Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/meh_mooody on 2025-07-22 16:06:09+00:00.

My manager got hired when her role was remote. After some recent restructuring they decided to tell everyone they had to come back to the office or leave (classic corp bs.) I told her to stop answering her phone and emails after she left the office bc it was their rules, they decided no more wfh. She eventually stopped and people started freaking out. I had a senior manager come up to me and ask if I could help with something as she wasn’t answering it was (8pm on a weekend.) I said I’d be happy as long as it was something I knew how to do😉 then asked why they were reaching out to her since they had announced that we were no longer allowed to wfh his face was priceless. Also I pretended to not know how to help out so they had to wait till she came back from vacay

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/br00kssofia on 2025-07-22 15:02:22+00:00.

My manager sent a passive-aggressive message to the whole team, clearly aimed at me: “Lunch breaks are unpaid, but everyone is expected to be available during core hours, including lunch”.

I used to take a quick walk or step out to grab coffee, never missed meetings, never late. But fine. If she wants me “available”, I’ll play along.

I started eating lunch at my desk every day - no headphones, not working. Just… sitting. I ignored emails and messages, and when people came over, I’d smile and say, “I’m on my unpaid break, but I’ll jump on it at 1”.

One day she sent a message at 12:10 asking for a report ASAP. I didn’t reply until 1:00. Someone else had scrambled to do it by then.

She later asked why I didn’t respond, and I said, “I was available, just not working. As instructed”.

She never brought up lunch breaks again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/HurryAcceptable9242 on 2025-07-22 15:02:06+00:00.

I had a pretty successful lawn mowing hustle in high school, with enough regulars to have a decent income.

Sometimes, it just rains every inconvenient day and lawns get longer and longer. Most customers understood that they needed to be patient and wait until it's dry enough to mow, but not this one guy.

He was on the cutting edge of impatience, and in a mowment of dullness, he insisted I come and "deal with this" because it was too long, even though it had continued to rain even on the same day. I told him, this is not going to go well, but he insisted, so I got out there and did the best I could, with wet soggy grass clumping up all over the place.

If you know anything about this, you know that mowing thick wet grass with a push mower tends to just lay the grass over and not really cut it, so you can imagine what it looked like after two dry days.

The house was on a busy corner of the neighborhood, so until I could get to a week later, it looked like a troop of drunken monkeys had attacked his lawn with scissors. It looked much worse than if he'd just waited until it was dry.

The only thing I felt bad about was that everyone knew that was my work, so I made sure to make it look super nice as soon as I could do it properly.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Ancient_Educator_76 on 2025-07-20 21:03:53+00:00.

Hey party people it’s your boy troyyyy ! Nah jk was trying a thing it sounded awkward moving on …

I’m working in the deli in Scottsdale Arizona , where the customers are weird and the employees are nonexistent. It’s a busy day because of this fact.

A customer comes up with his hands on his hips like Superman. You know that way that customers try to let you know they’ve been waiting a long (any amount of ) time ? Some due the I’m a little teapot with one hand on hip, some find their arms. Not this guy. He acts like he walked into the second hand of a Hims commercial minus the smile.

I eventually get to him among the sea of tasks and other customers on the other side of the deli (slicers) and he huffs. “Why do you only have three spicy strips left!? You guys ain’t prepared at all!l And he puffs. “How are you the only person here?” (Which was more accusatory than the remorseful or showing pity etc). And he just about blows my patience in when I realize that by the time I’ve rung up /weighed out his chicken strips that I hit the wrong Tare weight, significantly affecting the price. Infiguu up red oh well I’m only losing four bucks. I’d pay twice as much to have this transaction over.

Before I can say anything , Shirley temple (Sassy Superman) literally spits out “that’s the wrong price Dude ! How bout u Reweigh it the right way!!” You got it. Enter MC

I knew full well that when I reweighrd it and properly did the correct rare weight it was going to be a bigger price. I accidentally hit .4 for rare weight not .005. It made the chicken seven bucks more by the time the tag printed out .

He was not happy

“What the he’ll the price was 5.99 on sale and you had it at 7 bucks there’s no way no fuqqing way”.

I explained to him that I originally did make a mistake but I “accidentally hit a large tare weight that made your chicken significantly cheaper but this is the correct sale price now. Sorry for the mixup ! “

He crumpled back into the sea of demanding customers who all seemed fairly entertained Who am I kidding half the people didn’t even notice. But for me. It was a great moment in an Otherwise brutal day so far.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/TrashedLeBlanc on 2025-07-20 06:01:26+00:00.

I'm actually excited to be able to contribute here for once. This is currently taking place in a casino in a province in Canada I work at and it is a bit multi faceted so I will apologize for the long read and there is a TLDR at the end

To start, we're technically government employees. Don't ask me why, but we're also union. Ya, I am a literal bartender in a restaurant where everyone is a unionized government employee....you can see where this is probably going or what kind of environment this has engendered.

So first off employees. There are 3 FT bartenders. As a person who has bartended or managed bars off and on for decades and we actually get hosed. Like I have never made so little money working in the service industry; but we have a pension and benefits and that's pretty choice.

We consistently work our asses off while we watch our floor counting their hundreds of dollars at the end of a shift while we only make what happens directly at our bar. The servers are mandated to tip out 2% of drink sales ONLY. Regularly they ignorantly throw dimes across the table at us and make comments about "oh it was only 50 cents but I rounded up to a dollar because you earned it"

Yes, comments like this happen on the regular. The rub is because of the CBA with the union bartenders are not allowed to serve tables and the servers consistently remind us of this. Here is where it gets bad. They expect the bartenders to also run their food, clean and clear their tables and still only tip to the literal penny.

This is one aspect

Now, as for management. We have numerous times had conversations with management as our servers constantly abandon their tables. Go outside to smoke. Hang out on their phones and generally do the barest of minimums. But because they are not on the floor we HAVE to be. We are mandated and guaranteed 15 minute breaks twice a shift and one 30 minute which we never get. This is without mentioning once that management refuses to hire any new bartenders due to "budgetary constraints"

We've spoken to management numerous times and all we get told is that "the servers have the floor" and that we can "file a grievance" with the union.

Cue malicious compliance (and it's gooooood)

So myself and the other 2 bartenders sat down with our union reps and hammered out the EXACT parameters of our jobs, managements duties and obligations and that of our floor. We got everything highlighted and we now have laminated card stock behind the bar with the printed and highlighted aspects of our jobs, our job parameters and our job guarantees.

A few weeks ago we 3 started every shift the same way. Servers, would regularly just walk behind the bar to get drinks for themselves or their clients. Sorry, you're not bartenders you can't come behind the bar. What! Ya sorry, it's in the CBA, we can't take tables you can't server drinks, we'll get to it as soon as we can. Servers now have to wait on us to pour their drinks, pop; water, beer or even get them ice. That's step one.

We now officially take our 15s and our 30 minute breaks. As such, any and ALL drink service stops. Here is the best part; as such management; who is otherwise completely useless. Chatting with friends or hiding in their offices now have no choice but to come down and man the bar while we do so. They have to make drinks, stock the bar (which we ensure is needing to be done) and put away, polish our glassware. This is important as we have very specific criteria for our house drinks and what type of vessels they get poured in. This has been amusing to watch but we enjoy our breaks and I am catching up on some reading.

It's only been a few weeks but the servers seem to be getting it and all of a sudden there are 2 new bartenders in training on the schedule and 2 more apparently being hired. Maybe this malicious compliance stuff does work

TLDR: Serving staff treats the bar terribly. Management is lazy and ineffective. Bartenders got walked on and paid a pittance while working harder than anyone else. MC was to adhere strictly to the union guidelines afer the servers kept throwing them in the face of the bartenders forcing management and servers to actually work harder and stop floating.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/wenrdogred on 2025-07-20 03:50:30+00:00.

I am currently in my malicious compliance phase at work right now. I got ripped a new one last week because I needed to work from home in order to get some urgent stuff done for a conference I needed to attend the following week. I was explicitly told that I could not work from home without approval. And I was told that I signed a policy about it. I responded that my job requires me to work from home all the time, to which they replied, "You signed the policy." So now, after I leave the office, I turn off my work issued cell phone and never look at it on the weekends. I am a salaried employee, but I am not going to beg my employer to allow me to work from home.

This weekend I got a call on my personal cell from one of the other managers about approving some billing rates that were due. I told her that I wasn't allowed to work from home, and I will get to it on Monday whenever I have the opportunity. Everything will be late, but I signed the policy.

It literally would have cost them nothing to just let me do my damn job. I already get paid a fixed rate. But if they want to play stupid games, they can win stupid prizes.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/stutum on 2025-07-19 23:13:45+00:00.

Years ago, I worked as a consulting engineer at this company with a very tightwad CEO with multiple sticks up his butt (everyone else was super nice). I engineered a machine that shipped to the Far East and was asked to go onsite to startup the system. This was in the northeast in February.

I parked on an offsite parking lot to save my client the expense of parking at the airport and flew out on a cold, clear day and landed at my destination many, many hours later. I spent 2+ weeks working long, long hours to start up this machine. So many hours that I felt bad for my client and decided that I would not charge OT.

Fast forward to my departure - I asked for limo service home because the car was frozen solid and I’d flown some 20+ hours and was severely sleep deprived.

“Nope” - only full-time employees get limo service. Consulting engineers have to drive themselves decreed the CEO.

I decided to charge full OT to the letter for every hour over 8, especially the all-nighter I pulled while there.

It was the most expensive $80 limo ride he never paid for…

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/dablack123 on 2025-07-19 06:11:55+00:00.

A few months ago, I had to travel for work. Some cost savings measures had been implemented recently and I was required to have a funding letter from the financial department so they could allocate funds appropriately, even though my travel was authorized by my supervisor and required for the company business. Ok, I'll jump through this hoop, whatever. I get a funding letter and travel a couple hours to my home away from home.

Halfway through my trip, my work schedule opens up I have a few days off, but I know I'll be working more the following week. Since I'm only a few hours from home, I decide to check out of my hotel, drive home to spend the weekend with my family, then drive back the following week when I actually have work to do. Saves the company paying a few days for a hotel room and per diem, I get time with family; win-win right?

Wrong. When I submit my travel claim to financial, it counts as two separate trips. The problem is I have one funding letter, which covers the dates of my travel, but doesn't cover two trips, even though both trips are inside the travel window in the funding letter.

This blows up and takes about a month and a half to get sorted out, during which time I had to pay off my company credit card for the travel expenses incurred using my own funds. Eventually, the money was all properly allocated and I got reimbursed for my interest free loan to the company, but I learned my lesson.

Another trip comes up and I am issued one funding letter. I drive up again and work for a few days. Sure enough, my schedule opens up and I have some days off. This time, instead of checking out of my hotel, I just leave, drive home, and now I'm sitting on my couch typing this while the company pays my per diem and pays for an empty hotel room.

Pretty sure the bean counters will get a raise for their fine work. Cheers to them.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/KingOfMooks on 2025-07-18 20:40:17+00:00.

Very mild one. Bit wordy with a not particularly satisfying payoff.

A while back my wife and I were buying our house after a few years of rental. There was a delay in the new house being ready, so we moved in with my mother for a few weeks. During that time I stashed some stuff at work, including bringing in my chair, a very nice Herman Miller Aeron I had gotten second hand. The office chairs were old. standard/serviceable but not exactly nice.

After a few days. I noticed that my chair would be in the conference room every morning. No problem, I just wheeled it back to my desk. I was working 8 to 4 to avoid traffic so was usually in first

The CEO (of about 120 people) would usually not arrive until about noon, and take later meetings when most of the staff were away. After a few days the chair kept ending up at his desk. (Open plan thankfully, so I just took it back every morning. i wasnt foolish enough to go into the CEOs office.. ). He'd shoot me a dirty look every morning but that was it.

After a few more days of this back and forward, the CEOs assistant (who was a lovely person who I felt immense pity for) approached me and told me that the CEO didn't think it was appropriate that I had a nicer chair than him. People would think that my desk belonged to the CEO and it was stressing her out having to basically fight for it every day on his behalf.

I told her I understood completely, and would stop fighting over it. I took it out of the office that lunch time, and reclaimed a normal office chair.

The next day she came over and asked where the chair was. I said with an incredibly straight face that I thought since it wasnt appropriate I just took it to my car. She had a super stunned look, but just kind of ran off.

Since I was almost always first in I always got parking near the building, pretty much everyone got to walk past my car on the way into the office and see my chair in the boot for a few more weeks, however given his cowardly nature I never got approached about it again

To this day, I'm 100% certain they thought I was just going to give in and let him have my chair. Instead I got the joy of telling everyone the honest truth about why my chair was in my car for weeks

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ThighHighHex on 2025-07-18 08:00:11+00:00.

I’ve kind of always been the “quiet fixer” at work. I don’t have an official title for it, but whenever something’s off, missing info, wrong numbers, miscommunicatio, I usually catch it and quietly fix it before things get worse. I never made a big deal out of it, just wanted things to run smoothly.

A few weeks ago, my boss pulled me aside and basically told me to stop. He said I was “overstepping” and needed to just focus on my own responsibilities. I was confused but fine, I took the hint.

So I did exactly what he asked. I stopped proofreading other people’s reports. I didn’t follow up on tasks that weren’t mine. I didn’t flag obvious mistakes or offer suggestions when something didn’t feel right. I just did my work.

Within a week, it was chaos. A client email got sent out with the wrong pricing. A report went to leadership with huge gaps. Deadlines got missed because no one realized someone else hadn’t followed through. People were pointing fingers, scrambling, trying to fix messes at the last second.

Then the big one hit, we lost a client because of a presentation that went out with outdated info. My boss was livid and started asking why nobody caught it. I just said, “You told me to stay in my lane.”

He didn’t have much to say after that.

Now he suddenly wants my “eyes on everything again.” Funny how that works.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/LoudCoffee4291 on 2025-07-18 03:24:28+00:00.

There was a bonus earned a few months back. The company never paid it and a couple weeks later, they made a video call to a select number of managers informing that the company had an accounting error and cannot afford this bonus payout that we earned. (Totally illegal, I consulted with a coworker whose husband is an attorney and I know how to read the Wage Act for my state).

A couple months later the president jumps on a Zoom call with nefarious intentions and when we brought up the bonus he exasperates saying [if you guys want it so bad, some one has to be let go] (for unrelated reason that had nothing to do with the bonus).

I spend a week interviewing. One week later, 2 hours before my shift I send the most beautiful resignation letter stating that I quit effective at the end of this working day. And that I look forward to our bonus being paid.

I emailed up the chain, my boss, her boss, bosses bosses boss etc. head of HR, head of Legal, head of Marketing, president, vice president, senior vice president, ceo, etc.

You get the picture. I filed a complaint with the Department of Labor as well. Now it’s one month later, bonus has not been paid and this company has not responded to my resignation/the concerns I expressed over the bully tactics, lack of accountability and toxic work environment they allow.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Downtown_Physics8853 on 2025-07-17 23:49:20+00:00.

I work at a manufacturing company. The closest timeclock to the employee parking lot is down in the machine shop, and every day about 2 dozen people can be seen standing around the clock, waiting for it to click over to 3:30 and they can punch out. But, about a year ago, we got a new general manager.

After she had been there for a couple of months, she decided that this would should not be allowed, and a notice was posted stating that people may NOT congregate around the time clock any more. At about the same time, there was a corporate-wide exercise campaign based around the Olympics, and many people downloaded an exercise app that tracked their daily steps (along with other things) for possible prizes and locational honors.

Now, the downstairs machine shop is a large, open, roughly square space, with a marked aisle running around the periphery of the floor. So, when the time-clock edict came around, people still headed to the clock, but instead spent the time "getting their daily steps in". By the end of the week, we had about 30 people spending the last 5-10 minutes of the shift circumambulating clockwise around the entire machining department, checking the clock each time they passed.

After the GM saw this spectacle one day, I guess it reminded her too much of that scene in Midnight Express and she reversed the clock edict. Funny thing, though, people still kept coming down to get their steps in for a few weeks afterward, until the contest was over...

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/GinggasinParis on 2025-07-17 15:47:02+00:00.

I just saw an article about Mercedes Benz allowing Teams calls with a camera to their vehicles and it reminded me of this situation.

Several years ago I worked for a small solar company that was acquired by what is essentially the Walmart or solar. We went from weekly in person meetings on a schedule that worked for both management and staff to daily check ins, weekly department calls and other unnecessary regional calls and meetings. What was initially 2-3 short meetings per week turned into around 10 45 minute to an hour meetings per week. My responsibilities were about 20% in office, 80% field work. Some of the locations I needed to get to were an hour + away and a lot of times I was crunched to get to 5-6 locations within the work day. For as long as I could, I would either skip a call if I was in the field or I would listen and not participate so I was “on the call” but could still take care of whatever tasks I needed to. I ended up getting reprimanded and told to just park and take the calls but I needed to participate in all of them or I would be written up. So that’s what I did. If a call was happening, I would find the closest parking lot, take the call and participate. This company also scrutinized overtime and hours so we couldn’t work OT without approval. This meant if I didn’t get something done, I would just head back to the office and reschedule it for the following day. My coworkers did the same and our productivity dropped overall by about 60%.

Within a month, our regional manager was in our office asking us wtf was going on and we told her directly that we have a large region to cover and most of these calls are nonsense corporate feel good bs. If they wanted productivity where it was before, they needed to cut the meetings because meetings don’t improve metrics, actually being able to work does. They did cut our meetings but it turned into a shitshow when the big company fully took over. That office is now officially closed because while we had the 2nd best metrics in the entire company, we were tired of the bs and we all quit and they could not replicate our quality or quantity of installations in that office.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Emotional_Pain_9466 on 2025-07-17 13:29:24+00:00.

The company I work for converted some execs from having set PTO to unlimited. And also wiped out their PTO bank. Mine personally was worth 40 grand the day I would leave. I could never take enough PTO in the past. Just didn’t need it. Needless to say I was pissed. We were told that this was a recruiting tool! You don’t have to record your time off or ask permission! I asked does that mean we can take 30 or 60 days (like a mini sabbatical)? Oh no, HR says…culturally we don’t do that. Umm.. then what does unlimited PTO mean..? No definition given. So, I made up my own rules. I now work 9-3, lunch if I care to, Fridays are completely blocked off, and three two week vacations set off on my calendar. I know what you’re going to say. Why don’t you maximize your PTO before? Because I actually enjoyed my work. I had a sense of satisfaction. With this and other benefit reductions and promotion of figurehead leadership the place lost its soul. PTO decision was the lynchpin. I work 1/3 less time and still pull in the same wage.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/mdlapla on 2025-07-17 11:23:41+00:00.

Around 2000, 2001, in Argentina, I did a network admin course.

The guy that taught the course was also an admin in an university (let's call him ITProf) and he told us this story.

The department of the university ITProf worked for dealt mostly with Philosophy and Philosophy-related careers. and it was around 95% female students, mostly high school graduates but also a lot of people that, once retired, started the career as a hobby (in Argentina, university can be free of charge).

In Argentina, IDs are numbered and sequential. So, for instance, if an ID starts with 28 million, you can estimate what year that person was born in. There's only one caveat: foreign-born people that have gained citizenship get a number that starts with something like 80 million...

The dean (let's call him CreepyDean) at that department was a 50-55 something old dude with, you guessed it, a pretty creepy behaviour. ITProf could access browsing history of every single person in the department and, let's just say, his wasn't pretty nor university related.

CreepyDean taught a couple of mid-career courses, he was one of several professors that taught this courses.

Every year, each university assigns the students to the courses they ask for and divides them between all available professors. Sometimes this is done by hand, sometimes it's randomized somehow, this is handled by each department.

In this case, it was done by a computer program that randomized everything so each course had a wide array of different students. This program was something that ITProf created, because, prior to that, this was done manually.

One day, CreepyDean calls ITProf and tells him "I want, in my courses, just female students, with IDs starting at 35 million or more, get it done" and remarked to ITProf that his job was on the line if he didn't comply.

Since 95% of the faculty was female, this is a creepy request but CreepyDean knew that it wouldn't be as notorious (he could always blame it on chance) and, at that time, this behaviour was not something that could have gotten CreepyDean fired, but the university board members wouldn't be too happy about this behaviour either.

ITProf understood that 35 million or more on the ID was for people that were roughly 21-22 years old or younger, CreepyDean wanted some eye candy and who knows what else...

But CreepyDean just said "female, 35 million or more...".

So ITProf complied. He assigned all foreign female students, with IDs starting 80 million, and all older than 65 to CreepyDean courses.

CreepyDean was furious the first day of classes. He wanted ITProf fired. ITProf told him "I've complied with your request even though it was weird and something that I'm sure the board members wouldn't be to happy to find out about".

ITProf told us CreepyDean got "dishonorably" discharged as dean a couple months after this story, there were some speculations but he never found out exactly why.

TLDR: Dean wants an entire class of young female students, IT manages to give him the exact opposite.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/philipferdinand on 2025-07-16 23:13:31+00:00.

A year ago I got fired from a job as efficiencylead.

( It happened a week after I noted that I was going to become a father, but that's another aspect).

The reason I was hired was to dig deeper into company issues, finding the root cause. My manager was thrilled to have an actual FBA on board.

Queue her assistant-manager. Since I needed to learn the ins and outs, she got me into spending 70% of my time into useless tracking that she needed for her glorious monthly pivot tables. The thing is, that noting down of post-its, mails and several other influx into a spreadsheet got me some very much needed insight. Either (for example) the printers were moved every month from one site to the other, or there was a huge flaw. Some if those flaws would be considered huge flags for the (equivalent of ) IRS. When I started tracking them, as my job was exactly that, the A-M tried to block me from several internal data .

Since the manager and her assistant were pretty close, I tried to get the actual department from said flaws in the loop. Less than a week later, the manager asked why I was 'snooping around' other departments. Meanwhile, everyone I spoke to at other departments were more than helpful in gathering information, even speaking to counterparts at other sites.

2 days later, she notified me she asked IT for a full copy of my mailbox (against the law) and was not amused. Henceforth, I had to include her in every mail I send and had to write down by the minute on every casefile I was working on.

The last one was the easiest malicious compliance. When I got a call, I noted it, when I went to get a coffee I noted 'internal movement's, even someone sticking his head inside the door to say hi. She got an excel sheet with about 600 lines a day, including a line after each entry for filling out the sheet. After 3 days she was furious and 'wasnt taking things serious'. If course I wasn't, but she didn't have to know. I asked her to email me on the specifics she wanted me to write down and asked for a route path on every project. With a 'you know what I want', she stormed off.

I got an email from HR for a talk. Told them everything, including my notes on every meeting. They asked me to just set up a spreadsheet with a total per day on every project and mailed it to the manager. Including the note that I needed the information her assistant had blocked me from.

The including in the email part was fairly simple. It was about 10% of my total conversations.

When the manager went on vacation, she said she liked the new way of working and told me to push on 3 main issues I layed out.

And of course the assistant took her chance to get into the high chair. The mails were not adequate, so I had to send her a full report on any conversation. It started innocent, till I got to an old file with the signature of the assistant and several sitemanagers. I started calling them and asked about the information listed. After about 5 phonecalls and a small note mailed to the assistant, she stormed into the shared office calling me a no-good golden retriever trying to find truffels in muck water. She demanded a full report on any coming call.

Queue malicious compliance number 2. I started using voice-to-text software to make full transcripts on any call. Even a question about something like 'how is the now cleaning lady doing' was fully written down. Imagine receiving an average of four hours a day of transcription. Because of the flooding, she missed the pattern about the million euro issue I was gently going towards.

When the manager came back, the assistant told her I was harassing her. Even without a chance to give a reply, I received an official letter at my house about an inquiry. The inquiry was the manager, someone from HR and someone from the European chair. To top it all off, the assistant-manager had given the manager a list off confidental documents that I 'have stolen from her private laptop'. Including that old file sitting somewhere on the server.

When they asked why I needed that file I started pointing out that the file was pointing to a huge flaw concerning legal documents and payments. The exact thing I was hired for. By the end of the meeting it was clear that I was going out the door within a few days. So, I started rattling up the cage.

I read my initial job description and the internal guidelines to the roll. The 2 guys I was working with went into a frenzy to find any concequente from that error. Site manager were alerted, accounting started making calculations.

The last email that I received was probably sent too early. 'OP falsified several documents on the server to get manager and assistant-manager into trouble. Any communication should be deleted by the end of the day'.

Needless to say, I had to pack my things.

3 months later I met some guys from the company. Turned out, the damage was done, but the coverup was even better. The avalanche of people involved that quit was undeniable. And some departments involved had over 50% of workforce sitting at home due to mental issues.

The duo still works there, sitting on a lie that can still cost the firm millions a year since they still haven't solved the issue.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/One_Tea_8623 on 2025-07-16 22:29:06+00:00.

Recently I’ve been going through personal strife and issues with mental health and finances leading to time management problems. In an effort to make some extra money I was late to work for my final strike before being put on suspension. Due to my union contract management has 3 working days to suspend me. Days one and two I left two hours after store management and was the last person to leave so they chose to not suspend me quite yet since only 1 other person is trained and willing to do my job and I was covering his days off. Today (day 3) I show up to someone covering my shift. I’m over half way through my shift and management still hasn’t called me in to the office. Usually they leave at the same time as me and we are a tad short staffed so I assume they are waiting until I leave to follow through with punishment. At lunch my supervisor approached me to stay an extra hour. Out of spite I accepted because that leaves management with 3 options:

1. Stay later than they usually would to execute my punishment.
2. Leave as they usually would and not punish me.
3. Suspend me when they usually would leave and still leave themselves short staffed.

I’m excited to see how the end of my night plays out and will update with how they decide to proceed 😂

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Lilditty02 on 2025-07-16 17:30:53+00:00.

This happened July 4th weekend. I am a member and have a place in a self contained camp community. Nice quiet place with a lake and pools and a restaurant and things like that. I love it because my kid can be a kid like I was and go wander with friends and disappear until dinner time and I don’t have to worry. Our place is on a small cul de sac that is grassed in and we use it for kids to play and set up cornhole and all that.

Because it’s July 4th a bunch of people have guests so the park is more full than normal, and a guest of someone on the circle parked at the edge of the grass. Well my kid and another kid were playing catch and one of the kids missed the ball and it hit the parked car. Owner of the car comes out hot and going at the kids. Me and the other kid’s parent both go over to calm the situation. Obviously if there’s damage we’ll take care of it because it’s from our kids. But this guy starts going off about all these dents and this big scratch and a crack in the windshield and all this is the kids’ fault. I was willing to be reasonable but when you start saying you want a ton of extra work done trying to blame my kid I get a little less reasonable. So we’re going back and forth and then he says the magic word that if we aren’t willing to pay for everything he’s going to call the park safety office to come deal with it. Knowing where this was going I smiled and said yes ok let’s do that.

So the officer comes out and to no ones surprise but this guy the area his car is parked is a no parking area, so not only does the officer tell him to deal with it because if he had followed the rules and parked in an actual parking zone this wouldn’t have happened, and because they guy told him he’d been parked there for 2 days with no issues before now, he got a nice fat ticket and order to move his car.

He turned bright red but didn’t say another word and moved his car and we didn’t see or hear from him the rest of the weekend.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/brittanyrouzbeh on 2025-07-16 17:05:40+00:00.

Years ago when two year cell phone contracts were still a thing and you had to pay per text message, I worked at a Sprint store in a busy area in Michigan. We weren't a corporate store which meant we didn't have access to billing or refunds, we were more there for repairs and sales. One day this man comes in fuming about being charged $.20 for a text that allegedly sprint had sent, probably a bill reminder, but I don't believe you were charged for texts from the company. Anywho, I explain to the man that we aren't a corporate store so I wouldn't even be able to access the bill to refund, and that was just UNACCEPTABLE and starts screaming. Starts drilling into me about how I'm just a dumb kid and people my age may love to text but he's never going to and how it's unfair he has to pay this charge.

I had just went to the corner store for a snack and paid cash, and i just threw my change in my pocket. I reached into my pocket, smiled at him and pulled out a quarter. I said "here you go, with interest."

I felt like a Goddess, it was so petty and his face... priceless. "THIS ISN'T THE POINT!!!!"

He slammed the quarter down and left.

I hope he's having the day he deserves.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/CandleGleam on 2025-07-16 05:15:30+00:00.

A couple years ago, I joined a small but tight knit church community. Everyone was pretty relaxed, people came in jeans, dresses, even T-shirts sometimes, especially at youth services. No one was disrespectful, just comfortable.

I usually wore long skirts or dress pants and nice tops. Nothing flashy and definitely nothing revealing. But apparently, that wasn’t churchy enough for one particular elder, an older woman.

After service one day, she pulled me aside and said, with that sweet fake smile: Sweetheart, I just wanted to encourage you to dress a bit more appropriately. We should always look our best for the Lord.

I was confused. I asked what exactly was inappropriate about my outfit, a long navy skirt, a tucked-in blouse, and flats. She said: It’s not bad, but, you know not quite holy attire. Maybe think about what you’d wear if Jesus was sitting in the front row.

The next Sunday, I showed up in my most over the top church outfit. Full floor length choir robe. White gloves. A wide brimmed hat with a fake bird and a little veil. Bible in hand, stockings, low heels and pearls.

I looked like I was either about to preach, get baptized, or time travel back to 1954.

People stared. One usher asked if I was part of the clergy now. Someone whispered, Is she in a play? And bless her heart, the elder gave me a stunned little nod when I sat close to her and said: You look very reverent today.

Thank you! I figured this is how Jesus would want me to show up.

Next week. Back to my usual outfit. Never got a comment again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/kyle1234513 on 2025-07-16 02:03:49+00:00.

Background several years ago I worked night shift for big pharma producing injectables. Theres very limited people running the place at that hour.

I was relatively new there and only had limited training on things i was allowed to do and things i wasnt. the buildings were designed with air flow direction and flow patterns to prevent biological contamination, cant go the other way or its a shut down and a cleaning for about 3-4 hours, nobody wants that.

my compliance was being instructed to go get raw material X from an earlier room. so for me that meant doing practically a full loop of the building, exiting completely and starting over. fine. only takes about 15 minutes. but the catch here is everything is "more clean" as you progress through the stages of the building going through airlocks.

going through the airlocks means spraying objects what youre bringing in with bleach, giving it 10minutes of contact time, wiping it down, then proceeding.

my malicious compliance here is when i informed manager on duty the prior airlock had no bleach he just interrupted me and said "NOW!"

so i do as im told and hurry up, exit. go around. wash up, change my scrubs. the works. i get the material and just as expected. i get stuck in the airlock with no bleach to wipe down a cart of raw material.

what manager wasnt aware of was I wasnt trained on mixing and making bleach, yeah easy enough in practice. but its still a signoff i wasnt "trained" on so I simply couldnt.

I was in there a good 2 hours until the manager found me, all I could do was point at the empty bleach container on the wall as he stared through the glass.

(he had to leave, do a lap, make bleach himself, wait another 30minutes or so for bleach to settle then join me in the airlock for another 10minutes of contact time together. in silence)

((TLDR stuck in airlock for nearly 3hours, cant leave the totes unattended, and I wasnt trained yet on how to make bleach to actually do what the manager wanted me to))

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/MoistCurdyMaxiPad on 2025-07-15 19:54:58+00:00.

I worked at a restaurant. We had a front salad bar, a buffet with a salad bar, as well as things like a juice bar and ice cream counter and a small alcohol room with a bar. It was so popular and also a bit expensive but somehow so underpaid, understaffed and poorly managed.

Jenny is the daughter and the only child of the owners of the restaurant. She's extremely spoiled, she almost always gets her way, and she has a temper where she will get pissed off and just lay into the person for an hour straight. She used to come in screaming at everyone for nothing and made racist or nasty jokes. She'd pushed people to come in sick then ask why they were so slow. Just the typical manager from hell.

Marco, one of the kitchen managers, is the son of a family friend and a beloved member of the community. His management consisted of micromanaging, criticizing our work, blaming random people for things, giving extreme time constraints for tasks, encouraging everyone to smile, and going around asking people (while they were in the middle of working their 3 jobs) when they wanted to come in the next day or if they'd like to cover a shift on Saturday or whatever. He would forget to do things and then blame other people, then he would go around criticizing people for their time management or responsibility. Anytime we reported that something was broken or something wasn't working, he just told us to figure it out and nothing would be done about it until Jenny came in screaming at everyone and narrowed it down to Marco.

We had other managers coming in and out, they couldn't take it. There were people who were suddenly hired to take on big positions despite having no idea what they were doing or joined with less than a full day of training just because the place was desperate. The waitresses were paid less than $4 an hour and some of them were doing part of the dishwasher's duties, front manager duties, cleaning jobs including kitchen and employee bathroom. I want to say dishwashing was the worst as three different people would come to work drunk or high everyday just to tolerate everything. My coworker DJ kept up even when other dishwashers weren't working, helped me or the waitress clean, and literally had to monitor food that was cooking and he'd keep track of orders because the manager Marco and the chef wanted to mess around or go stand by the door and smoke. There were days where staff members would break down or get sick pulling a double shift and he did everything for them, there was no choice.

My job was preparing and filling food items for the main salad bar in front everyday, and some days I also did salad bar in the buffet. I had other things to do as part of my normal salad/buffet job including making food for reservations, preparing and stocking juice bar, and helping move stock into the freezers and fridge. On top of that I was packing non salad food for delivery and takeout, helping maintain and stock up to half the buffet, helping waitresses keep up with serving and bussing, doing ice cream and desserts, cleaning the whole kitchen and storage areas and customer bathrooms, helping the bar staff, helping at the front desk whenever I was out, and preparing ingredients or fetching things for the normal chef/buffet chefs. All for a little more than minimum wage. I fell every day because I was running on wet floors and I had a heat stroke and even had to go to the ER for injuries. On buffet days I had a partner but that didn't matter, she just stood around right in front of the manager Marco, talking to her cousin who worked there while watching me work and both she and Marco would take breaks every now and then to criticize my work or my speed.

Everything was held together by DJ and me. We were teenagers on Rockstar drinks so we took whatever was coming to us. We kept everything going so well that we got scheduled to work almost every day then every weekend. Jenny gave us free soda privilege and we got raises two times in 5 months, which were only 10c, but did look good to me because my dad praised all of my paychecks, he didn't know what was going on and that I was working crazy hours and he thought I was overpaid. Most of the customers were very sweet so we tried our best to be of service, and a lot of them were regulars or people who came in to support Marco or everyone.

There was always so much pressure on DJ and me. Also DJ isn't white and he would always get racist jokes and comments towards him, Marco and Jenny either did nothing or were the offenders. Most of the criticism or Marco's projection went to him despite him doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing and occasionally messing up due to extreme stress or time constraint. After a certain point almost every criticism was race-based in some way.

One horrible Saturday, there were 3x as many reservations as usual, on top of all bars and buffet being open. I clocked in and found out one of the managers let go of DJ the afternoon before. Absolutely no one knew why including DJ and I'm really assuming it was Marco. I already had zero hope for the day and the only thing fueling me was the customers and my paycheck of course.

In just the first hour, I passed Marco at least five times trying to get things done. There was one time we accidentally made eye contact while I was helping a waitress. But at some point I went to the freezer in the back to help load some ice cream in and he happened to walk in at the same time that I was standing there for 3 seconds 'doing nothing' waiting for my coworker to bring in the dolley. He gave me this frustrated look like "Get back to work". He caught me maybe a half hour later while I was coming into the back of the kitchen (near the freezer) to mop up some spilled water. The final time he caught me, I was in the freezer again looking at the inventory to see what fruit we had enough of, because I could only serve what we had enough of in case people requested more, and Marco had enough. He said "The place is busy as fuck and you're in here just standing in the freezer for like 4 hours. Go home." I gave him this look like wtf and he reiterated that I was done for the night.

I was not arguing with Marco. This was not my problem. I just said thanks, took my apron off, and headed out. Both the employee doors were blocked by trash cans and my partner standing there with a whole cart of things talking to her cousin, so I went to use the main side door in the front of the restaurant.

Jenny saw me and asked where I was going. I put on a smile and said, “Man, Marco is the best guy ever. He just randomly came up to me and told me to take the night off.” Jenny's face went from confused to shocked to livid in the span of one second, she quickly told me “Don't go just yet.” and she stormed into the kitchen screaming “MARRCOOOO!!!”

I pretended to not hear her over the music and customers, and I just turned around and left.

I got over 10 phone calls but I simply let my phone ring. I waited until my partner updated her Facebook status with “FINALLY closed, girl night time!” or something like that and I finally texted Marco back and gave an apology that sucked up in the most condescending way, but in a way that was personal that only he would understand if he were to show it to someone. I came back the next morning and it was a complete disaster. Marco and Jenny came in looking dead tired because they spent the rest of the night and overtime busting ass, trying to keep things going. There were actually dishes and trash bags piled up and both the buffet and kitchen were wrecked because Jenny and her dad didn't want to keep the workers late and pay them overtime.

The restaurant had to close for the summer. They posted all these job opportunities in schools and on Facebook and eventually opened back up, but I never answered and DJ didn't accept amends so it was a whole spiral. Because of me leaving and DJ being fired, they had to close down their ice cream and minimize their buffet and they now close earlier because they can't handle it. There are less customers supporting Marco and there were even customers saying they aren't coming back until Marco or Jenny leaves. There's a waitress who joined during my time there and it was her first job ever, now she is the only previous employee left, and she ended up getting appointed as a manager at some point, I think they had to offer her a lot of money to stay because she bought a new house. Marco is the only other manager now. Marco is still asking me to come back and since I deleted Facebook, I kept that phone number open with prepaid service on my old phone just for the purpose of reading his texts during my lunch.

TLDR: Horrible place accuses me of doing nothing, loses everything

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/robertr4836 on 2025-07-15 19:25:11+00:00.

I've commented about this, I think it fits here. In the late 80's I was asked to work at my pharmacy job full time during summer break from college. I was the only young full time worker and the only male among a clique of mom to grandma aged women mostly working mothers hours.

My half hour lunch was supposed to start at noon but for some reason my relief just wouldn't show up no matter how often I paged them. Fifteen minutes, a half hour, an hour or more. It didn't bother me so I didn't complain about it.

That first Friday I finally get to break a little after 1PM and the store manager comes in and starts telling me she has had MULTIPLE complaints that I have been screwing up everyone's break schedule and how disappointed she is in me. I try to tell her that my relief is not showing up and she actually does the hand thing where she just puts her hand in my face and says:

SM: Starting next week I want you back on main register at 12:30 SHARP. NO EXCUSES!

So next Monday I start paging my relief at quarter of. At five of I call for second or backup register who is surprised since there is only one customer. I tell her to open second register. I close main, lock my drawer in the office and punch out right at noon sharp.

About ten minutes later the store manager comes running into the break room in a panic asking why main register is closed, there's a line and more importantly WHY IS MAIN REGISTER CLOSED?

Me: On Friday you told me I had to be off main register at noon sharp, NO EXCUSES!

SM: THAT'S NOT WHAT I SAID!

Me: Did you say starting next week I have to be back on main register at 12:30 SHARP. NO EXCUSES!

SM: Yes! That's what I said!

Me: And is my break a half hour long?

SM:...

SM: Can you please punch back in and take care of the line? I'll find your relief.

My relief showed up at five to noon for the rest of the summer.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Few_Tangerine5417 on 2025-07-14 07:00:49+00:00.

Ah, summertime. Sunshine, ice cream, and for working parents like me — a logistical nightmare wrapped in a childcare puzzle from hell.

A couple of years ago, I realized I was going to hit a problem over the 7-week school summer holidays. My co-parent and I split our annual leave to cover as much of it as possible, but we still had a 2-week gap with no childcare coverage.

Here’s the kicker: my kids were at that delightful in-between age where they don’t need 24/7 hand-holding, but you also can’t just leave them home alone for 10 hours a day unless you enjoy visits from Child Protective Services. They’re perfectly capable of entertaining themselves, but not quite old enough for full independence. Basically: no babysitter needed, but still need a warm body in the house. You know, just in case.

So I did the reasonable, adult thing. I submitted a formal work-from-home request 4 months in advance. I explained the situation clearly, provided specific dates, and even included a list of tasks I’d be working on. I made it as easy as humanly possible for my boss to say yes.

But no. That would be too simple.

Instead, I get called into a meeting where my boss (no wife and no kids), puffed up like a proud pigeon, says, “I’m not approving this. Your job can’t be done from home.”

Cue blinking.

“My job is literally a laptop and an internet connection. Why can’t I do it from home?”

“Because you’re an office-based employee,” he replies, as if that’s some sacred unbreakable vow, not just a line on an org chart.

I reiterated that this was a short-term request, I could absolutely manage my workload, and it was to solve a real-life problem involving, you know, actual children. Still nope. He tells me if I can’t come in, I’ll need to take unpaid parental leave.

Cool. If that’s how you wanna play it, let’s play.

So I took the unpaid leave. Stacked with annual leave, I was out for 5 full weeks. No emails. No meetings. No “quick check-ins.” Nothing. I didn’t touch a single work-related thing. My work phone and laptop were switched off and remained in a cupboard untouched for those 5 weeks.

Fast-forward to my first day back. My inbox looks like it’s been through a war. There are missed deadlines, forgotten follow-ups, and a whole bunch of “who was supposed to handle this?” floating around — spoiler: all of it was mine, because no one else does what I do.

Boss is fuming. He comes over and says, “I thought we agreed you’d stay on top of your emails while you were off, so you wouldn’t be so behind.”

I stared at him like he’d just told me the sky was green.

“Uh… what? You told me my job couldn’t be done from home. And I was on unpaid parental leave. That means I wasn’t working. At all. Per your instructions. Remember?”

He did not like that answer.

But hey — you made the rules, buddy. I just followed them exactly. Maliciously. Compliantly.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/CandleGleam on 2025-07-14 06:14:24+00:00.

My sister-in-law is intense. She’s very particular and wanted a minimalist baby shower. I offered to help since I throw events professionally and could’ve made it amazing, I really wanted to, free of charge. But she insisted: No decorations. No streamers, no balloons, no themes. Just a clean space, nothing extra.

Cool. I asked her three times to be sure, and she kept repeating it: No decorations

So I followed her wish to the letter.

I booked the venue, set up tables, white disposable tablecloths, plain paper plates.

No flowers, no centerpieces, no color, no banner, no music, no cake topper.

Just space and silence.

Guests showed up confused, thinking they had the wrong room.

She pulled me aside, looking panicked:

Why does it look like a conference room? I said, You told me no decorations. I honored that.

She spent the whole party apologizing to people and trying to liven things up with paper napkins.

Afterward, she admitted maybe she should’ve trusted me.