Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Lightoscope on 2025-05-05 03:52:01+00:00.

Shoutout to the McDonald's person for reminded me of this one. I worked in the kitchen at the only decent restaurant within close proximity to several destination-type golf courses, so we'd often get the same customers several days in a row. I happened to be working lunch Friday-Sunday along with my buddy who was bartending. He put in an order for a burger with "a lot of extra onion" so the first day I probably doubled up the normal, pre-sliced red onion. Saturday, same guy orders the same thing but asks for more this time, so I put maybe 1/4 of a red onions worth of slices on. Sunday rolls around, and he asked for even more, so I grab a new onion, peel it and cut off the top and bottom so it will lay flat and stick it on the burger. This thing is comically large, easily half onion. I was trying to be a smartass, fully expecting it to come back. Not only did he eat it, but left a tip specifically for me.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/C-romero80 on 2025-05-04 16:50:54+00:00.

This is actually my dad's story but he's since passed away. I was thinking about it the other day and figured I'd share. Not sure it's truly malicious, but here it is.

Dad did plumbing, heating and air for decades. It reached a point his shoulders bothered him if he worked above his head so he just didn't take plumbing calls and got help with the bigger calls he took, if needed. He was good at his job, made himself and the company decent money. Everyone is happy, even micromanaging manager. Micromanaging manager leaves and new manager still thinks all is good so no worries. Dad just thinks it's the aches and pains of aging so just goes about life.

Micromanaging manager returns and the malicious compliance begins. He tells dad that if he won't take certain types of calls he needs a list of restrictions. This is normal for making sure accommodations and needs are met, so dad says ok, cool, that's fair and goes to the doc and lets them know what's going on. He's annoyed because it was working as it was for quite a long time. Doc says "oh, this isn't just aging, it's repetitive motion" oh that repetitive motion, from the job so guess what, now workers comp claim and pops doesn't have to take those calls.

Dad ended up retired and living happily not long after that, until he passed.

TLDR: dad wanted to just work and do the calls he could, manager wanted restrictions to accommodate, ended up with a whole workers comp claim.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/FishingIsFreedom on 2025-05-04 08:22:59+00:00.

In my 20's I spent a little over 5 years working for an oil and gas well service company. It was a 15 on, 6 off rotation. The first 4 years was at a small shop roughly 7 hours from home at which point I transferred to a much busier shop that was only a few hours from home. 5 years seems like peanuts in the working world, but in this particular line of work it was a long time. Decent job security as far as oilfield work goes, but the pay was marginal at best so turnover was high. At 5 years I was the most experienced hand in our shop.

The new shop was definitely busier, the money was way better and I managed to have my days off matched up with a supervisor who's way of doing things meshed perfectly with me. Everything else about the place? Awful. My breaking point was being denied a day off with 2 days notice to attend a funeral for a good friend who was lost to some health complications after a car accident. I was generally pretty understanding that in our line of work it could be difficult to always balance manpower. But the day I requested off passed with 4 other hands sitting around at the shop doing make work projects to pass the day. Management couldn't be bothered to take a few minutes to see if they could make things work, it was easier to just say no. To that point in my employment there I had been extremely flexible with helping out during manpower shortages. I had probably worked in excess of 100 days off and had only ever used one sick day. I thought a little reciprocity would have been nice. But I made up my mind, I'd fulfill my obligation to work 1 year at that shop as to not have to pay back the $4k transfer bonus I'd received and then it would be time to move on.

I was only a few months off of that 1 year mark, so I started job shopping immediately and quickly set my sights on a mine that we regularly did work for that was close enough to home that I could commute on a daily basis. I made some inquiries with people I knew that were working there and it seemed right up my alley. Not long after that I updated my resume and sent it in. A few weeks later I'm driving back from a job and get a voicemail from HR at the company I applied to. I called back as soon as I had a spare minute and they were looking to have me come in for an interview 2 days later. My heart sank knowing that was going to be a struggle. I talked with the HR lady seeing if they had any other dates available but it was explained to me that they only arrange one interview day once they have enough holes to fill in their crews to justify doing orientation with a group of new hires. She said she could put me as first call for the next round, but didn't know when that would be and she said it would also be fairly short notice. In the end I agreed to the interview appointment, not knowing how I was going to make it work.

I immediately went to the assistant manager to ask for time off as he was looking after dispatching duties that week. I told him something important came up at home that I really need to get dealt with. Without hesitation he said "No, we have a full board this week and need you here. Whatever it is will have to wait for your days off.". My first thought was that I was just going to call in sick and go to the job interview. The last thing I wanted to do was worry about being fired from a job I no longer want. Then I realized maybe there was another path forward and went to the job board.

And there it was, exactly what I needed! A potentially week long job for the company I was set to interview with and the job was scheduled to start the next day. And none of the jobs had been assigned to crews yet. I filled my supervisor in with the circumstances and my plan and he was on board with it. We went to the assistant manager and offered to take that job. He was delighted to have us volunteer as not many crews cared to be away from home for a week, mainly being confined to a rig shack.

Day one went smoothly and we were done by early afternoon. I used the supervisor's truck and went home to get some interview appropriate clothes. Day 2 we were running a bit behind, but we just barely got the job set up and our tools deployed into the well with enough time for me to grab a quick shower and change of clothes before again taking the supervisor's truck over to the administration building for my interview. Got a call the next week with an offer of a start date 2 weeks out. Starting wage was definitely lower than I was making, but they offered clearly defined progression that would have me easily equalling my current income in year 2 and well exceeding it by year 4. Benefits were better and the schedule would give me twice as much time off. Went to give my manager 2 weeks notice and he asked where I was going and what I'd be making. He was appalled I'd leave for such a low starting wage. He asked what it would take to keep me. I told him "When a person takes a pay cut to leave, obviously that ship sailed long ago.".

TLDR; worked at a company where having a flexible schedule was a 1 way street. Couldn't have a day off to interview for a job with a customer we did work for so I ended up offering to take on a pending job with that customer. Ended up taking the company truck and interviewing while on the clock. Got the job, been there 15 years now.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/throwawaywineguy on 2025-05-03 17:08:51+00:00.

(Probably not the dunk I think it is but I still feel happy with the result)

For context, I work as a salesman in a wine store. It’s not a normal wine & liquor place, it’s a curated selection, meaning we pick out all the wine that we sell (this is irregular in retail, most selections are curated by the distributor). As a result, all the employees have to really know their shit and we are regularly asked a lot of questions and need to give detailed and honest answers. Our customer base really likes us and new customers are either pleasantly surprised by the experience or endlessly mad we don’t carry their name-brand thing they like (damn you whispering angel).

The other day a couple came into the store at the recommendation of a friend (I will call them A and B). A was very excited and was super happy when we had the bottles they had taken pictures of at a party the other day. B however immediately started making comments like “really? That one” or “that tasted awful you want that?”. A was clearly a little upset at this but I gathered this was just a normal dynamic in their relationship as it was brushed off rather quickly.

After we put those bottles aside, they tell me they are going to do a garden party since its warm. Nice sunny day, light apps and snacks, average spring party. So they ask me to recommend some wine and I start going through the store and showing them some options. I hit all the big guys, loire and new world Sauvignon blancs, provencal rose’s, albarino’s, toscana’s and new world pinot noir for the red drinkers. A good selection for the food they had described. Well B did not think so.

Every suggestion I made was met with a counter. I show them a nice floral unoaked white burgundy “I think we should do chablis”. Pinot noir “don’t you think pinot is too heavy?” Sauvignon blanc “too sweet”. Albarino “too heavy”. At this point im at a loss, i’m running out of stuff to give B so i scale up a bit, offer some fuller bodied wines. Not great pairing to the event or the food, but not destructive. B is still not happy. A is clearly pissed at this point, they’ve been holding their tongue but every denial makes their face a darker shade of red until they finally pop. A apologizes to me and says they are going to go with my suggestions, and tells B that they can pick out a bottle they want because clearly they are not willing to listen to me.

I go through and put their cart together, listen to them argue a bit at the register, and then check B out after A storms out of the store. Whatever, I’m free of it, A is a saint for dealing with B, it’s done. It was not done.

The next morning when I show up B is waiting for me with the three bottles they picked (got three of the same thing). “The wine is off” B says, holding the bottle out like its some sort of weird bug. I tell them that yeah it happens sometimes, I’ll check it out. To be clear, it is rare that the wine is actually off, most of the time the customer just doesnt like it. It doesnt hurt us and we want the business so we always accept exchanges and just agree that it wasnt right. The customer has been right twice that I have seen, and I was one of the two customers (compromised cork).

So I open up the store with an impatient B standing over me before finally taking the bottle. I kid you not this thing is like 80 degrees, it is HOT. The sun hasnt been out long enough to do this either, so im pretty confident they did something to it. Anyway, i pour myself a glass and taste it. Even through the mire of hot booze, i can tell its good. All of the flavors i expect stand out, it smells fine, no evidence of oxidizing or mildew. Good bottle. Feeling petty I tell B as much, wanting them to admit that they just don’t like the wine. B turns a bit red and says as much. Good. Lets pick something else out then.

“Where are your super tuscans?” B asks. I Iight up, because this is the perfect chance to fuck with them. We have two true ones in the store. One is a very accessible price, pretty standard, sangiovese, cab franc, merlot, syrah. Really nice and medium bodied. Wouldnt be too bad for the garden party, but still on the heavier end. The other? Expensive as hell, syrah and cab franc. It is the inkiest, blackest, heaviest wine you could imagine. I love it, but I think it might kill anyone who drinks it in 80 degree weather.

Well, I give B the heavy one. B of course is in love when I tell them about it. Big bold flavors, heavy, crushes the flavor of whatever you eat with it? Perfect for B. They get three to replace the bottles they returned, and end up spending an extra 130 even with the cost of the refunded wine deducted. Now I know I’m way more sensitive to wine and food than others are, but this was perfect. Even somebody who’s demolished their palate with years of cigar smoking would be able to tell that wine is awfully paired. I’m happy knowing B is going to get some weird looks from their guests and a tongue lashing from A, and B is happy with the bottle of grape based olive oil they now own. Compliance given maliciously.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Eastwoodnorris on 2025-05-02 16:38:28+00:00.

Last summer, I got a new manager that I reported directly to at work. She had decades of good experience, but none as a manager of people, and it turns out she was awful at it. She was given about a month to learn the ropes before I was passed off from reporting to the director to her.

For that meeting, she mentioned that I needed to be on-site three days a week, clocking in on-site at my scheduled time. I had been coming in one or two times weekly for nearly 18 months, and often while clocking in at home. I also communicated that I had started going through some yet-to-be-diagnosed gut issues that made my mornings especially unpleasant.

Those details fell on deaf ears and I was told “Come in at your scheduled times or get an ADA exemption.” Well bitch, I’ll call that bluff. I started the ADA process. Within a matter of weeks, I had documented permission to clock in from home every day, at my personal discretion. Plus, a couple months later I was diagnosed with moderate to severe Ulcerative Colitis.

This manager (thankfully) didn’t want to be doing this job and left recently, after about 9 months. But I get to keep clocking at home every day until the heat death of the universe thanks to their callous attitude and general indifference to my discomfort. Lucky me.

Edit: To add a little context to elaborate since I communicated poorly in the title and didn’t clarify on the body. We were on a hybrid schedule which I was told by our director a year prior did not in fact require us to be in-person even one day a week, just on-site when necessary. I had been clocking in at home consistently and coming to the site as needed, which had not been an issue with my previous manager, or the director who I was directly reporting to for ~9 months while they were searching for a replacement. I worded the title poorly. I was not clocking in late, I was simply clocking in remotely and arriving on-site later in the day, commuting during ~20 minutes of what would have typically been lunch or break time. I was still working 8 hours and have been late a single-digit number of times in over 2.5 years in this position.

Getting an ADA exemption was more nebulous because my health concern was yet to be diagnosed. This manager was a micromanager with trust issues. I can appreciate that getting an ADA exemption was best for everyone, but they also were giving me absolutely no leeway or understanding without it. I wasn’t receiving a random, unspoken exemption before, and they weren’t just following policy. They were being a controlling ass.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Table-Games-Dealer on 2025-05-01 02:58:56+00:00.

A few casinos ago, we had a progressive on all of our games. Put $5 on and you were playing for the jackpot. We installed an ultra-high limit room, and the big wigs wanted a $25 version to match the expected clientele. They had built the pay table themselves.

One of our dealers was brilliant. He did the math in his head and felt funny. He did the numbers and realized that it was EV positive. It was a game that could not be lost if you had enough money and time. You didn’t have to hit high on the pay table, the value was low enough in the pay table that the risk of ruin was absurdly low.

He brought it up to management and they dismissed him. So he got his wife and mother to come to high limit and play for months. They were not blackjack players, he didn’t care. The math worked out to a $50/hour job. Comps galore. High roller service. They never hit the jackpot, but were well within the money.

Many months later they realized their mistake. His family well entertained and much richer.

Clarification:

A progressive is a lottery style jackpot where a flat bet enters you for a chance to win an increasing total. These games have an escalating list of prizes on a pay table. The lesser prizes pay a fixed amount, and they had over paid the lesser prizes to an extent where the game paid more than it took. This means that the lottery pays you to play, regardless if you hit the jackpot or not.

Casinos always win on progressives where normally 2/5 of the bet goes to the house, 2/5 goes to increase the progressive, 1/5 goes to the operator of the game. The math should work such that the lesser prizes are afforded by the game. This was not the case due to the faulty math.

Mathematicians can calculate an EV (expected value) to determine the RTP (return to player) which is normally ~~>~~ < 100%. This game had a RTP of +100%, meaning if you played long enough you should not lose.

You can lose, but the risk of ruin (the statistical probability that you will go bankrupt playing the game) was low as the prizes most frequent on the pay table had over paid the player to an extent where my coworker could bankroll his family with 1000 bets and have a near certainty that they would win. He had a gamblers mentality backed by math. He could have lost.

Fun fact:

There is a tipping point where the progressive is high enough that the game becomes EV positive, but the jackpot is so hard to hit that most players meet their risk of ruin before hitting it. There are teams of gamblers that track progressives and will hog the game till they collect the winning jackpot, spending weeks with rotating shifts. This is common on specific slot and keno machines.

Gamble bad.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Ryn_is_existing on 2025-04-30 21:00:31+00:00.

See Edit 3 for a finishing note!!

I (21F) work in a pharmacy as a pharmacy technician along with my friend. We were both chatting about next semester and what classes we were taking while filling medications when my older coworker (41F) loudly shouts "Let's play the quietly game with just you two, and see who can go without talking for 25 minutes" very rudely. All of my other coworkers were shocked as our talking was not bothering them and we had no patients at the time. So I decided to comply, but in her rigorous standards. I stopped talking to her. Period. I only respond if talked to first and only if it is about work. I also do not talk to her once clocked out as she complains about "fratenizing with higher members of management outside of work hours." She is a lead tech, so she is higher. She hates it. Keeps trying to talk to me but I only respond with "is it about work?" And move on. She is the only one I do it to. It's fun. This coworker has a streak of being rude and overly harsh and not apologizing. It's nice to give her a taste of her own medicine. MOST PHARMACIES CALL THE PEOPLE THEY HELP "PATIENTS". ITS A POLICY. YOU CAN ASK MOST AND THEYLL AGREE. Thank you.

Edit: I think some of you guys are misinterpreting this. Our pharmacy is a "loud" one. We talk a lot, and so does she. She is a chatterbox just like the rest of us. That's why me not talking to her is pissing her off, even though she is the one who wanted it. Our patients love us talking and joking around, and know that we are serious with patient care. Also, a lot of our bad reviews are because of her and another older coworker. She is a hard worker but is rude to both patients and coworkers alike.

Edit 2: Y'all are missing the point, this coworker is rude to EVERYONE, not just me. That includes patients and coworkers. She also talks A LOT. And our pharmacy would not have as good of ratings as it does if we weren't a talkative and joyful pharmacy. I was speaking quietly, to the point that it shocked MY OTHER COWORKERS when she called me out.

Edit 3: I have responded to all I could but thank you to those who actually understand that this was a last resort for her to be nicer. I genuinely love my job. The people that I see at my job (mostly) are so amazing. Most of my coworkers are so fun, the patients are kind, interesting, and funny, the pay is great, and so is the scheduling with my classes. I have worked my ass off to try and keep it that way, fun and inviting. I am hoping to have a one on one with her soon to try and, for the last time, get her to see reason. I love my job and I don't want the happiness of the others to tank due to her.

(I really don't understand how people don't know what a "loud" pharmacy looks like. Is your local one dead or something? Many of my coworkers, rude one included, joke around and talk a ton! I've seen them almost piss themselves from laughing. The patients enjoy our shenanigans.)

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/zzdelmarco on 2025-04-29 20:31:14+00:00.

I’m posting mainly because I’m not a passive-aggressive type and I’m in disbelief that this actually worked.  

Ever since I started at my job a few months ago, my supervisor—we’ll call him Josh—has been micromanaging me. When I’m the subject of criticism (which is often), I try to give him the benefit of the doubt and ask him to clarify. What are your expectations? What specifically should I have done differently? Josh’s responses are always vague, often something to the effect of “Just do better.” I even had a meeting with Josh and HR to address this, but to no avail.

Yesterday, Josh comes to my desk to tell me I need to dress better. Now, I work at a small company, and the vibe is unusually casual. A not-insignificant number of people come to work wearing jeans, hoodies, t-shirts, and/or baseball caps. I have never worn a hat to work, and I make a point of wearing a button-up shirt with a collar every day. This particular day I was wearing a long-sleeve button-up flannel, chino pants, and Adidas gazelles. Other days I wear loafers and dress shirts that are tucked in.

So, I ask Josh to clarify. Should I be wearing dress shoes? Dress shirt? Tucked in? What specifically do you want me to change? Josh tells me I just need to dress better and that I should talk to HR for clarification. So I go in to HR and ask, what is the dress code? I get a standard answer: pants, close-toed shoes, no sleeveless shirts, etc. I ask, have I ever worn anything to work that poses a problem? HR says no, you’re fine.  

Because I’m mad, and because my repeated efforts to resolve this kind of problem had gone unheeded, I decided to be petty. The next day (today), I showed up to work in a full suit. It’s one I keep for events like weddings, so it’s fitted and I look really sharp in it. It’s also wildly and conspicuously overdressed for the office I work in. I had several interactions with people coming to my desk to comment on my outfit and ask what the occasion was. When anyone asked (only if they asked), I told them I had been told to “dress better.” This was always met with disbelief and incredulity. Two people even said they like the way I dress normally. When anyone asked me who the order came from—again, only if they asked—I told them it came from Josh.  

I was expecting to pull my little stunt for a week just to prove a point, and then go back to wearing what I had been wearing before. Word got around the office fast, apparently, because the CEO (Josh’s direct boss) came to my desk later in the day to tell me I would be reporting to him now, and that he’d be having a talk with Josh about this and other issues. It’s important to note that I was Josh’s only underling, so he effectively went from being a supervisor to just a regular employee. I’m on a bit of a high now, I think I’m going to come in to work tomorrow wearing a different one of my flannels!

Edit: This blew up! Thank you for all the support. No, this isn't AI and I didn't use ChatGPT to edit for style or grammar. I genuinely like em dashes and I use them regularly in writing—I promise!

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Deprox on 2025-04-28 06:57:17+00:00.

About 15 years ago, I was almost 20 and in my country's equivalent of a trade school for electricians. One of our teachers, electronic circuits class, had a kinda annoying catchphrase for every question students had: "no problems, just look in your textbook". He had already mentally checked out since he got a way better job lined up for next semester, so he pretty much only read stuff from the textbook and then switched to the textbook's practical exercises, where we had a breadboard and, working in pairs, inserted resistors, capacitors and other components in it. All in all, not the worst teacher we had, but this one incident made his class very memorable.

On the third class we had with that teacher (first one was introduction, second one was how to read resistor color codes, he said his catchphrase no less than 5 times per class), my friend showed me a glaring mistake in the textbook's practical exercise. It was something very simple: placing three resistors in series, measuring the current produced with a 24V DC power supply and comparing to the value we had calculated. The first two exercises were OK, but in the third one, the values for all resistors were way too low. Like, three orders of magnitude low. Somebody meant to write 10KΩ (10.000Ω) but typed 10Ω instead. For every single resistor in that exercise.

For people who are not very familiar with electronics:

• Ohm's Law dictate that, for a constant voltage supply, current gets higher as resistances get lower (Voltage = Resistance x Current, or V = RxI, which can also be written as I = V/R).

• Joule's Law dictate that more Power, which in a resistor's case would be dissipated as heat, is supplied the higher is the current (Power = Resistance x Current², or P = RxI²).

• Resistors have a power rating measured in Watts and when the rating is exceeded, they start to produce smoke and/or fire. The power rating for the resistors we were using was 0.25W.

• When resistors are placed in series, their total value is added. In this example, three 10Ω resistors would have a total resistance of 30Ω. If we use the previous formulas, we get a value of 0.8A for current and 19.2W for power... or almost 77 times the power rating of the resistors. If the 10KΩ resistors were used, we'd have 0.8mA for current and 19.2mW for power, well within the power rating of the resistors.

My friend, I and a few other students tried to ask the teacher if those values were correct, and his answer, to no one's surprise, was "no problems, just look in your textbook". I tried to argue that the textbook was plain wrong and he shut me down saying how way smarter people than him and I wrote the textbook, so we should just follow it. So everyone (some more reluctantly than others) placed the resistors in the breadboard, connected the power supply and waited for his instruction to turn it on, as has been for the first two exercises without incident.

Then he said to turn on the power supply. Without even looking in the textbook.

At first everything seemed fine and some people started to get their multimeters. A few seconds later, a girl screamed "fire", but it was really only smoke. A few seconds later and now we had small fires all over the lab and people freaking out! Nothing spectacular and they died down a few seconds later, but enough to make most of the 30 people scream and panic while the smell of burnt plastic from 15 breadboards and burnt ceramic from 45 resistors made the air pretty much unbreathable. To his credit, the teacher engaged the lab's circuit breaker pretty fast and evacuated the room so no one breathed potentially toxic fumes.

Since I was expecting it, I was more annoyed than scared (unlike some of the more sensitive people who were crying) and told the teacher, who was looking at the empty lab as if he was seeing ghosts, "there seems to be a problem, should you look in the textbook now?". He gave a nervous laughter and said "maybe you're smarter than the people who wrote it". The screaming attracted a more experienced teacher who, after making sure everyone was OK, just couldn't stop laughing at our teacher.

He did keep using his catchphrase, "no problems, just look in your textbook", until the end of the semester, but he was now also looking in the textbook himself and spotted a few glaring mistakes made by those "intelligent people". For some reason, he didn't seem to like the nickname we gave him when he heard someone saying in the hallway, "next is Textbook Idiot's class".

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/RndmBooknrrd on 2025-04-27 16:34:25+00:00.

Funny little story from when I was a kid.

Mum's aunt was visiting, basically babysitting me and my sister (back when neither of us were in school yet). We'd all had lunch and the adults, coffee, but all the dirty dishes were still in the sink.

Before mum left to run her errands, she told her aunt not to put the dishes away.

She left, we played some, my sister had a nap and I probably sat somewhere reading or playing by myself. Auntie went to the kitchen.

When mum got back, we were all in the livingroom. She went to the kitchen and said, "What's with these dishes in the sink - looks like they're all clean?"

Her aunt replied, "You told me not to put them away, so I washed them and put them back!"

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/neuralsnafu on 2025-04-26 15:01:13+00:00.

This story happens over a decade ago, when my city was starting up a 'must use this bin for trash, and a recycle bin will be provided as well' schemes.

My roommates and I got the notice for this new change over and we were reading the requirements and such, we all noticed one glaring thing. All paper products must be loose, and not bagged. This included shreds... My friends and I discuss this and talk about how dumb it is etc... and then the new phonebooks started showing up. Queue bright idea...

We then started asking at work, friends, family, neighbors etc if they had anything they needed to shred and if we could have their phone books (I mean, even at that point, no one used em anyways). We had literal piles of phone books and papers, envelopes, and anything else paper we could run through our shredders.

I think it took a few weeks for us to manage to get through all the phone books we had, and iirc we killed at least one shredder...

In the end we had like 4 30 gallon trash bags full of shreds, cross cut confetti sized shreds. Which we then lovingly packed into the recycle bin, full to the top, and slightly packed. Then trash day comes...

Unfortunately I worked nights so I didn't get to see the dumping of the shreds, but upon waking I knew it was a glorious occasion... shreds everywhere...

I would imagine that we were not the only ones with this bright idea as a few weeks later a notice showed up, stating that the rules had been amended, all shreds were to be bagged in clear plastic trash bags...

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Biohazard5656 on 2025-04-26 20:22:32+00:00.

I worked at a contract manufacturing company that assembled and tested electronic PCBs for various other companies. They were big on keeping track of times and quantities to be able to properly charge for work done or to be within the quote. You'd be clocking in and out of different jobs as you finished a step or moved to a different product.

Well one day I was working on board XYZ that took only about 1 minute to function test. I would get 5 per tray about every 15 minutes. That leaves me with 10 minutes of idle hands so I would work on board ABC that we already had a large quantity of on the test floor. So I would test boards ABC for awhile and then test the XYZ boards after I got a few trays of them on the shelf.

Boss: Why you working of those boards, we need the XYZ boards to ship this week, don't worry about the ABC boards. (As if I already knew that XYZ were rushed or something)

Me: I'm testing those boards quicker then they are giving me them to me.

Boss: I don't care just get these damn boards done that's all I care about. Don't work on anything else, I just want you to focus all your attention on these boards. We need to get them done!

Malicious compliance time.

Test for 5 minutes, wait for 10 minutes. For 8 hours.

End of day comes.

Boss: How many XYZ boards you get done today?

Me: About 160

Boss: How long that take you?

Me: (I'm a wise ass so I already knew where this was going.) Of actually work?

Boss: Yes

Me: little over 2.5 hours.

Boss: What the hell you do the rest of the day?

Me: Waited.

Boss: Why the hell you do that?

Me: Remember when I said I was testing the boards faster then I was getting them and you said to only work on those boards?

Boss: Stupid boss face.

Me: That's why!

I couldn't honestly write like 10 more of these on this sub reddit from working at that place. Some people never learn.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ptrkhh on 2025-04-26 19:01:21+00:00.

Governments around the world have been pushing hard for car companies to add "idle stop-start" systems to help with emissions and fuel economy. You know, the system that kills your engine every time you stop at a red light, followed by an awkward restart when you lift your foot off the brake.

It's supposed to save the planet, but a lot of drivers (especially the ones paying $$$ for a BMW) absolutely hate it.

Enter BMW’s malicious compliance.

They technically had to install it. So, they did. But they also knew their customers would hate it. So, what did they do?

They put the "disable idle-stop" button right next to the engine start/stop button.

It's like they're silently telling you: "Hey, your government told me to install this garbage. But here's a button to turn it off every time you start the car. Right here. You're welcome."

Of course, most manufacturers bury the option in a button in some corner, or even some annoying screen menu. BMW’s design is basically encouraging you to slap that button first thing, every drive. It’s a beautiful, passive-aggressive "screw you" to the regulation.

Malicious compliance? German engineering? Why not both.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/nogue2k on 2025-04-26 13:16:52+00:00.

I was a software engineer for a company and out of nowhere they implemented an eletronic control on our work time. Before that we would work extra on good faith, if I had to do 2 more hours one day, the next day I could get in 2 hours later without a problem. In the new system I had to clock in at 8am (if I didn't it would consider I was late and "lose" the entire first hour) and clock out at 5pm. With 1 hour lunch break.

Work laws here in Brazil are different from the ones in the US and most of the posts here. If the company tracks your work time, they HAVE to pay you extra time on anything over 40hours/week.

Sometimes I would get in a bit earlier like 8:50 or something and leave at 5:10pm. At the end of the first month I was surprised my extra hours were 0 ( on the previous system I wouldn't care, but they were the ones that decided to track this) . I decided to do some digging on how the tracking software worked and found out that anything less than 15 minutes per check in was completely ignored (99% sure that was against the law but I could work with that).

From that day on guess who arrived 16 minutes earlier everyday. Came back from lunch 16 minutes earlier ( if I was done and had nothing else to do ) and left 16 minutes later.

At the end of the second month management called me in to explain why I had over 3 times more extra hours than most of the other workers. I just told them to check their system, I'm not the one keeping track of that anymore.

To my surprise they actually did pay everything that was owned ( I could sue and easily win) and DID NOT change how the system worked. I kept doing that for another 3 months before changing jobs to a remote one.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/eugebra on 2025-04-26 11:49:37+00:00.

This happened some months ago, and i remebered it while reading some ot the posts here.

So, i'm a forklift driver in a factory that produces chemical products for building and construction, adhesives, sealants, cement, etc...

my job basically consist in providing the workers with everything they need to continue production. my department produces adhesives and my shift has circa 20 people, so i'm constantly moving back and forth between the warehouse, the department and everywhere else we stock the materials.

In the time this happened, our managers started to pressure us on the use of phones, which many people did use a lot, and some were really exxagerating with it. i used it in the slow moments, or while i was waiting for something, obviously not while driving, and i had to keep it near me because the bosses needed to reach for me while i was away from the department for various tasks.

They really became very strict on the use of phones, and a guy got even a formal complaint for it (3 compaints in a single year gets you fired).

Malicious compliance: i simply shut off the phone at the start of the shift and only turned it on while on break.

Now, i didn't specify how BIG my workplace is, it's 1,4million square feet, and sometime it took me even 10 minutes to go where i needed to go and come back and i received like 30 calls a day that were simply left unanswered. my managers were going mad but they couldn't do shit because they imposed the rule.

EDIT since i saw them mentioned. They provided us with walkie-takies, but the obviously needed to be charged, and since we are working on 3 rotating shifts, they were never fully charged and died after an hour.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Scary_Expert1929 on 2025-04-26 06:36:04+00:00.

Hello everyone, I will try to be concise.

BACKROUND

I work at a company where I handle mid to high level complaints to managers, PR and legal.

My daily requirement is 40 cases handled per day, there are some of my team colleagues that struggle with this, but I don't, and I don't feel lazy to stop at 40, so I have handled 50-55 basically every day for the past two years. There is no bonus (or even recognition) for this, I just did it because I felt a friendly obligation to the company.

Complaints can be a 5 minute resolution, or a 2 hour zoom call with our New York lawyers, it's a gamble really.

THE EVENT

Recently I had a day where I felt a bit sick and at the same time, had bad luck of getting only very hard cases that required more time, so I had 39 cases (1 under the requirement).

I thought nothing of it, as my weekly average way off the charts, 50+ as usual.

The very next day I felt better and went back to my usual high numbers.

Come Monday, I had a "emergency 1-on-1" with my manager where I was informed that I had to attend a 3 day workshop/seminar on how to best meet requirements, because I "underperformed last week."

My jaw dropped, and I asked don't they count the weekly, monthly, yearly numbers, to which I was told that the "daily requirement is 40, and this is standard practice, nothing we can do."

Basically it was a workshop for underperformers who had 20-30 out of 40 cases daily,

it was nothing hard, but I did need to drive there for 3 days after work and listen to HR guys

giving bad advice (as they never actually handled the cases in real life) and I had to talk about

what will I do to improve my numbers and "reach the 40", as they nonsense HR talk calls it.

This made me lose hours and hours of my free time and I was livid.

After it was over, I had a long think and I decided that I will do exactly that. I will "reach the 40" and that's it.

THE AFTERMATH

For the past few months, I go into work, I handle 40 cases, my daily requirement, and then I do NOTHING for the rest of my shift.

I have had multiple 1-on-1's with my manager during this time, and I am constantly asked: "is something wrong", to which I naively reply "no, am in trouble, am I underperforming?" and then of course they say that I am 100% within daily requirements and that way I shut the conversation down.

This is real life, so I can't really say a clever comeback or something like that, but I do keep "playing the fool" that has no idea what is wrong now, but I find satisfaction in knowing that they got used to my overachieving and are now suffering for the lack of it.

Before Easter, they put up an internal ad for promoting another 2 managers, so my guess is how that is the number of people they will now need to pay extra, just because they lost me as an overachiever, and they lost me for no reason other than their own stupidity.

Thank you all, I hope I did not bore you.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Large_Art9229 on 2025-04-25 16:28:41+00:00.

Years ago I was head of quality control for a major partner company that built transmission parts for a big us automaker that started with F. My job at that company consisted of daily audits and testing of parts to make sure they met specifications and functioned correctly. One of the testing procedures was a machine that would test the parts to ensure they rotated 360 degrees without catching or getting stuck and they either passed or failed. Failed parts would get reworked of course. For the first year the job b was great and I took pride in it because if your spending over 50 grand on a new car you'd want it to work properly right?.

Well after a year the plant manager and CEO of the partner company came up to me one day and said that we would no longer be doing the rotation test. I was surprised because for one any changes in procedure have to be approved by F and second my written work instructions at the station has to be changed out, updated and stamped with approval which was standard procedure anytime work instructions were updated. The work instructions would also have to be reviewed by F. they told me to not worry about it and just stop testing the parts and to just pack them up and ship them. I definitely sensed a crapstorm coming because we did unfortunately have a high defect rate and without this test process 30 percent of the parts the customer received would be bad. But cue malicious compliance.

First thing I did was cover my butt. I typed up an official document stating I would not be responsible for any bad or defective parts that make it past me then I had it signed by the CEO and plant manager who didn't even really bother looking over it then I had it notarized by our companies notary. 

Within a month the results were clear we were getting many complaints about bad parts and parts were being returned at an alarming rate. Some higher ups from F even did a walk through to try and see what the issue was and that's when they noticed that we weren't testing the parts before sending them out anymore. I was called into the conference room later that day for a meeting with the plant manager,the CEO and the higher ups from F. The plant manager and CEO looked furious and I knew they were gonna put the blame on me but I was prepared.

PM op the reason we called you here is because it was brought to our attention you aren't testing the parts before sending them out anymore is there a reason for this? He said with a smug look

Me yes you said not to test them anymore and to just send them out

CEO that's not true we never said that

I then proceeded to pull out the paper they mindlessly signed. Me here's the agreement you signed saying I'm not responsible for any bad parts getting sent out and how were no longer testing them. The plant manager and CEOs face both went pale and I then gleefully handed the paper to the higher ups from F. I was then asked to leave the room and on my way out I handed my 2 weeks notice to the plant manager because I knew this company was screwed and has another job lined up.

Long story short they lost their contract with F and got sued for 3 million dollars. The company shut its doors and last I heard they filed for chapter 3 bankruptcy. I don't know what happened to the building or anyone else that worked there and I don't even Care but I do know F had a major parts shortage for a while after this

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ManHazNoUsername on 2025-04-24 22:23:34+00:00.

When I started working with a particular company, my boss, Wallace, absolutely hated using track changes.

And he didn’t allow anyone to use them.

“We DO NOT use track changes here!!!” He told me proudly on my first day.

This meant that we had to type and print everything, go next to him on his desk, and he would correct our work using any medium which was within reach; pencil, blue ink, purple ink, coal,, a squid, whatever.

This lead to infinite asterisks, up arrows, down arrows, speech bubbles, etc etc.

And countless misunderstandings and mistakes which wasted everyone’s time and basically frustrated everyone.

Some people raised it to higher ups but to no avail.

I tried to convince him twice to use track changes by listing all the benefits etc. On the third try he snapped at me and shouted at me in front of everyone:” DIDN’T I FUCKING TELL YOU THAT WE DON’T USE TRACK CHANGES HERE!!!!”

I remained standing up and loudly and calmly apologised in front of everyone and agreed with him that track changes are unnecessary and I will never ever ever use them again.

Then, I picked up my faintest and messiest pen, and scribbled my answers, comments, and suggestions in reply to his feedback with something as close to a lovechild between wingdings and hieroglyphics as possible. On a 50 page urgent document. Using asterisks and PTOs, and everything I could think of.

I left the document on his desk while he was in a meeting and cheerfully went home.

The next morning we found an email from Wallace, timed at 10:30pm, requesting us to start using track changes immediately.

At the end of that day, following my coworkers’ treatment, I understood why superheroes join the Avengers.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/PrestigiousPromise20 on 2025-04-24 21:58:06+00:00.

This is pretty complicated so sorry it’s going to be long. TLDR at the bottom.

In the early years of being a pharmacist, jobs in my city were hard to come by. I managed to get full time hours by working for a couple of pharmacist friends at both of their stores. They would work out my schedule together and put an X on my schedule on the days I was at the opposing store. One store was downtown and one was in the suburb I lived in.

At the suburb pharmacy I had a coworker “Dee” who could just not wrap her brain around the fact that if there was an X by my name I was in fact working… just at the other store. Multiple times I would have call after call on my cell phone and hang ups on my answering machine at home because she wanted me to cover her shift at the suburb store when I was already working downtown. Worst thing was my cell phone charged me for every single call so after the second time of her pulling this I would get downtown and immediately pull the battery off my phone. This made her angry at me for “ignoring” her and we had a tepid relationship after that.

Time went on and the suburb store started expanding their nursing home operation so I was able to work there full time instead. I still had a great relationship with the downtown store and they had me keep the keys in case of emergencies. They would occasionally come up and the X would be on the schedule by my name. Sadly Dee became the assistant manager and now thought she was “the boss” of me.

Now downtown pharmacist’s daughter was getting married and suburb pharmacist was invited to all the festivities. I got scheduled to work the Thursday before at the downtown store. The X went by my name on the suburb schedule. I was also going to the wedding -I was good friends with the daughter but missing the Mendhi party on the Thursday I was working for her mum. I was on the phone with her on my break one time and she was saying how sorry she was I was missing it and I said “don’t worry I’ll just doodle brown sharpie all over my hands and pretend I was there when we aren’t busy”.

Now at that exact week we were getting new pharmacy software downloaded. Nursing homes are run on a batch system where all the labels are run about 5 days before and then all the bubble packs are made up during that time and then the actual billing is done on the Thursday for the meds to be delivered Friday. Dee decided that she did not want the batch to be done and just wanted everything to be processed and made up on the Thursday for just this first week. My technician was freaking out so I just told her to make up the usual drug cards (Lipitor, aspirin 81, multivitamin, Altace etc) without any patient data just to help speed things along. Dee overheard and told the tech that she wasn’t allowed to do that and “this younger generation is just scared of hard work”. I panicked a bit because I was the only one of my age (gen X) as all my coworkers were boomer aged or older. I went and checked the schedule… yep there’s an X by my name…. I won’t be there for the sh*tshow but somehow Dee thinks I am? Why should I tell her any different.

Thursday rolls around and at 12:30 my cell phone starts blowing up. It’s in my purse in the safe because I don’t get a lunch break (only pharmacist) and everyone can hear it. Out comes the battery. I get home after work and there’s screaming and swearing on my answering machine. A locum pharmacist worked the morning shift and wasn’t instructed to do anything so everything was left for Dee when she arrived at 12:30. She had to work late to finish over 500 prescription drug cards. I come in the next day and she’s still furious. “You said you were working! I heard you talking about the effing mendhi thing”. I told her I was working just not at that store as evidenced by the X by my name.

I learned then that she could eavesdrop on the break room from one place in the pharmacy when she herself was the only pharmacist working at the time. All my breaks were taken in my car after this.

TLDR Co-worker tried to make my day absolutely hell by trying to make me do 5 days of work in one day…. a day that I wasn’t working so she had to do it.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Ivotia2025 on 2025-04-24 04:29:27+00:00.

In 2006, I worked as a maintenance technician in a small office building. My job was to make sure everything works properly air conditioning, plumbing, electricity, all that stuff.

Then we got a new boss from some big corporate office, and he was obsessed with cutting costs. First week he tells us all, in a very serious voice: “From now on, absolutely no overtime. No matter what. No exceptions.”

We all kind of looked at each other like, “Is he serious?”

So, Friday afternoon, around 4:30 PM, I get an alert from the boiler room. Pressure is in one of the water pipes is very high. I check it and pipe is vibrating like crazy. I know if we don’t release the pressure or fix it, it’s going to explode.

I go to the boss and tell him, “This pipe is dangerous. I need maybe 1-2 hours overtime to fix it tonight.”

He looks at the clock, and says, “It’s past 5 soon. No overtime. We’ll handle it Monday.”

Okay, boss. No problem.

So I go home.

Saturday morning, I get a call from the security guy who works weekends. He’s freaking out. “Water is pouring out of the boiler room! It’s flooded the hallway! What do I do?!”

I laugh. I say, “Too late. Nothing we can do now, perhaps swim?”

On Monday, the boss walks in and smells wet carpet and disaster. Half the ground floor is underwater. Documents ruined. IT equipment drowned. Rest in peace.

He comes to me angry: “Why didn’t you stop this?!” I just say, “You told me no overtime. Pipe didn’t want to wait till Monday.”

Cleanup cost thousands. And guess what? From that day, boss never said no to overtime again. In fact, from then on when we reported just an inkling of a suspicion that something might be wrong, he simply said, “Do what you have to do. Just don’t tell me the hours.”

Sometimes, pipe is the best teacher.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/birdtwobird on 2025-04-23 18:34:39+00:00.

when I was freshly 16 I drove with my dad to the driver’s test. I had practiced a lot with my mom, but she grew up in the city and was a much more aggressive driver than my dad. this was my first time driving with just him in the car, and he wanted to help me practice on the day of my actual test.

well, he gives me the usual “every car on the road wants to kill you” and defensive driving stuff to the extreme. very nitpicky about everything. at a stop sign, he berated me for stopping too abruptly. “you should never accelerate whenever a stop sign is in sight - take your foot off the gas as soon as you see a stop sign, no exceptions”.

I kind of argued with him that sometimes that wouldn’t work - we live in a very flat state and you can see stop signs from very far away sometimes. he got angry at me and told me he was just trying to help and I should accept his advice etc. I said fine.

I also knew the next stop sign up on our drive was at the end of a six mile flat road, that isn’t very busy. I planned my malicious compliance. as soon as I saw that stop sign (maybe half a mile out? idk im bad with distances) I took my foot off of the gas. about 15 seconds in we were going half the speed limit. 30 seconds in we come to a crawl. I look away from the road and make eye contact with him for the last ten feet or so - he was confused at first but cracked a smile when he realized what I was doing. the car came to a full stop a good fifteen to twenty feet from the stop sign.

“what should I do now?” I asked.

he just laughed, called me a smart ass, and was much more relaxed the rest of the day. I aced my test.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/missvibey on 2025-04-23 13:55:25+00:00.

Back in 2022, I worked night shift at a grocery store in Florida, stocking frozen. One night, I noticed the walk-in freezer was at 20°F (should be 0). I go tell my manager — real hardass, always barking orders like he’s running a boot camp.

He cuts me off mid-sentence: “You’re not paid to think. Just stock the damn shelves.”

Cool.

Next morning? Whole seafood section’s trash. Shrimp, salmon, crab legs — all thawed and leaking. Store lost over $7,000.

Corporate shows up pissed. Manager tries to throw me under the bus.

“Why didn’t you report it??”

I just said, “Manager told me I’m not paid to think.”

They checked the cameras and audio — confirmed everything. Corporate backed me hard. Dave was “reassigned” (aka fired) a week later.

Never saw him again. I got moved to dairy lead a month after.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Notaswordmaster on 2025-04-23 10:18:33+00:00.

This is starting to be a long time ago now. I was working on IT support for a municipality, traveling around and fixing incidents and fulfilling requests. My team was at the office a varying amount, but I would say 80-100% traveling between tasks.

As many who work in offices probably have experience from… the kitchen is always a mess. Coffecups and plates just laying around. We had even bought an industrial dishwasher, either easy to load trays. One for plates, one for bowls, and one for cups and glasses. But people are stupid/lazy, and put things on the bench or in the wrong tray.

So a genius found out that we need a rotating «kitchen duty» plan. So everyone has 1 day where they are responsible for the kitchen. This wasn’t a kitchen for making food. So it was basicly just a coffe machine, fridge and microwave.

The list came out. And I saw my team on the list. So I immediately contact the ones responsible and explain that my team is traveling most of the day. We are rarely at the office, and usually grab a lunch while traveling, so we shouldn’t be on the list. They reply that «everyone will be on the list».

So again raise the issue that we’re not at the office…. And I get a reply saying we’ll just have to come to the office to take our responsibility.

Here my malicious compliance kicks in My day comes up. So i go to the office, turn on an audiobook. And take my place in the kitchen. Whenever someone came into the kitchen to place something on the counter I would make a noise, pointing to the trays. If they put it wrong, I would point to the PICTURE of where to place the thing.

I did this for 7 hours that day.

I got some questions about my workload. In which I replied I had a lot to do. But I had kitchen duty, so wouldn’t be able to go out to any of the incidents.

After the second time I did this, and the big boss asked questions, the list was finally changed, and my team was removed! :D

The person responsible for the list still thought it was unfair that we didn’t have to do kitchen duty :p

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/HeavenForbid3 on 2025-04-22 17:52:46+00:00.

I (54F) went to visit my adult son (30M). We went out to dinner and I was driving, he was in the passenger seat. We had to go through downtown traffic and I asked him to help me watch out for pedestrians. I didn't specify pedestrians crossing the road. (Pedestrians have the right of way.) So true to his humor he notified me about every person walking. Every. Single. Person. Yelling (not too loud) Pedestrian! And pointing to each person walking on the sidewalk.

OMG he has me in tears from laughing so hard. I made a monster and taught him a warped sense of humor. God I love my son! Even a month later when I went to visit him again he'd do the same thing. I think this will forever be a thing and I don't mind.

Malicious compliance between us is just another way to mess with each other and it's hilarious. Idk what else to say except that I'm proud of him.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Bacon-pot-luck on 2025-04-21 06:23:42+00:00.

A few years ago, I worked as a copywriter at a small PR agency run by a tyrant of a boss—let’s call her Marcy. She was all about control. One day during a strategy meeting, I pointed out a huge flaw in a campaign that could have cost our client major money.

Her response?

“You’re not paid to think, you’re paid to write what I tell you.”

Cool. Got it.

From that point on, I followed her instructions exactly. No suggestions, no edits, no heads-up when things were obviously going sideways. Just pure, flawless compliance.

Within two months, two major clients left over tone-deaf campaigns—ones I had tried to fix but was explicitly told not to.

Guess who got blamed? Me.

Guess who kept receipts? Also me.

I forwarded my “just doing what you told me” email chain to HR. Turns out, this wasn’t the first complaint. She was “restructured” out of the company three weeks later.