by us). I read him the directive which states: at no point should anyone for any reason go beyond this door unless in an emergency evacuation situation. I asked him again what was so difficult to understand about this request. He still found nothing wrong with going past the door to sit on the other side. I told him he has demanded accountability so he would be getting a write up for not following the directive. He flipped out saying it was such a minor thing and reminded him of all the little minor things he complains about with the other shifts.

I continued to come in and micromanage everyone. A few employees asked why I was there all the time because we hired supervisors to manage the shift so did we not think they were capable of doing the job? I advised that some people felt that they couldn’t manage the shift and wanted administrators to come in more.

The complaining individual got several more write ups one major one for an almost fireable offense, showing that maybe, in fact, he didn’t have all the answers. He sent an email to my supervisor complaining that I was micromanaging and being extremely anal with the minor write up infractions that he now says “aren’t that big to even be reprimanded for”. My supervisor asked “but this is what you wanted, is it not? You complained that you wanted us to be seen and manage more and hold people accountable when they mess up”. The complaining individual wanted other people written up but not himself because he was never wrong, or that’s what he implyed.

I went back to my regular twice a month check in which is just stopping in to see how things are going on the shift. The complainer has been quiet for now, sitting inside the allowable room reading.

His superiority complex will be his downfall. I remind him that the newest employees are the ones we can learn the most from and he needs to value knowledge he can get from anyone, regardless of their experience or rank status. I’m an administrator and I tell staff I am always learning and will continue to learn from everyone.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/titatyy on 2024-07-10 15:57:05+00:00.

I used to be a nurse and worked many nights in a dementia ward. We always took rounds with a partner because you never know if a patient gets violent.

We were on our 3am rounds when we opened the door to a gentlemans room. He was close to the door trying to pull a electric outlet off the wall. We took him to the bathroom and tried to get him to the bed after. His legs didn't work too good on the daytime but by night he needed a lot of help.

We get him near his bed but he just wouldn't go in. Suddenly my parter tells him, 'just jump on the bed so we can go'. And this man took few steps back and leaped on the bed. That's when my partner, who was originally from asia ,learned that dementia patient can take your words quite literally.

Still laugh about it from time to time.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/peopletalkshit on 2024-07-10 09:23:10+00:00.

A story I just read reminded me of this one from about 4 years ago. Not sure if this really qualifies as MC, I let you be the judges.

My son was about 2,5 years old and we were sitting at the table for supper. He used to take his bread, take a bit and put his hand under the table on his lap.

I told him "keep your hands on the table." Then he loses it, slams his hands flat on the table, keeps them still. He looks me dead in the eye and says with his liloud voulice "I can't eat that way!"

I was baffled. Since then, I know to tell him to keep his hands OVER the table, not ON the table.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/On_the_way_up_2023 on 2024-07-10 01:42:24+00:00.

I gave my son, 6, some cornflakes to eat. He made a beeline for the computer room where his brother, 10, was playing Roblox. I told him, don't you dare eat those cornflakes in the computer room.

Mr 6 pulls up a chair and sits in the hallway eating his cornflakes while watching his brother play. His dad looked at me and said, "he's doing what you said". God help me when he goes through puberty.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Exotic_Chemist_7624 on 2024-07-10 00:35:41+00:00.

For context my brother is an inconsiderate douch-canoe. It was either Saturday or Sunday and I had the day off. I’m chilling at home about to cook up something for dinner or late lunch when I get a phone call (4:30pm) my brother called me and expected me to jump up and go pick him up from his job because none of the family were available on a busy weekend for them. When I say he expected, I mean he called me up and said the exact words: “You have to pick me up”. This was before he had his own car and license(around 18). His job was on the other side of town (a full 30-40 min drive or more depending on traffic) and it was at 4:30pm just before hectic work traffic at 5pm. If I had refused to get him he would have called either of our parents and whined until I was bitched at to go pick him up. Understanding the box I had been put in, a grinch-like smile grew across my face as I made up my mind. What did I do? I picked him up, and then made three stops along the way home. Three long stops… The first was at a gas station, I had been low on gas and he couldn’t complain cause I was his only ride. At the second stop, I pulled in at a restaurant to eat inside (Tijuana Flats). The whole time he his complaining that I should take it to go and that we were only 15 minutes from home. The whole time he’s whining about me wasting time and that he had to do “homework” (That “homework” took like ten minutes and then he just passed out with his TV and Xbox on). Eventually he even called Grandma to complain. So much so she called me, to ask if I had offered to buy him any food while there (I did) then told him “tuff” he wanted the ride he got it. And finally at stop three, a supermarket 4 miles from home, I needed a few groceries. Around 6:15pm-6:20pm, when we finally got home he complained like a bitch to our parents (Grandma and Dad), but when my dad got home from work he just laughed, gave me a high five, and was like: “Why didn’t I ever think of that?”. And I was like “Hey, maybe next time? I’ll come along so we can make a few extra stops.”

Ps. He had been doing the “You Have to give me a ride” thing without a please in sight for a while now and it was starting to get on everyone’s nerves.

TLDR: My brother demands a ride and gets one longer than he thought he would have wanted

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/LooksLikeTreble617 on 2024-07-09 14:50:30+00:00.

Call me a bad parent if you must lol, I thought it was funny

My daughter was throwing a tantrum last night that she wanted Cheez-Its for dinner and not her actual dinner. She’s 9, far too old to be throwing a tantrum over this.

After trying to reason with her and it going nowhere, I finally said “Fine, you can have Cheez-Its, but they have to be the Buffalo wing Cheez-Its” which is some new limited time flavor my husband wanted to try in addition to what we usually get.

Her eyes got all wide and she said “But that’s too spicy!” She’s a trooper though, and she gave it a shot, but very quickly realized she wasn’t going to win after one or two of them.

I gave her the choice of more Buffalo Cheez-Its or her actual dinner. She chose her actual dinner on her own volition.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/SkaneatelesMan on 2024-07-09 14:04:33+00:00.

We were prohibited from renovating two "historic", but very primitive and neglected 1890 cottages on a lakeside lot. A complete renovation of 2 homes on one lot required a zoning and septic variance, which the town refused. The town really didn't want us to make any exterior renovations, and we wanted to join the two houses by installing bathrooms between them, making one house from two. The board said they were not prohibiting the renovations, we were just limited to renovating no more than 20% of each home each year, as limited by town law, requiring 10 years to complete. Insane.

Our attorney pointed out that no variance was required if we tore down the 2 old houses and built just 1 new house (regardless of size) if we stayed within the footprint of the original buildings. Neither of the permits to demolish and build new required town board approval. The town compliance officer had no choice but to grant both permits, much to the annoyance of the town board, which wanted the "historic" buildings to stay.

To top it off, by forcing us to build a new home used 12 months of the year, the town was forced to improve the town owned road so that it could be plowed in winter. Revenge.