Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/overeasyallie on 2025-09-07 17:28:25+00:00.

I worked as a recruiter for a temp agency when I was young and fresh out of college. The manager of the agency was a total micromanager and wanted a say in absolutely everything. She micromanaged everyone so badly that she wanted to proofread any emails that any staff member was sending externally. She also want to be CCed on every single outgoing external email.

One day one of my coworkers got a response back from an employer who gave some positive feedback about the email she wrote. Our manager made sure to reply all and take credit for the email and explained she oversees all outgoing emails. A few days later in a staff meeting she made a point of saying she should get credit for any feedback the agency receives since she proofreads everything.

The thing is, this manager was not well spoken or smart and not even a particularly good writer. I regularly spotted issues with her sentence structure and use of commas but just didn't say anything.

One day she's proofreading one of my emails that would be going externally to an employer who pumped a lot of money into our agency. I was stating in the email that I thought so-and-so was a great fit for their vacant position based on so-and-so's past experience. Miss Manager comes to my desk and tells me the email looks good except it should read 'passed experience.' I told her that was incorrect and she told me I was wrong and she knows the difference between the two words. I wasn't in the mood to argue so I wrote it as 'passed experience and' and CCed Miss Manager on the email.

The employer writes me back and says as an employer who hires people to work on printed literature they wanted to correct me and let me know it's actually 'past experience.' That's where malicious compliance kicked in. I hit reply all and thanked them for the feedback and explained my manager values all feedback and since she proofreads all outgoing emails, she was the one who insisted on writing 'passed experience.'

The next day she announced she no longer wanted to proofread outgoing external emails and didn't want to be CCed on them any further.

Malicious compliance put that witch in her place!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Z-mount on 2025-09-07 12:35:18+00:00.

My backyard neighbor has been difficult since the day I moved in. We closed on the house in late December, and by early spring she was demanding I spend $10,000 to build a drywell to stop rainwater from flowing into her yard. My property sits higher than hers, and it has been this way for over 60 years. I refused but offered to let her pay for it herself. She declined.

A few weeks later, she called the town to complain about a flood light on my property that was missing a cover. Code enforcement came by while we had people over, which made the whole situation embarrassing. The officer just told us, she’s known for this and not to worry, just correct the issue, no fines were issued. A week later the inspector returned to reinspect the light. We had a nice chat, everything was in order, and the case was closed.

On Father’s Day, we held a small surprise party for my father-in-law’s 80th birthday and played music on a small Sonos speaker. The following Friday, the same code enforcement officer called me to say my neighbor had complained again. He told me not to worry, but reminded me that if I ever held a party with music and I wanted to avoid drama , I should apply for a permit.

In mid-July, I overheard my neighbor on the phone inviting people to a barbecue, giving the date and time. The following Monday, I went to town hall, applied for a permit for that exact date and time, and it was approved.

On the day of her party, as her guests arrived, I turned on loud old Greek chanting music from the early 1900s. My grandparents loved it and used to torture me and my cousins with it growing up, so I knew exactly how annoying it would sound blasting across the yard. Within minutes, she ran over, banging on my door and ringing my doorbell repeatedly. The Ring doorbell footage of her tantrum is hilarious. I did not answer since I had taken out my wife, and my neighbors to the left and right of my house for drinks.

The next Monday, code enforcement received a complaint. The same officer handled it personally and informed her that a permit had been issued, and nothing could be done.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/pupillary on 2025-09-06 19:15:53+00:00.

Big box retail. I'm in a different store than usual. I've traveled an hour and a half to get there. Right away I notice the place has two big overflowing trash cans. I bag everything up to take to the back...the place where employees only are allowed. I do not wear my name tag when I walk through the store with trash because I have noticed that when customers see anyone wearing a badge, they run up on you to ask where stuff is. Again, I'm in a different store in a different town. I don't know where anything is in this place and customers really don't like to hear that, so I leave the badge in my desk and carry the two bags of trash plus cardboard boxes folded up and tucked under my arm.

As soon as I get to the back, not one but two employees descend on me informing me that I cannot be in the back without my badge. Rather than justify my presence, I just smiled and said "you know what, you're right!" I let go of both bags, dropping them where I stood. I pulled all the folded cardboard from under my arm and handed it over. Ever notice that if you hand something to someone, they usually take it? Well, he took it and as far as I was concerned, it was his. I stepped away from the trash bags I was not authorized to carry and kept walking as they frantically called out to me to not leave the trash behind. Too late, I'm gone.

On second thought, maybe this should go to AITA?

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Scenarioing on 2025-09-06 18:57:53+00:00.

I've been thinking of posting about a MC experience except that I was the foil. The day has come.

Four decades ago I got a F%*& up, move up type promotion to be a field supervisor for a security guard company. In the end I did pretty well, but I was young, sometimes stupid and inexperienced.

One day at one of our larger sites I checked in on the guards working there. It was a sweltering hot day and one guard position was outdoors in a booth where trucks would get checked in and out. The management of the company that contracted our company fussed a lot about appearances including wearing a tie. I told the guard he had a wear his tie. He said no, so I said I would send him home for the day (without pay) if he didn't comply.

He called my bluff. I had to cover his shift. I could have instructed another guard to take up the position while I got to sit inside, but thought better of it and also realized the additional repercussions it might also cause that day and down the road. Plus the embarrassment. There still was some because I'm sure the other guards got a chuckle over my consequences.

Anyway, within a half hour, my tie was off as it was absolutely miserable and I was just dealing with a few truck drivers on a weekend. My productivity that day tanked and had to make up for it later. Lesson learned.

After, I realized that there are rules and there is reality. To pick the right battles and to support the staff and earn their trust and gather info before making decisions. Which produced dividends later when I needed help filling positions or making other asks. I was also warned a few times if something might cause problems.

I always carried that experience with me and am a business owner now. Employees come and go, but they don't go because 'they didn't wear a tie' or such that was not needed. It was a small thing way back when and not a ruinous event, but is was still a life lesson.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Icarusreswings on 2025-09-06 18:17:53+00:00.

Very short and defiently not as dramatic as most posts, but it belongs here. My son is 6. He hates writing homework. So much that he will do anything to get away from it. He'd rather do higher grade math then to do his writing homework, so of course when I messed up, he took advantage of it. I meant to say "Write 10 words and you can be done for today" but instead I messed up and said "Write 10 letters and you can be done for the day" so he wrote the first letter in each word and then declared proudly that he had followed my directions. I tried to correct him by saying he has to write the 10 words fully and he said "No daddy you said 10 letters I wrote 11 letters so Im done now." Then proceeded to go play with his brother while I stand here semi proud and a bit disappointed in myself.. ive raised a menace lol

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Small-University-684 on 2025-09-06 17:52:03+00:00.

Growing up, I had very strict, yet absent parents. They always tried to control what I did and told me that I can do what I want when I’m an adult but until then, I had to follow their rules

When I turned freshly 18 (legally an adult), I was heading out to the club with my best friend. Before I left, my mom said “you’d better not come home at 3 in the morning this time” so I came home at 9am instead. She started kicking off so I simply reminded her that I was told not to come home at 3am

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Impressive-Bike-8126 on 2025-09-05 15:04:46+00:00.

In the late 90s I lived in a pretty sweet apartment with a cool little turret room. It was a studio, but it was just me and a cat, so it worked perfectly. I loved the location, but the landlord was...difficult. When I first signed the lease, she acted like it was cool that I had a cat, but one time when she came by with the bug guy, she saw my cat and demanded I pay her a pet deposit. I was like "you didn't mention that before, but cool. Whatever."

Things toddle along for a few more months, when I get a call: Landlord wants to come by and show her friend the work she did on the place before I moved in, because she was proud of doing it herself. Okay, cool. Whatever. Landlord and friend come over, walk around the apartment for a few minutes, friend is gushing about how much she loves the place and what she did with it. Yeah! me too! There were def some sapphic vibes going on, so I'm thinking "good for you too!"

A couple of weeks later, my landlord calls and says "I want you out by the end of the month." I'm like "huh, wha?" And she tries to say it was because I didn't tell her I had a cat when I moved in, despite us having that discussion and me paying her the pet deposit when asked. I explained this to her, she was adamant, tried to gaslight me, and insisted I had to get out. Turns out her "friend" fell in love with the place and was in need of a new spot BY THE END OF THE MONTH. She never told me this directly, but the downstairs neighbor heard them talking about it on their way out.

I ended up finding a much better place to land in a better neighborhood, so I wasn't screwed, but I was still incredibly pissed over the whole thing, due to the fact that she was so shitty and dishonest about the whole thing, so I delayed paying her that last month's rent until move out day because fuck her. On that day, I decided to go down to the bank and cash in the rent amount (like $350, it was the 90s) for pennies. The bank gave me rolled coins, which I promptly opened into a couple of Kroger bags. I moved all my shit out the day before, so I just met her there for a walk-through, and when she asked for the rent, I handed her the bags full of pennies. She got redhot pissed and screamed at me, said I was going to have to wait there while she counted it (first she tried to get me to count it and roll it), to which I replied "Nah, bitch. I know how much is there. Call me if it's short."

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/IMrTrippy on 2025-09-05 13:30:01+00:00.

This is a more light hearted MC but I was thinking about it earlier and thought I’d share!

When I was a kid my dad used to torture my ears on the drive to school with his terrible music. We came to an agreement that I was allowed to listen to 1 song per journey, no matter the genre or what my dad thought of it.

For a couple of weeks I got to enjoy a few minutes of bliss each day, but there had to be a way I could make it last longer… That’s when I discovered a band called NOFX, most of their songs are a couple of minutes long. Except for one, a song called The Decline that’s roughly 18 mins long!!

I was doing my best to hide my smile when I put it on, it took about 6 minutes before “how long is this damn song??”. When I said 18 minutes he immediately turned it off and said “I’m not listening to that crap for that long”. I had my song access revoked for about a month lol

When I was eventually allowed one song again, it was on a case by case basis, and definitely not anything longer than 6 minutes. It was kind of worth it just to see my dads reaction to an 18 minute punk song

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/paperanddoodlesco on 2025-09-05 12:10:07+00:00.

So this happened a while ago before remote work was even a concept (think 2008ish). I was working at a large media agency and for anyone who knows agency work, we typically work around our client's schedule - or at least as best as possible. We were based in NYC but had CA clients, so it was pretty standard that we'd get in at 10am and leave 7/8pm (if you stayed to 9pm, you could take a car service home so we sometimes just did that - most of us were in our 20s so no big deal!).

When a new CEO started, he was used to working in Europe and hated that we weren't in the office at 8am and forced a company policy that we had to be in the office from 8am-5pm.

We of course followed the rules because who wouldn't want to leave at 5?!

Let's just say the policy was lifted within 2 weeks when our west coast clients couldn't get in touch with us!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Ready-Branch87 on 2025-09-05 10:19:46+00:00.

Back when I worked at a mid-sized company, my manager decided that our team wasn’t “thorough enough” with our project handoffs. We already kept notes, but he announced that from now on, every single step had to be documented in detail. His exact words were: “If it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen.”

Alright then.

On my next project, I documented everything. Booting up the computer, logging into the system, which buttons I clicked, why I clicked them, screenshots for every screen, timestamps, file sizes, you name it, it went into the record. By the end, my “handoff” wasn’t the usual 6–8 pages. It was a full 198-page binder, neatly organized, with a table of contents.

I dropped it on his desk with a satisfying thunk. He looked stunned. “What is this?”

I smiled and said, “The complete documentation, just like you asked. Every step is there.”

He had to carry that binder to the next project review, where people actually laughed at how absurd it was. After that, he quietly clarified that we only needed to document “the important steps.”

Malicious compliance achieved: I followed the rule exactly, and he never asked for that much detail again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Ok-Narwhal-6979 on 2025-09-05 08:36:42+00:00.

I had this coworker who loved acting like he was in charge of me, even though we were on the same level. He sent me a long message one day saying from now on I was required to copy him on every single email I sent so he could “stay in the loop.”

He wasn’t my boss. He just liked the power trip.

So I started copying him on every single email. Not just client stuff, not just internal updates. Everything. When IT emailed to remind us about scheduled maintenance, he got a copy. When HR sent me a reminder about updating my tax form, he got a copy. When the office manager emailed about bagels in the breakroom, he got a copy.

Within three days his inbox was buried. He tried to complain but I just showed him his own email where he said copy me on every single email.

Our manager got involved and told him to stop wasting my time. Suddenly I didn’t have to copy him on anything anymore, and he avoided me like the plague after that.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Commercial-Dish7684 on 2025-09-05 04:06:42+00:00.

I saw a similar story that reminded me of mine. Many years ago I worked at a print shop that no longer has its original name, but people still call it by its original name and is notorious for iffy customer service. (Side note: one of the main reasons is that we encountered the most ridiculous asks so when a perfectly reasonable request came through, we were already sitting on ready to engage in the madness…apologies for anyone who was reasonable)

Anyway, we were a pretty laid back, island of misfits store…grad students, wayward musicians, lifers, tokers, and single moms who work two jobs…but collectively got ish done. P&L unmatched to the smoke breaks taken. Our uniforms were navy pants and a button down shirt (long or short sleeve…dealer’s choice!) and could even order a cardigan sweater, which all came from the corporate catalog.

We get a new district manager who does a store visit. She determines that the men were not adhering to the official uniform because none of them were wearing ties. Pause. The reason why? We have an industrial size laminating machine that was diabolical and easily snatched up ties. Just a general chocking hazard and made absolutely no sense to wear to do this job. She threatens to write up anyone non-compliant and puts our store on notice.

Quiet storm Gil (not his real name) says, bet. He reviews the handbook and sees that both neckties and bow ties are acceptable with no additional descriptions. So he orders a box of what can only be called the comical clown collection of bow ties from eBay. Puts them in the break room and tells the store to have at it. We are talking about polka dots, paisley, stripes in every color of the rainbow and of ridiculous size proportions. Honestly, a joy to witness. Customers are like, this is interesting. Which btw, makes Gil and others grumpy because they are taking a stance, not trying to spend more time with customers.

A month later, district manager visits again. We have now normalized the bow ties. She is livid. She speaks to our store manager, who shows her the employee handbook and points out how it doesn’t provide color or size parameters and technically, they are all compliant and have taken her warning seriously. Soooo…

After she leaves, our store manager says that they no longer have to wear ties and it is up to the discretion of each employee if they want to wear a tie on shift. Every now and then someone would walk onto the floor with a polka dot reminder.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Fickle_Associate_669 on 2025-09-05 01:40:39+00:00.

this was a few years ago when i worked retail. new district manager came in and decided to make his mark. his big rule: all the lights in the building stay on during business hours. every single one. no exceptions.

now, the fitting rooms had these awful bright bulbs we usually left off ’cause customers said it felt like being under an x-ray. but whatever, boss said all on, so we flipped every last switch.

within a couple days people were covering their eyes walking in. one lady legit said it felt like a hospital and left without buying anything. sales dipped, complaints went up.

manager had to call the dm and say “look, this isn’t working.” next thing you know the rule got walked back to “use common sense.”

we went back to normal lighting and never heard about it again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/2dogslife on 2025-09-04 20:42:46+00:00.

I used to work in the office of a few companies in the DoT trades.

At one, I had a guy walking off site with a coworker on a Friday night and he slipped between the crane treads. He managed to gimp home on public transportation, but when he went to take his workboots off, he knew there was something seriously wrong.

So, I get the call Monday he broke his leg/ankle. I write it all down, talk to the boss and get the 411 for doing the workmen's comp report - because there are HUGE fines if you don't report workplace accidents within a certain time frame - usually 24 hours. Now, we were subs, so, not only did I have to report directly to the project's worker's comp line, I had to report to the contractor's safety officer for their compliance as well.

I get the safety officer on the phone, "Hey SO, I am calling to report a workplace accident for Friday, three days ago. Here's an overview of..."

SO, "GD IT!!! We've gone over a hundred (I forget the exact number, but it was more than 100 and less than 200) days without an accident. This is going to F##k UP my bonus!" insert more muttering and swears....

"Well, SO, I understand how disappointing that must be, but poor worker has a broken leg. I think we need to keep our perspective here."

SO, "Fine, whatever."

SO barely took note of what I said, and hung up pretty quickly.

I write out my notes - talked with SO of BIG Co from this time to that and outline the details of what we covered during our conversation. I go on and call the workmen's comp line for the project and get a to do list so the worker gets paid while out of commission. There's no problem about the time lag as I called within hours of being informed.

Whew!

I make a file, add all my notes, copies of the worksheets I make and go onto the next fire to put out.

Well, It was a fine thing I did all that, because a month or so later, Big Guy from Big Co calls me up and tries to tell me that they got a huge fine because of us, and per the contract, we were on the hook for something outrageous like $50K. I didn't even read my boss in at that point.

"Big Guy, you mean the accident I reported on... wait a moment, here's the file, on Monday within an hour of being told. I spoke with SO for 8 minutes and we covered these details. Oh, he did mention being upset to lose his safety bonus."

Silence.

"Are you sure you want to pull out contracts about reporting standards? I'd be happy to include my notes of all that I did that day, and have followed up on?"

Big guy, "No, that's fine. I've got it from my end."

"Well BG, have a great rest of your day then."

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Octoroonie on 2025-09-04 17:59:31+00:00.

This happened back in the early 90’s.  My husband was working for a company that had a male employee showing up for work regularly with obscenely short and tight shorts that barely covered the law, so a memo went out informing employees of a new dress code; NO shorts for men allowed.  Casual pants, skirts, dresses only.  The day of the annual afternoon summer BBQ - held on hot top out in the parking lot - was around 90°F.

The man enjoys his comfort on a hot day and has a fine sense of humor, so he cued malicious compliance and wore my below-the-knee wrap skirt to work.  His manager saw him in the morning and asked if he had anything else to wear with him.  The answer, of course, was “no.” Trying not to laugh, he said “If you ever f'ing do this to me again, I’m going to k--- you.”  My husband just smirked, and wore the skirt – complete with steel-toed safety boots, to the BBQ, and was the hit of the party.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/curious_skeptic on 2025-09-04 15:53:58+00:00.

My primary job during the daytime has been in the elder care field for a long time now. This story takes place while I was earning my M.S., and my company allowed me to intern elsewhere twice a week to learn a couple new managerial positions.

Every morning at these buildings we have what is called "stand-up", an every-weekday meeting where all the managers check in with each other. The only boss who actually had us stand up for these kept them very quick (10-15 minutes). The rest let us sit and typically ran them for 20-30 minutes.

But at my internship building, the director had a different vision. She only wanted to meet once a week, but for the entire morning. She thought it was more efficient, and would allow us to dive deeper into issues. So she insisted we stay in that (uncomfortably hot) room for 3 hours every Tuesday morning, where after 30 minutes the meetings devolved into her ranting about her breakfast and her commute because we were out of topics.

As a good intern hoping to curry her favor, I showed up one day early on with a couple of things I had planned out to discuss. But I only got a couple sentences in before she stopped me - "If your topic is only relevant for some of the people at the table, and not everyone, you shouldn't be bringing it up here". Well, that rule isn't true for anyone else here, and there goes both my topics for the day. But whatever - I shrugged and said okay.

So for the next few weeks, whenever it came my turn to speak, I'd simply reply that the things I needed to say weren't for everyone.

All my good ideas, everything I had to share from my asst. manager position at my primary building, she wasn't getting any of it.

When I wrote my final paper on what I learned from that position, I made sure it was alright with my teacher to write about how a bad manager can teach you what not to do.

Bonus: This director had me do some of her work as part of my internship, where I filled out the forms and she reviewed them. One day, she called me out for doing math wrong - she insisted that we shouldn't be rounding up unless the number was at least .6 (huh?). I tried to explain that it was at .5, but she mocked me and said she felt sorry for my math teachers. I mentioned this to another manager, who told me to just let it go, so I did. But the thing is, the number she had me correct downward were our census percentages. We had 52 rooms occupied out of 55, so 94.54%. She had been reporting that as 94%. And according to my primary building's director, the cut-off for their position to earn bonuses was 95% residency.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/JustTestedMyMight on 2025-09-04 12:01:56+00:00.

I used to work at a call center where management was obsessed with “metrics.” One day our manager announced a new rule: “Every call must last three minutes. No more, no less. We’re standardizing the customer experience.”

Now anyone who’s ever worked phones knows that’s ridiculous. Some issues take 30 seconds, some take 15 minutes. But hey, boss’s orders.

So I complied. I started dragging out the 30-second calls with ridiculous filler:

• “Let me just put you on a very quick hold while I… confirm your account color scheme.”
• “Could you repeat your zip code, but slower this time?”
• “Before I transfer you, let me read you the weather forecast for your area.”

And if a call ran long? At exactly the 3-minute mark, I’d cut in with, “I’m terribly sorry, but I have to end this call now. Please dial back if your problem isn’t solved.”

Fallout: Customers were furious, complaints started flooding in, and the manager had to sit in on calls to figure out why satisfaction scores tanked. When he heard me politely ending calls

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/WallabyCold5246 on 2025-09-04 11:27:02+00:00.

Back in my late teens, I worked part-time at a small grocery store. Nothing fancy, just a little neighborhood place where everyone knew everyone. I’d been there long enough that I had a routine, especially for closing. One of the last tasks was mopping the tile floors, and I had it down to a science: work in sections, rinse the mop frequently, leave dry walkways so nobody slips.

Enter Carl (not his real name), a new assistant manager who was very big on “doing things by the book.” On his first week, he caught me mopping in sections and told me I was “cutting corners.” According to him, the “proper” way was to start at one end of the store and mop in straight lines all the way to the other end, no matter how long it took.

I tried explaining that it left wet streaks across the whole floor and customers (or staff) could slip, but he cut me off with the classic: “I’ve been in retail for 20 years, just do it the way I said.”

Fine. Cue malicious compliance.

That night, I mopped exactly as instructed: long, shiny streaks of soapy water from the entrance all the way to the back of the store. Just as I was finishing, guess who comes strutting in to “inspect” the job? Yep, Carl.

He took about three steps onto the freshly soaked floor before his feet went out from under him like a cartoon. Down he went, arms flailing, landing flat on his back with a spectacular thud. Luckily, he wasn’t seriously hurt, just his pride.

The next day, he sheepishly told me I could “go back to doing it my way.” Never heard another word about it.

TL;DR: New manager insisted I mop floors “the proper way.” I complied, he slipped and fell, and suddenly my way was fine again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Embarrassed-Swan7269 on 2025-09-03 20:06:41+00:00.

My parents and grandparents may be a generation apart, but they still share the boomer mindset. My older sister, my brother, and I now finance their lives. My grandparents are retired. Dad is also retired because he seriously injured his leg while doing physical work and now has permanent damage that makes it very difficult for him to walk. And my mother was a housewife, even though she passed the housework on to us when we reached a certain age because we were “young and healthy” and should “lend a hand.” We got caught up in a strange family dynamic where we didn't move out, but still did pretty much all the work. We were told that family takes care of each other, but the three of us knew that it couldn't stay that way.

Two months ago, they started badmouthing our generation. They said we were lazy, useless, didn't work, and were the worst generation ever. Their words, not mine. We're all Gen Z, by the way. We were all there when they said it, and my sister was particularly pissed off. Afterwards, she suggested that if they thought so little of us after everything we do for them, we might as well go on strike and leave them to deal with all the crap. So one morning we started. We stopped paying the bills, found our own apartments, and only did housework for ourselves before we moved out. My parents protested, and my grandparents called, outraged because the monthly money we transferred to them for the bills didn't come. We told them that if our generation is so useless, they certainly don't need our money. Maybe that was a little petty, but we don't put up with that kind of thing.

In the end, they called us in a panic because their social security payments were barely enough to pay the bills, my mother was overwhelmed with the sudden housework she didn't have to do for years now, my father had high blood pressure due to the sudden stress, and they have since apologized. All of them except dad who was too proud to apologize I guess. Of course, we didn't hate them and now help them out from time to time. But I hope they've learned their lesson.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/OvrNgtPhlosphr on 2025-09-03 16:52:00+00:00.

Years ago, working your basic convience store gig. Guy comes in, wanders the stacks, and comes to me with about $7.50 worth of stuff, and hands me a $100 bill.

'Dude, please tell me you have something smaller. I just opened up about 45min ago. I don't think I can break that.' All true, I knew my till was on a razor's edge for this one.

I see that look on his face, hear that tone, 'No, it's all I've got.' Those in customer service know that voice, that, 'I'm the customer, you're the peasant,' tone.

Right, okay then. I knew the type, but I try begging off, giving him an out before I turn on my Gen X lack of fucks. Still polite & professional, 'Well, I can't make any promises, and I can't check while the sale is on the screen.'

'Well, you have to take it. It's good US money.'

Ah. That isn't how this works. If I ain't got the cash, I have every right to refuse service. But hey, you set the rules, so, malicious compliance it is. I will make you regret this.

Pop the drawer, and the gods smiled upon me. Three $20s, two $10s, and assorted $5 & $1 bills and coins later, he has his change.

'What's this?'

'Your change. I wasn't sure I could pull it off, but we got lucky. Enjoy your afternoon.'

He's just standing there, unsure how to respond or act.

'Is everything okay? It's good US money.' All sweetness and charm.

Never saw anyone go from one to completely impotent 100 so fast. He wanted to chew me out, or bitch to my boss, but knew I'd done nothing wrong. I gave him what he demanded- $90+ change from a $100 bill. What's he gonna howl about? 'Your clerk gave me exact change!' The boss, 'And you're angry, why?'

I watched each and every thought run across his face, trying to make me look bad, and just couldn't. So he tust turned around and sulked away out the door.

I've put in 40+yrs behind the counter, in four states & dozens of stores, and this is, by far, my single most favoritest customer exchange, ever..

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/LordDarkfall on 2025-09-03 14:47:53+00:00.

I used to work for and manage a rural stockfeed supply shop that delivered hard feed and hay to many of the local hobby farms.

During the earlier year or two of my time there, there was a lady who after some time we came to a solid understanding that she can be a “prickly bitch” and we have since laughed about this incident. For the sake of keeping her identity safe, let’s call her Janice for this tale.

Now this gal is somewhere in her mid 60s and has quite the boomer attitude when it comes to doing things. That fun old shtick of “I’ve been doing this since you were in nappies, so do it how I tell you.”

Well, this one fine summer, in the middle of a drought, she ordered a large batch of hay. 60 bales. I drive out in the truck and I know I’m gonna get a good work out putting these babies in her shed because the truck can’t get close to her shed.

Not a cloud in the sky to stop that sun beating down my neck as I unloaded the truck. 33°C which is somewhere in the 90°F for you freedom unit loving readers. I start stacking the hay in her shed in a formation something like this: |==| Then the next layer: =||= so as the hay bales will interlock kind of like brick work and not fall over. Each layer being 6 bales. Two stacks, five high. 60 bales. If you need a bit more explanation on that… well I don’t quite know what to tell you. Sorry. I also didn’t quite know what to tell old Janice when she came running up.

“You’re stacking it all wrong!” She tells me, “you’ll never fit it all in the shed.” As I try to explain my plan she talks over me, and begins to gruffly comment something about “uppity young shits who think they know everything.”

She pulls apart my stack and begins to stack the hay all in the same lines, looking something like this: ===

I already see the problem. Stacking 5 bales high like this is going to see a whole stack fall down whoever goes to get hay from the top of it. It’s dangerous. It’s stupid. It’s not safe.

Cue malicious compliance.

I stack the hay just like she wanted me to. And I notice the stack is very close to someone screaming JENGA!

I tell her, she can put the final bale up.

“No, I’ll feed this one out tonight.” She says. Happy that I stacked it her way, she waves good bye, I get in my truck. I start the engine.

“Ohhhh Fuck!” I hear from the hay shed. I swivel my head and there lay poor old Janice, under 10 bales of hay that somehow fell on top of her.

I promptly unbury her. I call my boss. “Yeah I’m gonna have to re-stack all this hay.”

My boss: “she just won’t learn her lesson…”

This time, as I restack the hay, I explain why I stacked it the way I did. And while she rolled her shoulder, wincing at the pain caused by her own stupidity she says to me: “glad one of us knows what they’re doing.”

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/corrosiveresponse on 2025-09-03 08:17:20+00:00.

This was probably 20-25 years ago, my parents would go camping at a campground a couple of times throughout the summer, around this time I was around 16 years old, the old campground couple who have been there for at least a decade managing it (parents and family knew them well) had retired, up till this point no one had a problem with having a tent set up on the lot with the pop up, the new managers going by the rules in the book where not having it.

They said it's in the book if an extra tent or pop up is on the lot it's $5 a day, they said it's $10 or remove the tent, or we can leave with no refund, parents paid for for two days, a couple of my close friends went with us and very well couldn't fit in the camper, from that point we started to gather change, and gathered the $10 in all pennies we even left to go get change for a $5 in pennies, came back counted all of them.

Hopped in the friends car, the other friend had all the pennies in the belly of his shirt, drove up to the gate the new managers where at their table, the guy with the change gets out and up to the table and dumps the $10 in pennies on the table, they look up and ask what's it for, buddy goes the $10 for the tent, they ask why is it in pennies, dude goes because im fucking poor.

Turns around and is trying not to laugh.

We get back the lot and we are dying.

They never said another word to us the whole weekend, and I don't think they where the managers after that, uncle said that he talked to the old managers and apparently kept bothering people with the stuff they did for years.

Cool memories lol

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Ubiquitous_Hilarity on 2025-09-02 18:28:33+00:00.

This is setting the way back machine to the early 90s. Back when the membership warehouse I worked for allowed smoking in the breakroom.

One day, seemingly out of nowhere, our warehouse manager decided to enforce the dress code that men’s hair could not be long enough to touch the collar of our shirt. This was a problem for a few of my coworkers who had very long hair. One guy had been growing his out since high school, and it was down to his ass. Well, none of them wanted to cut their hair, but were being given no wiggle room.

Well, one day the guy referenced above came to work with short hair. It looked like he actually cut it, but after a few days he told us, no management, that he had a wind made that looked like his real hair. This led to all the other guys with questionable locks getting wigs.

Now where the malicious compliance comes in is that the wigs became to get more and more ridiculous. A ginger got one that was jet black. An African-American guy had a wig with red hair. It got to the point the shoppers were making comments, and these guys weren’t shy about telling them that management said they weren’t allowed to have long hair.

The whole fiasco lasted less than 4 months before we were told that as long as the natural hair was clean, presentable, and didn’t interfere with working duties, length would no longer be an issue.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Mortis4242 on 2025-09-02 16:21:51+00:00.

Before I begin, its lengthy, but its a funny story. Since its second hand take it as you will.

So as my title states, this is an ex coworker from a job many years ago when he was in his teens, so late 1950's to early 1960's. He shall be known as M.

M grew up in a small town. When I say small, I mean one traffic light, gas station, diner, post office and a couple of other things. And a library (this factors in later). M and his buddies were bored. They didn't have much to do in town and the next bigger town was an hour drive one way (knowing his age it was up hill both ways). So they were as teens, with cars, bored. They decide to go to the library. They find a book. And in this tome, they find the perfect night time activity. Giddy with excitement (im embelishing since I dont know for sure) they get their supplies.

Cue night time. M and his friends get into their cars, and start driving down the roads and criss-cross through the small town making lots of racket. Nothing dangerous and they're driving below the speed limit. About an hour later, the ONE sheriff for the town pulls the guys over and gives them tickets for disturbing the peace and a summons to appear in court.

Court: They stand before the judge (known now as J).. J reads the case details and asks how they plead. M has been nominated as speaker for the group and informs J as such with his friends agreeing. M: Your honor, my friends have elected me to speak on their behalf. And before we go further can I ask a question? J: Proceed. M: When we enter our plea, may I explain why we did it? J: Absolutely. M: Well then your honor, for the charge of disturbing the peace, we plead guilty since we in fact were. BUT your honor, we had good cause. The judge is equal parts irritated and intrigued. J: OK, I need to hear this. Proceed.

M: Thank you your honor. Essentially, we are both guilty and innocent. Guilty because we did do what it claims on the ticket. We are innocent because of what we DID is actually a law. J: Come again? M: Well we were in the library and found a copy of the laws for the town. And inside of it we found this law: All horseless carriages MUST drag 8 feet of logging chain with links of 3/4 inch behind itsself at night. J: Clerk go to the library and bring this book. A few minutes later the clerk brings it before the judge. J: Show me. M: Give me a moment sir (paws through until finding the page). M: Here your honor. Judge looks at it and sure enough there is in fact a law describing what M claimed. J: There charges are dismissed, but dont do it again because it will not be in this book.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but im riding the train into work and had time to type it out (on my cell btw). But I did warn you...

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Olastun_bee on 2025-09-02 15:02:48+00:00.

I used to work at a company that had a "business casual" dress code. It was always sort of ambiguous, people wore polo shirts, button-down shirts, blouses, slacks, whatever. No one cared as long as you looked tidy.

;

Then we got a new manager. In his first week, he sends out an all-staff email:

From now on, the dress code is to be followed verbatim as written in the handbook. No exceptions.

Alright. I dug out the dusty employee handbook and really read the dress code. It hadn't been updated since the late '90s. It was very specific:

Men: Dress shirt, tie, slacks, and jacket.

Women: Knee-length skirt, nylons, blouse, and closed-toe shoes.

No polos. No cardigans. No khakis.

The next Monday, I showed up in a suit and tie. I hardly ever wear jackets to work, so everyone right away noticed. And then other individuals started reading the handbook too—because after all, the boss read it precisely as written.

The office was a time capsule by Wednesday. A co-worker was wearing shoulder pads and nylons in the August heat. Another guy pulled out his wedding gear. Someone even showed up at work with suspenders because "the handbook allows it." Half of the staff sweated buckets because we weren't allowed to take our jackets off our bodies when sitting at our desks."

HR was not happy. So they got a few complaints of "hostile working conditions due to the imposed dress code." One week later, we got a new message:

"Use common sense in following the dress code. Business casual, as done before, is fine."

Polos and khakis were once again in style. And our manager never brought up the handbook again.