Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ASpookyBug on 2025-02-12 18:36:55+00:00.

So last week I got a request to review the purchase of an appliance. Looked it over and it seemed normal. Approved the purchase and left it at that.

Guy came back asking what power of microwave he should buy. Told him to just buy something similar to the one they were getting rid of. Didn't like that, wanted something specific. Told him I couldn't give him a specific answer. I'm not an electrician, i just make sure our expenditures are justified. He liked that even less and sent an email to every manager in both his and my departments asking why our department existed if we won't provide guidance on stuff like this.

Cut to today, my manager calls me and says I'm not allowed to send any emails to anybody not on my team without management approval.

Most of my emails are single sentence "yes, you can do that. Just be wary of (insert concern here)." Or "Don't do that, it's not in line with company policy."

So far today I've sent 22 requests for approval for emails with less than a sentence. And i figure i can get that to about 40. Enjoy the extra work.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/helensgrandaughter on 2025-02-12 17:39:58+00:00.

I ducked into a cozy quiet pub in Little Venice for a late lunch last Friday, and to catch up on some work emails while I was on vacation in London. In walks this man who gets a pint and sits down, but then starts barking orders across the dining room to the bartender to come turn on the tv to “some sports.” Finally, after his third complaint that there are no sports to watch, she marches in the dining room with the remote. On comes the t.v.

“ESPN, then?” She asked him. 

“Yes, yes!” he replied.

She flipped it on, waited for the commercial to end, then smiled at him when they returned to the game of…women’s cricket, nodded at him, then turned and went back to the bar. 

He finished his beer quickly, then quietly left.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Emotional_Figure1575 on 2025-02-12 00:54:18+00:00.

Context: this customer is notorious for being rude to my workers. And some have even complained she might be racist (incident- she complained about a cashier and said "the black girl with the poofy hair" and is only nice to my Caucasian worker)

Karen (name for obvious reasons) came in stopped me and asked "are you the manager?" Yes, how can I help you. I guess she didn't hear me and she responded "are you the manager" Yes, what do you need? She said she had a problem and then stormed off to the registers. I followed.

Karen then goes into a tirade, "I bought these and the girl didn't give me my paper receipt. I asked for it and she didn't. And then she was rude and left the sensors on these. I had to call customer service, and wait on hold for them to send me my receipt. She should have given me my paper receipt and now I want these off"

Sure thing, I told her. I'm sorry about the sensors, let me just see your receipt.

She shows me the receipt off her phone, and I see she had a member number at the top, I begin to let her know that she didn't need to contact customer service and we would have been able to look up her transaction. Karen interrupts me and says "I don't care, I wanted a paper receipt"

"I understand, what I'm just trying to explain is-" Karen-no you're not helping I just want the sensors of and my paper receipt Me- ok ma'am I can help you with that, I just wanted to let you know we have the ability to get your receipt in store, you didn't need to wait for them to send you a receipt Karen-youre not being helpful just do your job. I'm not going to argue with you. (She's yelling all her responses to me) Me-thats fine, I'm not trying to argue, however if you continue being rude I won't help you and you'll have to go to another store.

Then something clicked in my head about a malicious compliance I read about a lady counting coins one by one. Just to be petty. So I out on my best customer service voice, ques malicious compliance

I asked to see her phone for the receipt, and she's holding it in front of me

Me-its dim can you make it brighter She does Me-i can't seem to find it can you scroll down Karen-youre can touch my phone Me-sorry I'd rather not, I don't wanna hurt it Karen- (mad scrolls down) Me-(taking a full minute to scan looking for the shirt that she bought to confirm purchase before removing sensor) hmm I can't see it. Maybe you scrolled to fast can you scroll back up?

Karen- this is ridiculous can you look it up on your side then Me- of course, that's why we always ask for an email to hold receipts in case you don't get a paper copy

Luckily the phone I was using was stuck on loading. So I sat there for a few more minutes, and told her sorry I have to get another phone this one doesn't work.

I get another phone, it loads up. I spent about 3 more minutes typing in her email one letter at a time, after all I had to make sure I typed it in correctly.

I ended up spending a good 5 more minutes just scrolling on the phone pretending to look for her receipt.

Me- found it. Now let me see if this is on it Karen-heres the tag Me- unfortunately, id the tag isn't on the garment I have to verify off the tag inside....sorry the numbers are pretty small just give me another moment (2 minutes verifying) Perfect I'll take that sensor off.

Going through to the last shirt (was only two) I backed out of my store app

Me- oh darn my phone froze and it closed out...in going to need your email again Karen- didn't I just give it to you Me-yes, but I try not to remember customer emails...you know privacy reasons

Karen gives me the email but says it this time Me- can you slow down and spell it please

Another couple of minutes go by, and oops I need to find the receipt AGAIN

"Find the receipt" after some time Me- oh I found it....no wait, that's a different shirt one moment Karen- the tags on this one, so you can see the numbers better Me- oh thank you, but I already had found the inside tag. I'll just go off that instead

Me-i can't seem to find it Karen- I'll just look for it on my receipt, what am I looking for Me- the product number, good idea using the tag. Better to read the numbers (Karen after a few more minutes) Here I found it (shows me her phone) Me- could you hold your hand steady, I can't read the numbers. (Pretend to focus my eyes)

Me- oh there it is, ok let me get this last sensor off for you. (Fiddle with the sensor for a bit and finally get it off, give her her bag back and told her to have a great day)

All in all what could have been a 1 minute interaction, turned into me wasting 30 minutes of her time.

I'm just glad to have been able to provide a thorough and positive service to my customer :)

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ThrowawayNumber9272 on 2025-02-10 23:14:59+00:00.

There's not much to say here. I work for a tech company that sells Macbooks and chromebooks and miscellaneous things to schools. There is a rule in place that says we are NOT allowed to work from home under any circumstances, with the exception of Thursdays and Fridays if you don't have any meetings or the such.

Yesterday we got a bunch of quotes from one of our distributors and the aim of today was to get all the SKU's and codes into our system for one of the bigwig expensive catholic schools - and these codes came in EXTREMELY last minute -like, we have 6 working hours to fill out everything. I did what I could yesterday, and told my manager that I would have to do the rest tomorrow since it was late notice.

Today, the internet is down at work. The quote for approximately 1.5m worth of stock is due in 2 hours, and to be honest - I'd be more inclined to hotspot my phone to get this work done if they paid me more than the bare minimum, and gave me a phone allowance. My previous pay evaluations were all rejected, and if I'm contributing 5-10% gross profit margins on literal millions you'd think there was at least commission.

Ah well. If only I could go home to use my working internet, or got $5-10 a month for my month bill so that I could get this done via hotspot. Oh well.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Gauldax on 2025-02-09 08:51:03+00:00.

I originally posted this as a comment in r/retailhell but was told to repost here.

I was once failed by a secret shopper about 30 years ago, when I worked at (a now gone) New England convenience store/deli chain. I was the only person in the store stocking, ringing, and working the deli. I was also acting ASM, without pay or title but all the responsibility, doing inventory and making orders.

I was failed for not asking a secret shopper if they wanted anything from behind the counter: tobacco, lottery, and various high theft health and beauty items, etc.

My boss told me I needed to offer EVERY CUSTOMER something from behind the counter; no matter who. They didn't care what I offered. I said no problem. I went back to work and the boss went into his office.

My very next customer was a local priest buying bread. As I rung him up I asked if he was all set. He said he was. I asked if he was sure he didn't need any lottery tickets or condoms. If he didn't get lucky with one, he may with the other. He turned red, said he was fine, quickly paid and left.

My boss yelled from the office I was now exempt from having to push items from behind the counter.

I knew I would never get fired because of all the stuff I did that was above my pay grade while trying to make a good impression.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/LAH-di-lah on 2025-02-08 19:07:07+00:00.

It was during the financial crisis in 2009. I was newly graduated and couldn't find a teaching job anywhere around me. So I got a paraprofessional job (teaching assistant but more working with kids rather than doing mindless tasks). It didn't pay enough so I became a waitress at a banquet hotel. I found myself working 7 days a week sometimes for months on end. I told the manager there were certain days i wanted off but he never complied. Multiple times i told him i needed rest and he didn't listen. No surprise I developed bronchitis. I told him I had bronchitis and was told i shouldn't be giving people food. I had a doctors note saying I shouldn't work. He didn't accept it and said I had to go in. So I did. It just so happened the hotel manager and owner did a surprise observation that day. They heard my cough. I told them I had bronchitis. They asked why I was there. I told them the truth and the managers texts saying I still had to come in. The manager and I were pulled into an office. I was sent home and ordered not to come back for 2 weeks. My manager was written up for not following health standards. I quit 2 weeks later. My last day the manager asked me to come in the next day because they would be swamped. If he had asked a week before I would have said yes. The last day though? No. I never went back.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Not_An_Ambulance on 2025-02-08 04:30:31+00:00.

On February 8, 1404, King Taejong of the Korean dynasty of Joseon fell from his horse. He then attempted to prevent this fact from being recorded in official records. The recorders were an independent portion of the government and did not answer to the King, so they promptly followed their own rules and recorded both the fall AND the attempt to prevent the record of it from being made.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Ancient_Educator_76 on 2025-02-05 02:41:31+00:00.

Hey all it's me again. I've started teaching at a new school where I'm learning a new language while my wife simultaneously learns German for her upcoming trip .

All of this linguistic newness reminds me of some MC I applied to a classmate in 1992.

I was in an art class with mostly seniors for some reason, including me, a Tennessean named Heath, two monolingual Spanish speakers and some NPCs.

Heath knew that the two non English speakers didn't speak a word of English and he "knew" that I didn't speak a lick of Spanish. I heard him go around and whisper to people like a child and point in the direction of the Spanish speakers, brother and sister.

He came up to me and said in his Tennessee twang "hey, go tell them "yo soy oon pooto" (which means "I'm an azzhol in Spanish ). I turned to them, turned on my MC smirk, looked at him, then walked over to them and said, while double pointing at Heath :

"El Es un Puto"

I made sure I emphasized the puto. He saw my white side and assumed I didn't speak Spanish. Man, I've been living in Phoenix for years , I learned this language long ago.

TLDR

I translated the Spanish language for a Tennessean.

Update/Explanation: Heath basically wanted me to say, specifically, the words "I'm a puto (azzhol)", but the way he said it to me as I understood Spanish, is "Hey go tell those guys I'm a puto". I just took the second set of quotations of, maliciously knowing that he didn't know I knew the language. You know? :0)

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/kahirsch on 2025-02-07 18:39:03+00:00.

My son called me with this story. He went to the dentist today and they had changed their name from Better Dental. He asked if they had been bought out and they said "No ... well, sort of. The ownership has changed. Since Dr. Draper's not with us any more, we can't use the name Better Dental."

"It's a funny story. A few years ago, another dentist complained that the practice was called Better Dental since you're not supposed to imply you're better than other dentists without a specific reason. The board was going to make him change the name of the practice, but he legally changed his last name to Better and they let him keep the name on his practice."

My son was skeptical, but I checked the Board of Dental Examiners web site and it's 100% true. David Aller Draper changed his name to David Aller Draper Better and "the Board closed its file and issued no disciplinary action for violation of 21 NCAC 16P.0101(4)."

It's kinda "loophole defiance" rather than "malicious compliance", but I think it fits.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/xtnh on 2025-02-07 10:50:40+00:00.

Teacher in an early primary state.

Back in the 1980s candidates spent a lot of shoe-leather looking for votes, and one way was to speak at schools in between shaking hands at factory entrances and going to Rotary luncheons.

A colleague was in the middle of class when a minor candidate but the governor of a state walked into his class and said "excuse me, I need to use your phone."

"I'm in the middle of class, and you can't use that phone."

The governor looked a little shocked, and there was a stand-off until the Central Office Assistant Superintendent of whatever said "It will only be a minute."

My friend asked if he needed privacy. The governor nodded.

"OK, class is over," my friend said, looking at the Admin. "Head on down to the cafeteria and we'll just have a study hall, since this call is more important than my class."

As the kids left the governor picked up the phone and waited. and waited. Then he asked "How do I get an outside line?"

You can't," he said, it's an internal phone.

"I told you.

"You can't use that phone." And off he went for a little break.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Glad_Equal_540 on 2025-02-07 04:15:38+00:00.

A colleague of mine was "offered" a management role—basically told to take on extra responsibilities for 20 people, but with no extra pay. Boss gave him the usual speech about how it was a "great opportunity" and would "open doors" for him. He took the role anyway, built strong relationships with his team, and after eight months, another company offered him the same management role—with actual compensation.

He accepted the offer and, in the process, took about 10 of the people he was managing with him. Just people who trusted him enough to follow him to a better workplace. Ex Boss was shocked and majorly understaffed after that 😅

I mean, what is to be expected when you're asked to work extra for free???

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/o0In_Pursuit0o on 2025-02-06 20:34:40+00:00.

I've joined a new extremely disorganized team. My manager who plays the game in corporate well has somehow made it look like the problems are due to the new person, me. Their "resolution" to their disorganization has been to ask me to copy and paste fields from forms all day everyday from dates to tracking numbers, and then will call on me any moment of the day to share a specific data point. I've explained how unreasonable this even suggested we pull reports and automate but was told that's too complicated and will take too long (they originally did this by hand). I've been told "these are the rules".

I've now pulled the reports, automated the job, made some pivot tables and my 8 hour job is done in 10 minutes. I'm not saying anything. They think I'm slaving away organizing tracking numbers and dates scouring a data point for my master when called while I'm working on my second remote job. I just walk out of my office from time to time with my sad face while my boss smiles smugly.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/-RottenT33th on 2025-02-06 20:27:23+00:00.

This story features malicious compliance towards multiple people. Particularly: My parents, the boss of my old job, and my grandmother.

I don't call myself Goth necessarily. At the very least if I did, it wouldn't be my only label. Suffice it to say I like dressing like something undead and victorian. Much to the horror of my staunchly religious parents, and many other adults in my life.

Last year I finally moved out and got myself a job, yet still my family and even my boss at my job are incredibly rude and controlling of me -an adult's- appearance.

Once on my day off, I answer a video call from my parents in which they proceed to berate me for the "lack of color" in my outfits. (Really, no "how are you" just straight to complaints.) At this point, I've had enough. I'm an adult who can make my own decisions, and I have a plan. I promise them oh-so-sweetly to add more color to my appearance if they stop fking complaining, and they agree.

After this call I needed to pick up something from work. Wondrous! A rare opportunity to wear my usual clothes in the workplace instead of my uniform. Again, my boss tells me I only wear black and that I need color. (ironic coming from the man who repeatedly tells me I'm only allowed to wear neutral tones with my uniform.)

I tell him he doesn't need to worry because "I'll be very colorful tomorrow"

The next morning I clock in to work with a giant grin and the brightest electric-blue punk rock mullet they've ever seen. My boss is trying to smile but it doesn't reach his eyes and his fists are clenching his pen.

"I thought you said I needed more color." I smile innocently.

Later on call with my parents, they remind me that dying hair is "unholy" and that I "Look like one of those liberals" Tragic, truly. Whatever will grandmother do.

I haven't spoken to either of them since I got a new job. Regardless, my mental health has improved noticeably and my hair is now dyed (blasphemously!) black. Because as much as I liked it blue, black is my favorite color.

TL,DR: My family and boss at work bitched about my gothic wardrobe's lack of color. So I dyed my hair blue, which they hated even more. "Wear more color!" "Okay." "Wait no, not like that!"

Thanks for reading, have a lovely day!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Branchdressing on 2025-02-06 16:12:17+00:00.

EDIT: Several users have taken the time to educate me and I would like to highlight them.

u/Mumblesandtumbles and u/Frari have brought to my attention that chromosomal sex can be determined at conception thus able to define XX as the group producing the large sex cell and XY as the group that produces the small sex cell. Granted it is near impossible to speak in absolutes where science and the english language meet. Remember "Only a Sith deals in absolutes" - Obi-Wan

end edit

I work in Louisiana for California Institute of Technology and with the new executive orders that have been passed I have complied by changing my email signature. My new email signature that complies with new executive orders.

The order states in Section 2 (d) that "“Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell."

As all fertilized eggs are female until roughly 6-8 weeks after conception all peoples are now female according to the executive order.

Ive already emailed HR asking what should I do if I am misgendered under under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Code; and California law.

Branchdressing,

~~(She / Her)~~ Executive Order: Section 2 (d)

Previous line redacted Executive Order: Section 3 (e)

Position Title

Address

Phone Number

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/plshelp1576 on 2025-02-06 05:16:13+00:00.

The other day, I was at my local pools. I looked over all the open lanes, searching for an uncrowned lane to do some laps. Out of the available lanes, one had 3 people, and another had 1. Like any reasonable person, I hopped into the lane with only a single other person and began to do my laps. On my first lap, I overtook the other person, and was told, quite aggressively, that "the fast lane is over there", pointing to the lane with 3 people in it. I'm usually a fast swimmer, but the lap I did was average, if not slow.

Before I continue, I should mention that literally every other "slow" person that I've swum with had been completely ok with me swimming fast. Where I swim, there is also an unofficial custom that when two people are in a lane, you swim side by side instead of the usual clockwise circle. This person was not ok with me swimming quickly, was very rude in telling me to move to a more crowded lane, and was, in fact, a very slow swimmer.

"Well", I thought to myself, "I'm definitely not moving to a more crowded lane. I guess i should start swimming slower to appease her.I guess since my shoulder really hurts from my competition the other day, and I definitely don't want to injure it more, I should do some relaxing kicking." And that's exacting what I did. I did kick. Now, my kick is definitely not fast, but I purposely did it even slower, because obviously, "this is the slow lane". My kick was so slow, the person started overtaking me. I made sure that they suffered. I would start when they were very close to the wall to force them to slow down and I would swim in such a way that they didn't have enough space to overtake me.

The best thing happened about 10 minutes after I started my malicious compliance: two other old-timers jumped into our lane. Now, I started swimming in such a way that I would be next to the old-timers in a way that suggested that I was "overtaking" them, but I never seemed to be quite fast enough to actually overtake them. How unfortunate. This formed a wall, and i would occasionally look back to see the person stopping every few seconds to not run into anyone, looking annoyed every time they had to do so.

Eventually, they got so fed up that they hopped out, and as soon as they did so, I started swimming at my normal pace again, making sure that every time I finished a lap, I would make eye connect to further annoy them. The old-timers weren't upset that I was swimming faster, in fact, no one who jumped into that lane was.

I hope that person learns their lesson and never tries to tell anyone that they are swimming too fast aggressively every again.

I would like to point out that I have no issue moving to another lane or sticking to one side of my lane, but I definitely have an issue with aggression.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/CatlessBoyMom on 2025-02-05 21:24:16+00:00.

Back before cell phones and TSA check points, I was working as an admin assistant. Ray was my department head and had a great sense of humor. When I was hired on Ray made sure I understood that I worked for him, even though I would do some office-wide work, he was my boss. Clint was in charge of another department in our office.

Flying from our office to a satellite office for a day or two was common for people in both departments and I was in charge of making standard pre-approved travel arrangements. If someone needed to change unexpectedly they were supposed to handle those themselves. Clint seemed unable to understand that.

At some point Clint decided that he wanted to cut travel costs. "Lowest possible fare, lowest possible rate" for his department. Lowest possible fares were always the 5 am outbound and 11 pm return flights. Clint didn't care.

A couple weeks into this policy Clint is to headed to the satellite office for some in person meetings. Game on, "lowest possible fare, lowest possible rate."

Clint left on the five am flight. The lowest rate car rental company didn't keep their cars available at the airport. Clint had to take the shuttle to their offsite location to pick up his car. Sadly for Clint, the shuttle didn't start running until eight, when his first meeting was scheduled to start. (Oops)

The client refused to reschedule that day, but agreed to the next morning. At some point it dawned on Clint that he either had to fly home and back or get a room for the night. He chose to get a room, and of course call me. One "lowest possible rate" room coming up. Unsurprisingly, that room didn't have security on site like he was used to. It did have little multi-legged friends, if his complaints were true.

The next morning Clint headed out (in the previous day's suit) only to discover that his car had been broken into overnight. The police took their time arriving, and by the time they were done, Clint had missed his meeting again.

Somehow Clint got the client to reschedule again, and he decided to take the flight home and back the next day. Of course I was kind enough to remember the "lowest possible fare" rule so Clint was booked on the eleven pm flights home and five am return, even though his meeting was midday. This time the lowest rate car was at the airport so Clint got to skip the shuttle. Sigh, you can't win them all.

At that point Clint's "lowest possible" policy had already cost the company at least double what a normal trip would have. Not to mention all the time I had spent calling hotels, motels and car rental companies.

The next day he's on the five am flight, and makes it to his meeting. I don't know when he realized that he didn't want the "lowest possible fare" at eleven pm. I do know he decided to take the more expensive, earlier flight home, both days. Somehow he discovered that he could change that himself.

The next time I saw Clint, he tried to fire me. Too bad, I worked for Ray, who knew (and laughed) about the whole thing. Clint was furious, but there wasn't anything he could do. The company would back Ray, and Ray was backing me.

Clint changed the room rate policy, because of his experience, but refused to rescind the lowest fare and lowest rental rate policy. That was, until accounting let slip that not only had Clint figured out how to take the higher priced earlier flight, he figured out an upgraded seat as well.

Clint found himself with an entire department intentionally missing their five am flights, and rebooking for the more expensive eight am, which somehow only had upgraded seats available every time. Rental car reservations were missed and more expensive cars were rented. Meetings that were previously in the office were somehow only available after hours, so clients were taken to dinner. Dinner included alcohol so rooms were booked at hotels closest to the restaurants, and returning flights scheduled for the next day.

Less than a month later all lowest price policies were rescinded. I was allowed to book normally again, and the missed flights, upgraded seats and fancy hotels disappeared. Dinner meetings remained, but decreased dramatically. When I left Clint's reputation still hadn't recovered.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Auirom on 2025-02-05 14:20:06+00:00.

I shared this in a comment a while ago and was told I should share it so I thought I would finally get around to sharing it with a little more information.

About a decade ago I worked for a big name company electrostatic powder coating semi wheels. The GM (who was actually a really good boss) got a trainer to come in and teach me what I was doing right and wrong. After a week we got things narrowed down with the settings on the machines that my quality improved a lot and my quantity of wheels I could paint in a day improved by about 5-10 per day. I was now averaging anywhere from 50-65 wheels a day. I used those same setting for almost a year before that same GM started messing with them.

I had a few wheels from a trash company come to me covered in dried mud one day. Not the first time and wasn't going to be the last. I had knocked off as much as I could before stripping them and did my best to blow off what dust was left. I still missed some spots on the edges. Usually when this happens I end up with tiny holes on the edges of the rims. That day the GM had come back to get a count of paint to see what needed to be ordered.

GM: "What's with all the holes on the edges of these wheels?"

Me: "It's from dirt. I didn't get it all off when I blew off the wheels."

GM: "Dirt doesn't cause this. I think your settings are the issue."

Me: "I'm telling you it's dirt. Everytime we get these customers wheels in with dried mud all over them this is what happens."

GM: "Dirt doesn't cause this. I'll have some people come in to check this out."

He left after that. Fast forward to next week and he meets me in the morning with about 4 other people.

GM: "These guys are going to look over the machines and adjust things so we no longer have issues."

Me: "I told you it was dirt."

GM: "The professionals are going to adjust the settings and you will leave them where they are at. If you don't you will get written up. This is not up for discussion."

Ok. Message heard loud and clear. I'll leave it to the professionals and not touch a thing. Thankfully my powder gun had multiple settings. I asked the "professional" to set his new settings on another preset.

The next day I noticed the wheels I painted were coming out yellow. I also noticed that the paint was very thin in certain spots. Due to my new settings the positive charge was blasting powdered paint away from the wheels.

A few days go by GM comes back and sees all my new painted white wheels yellow and asks why everything is coming out yellow. I told him it was because the oven was set to high

GM: "Why didn't you change it? That's over a 100 wheels that need to be redone!"

Me: "I was told not to change the settings the professionals set so I didn't touch it."

He walked over and turned it down and told me to leave it. A week later I get called into the office. One of our biggest customers was complaining that their wheels needed to be removed and repainted after a week or two due to starting to rust. We delivered over 150 wheels a week to them.

GM: "What is going on here? The paint too thin and the customer is complaining. Do I need to call the professionals back in to look things over?"

Me: "It wouldn't change much cause I haven't touched anything on the machines since they were out last time."

GM: "Just fix it. I don't care what you do just fix it."

He never questioned me again when it came to powdered coating.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/USMCLee on 2025-02-05 14:02:55+00:00.

Years ago my wife was working on getting her father VA benefits for assisted living.

They wanted all medical records, all financial records, any sort of record you could imagine. Each document had to have his name, SS# and something else on every piece of documentation. So we order a stamp with all the information and stamped everything.

Made copies.

The first time they asked for new documents we naively sent just the additional documents.

We got back a notice 'Please send U,V,X,Y,Z documents'. Which were included in the first batch of documents. So we sent the entire batch plus the first additional documents back.

They asked for more documents, so we added them to the batch and resent.

Repeat 3 or 4 times.

By this time it had to be over 10 pounds of paperwork and it barely fit in the USPS box.

We got a letter back 'Please only send the requested additional documents' which we completely ignored the next 2 or 3 times ( so not complying but still malicious).

Finally got his benefits approved and everything was great until....

VA building could collapse from all the stored paperwork

Apparently we were not the only ones maliciously complying.

Inspired to tell the story from this post

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ITGoddess83 on 2025-02-05 13:16:24+00:00.

The ladies post who said that the government agency wanted all the forms reminded me of the time that I was dealing with an insurance company about a car crash. I was waiting on a check from them and I kept calling and finally the guy said well. We never received your signed forms and I said I fax them on X date. He said nope sorry no faxes from you and I said OK fine I’ll fax it five times this time and he laughed at me any condescending way. So I did what I said I would do and every single time I faxed it I made sure to write an extra page in there saying just making sure you got it or something to that effect and I did in fact, fax it five times. About two hours later I received an email letting you know that my check would be sent out the following business day.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/LawEnvironmental7506 on 2025-02-04 14:03:06+00:00.

So, this story is not something super interesting, but I wanted to share it because it makes me happy.

I live in an apartment complex on the highest floor. When I moved in, I was short on time and painted the walls up until 2AM. The ladder made some sound and my neighbours knocked, we were almost done anyways, so we called it quits and thought everything is fine.

A month in and I get a letter from the company that owns this building that says something along the lines "Disturbance of Peace - We got a complaint from your neighbours about construction sounds and regular use of the washing machine in the middle of the night. Please be respectful towards your neighbours and don't be too loud between 10PM and 6AM." I was pissed, since the "construction sounds" were only ONCE and I never used my washing machine in the middle of the night, especially not regularly. But I didn't want to start an argument with the company or beef with my neighbours so I thought, since I wasn't doing that anyway, I would just ignore it and if there's an other complaint, I'll reach out.

A few weeks ago, I had my sister over on a Saturday and we watched some TV at night and she accidentally kicked over a glass bottle, happens. Instantly there were three loud and angry knocks coming from below, which somehow ticked me off really bad. Now, since I am obviously too loud, I decided to strictly adhere to the rules and time my washing machine in a way, where it ends exactly at 10PM and starts at 6AM, especially Sundays. Usually I did laundry at around 5PM, but I got a change of heart and hope that my neighbours are annoyed when my machine wakes them up at 6 in the morning on the weekend, just like they obviously wanted me to and they can do nothing about it, since I'm not breaking any rules ☺️

Edit: I get that they are probably trying to sleep and I know that the 2AM painting session was a mistake. I am upset, that they reacted with complaints to the company and banging on the ceiling instead of talking to me.

People are clumsy and drop stuff. I heard other neighbours vacuum and drop things at night and I simply don't care, things happen. But if they want to be childish, I'm going to be childish.... by sticking to the rules 😅

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Alarming_Spread_2883 on 2025-02-04 07:17:20+00:00.

This is a doozy that happened to me at my old job (a server at a breakfast place) where I fully acknowledge that there’s no need for an AITA, because IATA. And I know it.

I was having a particularly overwhelming shift and about 3 hours into a 6 hour shift, two people came in that were particularly known for their being divorced and completely loathing one another quite openly to the servers and staff, and were overall very loud and rude to guests and staff alike. Every other weekend they would come in to go over paperwork and divorce things and the server who would get them always got sympathy from the rest of us. I had the pleasure of serving these lovely people a few times, and all of the times were so insanely different in terms of weirdness, but let’s just get into this one. They come in and it ends up being my turn in the rotation. Yikes, but I thought me and the guy were chill because the last time I served them I told him I liked his dinosaur shirt, and his ex wife made fun of him for it, and I told her I thought it was a cool shirt and he and I high-fived and it was the most invigorating experience of my life. I come up to them and ask what I can get started for their drinks, and I can tell it’s going to be a tense experience already. They were both very snappy and rude and I was doing my best to just stay friendly. Fast forward and I’m asking for their orders eventually and the guy orders 4 eggs. I explain to him, we double our yolks. If you order 4 eggs, you will receive 8 total eggs. He tells me no, he wants 4 eggs. So I tell him, okay, so that is going to show up as 2 eggs in our system and on your respite. He tells me no. He wants 4 eggs. At this point, I don’t know what to tell him, but I try one more time. I tell him, yes, you will receive 4 eggs on your plate. But it will say 2 on the respite. He says, no. I don’t want to pay for 2 I want to pay for 4. I’m done. ATP I’m more confused than he is. I tell him okay, and I write it down on my order sheet. I put in the order… manually because we do not have a button for 4 eggs BECAUSE WE DOUBLE OUR EGGS. The head cook calls me over, he says 4? I say, that’s what the customer ordered. He says, okay. And he makes the most beautiful over easy sheet of 8 eggs, with a side of bacon. It comes out and I serve it to him. He looks at me and says, this isn’t what I ordered. I say, yes it is! 😁 and he says, fine I’ll take it. I got yelled at for it at the end of my shift but it was sooooo worth the look on his face when I served it to him, and the laughs it got from my coworkers who told me they wished it was them to serve it to him. One of my favorite memories from working at that place.

I have a picture of the 8 egg beauty but I can’t post it here 😔

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Fig91 on 2025-02-03 18:43:52+00:00.

Nothing super special but gave me a laugh today.

My sons school for the 100th day of school asked for the kids to bring in 100 of the same coin. They are going to be donating the money to the local food pantry so it is for a good cause and we are doing pretty good this month so I decided to give him 100 quarters ($25) to donate. So on lunch I head to my bank and go in. I'm directed to one of the windows and tell the nice lady I need to withdraw $25 in quarters. She says ok and goes to get my quarters. She comes back with 3 rolls of quarters.

"I can only do $20 or $30. They only come in rolls of $10."

I point out that she has a tray of change and ask "can you take $5 from the loose change?"

"No. They only come in rolls of $10. Do you want $20 or $30?"

Ok. I really need the $25 so I ask for the $30. She goes to process my request in the computer at another window and comes back with the 3 rolls of quarters. I then tell her "can I go ahead and make a deposit?"

"Of course, how much were you wanting to deposit?"

"$5 in quarters."

The range of emotions that crossed her face as I broke open one of the rolls and began to count out my $5 in quarters was priceless. She then takes it and tells the guy at the other computer that we needed to deposit $5 in quarters back into the account. He asked her what happened and she told him I asked for $25 but rolls only came in $10. He then asked her why she didn't just count out $5 in quarters from the loose change that is on each desk. I just smiled as I waited for my deposit reciept.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Agyaani_ on 2025-02-03 03:40:52+00:00.

So, I used to have this manager who was obsessed with thoroughness. Every task, every report, every email—“Be more thorough,” he’d say.

At first, it was just minor tweaks. But soon, it got out of hand. He started rejecting reports for not having enough detail, even when the numbers were completely self-explanatory.

One day, I submitted our usual weekly report. Simple, clear, and to the point. He sent it back: “Not thorough enough. Resubmit.”

Alright. If thoroughness is what he wants, thoroughness is what he’s gonna get.

I rewrote the entire report into a 20-page epic. I included:

• A detailed breakdown of every number, with footnotes.
• A section explaining why negative numbers exist ("because math").
• An entire appendix on the history of our software vendor.
• A glossary, just in case anyone forgot what “profit” meant.
• A disclaimer: “In case of an unwanted event, these numbers may become irrelevant.”

I sent it off and waited.

A few hours later, I got a one-line response: "This looks good. But next time, keep it simple."

Oh, so now we like simple? Sure thing, boss. 😏

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Agyaani_ on 2025-02-02 18:59:41+00:00.

Alright, Reddit, gather 'round for a story of petty revenge and malicious compliance that left my boss red-faced and my coworkers cheering.

I work in IT support for a mid-sized company. My job is to fix tech issues, set up systems, and generally keep everything running smoothly. I’m also the go-to person when my coworkers have questions or need help with something tech-related. It’s not technically in my job description, but I don’t mind helping out—it keeps things running smoothly, and people appreciate it.

Enter Boss. Boss is the kind of manager who loves metrics and hates anything that doesn’t directly contribute to them. One day, Boss calls me into their office and says, "I’ve noticed you’re spending a lot of time helping other people. That’s not your job. Your job is to focus on your assigned tasks and nothing else. Stop wasting time helping coworkers."

I tried to explain that helping others actually prevents bigger issues down the line, but Boss wasn’t having it. "No. Your performance is based on how many tickets you close. If it’s not a ticket, it’s not your problem. Understood?"

"Understood," I said, smiling sweetly.

The Malicious Compliance Begins:

From that day forward, I followed Boss’s instructions to the letter. If it wasn’t a ticket, it wasn’t my problem. Here’s how it played out:

1. Coworker Asks for Help? "Sorry, I can’t help you unless you submit a ticket. Boss’s orders." The ticket system quickly became flooded with minor requests that I used to handle in seconds. Boss started getting complaints about response times.
2. Boss Asks Me to Fix Their Printer? "Sure thing! Just submit a ticket, and I’ll get to it as soon as possible." Boss was furious but couldn’t say anything without contradicting their own rule.
3. The CEO’s Laptop Won’t Connect to the Projector Before a Big Meeting? CEO: "Can you fix this real quick?" Me: "I’d love to, but I need a ticket first. Boss’s policy." CEO: stares at Boss "Is this true?" Boss: sweating "Uh, well, we’re trying to streamline processes…" CEO: "Fix it. Now."

The Fallout:

The ticket system became so overwhelmed that IT response times plummeted. Departments started missing deadlines because they couldn’t get the tech support they needed. Boss was getting heat from all sides but couldn’t backtrack without looking incompetent.

Finally, Boss called me into their office again. "Okay, you’ve made your point. You can go back to helping people without a ticket."

I smiled and said, "Just to clarify, you’re officially rescinding the 'no helping without a ticket' rule?" Boss sighed. "Yes. Consider it rescinded."

As I walked back to my desk, a few coworkers shot me knowing grins and subtle thumbs-ups. Word had gotten around, and everyone was quietly enjoying the fact that Boss’s ridiculous policy had backfired spectacularly. One of them even slid a coffee onto my desk with a note that said, "Thanks for taking one for the team."

TL;DR: Boss told me to stop helping coworkers unless they submitted a ticket. I complied, flooding the system and causing chaos. Boss eventually caved, and I got to enjoy the sweet taste of malicious compliance.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Jacket_Jacket_fruit on 2025-01-31 17:39:29+00:00.

I work as a school janitor. Half my day is spent in the lunch room emptying the trash cans and sweeping up. At most schools, you get 15+ minutes in between each lunch period to do all the cleaning. At my school, I get less than 2 minutes, if I'm lucky.

Normally, if a trash can isn't full, I just dump one can I to another, and then tie off THAT bag when it gets full. It's a lot faster than having to replace every bag every time, AND it saves a ton of bags. I also sweep up around the tables, and, if I see a big mess under a table, I ask the kids to move their feet and sweep that up to.

I do it this way because it's the only way to keep up and keep things clean. If I pulled every bag every time instead of dumping one can into another, not only would I run out of bags halfway through the week, but it would also take way longer. If I only swept under tables when there was no kids sitting there, I would literally never have an opportunity to sweep under tables.

Enter the lunch ladies. Most of them are nice but there's this one older one who is just a miserable human being. She yells at everyone including the kids, and is just always angry about something. Earlier this week, she yelled at me for dumping one trash can into another instead of pulling the bag. Why she chose today to do this, I don't know, since I'd been doing this every day for the past 3+ years. I know how to do my job and didn't ask her opinion, so I just ignored her, didn't say anything, and kept doing what I was doing.

Fast forward an hour or two, and I'm getting a call from my district boss that there was a complaint filed against me. The lunch ladies are saying they don't like that I dump cans instead of pulling bags, and they don't like that I sweep under the kids feet. My boss tells me just stick to cleaning in between lunch periods. I try to explain that that's literally a period of less than 2 minutes and isn't even a fifth of the amount of time I'd need to do it that way, he says just do it anyway to keep the lunch ladies happy. He's a good dude, but he's just trying to squash complaints and keep them from going further. He says from now on, I'm ONLY to empty trash or sweep the floors in between lunches, where there's not students in the cafeteria, and also I'm to pull the bags every time. No more dumping cans.

Cue malicious compliance.

Starting then, I ONLY cleaned in between lunches when there was no kids. Of course, this is literally like a knife and a half, so I only had time to get to half the trash cans. And since I was replacing every bag instead of dumping cans, each can took longer. I didn't even have time to sweep AT ALL. The trash cans I couldn't get to would fill up and overflow, and the kids don't care and just keep piling trash on top. The floor got more and more covered in trash, since I didn't have time to sweep at all.

I did this for the rest of the week. The same bitchy lunch lady tried to scream at me to go empty the trash when I was standing there on Tuesday, but I explained "I was told by my boss that you guys didn't like me sweeping or emptying trash around the kids, so now I'm only allowed to do that when the cafeteria is empty. Id love to go get that trash can, but there's kids eating lunch right now so I'm not allowed." She tried to argue but I just told her I'm following direct and explicit orders from my boss. There was nothing she could do.

When the final lunch ended, I cleaned as much as I could before 2pm and then stopped, as that was my lunch time and the union REQUIRES that we take our lunches at our allotted times. It's nom-optional and zero tolerance for deviation. And after my lunch, I have to go clean classrooms since school is out, and classrooms take priority over the cafeteria. End result? The cafeteria never got fully cleaned. When the lunch ladies came in Monday and found it still half filthy, they went through the roof and complained to my boss. He called me ina and I explained that I was just follow orders, and the lunch ladies were the ones who asked I do things this way.

Suffice it to say, I was told to go back to doing it however I thought was best.

You wanna stick your nose in my business and tell me how to do my job? See how that turns out.

Oh, and also since then, I spent the rest of the week calling THEM out on all the things they were doing wrong. Previously I just kept my mouth shut and minded my business, but now? Now we're doing this the way you wanted.

Door propped open because its incredibly hot in the kitchen and you need the air flow? Sorry! That's a security issue, doors CANNOT be propped open. Greasy wax paper in the cardboard recycling? Sorry, that can't go in there! Normally I'd just grab it as I see it, but now? I waited till the end of the day and then tell them. They had to pick it all out by hand. You guys like having the radio playing in the kitchen? Sorry, not allowed! Shut it down.

TL;DR: lunch ladies tried to tell me how to do my job. They got what they wanted. Didn't like it.