Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/WebDev403 on 2024-02-04 19:04:45.

This was my first job a few years back. I was a working student at a Startup as webdev. I was specialized in the field they deployed their software in as well as the used technology. The first year was great, I learned a lot and though I had a contract for 20 hours I worked at least 40, more than a few weeks even 60. I identified myself with the company, with the product, with the people.

Come another year down the road, people wanted to implement a feature. I raised concerns that I might be difficult to implement (given the software architecture at that point) and also probably useless because the metrics were a mess. The CEO told me to „act your wage.“ and I thought to myself „alright, will do.“

I strictly committed to my 20 hours per week, didn’t work a second longer. I updated my cv, got an interview and a new job, quit with a month notice. The company leadership was horrified and had to take actions I learned later. To hire a new webdev who could pick up work where I left they had to fire almost the whole sales department. My resignation caused them to lay off almost 30% of their workforce, by today the company operates with 35% remaining employees.

Edit: I should also mention that clients ran off because the support line was not manned 24/7 anymore, that bugfixes took way longer and that new features were very faulty because I only implemented what was in the very badly described tickets.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/No-Cartographer-8435 on 2024-02-04 09:02:54.

I had a hand in this malicious compliance, and it was rather nice. First, a little information.

Back when I was working as a Classroom Technician for my local Community College after I graduated the College had a need for a technical scribe for a blind student. They needed someone who could not only provide direction of what the computer was showing on the screen that the Dragon software (software that audibly gave cues on what you were doing) was unable to, but also had the technical skills to also know how to work the software that was being used. I fit in perfectly, and so was hired on to do the technical interpreting for the student for the quarter.

The professor assigned for the students to create a user interface that did some specific things. Well, the paper that he gave out had a general idea of what the students were to create. To help, but not overly help, I designed the general GUI (Graphical User Interface) and then let the student do the brunt of the work that Dragon functioned for, and I filled in the gaps by verbally cuing him on where he was, and what to do next because Dragon wasn't giving any cues. Student then turned in the assignment.

Professor asks us to come to his office the next day, and says that he knows I did the GUI part, and it was the students responsibility to do their own interpretation of what he handed out. I was about to explain, but the student grabbed my arm, politely apologized and said he will do as asked. We leave his office and I ask what's up? He replied, can you edit the settings on those laser printers in the computer lab to print a page of nothing but black? I said sure. So, we do so and after that black page was printed out, we went back to the professor's office. He said, well that was quick. The student handed over the paper, and the professor was very confused. Student then spoke up: You said for me to design a GUI based off of what you printed. This is what I saw, so I am giving you my interpretation of the image that you printed for the class.

At that moment, the professor had a light bulb go off in his head realizing that he required a blind student to give their interpretation of an image he printed for the class. He apologized, said the previous work will be counted, and for future assignments to proceed as we had been. He then said to the student...well played.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/MMW_Oxford on 2024-02-03 23:00:06.

So this happened over 30 years ago when I was 16 in the 1980's. In those days there were adverts in the press for a record club (this is actual physical albums) where you could get some albums free by signing up and then get sent three a month after that which you had to pay for by a money order within 30 days or get charged interest. So I used it for a few months and it was okay but then there was less and less good choices and I wanted to cancel the subscription. Each month I got the albums I could return them in prepaid plastic envelopes, but for the first few months I kept the albums so had a load of spare prepaid envelopes (important for later). When the quality of albums went down I just sent them back, but this was becoming a nuisance since it was getting close to when I was due to go to College and move away from home.

I contacted the company to cancel the subscription but that's when they nuked me by saying that I'd agreed a 36 month rolling contract, from each agreed purchase. Waiting 3 years to get rid of this was not an option because I'd need to return every month to my parents to return the albums. I told them I was moving away, they were not interested thinking they had me and they did. They told me to send anything back I did not need each month and pay for what I kept and they would start the ending of my contract from when I stopped buying albums. I made it clear I had stopped, cue the Malicious Compliance. I thought about all the things I did not need, that I could send them apart from the garbage albums I was being sent each month. My Dad did building work on the side of his main job so we hard hardcore and cement in abundance, at the back of the house. So I got one of the first plastic prepaid envelopes and filled it with hardcore and wet cement waiting for it to set. It was almost too heavy for me to carry to the post office, but I got it there. The company had to pay by weight for whatever was in the envelope, so it would have cost a lot. I phoned them two weeks after that, I mentioned I had quite a few envelopes and they wisely decided to cancel my account immediately. If it looks to good to be true, then it is, I learnt that at 17.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/brighteye006 on 2024-02-02 17:00:08.

English is not my first language so sorry for any spelling mistakes.

Years ago, when flip phones were the hot thing to own, i worked in a factory making paper.

6 people in each shift, constant watching the machine process, in case of wrinkles, tears or sometimes fire. paper dust in the air had the habit of falling on fast moving parts of the machines, and presto - almost instant fire. We usually several small fires every year, but nothing we couldn´t handle.

We had all worked there ten years or more, so the trust were high, that we did our worke and our floor manager ( John ) never had to direct us to do something, until one really special day.

Something to know about the factory - it was big. really big. So North of it, were a workshop with mechanics ready to help us and the other companies in the same building.

East of us were loading bay and ramps for trucks. South were another company that laminated and printed paper. West of us, were an area rented out short time. Sometimes a mess hall for showing products, and other times shop and warehouse for sport equipment. Everything under the same roof. This is where the problem began.

After one of the worst fires we had, i were on vacation - while my coworkers tried to keep the fire as small as possible until the firemen arrived. Three people ended up with smoke inhalation damage, and two of them were ok after a few days, Paul on the other hand, got lifelong damage. He could still work, but when a company repaired our floor, they used epoxy sealing of cracks - and Paul could suddenly not breathe. Teamleader drove him to hospital, and after inhaling Bricanyl, he could breathe again.

We now knew how badly damaged his lungs were and any strong chemical could kill him.

I had years of experience working with strong chemicals, so it never bothered me, something that would come into play later. Months after this, we changed workschedule and our shift only worked weekends. Sweet deal, with extra pay, only hassle were the burners that would dry the paper. They could sometimes be a pain to fire up, as the safe nature friendly LPG had problems to start in cold weather. No problems, while we waited for those to work, you could start the rest of the machines that were driven by electricity.

Do you all remember the warehouse west of us that sometimes got rented out ? Well, for some unknown reason, pressure perhaps, their ventilation pipe, were directly over the panels we used to control our machines. Sometimes we could smell leather of jackets being sold next to us, one summer they sold strawberries there and after work, we all went there and filled our cars, those strawberries were dirt cheap. One Saturday, someone had the bright idea to just rent the place for the weekend and spraypaint their big lawnmover. ( we felt the fumes right away ).

You guessed it, big rush to the hospital with Paul again, and i had a nice talk with the guy.

At this time, we were part of the European Union, and as i had worked with chemicals - i knew the papers you had to sign, the people you had to talk to and the documentation you had to bring with the chemicals , just to take the chemicals inside a factory. He had none of that.We talked with the company that owned the factory, and they promised to never let this happen again.

That promise lasted four months. When i arrived one morning, i saw that the chimney on the factory had no smoke. Odd i thought, as some of the earlier guys usually fire up the burners right away as they could be tricky. After changing clothes, and ready to open the door to the workplace, i felt it.

Nausiating strong chemical fumes, enough to melt wallpaper. I took a big breath, held it and rushed to the coffee room. that was sound proof and had rubber insolation at the door, but inside i still could feel the fumes. Half of the guys were there drinking coffee, the rest of the guys had taken Paul to the hospital again. It was really bad this time. Everything were shut down as nobody could work with fumes like that. They had opened up every door and window they could, but it would take hours before any work could be done. They have talked to a new guy renting the west area, and he had apparently spent the whole night spraypainting combine harvester, and all the fumes had gone directly to us.

Now we come to the Malicious Compliance part, finally.

While we are sitting there drinking coffee, chatting and waiting for the fumes to go away, in comes the floor manager. I have never seen John that angry, and while he never said so, i assume he got a call from the CEO that ripped him a new one as the numbers on the computer said we all were working and produced zero paper for an hour. John must have felt the fumes, but still chewed us all out, even after we explained about the fate of Paul. He was adamant that it wasn´t that bad, and every minute the machines doen´t run is costing the company money.So i stood up and said to the others, you two, stay and i go with John, to start up the burners. He followed me out, whale i casually chatted with him, trying to look so unbothered of the fumes that i could.

We had several panels to start, so i slowly walked to the first one. I felt the fumes, but i could handle strong chemical fumes, as i had done it before. It seemed like the burners were on my side this day, as they absolutely refused to start. Even when they struggle - they usually get the hint about what i want them to do in ten or fifteen minutes, but this day they were extra obstinate. When we got to panel number two, John looked a little green in the face, but as he wanted us to work in the fumes, let us do that. Same problem with the burner again, and i looked at my watch - we had been in the fumes over 30 minutes now. Even i started to fell dizzy and nauseous by now, not that you could see it on my face. I looked happy as normal while working on starting the machines. When we came to the third and last maching, John gave up. He were white in the face and said with a low voice - perhaps we could wait a while until the fumes cleared up ? Whatever you say, i said with a grin.

John never yelled at us again, and i had a warm feeleing when i think about that day.

Fallout:

On monday the "mud" really hit the fan, and safety in the place suddenly became priority number one. We had many visits from state departments. Sometimes in suits, and other times in white labcoats measuring this and that. Several machines had to be rebuilt with extra added security features. Work accidents went from five a year to just one, or numbers like that - i am guessing here. It had massive effect and it probably cost a pretty penny to fix.

Paul however, never got really well again - but he retired early and got a hefty compensation, not only the pay he would have recieved for the years he should have been working until pension, but also damages, both from the company, but also from a special pot of cash, the union had for moments like this. Not that it can compensate for lifelong asthma, and inability to run more than a minute.

Sorry for the long story, with small part of MC, but i wanted to get it off my chest.

TLDR: Floormanager tell me to work despite toxic fumes, so i do.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Careless_Tie_566 on 2024-02-02 16:55:22.

Several months ago, my boss started basically waving a promotion in front of my face. He was constantly having me do tasks above my title because "you have to already be doing the job before you can get promoted into it to prove you can do it" and "you doing this will make it easier for me to argue in favor of your promotion" and it was that kind of stuff constantly.

A little bit of background to my job. There's 2 main components to what my department is. Lets call them A work and B work. People tend to specialize in one or the other. My whole career has been in A work. I love A work, its where my experience is, and its what I'm good at. While I have an understanding of B work, I'm not great at it and I don't at all enjoy it.

We have a vendor we work with, and while the company does do A work, we hire them for their B work. We had mostly been using them for ad hoc projects but my boss decided we were hiring them to consult for us full-time, and I was going to manage that team. He had more of a spiel about how me "managing" this team from this vendor is really going to look good when they promote me into an actual management position.

I agreed under the condition that this vendor's work does not become my entire job since I don't enjoy B work and don't think that's where I excel, but I understand you often have to do things in your job you don't love. It just can't be my whole job. He swore up and down it wouldn't be like that.

So I start managing this team (without a manager title) and I hate it, and close to immediately I started not being assigned A work projects I typically would "so that my entire focus can be on Vendor". Any potential project he would give to someone else so I can spend more time with Vendor. I had to keep reminding my boss our agreement and he would act like we're on the same page but wouldn't stop doing it. So yes, about 80% of my job was B work and the other 20% was the least interesting type of A work. I started dreading coming into work. Hours drag by. I'm bored and burned out and don't feel like I'm making any kind of impact because again, this isn't the area I'm good at. The only reason I was putting up with it is because I thought there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Anyway, one day I'm in my boss's office and he waves this hypothetical promotion in front of my face again and I decide to ask him ok what's the plan there. He acts stunned, like this question was out of left field, and has no answer. There was never a plan. He hadn't once put any actual thought into a promotion for me. He actually started telling me it was impossible to promote me because right now our team only has 2 titles on it, mine and his, and I obviously can't be the same level as him. I remind him every other team has about 2-3 titles in between, and people constantly get promoted up that hierarchy. I had assumed that's what he kept implying was happening with me.

He ended up at least telling me he tried to argue it with HR and they told him they won't create a new position. I don't know that I believe him, but regardless, I couldn't get past the thought of him basically intentionally lying to me for close to a year in order to trick me into doing work above my pay grade that really he should be doing but I assume just doesn't want to. Even though the jig was up, he still kept pushing me to only be doing projects with Vendor.

So, since there was no more light at the end of the tunnel, I decided, you know what, you're right. I'm going to spend all of my time with Vendor. I'm not spending ENOUGH time with Vendor. Turns out Vendor, a massive company, has a couple positions open for A work Manager. And I had been spending so much time every day with a team of them, I had several good recommendations. And since I was using their platform all day every day, no other candidate is going to be coming in with as much specific Vendor experience as me.

Haven't told him yet, but I think he's starting to get suspicious.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/upset_pachyderm on 2024-02-02 03:01:38.

I just remembered this one...Shortly after I left home, my mom bought an old Victorian house. The yard was completely overgrown, and a lot of work was put in cleaning it up, trimming trees and shrubs, etc. But the tall grasses in the parking strip she left alone, because they were pretty. I don't know if the previous owner had planted them or if they were just weeds.

The fire department knew that they were weeds, and a fire inspector left a notice on the door telling her to cut them down (I forget how far). She did not. Two weeks later, another notice. Two more weeks, and the fire inspector actually stops to talk to her. He explains the size of the fine if she doesn't comply, and so she finally does.

But by next year the grass has grown tall again, so the whole story repeats – exactly like the previous year. Fire inspector was not happy. So mom did some research. It's true, city ordinance said grass and weeds had to be kept cut.

So the third year rolls around, and by late summer the grass is growing high. Fire inspector didn't even bother with the notices this time, and he was clearly peeved. "Are we going to have to keep doing this every year," he asked? Mom smiled and said "Oh, no. I've fixed it all now". And then she showed him the receipts and tags from the decorative grasses she'd bought at the garden store that spring, along with a copy of the pertinent city ordinance.

You see, while the ordinance required weeds and ~~grass~~ lawn to be kept cropped, they permitted "decorative plantings" of any height. She lived in that house for several decades and never mowed the parking strip after that.

ETA: A parking strip (in *some parts of* the US) is an unpaved strip between the sidewalk and the curb of the street. Frequently covered in lawn grass, or planted with small shrubs. In my block most folks have a tree or two there. It's actually owned by the city, but the owners of the adjacent structures are required to provide the upkeep and are usually allowed to plant it as they wish.

ETA 2: I'm absolutely fascinated by all the different names for this unpaved strip. The compliance was petty, but this is really interesting!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Emergency-Housing547 on 2024-02-02 02:46:06.

I’m 39F, and 8 years ago I was dumped by my ex (he’s 44 now). I’m usually on good terms with my exes, but that one was a piece of work. He body-shamed me (apparently a woman weighting 64kg is extremely fat and unappealing), he forced me to do things I hated, and he cheated for half a year, not wanting to break up until we go on two trips paid by me.

He made a point of telling me in which ways his new gf is better, smarter (read “agreeable”) and thinner. It was so bad, I ended up in a mental ward. Oh, and he told me that no one would believe me anyway, and nobody cares how he treats women, so I’m free to bitch online about it.

Ok then, I got better, calmed down and started bitching.

I wrote a “Don’t hire that one” post. He has an extremely rare surname (only ones I know are either his family or a world-famous athlete), it helped me a lot. I wrote how he can’t keep a job for more than half a year, because he thinks that he’s smarter than anyone and argues instead of doing what needs to be done. How his references are fake because these are his friends’ contacts, not hie employers’. How he puts a gazillion of courses in his CV to wear the reader out (his CV is 30 pages long, aint nobody got time for that!), so that they won’t catch to how little experience he actually has. How he’s sure that sleeping with a business contact could be helpful for business, and that women sometimes need to be beaten up to see light.

It’s all very true. I had screenshots of chats to prove it. Oh, did you mean that I can tell about our breakup, but not about your professional life? Well, you didn’t specify.

I’m moderately popular at social media, so a month or so later an HR contacted me to clarify. Apparently he applied for a position. Well, I saw to it and he didn’t get it. It happened twice more, but I suppose a lot more HRs checking social media just read my post silently.

(one time some bikers contacted me for his phone number. He apparently wrote about a girl, a well-known racer, who died in crash, trashing her as a dumb b*tch who deserved it. I suppose that phone call didn’t end very well)

I check on him once every two years or so. No career, no family, girlfriends are apparently way smarter than me and run away screaming after half a year tops. I suppose that someone did believe me after all.

(and I’m happily married to a great guy and am a bit famous professionally. Stupid fat and ugly me)

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Xilverbolt on 2024-02-01 20:58:04.

I called a helpline recently for a bank. Yes it was their number, yes I made the phone call, so no this wasn't some phishing attempt.

The representative said, "Ok we need to send you a code to verify your identity." I said OK. The text said, "WE WILL NEVER ASK FOR THIS CODE. DO NOT SHARE IT." So I told the helpline I couldn't provide the code. They got upset.

Maybe rephrase your text message wording fellas.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Agreeable-Key3914 on 2024-01-31 15:15:41.

I work in a food catering place which can fulfill allergy free requests. We have the expertise and care not to include allergic food, either as a hidden ingredient or by accidentally sharing contaminated utensils and pans while cooking.

In our experience, the 4 most common allergies are peanuts, tree nuts, eggs and milk. Cooking meals without these 4 ingredients will usually satisfy everyone at an event.

We had a new client, a food allergy advocacy group. They ordered a large catering last month and didn't pay us since. We were out of pocket $2000 and were considering legal action. This charity had the nerve to place another order with us, but this time a smaller one costing $450.

The group asked for the meals to be 'nut-free vegan' instead of 'nut/egg/milk free' as this would ensure them a peanut, tree nut, egg, and milk free event for cheaper. (as they would avoid our additional allergy free preparation fees).

This was reckless behaviour from the advocacy group as the party attendees were most likely anaphylactic to milk and egg. Think deadly peanut allergies but for dairy (milk, cheese, cream) and egg products instead.

Had we not known they were a food allergy charity, then we would have not taken as much care in ensuring the meals were egg/dairy free and would have just focused on the nut-free angle instead.

There was 1 important thing the charity forgot, it's now possible to buy dairy which is made from lab grown milk from yeast, the protein is identical to milk but is technically vegan. We cooked all the meals with this lab-grown dairy and loaded it in the van.

Upon arriving to the function hall, we informed the charity organizers that the meals had lab grown dairy in them. The charity owner started blasting off on how it was meant to be dairy free and how they have people deathly allergic to milk in the event.

I simply explained that the order was nut-free vegan since we used lab grown milk, and that they had failed to pay us the last order and that this was simply going to be our team Christmas party if they didn't accept the order.

The owner went ballistic and began pushing me. The rest of us restrained him and the function hall called the police. The owner lied and told the police that we had 'dropped' and assaulted him. The police asked the function hall for the CCTV and then moved us both along. The police did inform us at the commotion that we could head down to the station tonight and provide a witness statement should we wish to press charges.

A few moments later, the owner called and begged for an apology and offered to pay us both the original and today's invoices right there and then. I decided to take the apology and the cash.

Our team had a nice Pre-Christmas party with the vegan lab-grown dairy meals.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/theflamingheads on 2024-01-31 10:34:11.

I used to work at a large hotel restaurant that had busy periods scattered across the calendar. One week you might do 6 hours, then 50 hours the next. They needed staff with flexibility, so they also needed to offer flexibility to staff members who often had two jobs, were also studying, single parents etc. All staff were on casual contracts. They made it easy to request time off and to swap shifts, which worked for management and staff. Until the new manager arrived.

The new manager, I'll call S, had experience managing a small chain coffee shop. Now she was working as a department manager and was responsible for the restaurant, separate bar and other pop-up venues. There was a long list of things she wasn't good at. One of them was writing rosters. She tried to keep the old system going but after a few months, she completely gave up on any kind of flexibility. End of year exam? No time off for you. Friends wedding with 12 months notice? Too bad. Funeral? Birthday? Childcare? Not happening, not sorry. And if we didn't show up to work it would be a written warning. The only way we could get time off was to call in sick.

Malicious compliance:

Staff started calling in sick almost every shift. The earlier we called in the more S would ask of us (Yeah I'll just need you to call around and find someone to cover yourself. or I'll just need a sick note by this afternoon. That would be great.) Before this, sick notes were not necessary. Now a policy was brought in that no sick note = all shifts cancelled until one was brought in. Doctors sick notes were around $25 so attending those weddings and final exams started to add up. Until we realised we could just write ourselves a declaration that we truly were sick and have it notarised, for free. People's cars also started to "break down", buses would be "late". You can imagine what it was like.

My final Christmas there I decided to spend it with family because it was going to be my grandfathers last one. Unfortunately for S, my car "broke down" on the 24th while I was several hours away and it was a 4 day weekend so no mechanic would be open until the 28th. Christmas morning I called to tell S the bad news. Her voice was full on disbelief as i told her my predicament. She was pissed but there was nothing she could do because I wasn't actually breaking any rules.

I had the best Christmas I'd had for a long time. When I got back nothing was said about my absence. I left a few months later. Eventually upper management forced her to bring back some flexibility and suddenly staff stopped getting sick so often. She never figured out the rostering. After working for several more years in that position and being passed over for promotion a number of times, she eventually quit and moved back to her home town.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/not_j17 on 2024-01-31 03:20:21.

I [F19] work part time at a restaurant. I was brought on when I was 16 as a hostess and got to wait tables and bartend at 18. I really love it, I’ve made friends with many of my colleagues, it’s close to school, and my boss is really flexible.

I was scheduled to get a raise last week (I don’t make a waitress wage and I don’t receive those tips), but the minimum wage in my state got raised and my boss said that I don’t need a raise anymore because of it. Im one of the oldest employees, I’m trained in every post, and I do what I’m asked because I respect my higher ups and I’m in a good mood when I’m at work. So now that I’m barely making more than new hire hostesses, I’m only doing hostess duties. I’ve had way more time to study when it’s slow and I come home with more energy to socialize and get things done. It’s been great.

It took a while for my boss to notice the difference my lack of presence made, and when he confronted me I told him what I said above and that there wasn’t anything he could do about it unless I got my scheduled raise. I know there’s no negotiating being paid a waitress wage but maybe now I’ll get my raise since it’s costing him to fill what were my positions.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ineedatinylama on 2024-01-31 02:40:33.

Quick and dirty: Customer asked for a very popular toy at Xmas. Staff stated we did not have any, no one had any. She insisted the employee " Check the back" .

He explained there is no " back" everything is brought in and put directly on the shelf. The only thing in the "back" is the cardboard crusher and empty stocking carts. She insisted he check. He refused, she asked for the manager on duty, me.

I happily went to the back, crushed some cardboard, texted my husband, swept the truck bay, threw out trash. That was in 2018, I hope she is still waiting there for her damn Hatchimal.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Affectionate_Fact109 on 2024-01-29 21:04:05.

So I work in a print shop and my boss is a huge control freak and also a know it all. She got tired of me questioning her orders one day and told me I was no longer allowed to question what she tells me, and to "just shut up and do what I'm told"

A couple hours later comes an invitation from the non-profit group that shes a member of. And in the customers email, the location of the event was spelled correctly. But she thought it was wrong and rather than googling it she just made me change it to what she thought it was supposed to be.

So with having been told to shut up and do what was told, I did, and we printed 150 invitations with the wrong event venue name on them and delivered them to the organization. The organization that she was a part of.

Next day they call upset because they sent me the correct information and got cards with the wrong info. Boss lady asked me what happened and I simply said "You told me change it so I didn't question it and did what you told me."

And the funny thing is she was donating the job so now it cost her twice as much.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Valpo1996 on 2024-01-27 14:35:03.

My company gets a payoff request from a title company. One of our clients has a $1500 lien on a piece of property. The owner of the property (who also owes the $1500) is trying to sell.

So the title company emails me asking for the payoff amount and other info. I respond to the email answering all their questions.

I get an email back saying they need that information “in letter form”. I ask if they are serious. They say yes. They also say they need it immediately because closing is scheduled Monday. This is a Friday.

So I print the email chain and write a letter that says “enclosed please find email chain with the information requested”.

I dutifully put it in a properly addressed envelope and toss it in outgoing mail. Sadly that was after mail cut off so it was not going out until Monday.

Monday I get an email from the title company where their payoff info is. I explain the above.

They ask if I can email it to them. Nope I did that already. Not my fault if that was not good enough for you.

Guess you won’t close for another 5 days or so.

Then a call from the guys attorney asking me where the payoff is. I explain the above to him and remind him he was copied on the emails in question.

He called the title company and blew them out of the water. We got our $1500 the day by personal courier. It was a 2 hr 1 way drive for the courier.

🤷

Edit: I deal w liens hundreds of times a year. They are always done via email. There is abundant law in my state that says the email is a legally binding contract. So the email is sufficient and industry standard.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/KaitouStarlight on 2024-01-27 07:29:28.

First post here, so apologies for any mistakes. This is not my story, but rather a relative's.

She's a teacher, and it was the end of a semester, so she had to turn in some reports to her head of department. For some reason, the head of department guy (let's call him H) wanted the reports to be turned in by submitting an USB to his desk. "Security reasons" he said. Well, she used a Macbook for work, and it doesn't have any USB ports, so it's really inconvenient for her to transfer files via USB. Still, H insisted her to bring an USB containing the relevant files and reports to his office.

So, she brought her Macbook and an USB to his office. She showed him the lack of USB ports on her device. "It would be easier if I just email you the files, since I cannot plug an USB into my laptop," she told him. Yet H still insisted, "Sending files via email isn't secure enough, can't you find a way to get your files on the USB?"

Cue malicious compliance. "Okay, let me borrow your computer, H." He lent her his device, which has USB ports. She emailed the file to him, downloaded the file to his device, plugged her USB in, then put the file into her USB. "Here's your USB with the report, sir," she said after working silently for a while. Why try to explain when he refused to listen and you can just prove your point with action, right?

H got the USB, plugged it into his computer, and then realized what she borrowed his computer for. "You might as well just send me the file, why go through the loop?" He asked her, to which she replied, perfectly serious. "You told me to get my reports in the USB. So I did."

Anyways, after that incident, another teacher (who had a similar name to my relative's and H kept mixing up the two teachers) submitted her reports, and the poor lady got an earful on how to properly use an USB to transfer files, blah blah. H was salty but couldn't say anything because, well, she was just following his instructions :).

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/featherfriendfollowr on 2024-01-26 20:01:05.

Ex (38f, who is my kids mom) really wanted right of first refusal in divorce agreement so she could get extra time with kids if I (39m) couldn't watch them. Which is reasonable. But she also wanted it specified that only grandparents and aunt's and uncles could watch the kids if she passed on the right of first refusal. She wouldn't admit it, but my lawyer suspected the reason she wanted to only allow those specific people was to exclude any romantic partner of mine from babysitting ever. The kids' parents would always get first dibs, though, so there was no good reason for that bit of it and honestly a long term partner is probably going to be better for the kids as a babysitter than my family who is hours away and some of them aren't the most trustworthy. I agreed to it in the final agreement under the condition that I get a make up date any time she uses the right of first refusal (to avoid giving her the incentive to just say no to every date swap).

So fast forward to this weekend and I ask if she wants the kids under right of first refusal and she says yes, but that she -won't- give me a make up overnight. Because the right of first refusal requires a make-up, I tell her that this counts as rejecting her right of first refusal. She gets mad and says I should give her the kids anyway. So I say I need to follow the -exact- wording of the divorce agreement, and it says only grandparents and aunts and uncles can watch the kids (she didn't put parents in there), so I'm not even legally allowed to let her watch the kids if she's not going to follow the right of first refusal agreement. Oh that felt sweet to use that stupid rule she created against her attempt to break the agreement. She was mad, but she finally agreed to a make up overnight in the end, which is the way it should have been in the first place.

Edit: I think it's worth adding that I do believe the end state here was best for the kids, which is the goal. Keeping the placement days 50/50 let's the kids keep seeing each parent as much as they can, and they want to see both parents as much as they can. It promotes parental equality from everyone's view. She's generally a good mom to the kids, I'm a good dad, no real concerns there. But she's willing to try to break the divorce agreement so that she can get more time with the kids by taking time away that I was supposed to be able to spend with the kids, and that's not fair to the kids or to me. And I am happy I stopped her from doing that.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/StoreAffectionate344 on 2024-01-26 18:05:54.

I can’t believe I have story for this subreddit!

I work at a call center for my country’s military I’m not going to say which branch to keep things anonymous. What I do most of the time is answer questions on how to submit their retirement applications in order to receive their pension on time. Today the caller, whom I’ll call Major Karen, calls and out right demands the mailing address to send her retirement application.

I started to tell her that it’s not a good idea to send it through the mail for a variety of reasons and to use the website. However Major Karen cuts me off and said in a very passive aggressive tone that, “I’ve been doing it right for a while and it’s always broken. I WANT MY MONEY.”

Cue the malicious compliance! Instead of explaining all the things that could go wrong, I simply said “Okay.” I gave her the address and she immediately hung up.

Now Major Karen will not only have the risk of having her personal information lost in the mail but also have her paperwork sit on a desk where no one will touch it. Meaning she won’t get the money on time. All of this could’ve been avoided if she’d used the “broken” website.

If anyone asks, I tried to warn her, she refused to listen.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Restless_Dragon on 2024-01-26 04:44:19.

UPDATE - To answer questions, I do not have any of the pics. I wish I did. I know that there was one photo taken of the other two bridemaids on the scooter with me attemping a drunken version of the hokey pokey.

Sandra - if you ever find this post, I would be willing to pay for that picture, or it the hokey pokey was captured on video. I also hope that you are no longer such a heinous bitch.

___________________________________________________________________________

A post in another group, reminded me of this.

I am a disabled veteran, and at the time this actually happened I was solely depending on walking stick. I could not walk more than 10 feet maxium without assistance. I was asked by a friend to be a bridesmaid at her wedding. She quickly proved herself to be a bridezilla from hell, and everything had to meet her vision. Everything had to fall within her very rigid scope of what the aesthetics should be.

She made a couple of what she claimed were innocent comments about my walking stick. I offered multiple times not to be a bridemaid and would assist in any other way I could help. She refused every offer and insisted I had to be a bridesmaid.

Then I heard from another close friend (and also a bridesmaid) that she was very upset that I was insisting on using my walking stick. She made a comment saying that she was just going to hide it and then I would just have to go without it. Looking at the mutual friends face when she said that she tried to laugh at off as a joke.

Well there was no doubt in my mind that she was going to try to have my walking stick go missing, so I made arrangements.

Sure enough they have the wedding rolls aroundand while getting hair and makeup my walking stick disappears. I was not happy, and told everyone I have to have it back. I cannot walk down the aisle without it. The bride insisted that they didn't know where it was and they looked everywhere and I was just going to have to make do.

I said so after you joked about taking my walking stick it goes missing, and you want me to make do??? Her exact words were you'll just have to do what you can do to get up the aisle.

Cue malicious compliance, I texted my boyfriend he went out to the car and brought in mobility scooter that I had rented just in case I needed it. I had him put it out of sight but where we could get to it easily and then he or the other bridesmaids physically supported me. We made our way to the back of the hall for the start of the ceremony.

The bride who had been talking to her father and not paying attention did not see the scooter until she started to walk up the aisle and there are her three bridesmaids. Two standing tall and me sitting on the most hideous looking multicolored with sparkles mobility scooter I could find.

If looks could kill she would have planted me. Within seconds of the ceremony ending my walking stick had been found. She and her her new husband brought it over to me, and told me it had been found and I could get that god-awful scooter back out to the car.

I mustered up a tear and told her I was so sorry but I was in so much pain from having to try to walk without my walking stick that there was no way I would be able to go without the scooter. I am very proud to say that the scooter is in over 90% of her wedding photos.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/TrikkiNikk on 2024-01-25 21:15:44.

Some many years ago I worked customer service for a company that managed a Medicare Part D drug plans. And the annual enrollment period rolled around. And during that time it got chaotic! On top of the usual caring for customers, answering their questions, fixing problems, we had to enroll people into our plans. And it was a bit of a process. There were questions that needed to be asked and answered, information that had to be imparted, and at the end of it all a long spiel explaining our responsibilities and the customers responsibilities and important information the customer had to verbally consent to.

So in the midst of this I get a woman who is angry she has to do this, and is angry at how much time the whole process is taking. I explain to her I am trying to get her through this all as quickly as possible.

Then we get to the end, and I explain that I have to read her the terms of service and I need her to verbally confirm yes to it all. Immediately she starts carrying on how she just doesn't have the time to listen to it. I tell her I am legally required to read this to her. She doesn't want to hear it, just sign her up. I explain again that to complete the sign-up process I have to read this to her and she needs to acknowledge it. Another round of she doesn't want to hear it, doesn't want to agree to it, I can just skip it, and sign her up. No, I can't. I can read through it quickly, however she still needs to hear it and say yes. More arguing she doesn't want to, let's just say she agrees to it, and I can sign her up.

By this time I'm thinking "Lady, if you had just let me read this, instead of arguing with me, we could have been done by now," which I couldn't say. Instead, I inform her that I have to read this agreement to her and she needs to verbally agree to it. If she doesn't, I will not be able to sign her up for Medicare Part D; she will not have a Part D plan; she will not be able to enroll in a plan until the next year's enrollment period; and she will have to pay a fine for not having a plan this year. She ignores all that, tells me to sign her up, and hangs up.

Of course, I don't sign her up. And I write down the whole incident in the call log, that I explained several times that I needed to go over the agreement and get her consent, the penalties to her if she didn't, that she refused, and that I did not sign her up.

Several weeks after the new year, a co-worker sitting near me gets a call from a woman who is furious that when she went to get a prescription filled the pharmacy wasn't able to run the insurance on it, and when they checked that she didn't have a Part D drug plan. The co-worker asked for the woman's name, which was the woman who I didn't sign up. My co-worker checked and said the caller did not have a plan with us. Worse for the caller, we could not enroll her since she had missed the enrollment period.

Imagine how much easier things would have gone for everyone if that woman had just let me do my job and read the service agreement and she just said yes to it.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/spinaticc on 2024-01-25 02:22:00.

Hello, I (24 F) have a completely chaotic dumpster fire for a family. If it isn't one thing, it's the next, and as such, I do not visit my family unless forced or on holidays bc they're invited despite my suggestions. Here more recently, last summer I believe, my Aunt got into a problem with me (the eldest of my siblings) and my eldest younger sister (21) bc my Aunt felt it was her right to bully and abuse my youngest sister through her own children and their phones. Which, okay, that was a thing, but this post isn't entirely about that. I called CPS bc of some allegations that came my way about the treatment of my Aunt's child, and bc of that she was trying to figure out who did it and was gossiping with my elder cousin (her adult step-daughter) about who it could be and said, and I'm quoting, "Well... it could've been OP, she does have a crush on me." When my cousin looked flabbergasted at such a ludicrous statement my Aunt's 9 yo daughter pipped up, "It's true! She really does!".... wtaf? So not only is my Aunt abusive and less than dirt in my opinion, she's also completely delusional and is so much so her children know of this particular "belief".

Now, when I heard this ridiculousness, I didn't know what to do with it really, like what do you say and do about that??? Blow up at her? Call her an insufferable pig? Dive deeper into when she started believing this, blasting her online etc. And then.. malicious compliance came to mind and the Grinch's grin smeared across my face.

Starting from that day I heard this rumor, any and every time I saw her I flirted, hard. "Omg Auntie, aren't you the sexiest thing I've seen today." or "My God, Uncle, I wouldn't let that beaute through your fingers.", "If you ever want a massage, let me know, I would love to give one to the prettiest girl here." "Gosh, there is just no way you're over 50 yo!" "Uncle, you're a very very lucky man.", as examples. I whistle as a greeting to her, and I make sure to wink at her at least once per interaction. She doesn't know my cousin, her step daughter, told me about her accusation.

She looks so uncomfortable every time I approach or even arrive at family gatherings, and I fucking love it. Karma's a witch, maybe don't bully and abuse kids and fill your own children with nonsense rumors like your niece, who you've known since she was 8 yo, wanting to doodle you. I'm never going to stop, I have a crush on my Aunt, after all.

EDIT: Something I didn't think I'd have to clear up is: I do not have a crush on my Aunt. Sarcasm is a thing. Not to mention, some have said this just makes me look bad, to who exactly? The woman telling her CHILDREN that her niece wants her? My family? The dumpster fire? Yall ever heard of a rumor so ridiculous that you just go with it? If I raised a huge fuss about it, that would've made me also look guilty with that logic! This way, I have the power, and maybe, just maybe, she'll think twice about ridiculous rumors.

EDIT 2: People worried this will make it worse, idk what to say to you really. It prolly will. But before this issue I had literally never had an issue with her, always cordial, so if she can manifest this kind of BS in her head with no reason at all then me not doing anything wouldn't have helped either.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/throwaway1337_acc on 2024-01-24 19:59:45.

So, in my job we need to track explicitly our effort and the time that we spent on which tasks. Each day must have at least 8 hours of recorded effort, and if there is not enough work or for some other reason you are not working productively the whole day, you’ll have a hard time to think about where to put your efforts. If you record less than 8 hours, your bonus for the quarter will be less (what a stupid rule, I know). If you don’t have enough work.. that’s also your problem.

Lately, I took sick leave for some days as I was really not well. But after a few days, and as I had a bad feeling about letting the team down, I continued to work, even though I was sure that I could easily get another medical certificate to extend my paid sick leave. However, I was only able to work some of the hours and needed to rest/sleep the other half of the day (I was working from home). Remember the rule about time tracking? I didn’t know where to put the remaining hours and actually didn’t bother to invent something. The next day my boss commented with me why my time tracking is not filled correctly…

On the other hand, if you just report sick, you don’t need to worry about the time tracking as the whole day will not count. So I just decided to go the doctor on the next day and extended my sick leave for a few more days, without worrying now about where to put my hours. The company apparently prefers people to not work at all instead of only working half-days without correct time tracking. I don’t know how that makes sense from a business perspective, but its not my business.

TL;DR: The company enforces stupid time tracking policies where it’s more encouraged to take sick leave for the full day than working half days and not knowing where to register your effort.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/LongSufferingSquid on 2024-01-24 19:55:48.

Working in a call center I take a call:

Me: "Widgets International, this is Squid, how can I help you?"

Customer: Already upset, "Hi, I'm trying to get through to my sales rep, Roger. One of you people tried transferring me before but the call didn't go through so I'm calling you again."

Me: "I'm sorry about that. We've been having problems with our phones. Would you like me to have Roger give you a call?"

Customer: Waspishly, "Can't you just transfer me?"

Me: "I could, bu-"

Customer: Interrupting, "Transfer me, then."

Me: "Transferring." I transfer the caller.

What I was going to say before the customer interrupted me is, "but your call will just drop again." Oh well, she'll find out.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Honest_Star7348 on 2024-01-24 16:41:31.

Original Title: Management Says I’m Losing My Unused Vacation Days Because of a New “Unpublished Handbook Rule” Okay, I will Comply with the Rules of this New Unpublished Handbook, But These Four Paid Unused Vacation Days Will Cost You THOUSANDS!!!

I worked for a company with great pay and benefits. One of which was vacation days. I worked there for years without any performance or attendance issues. I was also an employee who would not work overtime. I give 100% while I’m there. That’s all I have to offer! Other than that, no issues.

Each year, I’d pre-planned my vacation days. We had to put our plans on a calendar for approval, and I wanted to receive my approval before confirming my plans, so I did everything as early as possible. I had no vacation request problems for years and did not hear of other employees having issues with their vacation time/pay.

Then, one year, all of a sudden, after using all but four of my vacation days, management said I had no additional paid vacation time. I reviewed our online handbook, gathered my requested and approved time off, and checked my check stubs to verify the paid vacation days I’d taken thus far. I presented everything to management for research.

My direct manager said he checked, and I didn’t have four additional vacation days. That wasn’t good enough, so I asked him to forward it to his manager. His manager said the same thing: that wasn’t good enough. Eventually, my concerns reached the center manager.

The center manager called me into a meeting. I again presented my findings, showing I had four unused vacation days left. He then began discussing changes to our vacation policy while making eye contact and smiling. He turned his computer around to show me the “new handbook” they constructed reflecting the new vacation policy. Wait a minute, what? There is an online employee handbook, yet I am supposed to go by a “new handbook” not known to employees. Make that make sense.

I politely said, “Okay,” and walked out. I removed my four days from the vacation calendar. I then began “chatting” with other employees to see the number of days they had taken for that year and the number of days they might have left. Conversations like, “How was your vacation? How long did you stay? Are you choosing a different place to spend the rest of your vacation days?” Asking these and related questions allowed me to calculate the number of vacation days they used or had remaining. I did not find one other employee having my issue with vacation time.

I waited a couple of months and filed a lawsuit while working there. Other employees did not know about my lawsuit, at least not from me, but I’m sure management knew. The lawsuit (discovery process) revealed an email chain. The email chain showed the center manager directly asking Human Resources about my four unused vacation days and Human Resources CONFIRMING I had four unused vacation days. The center manager used a fictitious “new handbook” to cover his and other management actions, denying my unused vacation time.

Shortly after that, we settled, and they paid THOUSANDS for four unused vacation days. I had to resign (of course), and the center manager (and other management) lost their positions, retired, or quit. All I wanted was my unused, paid vacation time. But what I received was much more!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/LolaMist42 on 2024-01-24 04:42:47.

I apologize in advance for layout. I'm on mobile.

This happened a couple of years ago with my last job. I used to work for a pretty popular retail store. I got hired on as a cashier in a town with very little clothing stores. So this particular store was always packed!

As soon I started working, I realized the management sucked! The supervisors always told you one thing and the managers another. They never talked to each other, and expected you to do what you were told. I tried listening or explaining whenever what they said contradicted each other, but things always got worse because I was "talking back." So I stopped and started always saying "yes ma'am!"

One day it was extremely busy. The person who cashiered before me failed to put away their hangers. (The store reused hangers and made it a big deal to put them away.)The manager who trained me told me between customers I could put away a handful of hangers just so I didn't get overloaded. So that was what I was doing when over the walkie I hear; "Register number 2, get back to your register! Don't put away hangers when there are customers!"

Fine. I won't then. We worked for over 3 hours straight without a break in the line. So the hangers piled up. Under the register was flooded and crammed with hangers. On the counter was a huge pile of hangers. Customers were having trouble putting merchandise on the counter.

Finally the manager who trained me walks over to me and looks so annoyed with it all. She asks why I wasn't putting hangers away between customers? "I was told not to. Costumers come first."

She rolled her eyes as she starts to untangle them. "Yea but this is unacceptable! There's so much!"

"Today has been busy. And the person before didn't put away their hangers before they went home. So this is two shifts worth of hangers. I tried putting them away when so and so yelled at me to get back to my register."

It took them over an hour to finally get the hangers put away with 2 of them working at it. They had me skip my break because of how busy it was.

The next day it was busy again, no surprise. The supervisor came up front while I was putting hangers away. We looked at each other while I hung up a hanger and she went back to her job while I did mine. She didn't bother me again about hangers.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ytys45 on 2024-01-24 04:12:29.

Hey there, Reddit. I've been a long-time lurker on this subreddit, and after what happened at my job recently, I just knew I had to share my story. It's a bit of a long one, but trust me, it's worth it.

So, I'm Mark, and for the past five years, I've been working at this mid-sized tech company. It's been great, or at least it was, until six months ago when we got a new HR manager, Susan. Now, Susan is the kind of person who loves rules a bit too much. She came in with this idea to 'revolutionize' the workplace, but all she did was implement a bunch of unnecessary and strict policies.

The one that really got under everyone's skin was her new attendance policy. It stated that if anyone was even a minute late more than three times in a month, they'd face immediate suspension without pay. No excuses, no exceptions. This was crazy, considering we're all seasoned professionals, not school kids. But Susan was adamant, and the policy was enforced to the letter.

Now, I'm usually very punctual, but life happens, right? Just my luck, I ended up being late three times in one month. The first was because of a massive traffic jam, the second was due to a power outage that killed my alarm, and the third, well, I overslept. Each time, I was barely five minutes late, but Susan didn't care. She slapped me with a suspension notice.

I was fuming, but then I remembered something important – our employee handbook. I'd read that thing cover to cover when I first started, and something about the suspension policy stood out to me. I dug up my copy and found the section I was looking for. The policy stated that suspended employees must leave company premises immediately and are not allowed to engage in any work-related activities during their suspension. A plan started to form in my head.

You see, at that time, I was in the middle of a critical project for a major client. It was a huge deal for the company, and I was the lead developer. Without me, the project would grind to a halt. So, I decided to follow Susan's policy to the letter.

The next day, I walked into Susan's office and handed her the suspension notice, along with a printed copy of the employee handbook's suspension policy. I told her, 'As per the company policy, I will be leaving the premises immediately and will not partake in any work-related activities during my suspension, including the Johnson project.'

The color drained from her face. 'You can't just leave the Johnson project!' she exclaimed. But I just shrugged and said, 'Company policy, Susan. I'm sure you wouldn't want me to break the rules.' I gathered my things and left the office.

The fallout was immediate. The project team was in disarray without me, and the client was getting antsy about the missed deadlines. The CEO himself called me two days into my suspension, begging me to come back. I explained that I was merely following company policy, as enforced by Susan.

Long story short, the CEO had to intervene. My suspension was lifted, and I was back at work the next day. The best part? Susan's ridiculous policies were all reviewed and mostly scrapped. She's still with the company, but let's just say her enthusiasm for rule-making has significantly diminished.

So, there you have it, folks. Sometimes, following the rules a little too closely can be the best form of rebellion. And always, always know your employee handbook