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Malicious Compliance
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People conforming to the letter, but not the spirit, of a request.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Swirling_Insanity on 2025-03-23 20:12:03+00:00.
I am in college and studying for my extended diploma in art and design. I have a teacher this year who is all about conceptual art and has never drawn a day in her life. To keep this short I will just list the things she had done before: told me that my drawings are just copies and not real art, told me that "anime" isn't art and I need to be more realistic, told my class to use AI art, told me that my portfolio for University was not enough of me and to remove some of my best work. To put it lightly, this woman gets on my nerves.
We were doing an industry linked project with a local business during our practice project before our final major. She had arranged a visit for the head of the company to come and see our artwork as we where in lesson. She spent 3/4 of an our looking at 2 people's work in specific (there is 9 of us in that class) and then eventually came over to me and my friends.
We all specialize in character creation and concept art, looking at a lot of different animation and cartoons and using those styles. She brought over this woman and said "These are our character creators, they all really like anime but we're trying to get them to move away from that and look at some real art". We were shocked that she would just discredit our work in front of the woman who employed us to do work for her business.
I am now on our final project, she had told me multiple times on our previous project that " You can't just do research on things you like, you need to broaden your research" so I decided to do just that. I made an entire research page on conceptual art and went into detail discussing an artists themes and exploring the style of her work and saying how to me it doesn't make sence and that I don't have the same love for it as it seems illogical. I used a lot of points to back up my views and made sure that she couldn't turn it against me. We are also being taken on a trip to a conceptual art gallery that I will be doing the exact same with. She spent the first half of this year discrediting all my hard work and style, so now I will discredit hers.
She has seen the research page but didn't even bother to properly read it, but she said how she likes that I've put myself more open to look at different artists. She had seen how I had spoken about it in her brief look over my work and quickly moved onto the next table. Completely forgetting to look at the others work on my table but they didn't care and didn't want to talk to her anyway. I hope she knows how much we all don't like her way of teaching.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/cryssHappy on 2025-03-23 22:10:13+00:00.
About 20 years ago I worked for a small state agency where supervisors, quality review and trainers were all the same payscale and you could transfer from one area to the other. One of the sups was promoted to area manager (4 areas in the state) and our office dynamics changed. Normally, these 3 classifications were back ups for the security system (manager was fully responsible) and if the manager and all the sups were out of the office, one of us (slightly lesser) reviewer/trainer was 'in charge'. Fast forward 6 months, Upper Management scheduled a 2 day training for the manager and the sups. I make the mistake of asking who's in charge while they are gone. New manager looks at me and says ... "None of you are in charge since you don't have the fiscal responsibility that I and the sups have". It was said in a put you in your place voice. Me, nearing retirement, thinks - Cool, one less headache for me .. what I said was "Glad to know that." Fast forward 4 months and it's time to rotate the security system backup. Manager looks at me and my partner and says that it's our turn. I look at the manager and said "It would seem that if QR doesn't have fiscal responsibility and can't be 'in charge' when management is out, then QR can't be responsible for security backup. My manager opened her mouth, shut her mouth and turned a interesting hue of red. We get out of the meeting and my partner and the trainers are all happy as am I. The 4 sups, not so much.
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Boss yells at me for following instructions and tells me to do the opposite next time... which backfires
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Consistent-Shoe-9602 on 2025-03-23 21:02:13+00:00.
About 20 years ago, I used to work as an office assistant at a small company where we would receive orders from clients and then we would assign the work to one of our freelancers who were well compensated and respectable professionals. My boss was such a professional herself and when possible, we would assign that work to her.
I accepted the minimum wage job, because she told me I could sometimes get tasks assigned as a freelancer with the nice freelancer compensation, that she would personally train me and that in less than a year, I would most likely be promoted to a regular freelancer and make very good money. This sounded like a great career path to my young and naïve ears.
One of the things she had told me in the very beginning was that when you take over an order, you become like a project manager for that order. You need to make sure that the freelancer would finish the work on time as the work was usually time sensitive. Additionally, she loved going on long lectures about how she is paying me (minimum wage) for me to use my brain and figure things out when necessary. These lectures were mainly a vehicle for her to stroke her own ego by explaining to her employees how our brains were not as smart as hers.
One day, our biggest corporate client had placed a large order that was due on a Monday by noon and we had assigned the task to my boss to do over the weekend. It was Monday morning, time was ticking and my boss hadn't arrived at the office. The client had called to see if we were going to provide the work soon as it was urgent. I tried calling my boss who didn't pick up her mobile. I called half an hour later and texted her. No answer or reply while noon was fast approaching. So I called her landline at home. Her husband picked up, told me she wasn't home and I explained very briefly why I was trying to get a hold of her.
Less than an hour before noon, my boss called furious that I had been so insistent on getting a hold of her and that I had created a state of stress and emergency at her house. Her home number was for emergencies only and this wasn't an emergency. "It's not professional to call people when they are not at work!" She told me she got everything under control and she was now sending the work to the client directly.
When she arrived at the office she gave me a big scolding in person and told me that I do need to hound other freelancers, but not her. It was her business and she got everything handled, she knew all the clients and they were clients because of her. She looked me in the eye and told me "If I take over a task, it's not your task anymore, it's my task! You don't need to bother me with reminders. You just give me the instructions from the client and I'll handle everything myself. From that point on, your job is done! I never ever miss deadlines! If the client calls, you tell them I'm on it and you don't call me or text me about it!"
Fair enough. I apologized for the stress and repeated the new instructions back to her for confirmation. She was very happy with that and confirmed I had understood everything. She once more gave me her favorite lecture about how she is paying me (minimum wage) for me to use my brain with a lot of condescending examples of how she always uses her brain unlike us normal workers. I could only nod along as if her narcissistic rant was actually teaching anybody anything.
About a month or so later, another client come in with an order, I accepted it, my boss was available to handle it, so I forwarded everything to her and I considered my work in regard to that order done as instructed. On the day of the deadline, I was on vacation and was hiking in a remote area with spotty cell coverage. The other office assistant called me and told me the client had called the office to check if the work was ready. I told my colleague that our boss was on it and that we didn't need to worry as our boss was going to handle it and that my clear instructions were to tell the client our boss was personally on it, the task would be done by the deadline and explicitly not to call our boss to remind her of the deadline. Then since I was on vacation, I needed to conserve my battery, and everything at the office was handled, I switched off my phone. An approaching deadline that my boss had to meet was explicitly not an emergency. Also I had recently realized that my boss had knowingly misled me about the carrier opportunities this job was affording me, so I wasn't going to be on call on my rare day off.
While I was hiking without a care in the world, my boss had managed to forget about the deadline. By the time she realized she had missed it, the office was closed. My boss had urgently finished the work, but it turned out she didn't know the clients so well as she didn't have their contact details. As the order was in the office and my phone was off, she had to go there herself, fetch it and use the contact details to deliver the work late. This was particularly embarrassing as my colleague had informed the client our boss was personally doing the work for them.
When I came back to work, it was pandemonium. She screamed at me, but I simply pointed out that everything I had done was following her instructions. "Why did you do this?" "You told me to." "Why didn't you do that?" "You told me not to". She was fuming, but she knew I was correct and I had acted exactly as instructed. She also screamed at me for my phone being off, but I said I needed to conserve my batter for emergencies and this was clearly not an emergency and I'm not on call while on vacation anyway.
Malicious compliance for the win, right?
Well, narcissists never accept blame and she had an idea of how to shift the blame to me after all. "But you didn't provide me with the client's contact details with the order assignment! How could I have delivered them the work? It was your fault for not providing me with all the information." I pointed out that she told me she knew all the clients personally, but if she had used her brain like she is constantly telling us to, she could have easily noticed that the order instructions were on the client's letterhead with all their contact details spelled out. On every single page! Bottom and top! Now that was a huge slap to her fragile ego and remembering her face in that moment still makes me smile.
Needless to say, I was fired. Of course, I didn't mind. Don't you just love happy endings!
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/zerothreeonethree on 2025-03-23 09:18:04+00:00.
I worked as a night supervisor in a small private psychiatric hospital years ago. Department directors of individual patient units were on site from 8am to 5 pm Monday thru Friday, so there was a bit of overlap in supervisory responsibilities between 3pm and 5pm. The director of the high security acute care unit did not care for me as a supervisor, nor as a human being. She made it very clear that she was in charge until 5:00pm, not sooner. At every chance encounter, she had some snide accusation or remark to make about night shift, whether real, perceived or imagined. Nothing I ever did was correct or good enough in her mind. One day the evening supervisor traded shifts with me so she could attend her granddaughter’s school play that afternoon.
On that day, I received oncoming report from the nursing director including ongoing construction progress as the facility upgraded its appearance. About 1 hour into the shift, I had completed oncoming rounds on the second floor and had just arrived on the first floor when a fire alarm sounded. The hospital operator announced a “Code Red” on the second floor South wing, opposite and 1 floor removed from the acute care unit. (It was later discovered the construction workers accidentally set off the alarm.)
Nobody was to evacuate their area unless in imminent danger, told to do so by a supervisor, or ordered by a member of the fire department. At night, everybody was in their beds, so all staff had to do was a head count and shut all doors. During daylight hours, patients were up walking around the halls, in group therapy sessions or with individual counsellors. I instructed the charge nurse to gather all the patients and staff into a large dayroom, complete the headcount and remain there until the “all clear” was announced on the intercom.
As I started to leave, the unit director entered and demanded to know why all the patients weren’t “lined up at the door”. Stupid sleep-deprived me didn’t understand this was a rhetorical question. I started to explain that this was the safest way to keep track of this population, and they were in no immediate danger. She didn’t wait for an answer, she started yelling for everyone to line up at the back door and leave the building. Just then, 2 firefighters arrived and asked me where the exit was to the outside courtyard. I pointed down the hallway to where the director stood with 25 confused patients and staff in front of the exit.
The lieutenant got about halfway to the exit, stopped and looked at me and asked “What the hell are all these people doing blocking the fire exit? Who’s in charge here?” I walked up to him, pointed at the director and said, “She is.” I immediately turned to walk off the unit, listening to the lieutenant loudly telling her “They should be in a room with the doors closed, not blocking an exit! We need to get outside, and you put these people directly in our way. The alarm location isn’t anywhere near here! You have multiple barriers and firewalls that must be breached before you must leave! etc. etc.”
At the next all-management meeting, the hospital administrator announced that in the future, directors will stick to managing their individual department issues. Shift supervisors were to remain in charge of global hospital operations, including managing emergency evacuation of patients during fires and other building threats. The director never spoke to me again. Win-win.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Mistapeepers on 2025-03-22 21:35:12+00:00.
So I’m coming through TSA today at ATL. The guy in front of me is emptying his pockets into the bin. As he does so I notice one AirPod slip out and fall to the floor under the table. So I tap him on the shoulder as he turns away to let him know. He flinches and snaps “DON’T F**KING TOUCH ME!”
Aight. Bet. No problem bud.
Coming up the stairs after security I see him rummaging in his pockets like he’s lost something. So I give him a big smile, (without touching him of course) and say: “Hey man I think you dropped an air pod back before the checkpoint. Have a great flight!”
(For the non-Americans amongst us, TSA is airport security and, once you go through, you’re not coming back without a hassle)
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ShowerSetupRater55 on 2025-03-22 15:05:19+00:00.
A few days ago i was written up at my job (Im an overnight stocker at walmart). The write up in question was for two (2) unworked cases that had no space on the shelf. I later learn that the supervisor for that area had just placed these items on the tippy top shelf, then written me up about it (pending verification as there was no formal meeting with an impartial witness in the admin office, as per policy).I take his feedback into consideration, which stated i check the spaces on the shelf and fix any placement issues, and get to work in that area the next day. This specific area is known for being particularly messed up. I saved this area until i knew this supervisor would be there in the morning. There I am, with half of a shelf items on the floor as I’m fixing this mess (all for one item). The supervisor notices me and asks what I’m doing, to put the items back on the shelf and just find a space for my one item. At this point i pull my phone out and show him his own feedback that states that I should fix shelving issues. He stares for a moment trying to reason with me in the interest of time, which I want as much as possible since I’m paid hourly. We came to the agreement that I should respect all supervisors and their input. Fine with me. So I pick the next box up, walk it to its location and there’s another such mess. (Skipping what we already know happens) I quote him in saying I should respect the supervisors input, and reference his posted feedback. That day I left with an hour of overtime and a separate supervisor that said they would look into the validity of my write up.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/CoachPuzzleheaded535 on 2025-03-22 12:11:28+00:00.
First time poster, on mobile, and not entirely sure if it belongs here, but here we go.
32 y/o female, working at a casino in California as a sort of banker, the job is unique to Cali, but it's important for context. I won't bore you with the details of what I do (unless you want me to) but suffice to say that me and my co-workers sit at the table as if we are players, specifically the first seat. We can't move seats, and generally speaking aren't allowed to go anywhere without someone to take over our spot because we oversee the money being used on the table.
I work at a smaller casino. 100 tables tops. And a lot of them are arranged for maximum use of the space. Keep in mind I said "maximum", not "optimal". And there is a notoriously bad spot in the casino where the #1 seat of table A buts up against the #6 seat of table B to where two people can't really sit straight on to the table comfortably without some give from both parties. I'm working Table B and therefore am overlooking table A. Also important is that we use office type rolling chairs at most of the table including A and B.
Now comes the meat of the story. Today we had a pretty busy day, nothing abnormal for a Friday evening, my table is full save for seat six. Until a fine, heavy set, gentleman, let's call him Rude Customer (R.C. for short), takes up the last seat. The one that butts up against my co-worker's seat. I call him RC for various reasons that I can explain later as well.
So, RC takes up the last seat, and from the moment her sits down he starts bumping his chair against my co-workers' chair. Essentially using their size to bully themselves into a comfortable position for themselves, at the detriment of my co-worker, who's getting pushed and jostled every one minute or two from RC's constant movements. Forcing them to sit sideways on the chair, as well as constantly getting bumped and jostled.
Me and the Dealer, who notice co-worker's situation, try to remedy it by asking RC if he can scoot over a little to allow for my co-worker to not get bumped into constantly while trying to do their job. His response? "I'm a big guy, I can't help I take up a lot of space. Besides, I'm centered on my seat, not my fault the casino put the tables like this." Mind you, yes the table was crowded, but it's not uncommon for people to not be exactly in front of section assigned the seat. There was room to move over, and him moving literally half a foot would have solved the issue. But no, he refused to move at all, and continued to jostled and bump into my co-worker.
Here's (where I think) the malicious compliance comes in. See, I'm a big girl, 6 feet tall, 230 lbs, (182 cm, 104 kg) and hatch the plan. I ask my affected co-worker if they'd like to switch spots with me if our manager allows it. They say yes, my floor manager agrees, and we swap. I, being the lovely bitch I am, sit myself centered on the #1 seat, mirroring RC's posture. And we'll and truly asserting my chair dominance in the confined space by making him be pushed against the table. I should also mention, I'm a fidgeter (adhd go brrrrrt) and will bounce my leg constantly if left alone. Guess who turned up their leg bounce up to 11? Needless to say, our chairs are pushed against one another, and RC is experiencing a shitty message chair treatment.
Magically, after ten to twenty minutes of this, RC manages to find enough room to scoot over and make room for me and co-worker's chair. Eventually getting up from the table and finding a new spot because the bounce don't stop just cuz you moved. After which, me and co-worker switched back to our original tables and had a good laugh about it until we got new assignments.
TL:DR; Rude Customer says he can't move his chair because he's centered at his spot, and bumping into my co-worker. I reply by centering myself in co-worker's spot and shake up his point of view.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/caringCute on 2025-03-22 11:12:04+00:00.
Boss wanted us to track our tasks. “Write down everything you do, so we know how long things take.”
Alright. Sure thing, boss.
8:01 AM: Turned on computer
8:03 AM: Opened email
8:05 AM: Replied to first email
8:07 AM: Replied to second email
8:08 AM: Took a sip of coffee
8:09 AM: Adjusted chair
By Day 3, the document was over 50 pages long.
Boss sat there, flipping through the endless log, his face just... kinda dropping with every page. At one point, he just leaned back, rubbed his eyes, and sighed like his soul was leaving his body.
Finally, he goes, “Okay, just… track important things.”
We all nodded. “Yeah, of course.”
Mission accomplished.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/KJWeb8 on 2025-03-22 00:28:12+00:00.
A company I used to work for, a for hire dump truck company, usually rented our trucks out by the hour. We had a no lunch policy to the customer. Our clock stayed running even if the customer took lunch. Most customers planned it so we were in transit during lunch.
One time, we had a customer insist we take a half hour lunch, unpaid to the trucks. We had enough trucks on it that the boss said ok. He also told us that if they wanted us to move from 12-12:30, they had to sign our timesheet with no lunch and the time. Game on.
The first day, right before 12, I backed in to be loaded. Operator gets out, walks over, and tells me lunch time with a huge grin (our policy was well known and well hated🤷). I asked if he was going to sign for no lunch. He said no, with a puzzled look. I said ok, and started to pull away. He stopped me and asked where I was going. I said lunch. He said I was already backed in. I told him to either sign no lunch, or I was going. He waved me off.
I went around the block to a local beef joint, got my sandwich, and drove back. I parked out front, and the operator waved me to back in. I just pointed at my watch and waited for 12:30 to back in. The operator came over and asked why none of the other trucks were back yet. I told him if our hard stop at 12:00 rule. He looked a little defeated.
Two days later, the lunch break rule was rescinded.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ChargeInfinite410 on 2025-03-21 23:40:45+00:00.
I work in HR and recently an employee called me with a rather serious concern. One I could not fix due to legal regulations. I explained this, and they said they needed the matter escalated to my superior, and they were considering taking legal action if it wasn't addressed properly. (sorry, keeping it intentionally vague to ensure privacy & prevent repercussions for me)
I talked to my manager while the employee was on hold, they said they couldn't take the call right then, but to escalate it to them via the email thread this employee had also started. I explained this to the employee, they seemed reasonably happy, and I sent the email to my manager immediately after getting off the phone.
A week later, my manager responds to the email thread with the employee included, @'s me and says they'll have me handle this from here. They never sent any other email. They never did anything to help. Just waited a week after it was escalated to them and then immediately sent it back to me. I responded to the email, without the employee included, and explained the situation again, reminding them why they said they would be handling it. They told me that this was in my job description and I had to handle this, as they didn't have time. They also said they never agreed to handle it.
So, I handled it. I explained there was nothing we could do, again, and that I couldn't provide them with any further assistance or escalate the case. A few weeks later we get a lawsuit. Guess who finally steps in to handle the situation? Too late, the CPO and President were already involved, and I was able to provide the supporting documentation showing my supervisor refused to take over & prevent a potential lawsuit. They didn't fire her but she was removed from a supervisory position, so I call it a win.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/coyoyody on 2025-03-21 18:43:52+00:00.
In 2015, the SFPD began to aggressively ticket cyclists for rolling through stop signs.
San Francisco Bike group, The Wigg Party, sent a bat signal: malicious compliance on tomorrow evening's commute. We follow the rules to a T.
All along The Wiggle, the city's arterial bike route, cyclists line up. They wait their turn at each stop sign, coming to a complete stop before proceeding. This crippled the evening commute for all modes of transportation. It took 15 minutes to travel just 2 blocks. The SFPD quickly responded by putting the enforcement measures on hold.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/LaconicLacedaemonian on 2025-03-21 16:14:44+00:00.
Policy Change: My department (~200 software engineers) instituted a policy "All code changes must be installed on all servers within 2 weeks, or have manager approval."
Context: I work in software at large companies. Eventually, software that is written needs to be deployed to a computer somewhere. Software changes are one of the biggest reasons for bugs or outages. But, the way many software companies work is every change increments a version number.
Think "I'm deploying version 111" to a server somewhere, and if the previous version that was deployed was version 101, that means 10 changes are going out. If one of them fails, we basically need to sift through the changes to find the bug and revert the changes.
Deploying regularly is good practice and keeps the amount of code being deployed low and allows us to quickly identify failures.
Problem:
It was literally impossible to follow this rule as simple code changes implied >100 deployments. If this sounds insane, it is, but only because it wasn't automated. This meant that pretty much any change required manager approval.
I called this out, and suggested changing the code such that we could make changes to individual systems at a time (~ 3 months of work). This was not funded by management.
The Malicious Compliance:
I blocked literally every change because "we're not following policy" and made them ask for manager approval. This forced managers to confront the unfollowable policy and to understand the complexity of what they were asking. But they kept approving changes anyway...
So I kept it up; every change was going to follow this policy. Then, management would be forced to (1) approve the change anyway, (2) invest in the code changes to isolate services, or (3) abandon the policy. While there was an initiative for automation, time to delivery was long and only reduced the number of manual actions to about 30.
After 9 months, and dozens of overrides, a new initiative that was critical required rapid changes. I made a document outlining how may times the policy had been overridden, what could be done to follow the policy, but ultimately recommended that we either invest now in the changes to allow this to work, slow down the critical project to follow policy, or abandon it.
It was abandoned*.*
The Aftermath:
I received an exemplary performance review, with people noting my commitment to quality and a champion of this policy.
TL;DR: Management made a policy that was fine on paper but impossible given current circumstances, and required approval to deviate from the policy. So I forced them to approve literally everything, documented it all, and used the documentation and a critical project to get the policy killed.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/bitofsomething on 2025-03-21 09:02:44+00:00.
For anyone wondering, dish pig is the British slang for Kitchen Porter or “KP”. Essentially it’s carrying out the shit jobs in the kitchen, washing up mainly but then also peeling vegetables, mopping up etc.
I was studying at University, but would spend each Summer (about 3 months) in a coastal town, the two friends I shared a flat with had secured jobs in a posh hotel, one waiting on, the other being a sort of driver/concierge and were on relatively decent money. I had a sort of skater/surfer/homeless look going on at the time, so when I enquired about work at the same hotel, all they could give me was KP.
I was warned that the head chef was a monster, and he was, an absolute bastard of a man, who no doubt had some sort of inner game of torture going on where he’d do all he could to get the dish pig to quit. For example, after finding out I was vegetarian he made me remove the skin off 10 chickens.
I was bloody good at washing up. It is customary to simply leave soapy water on dishes and trays in the UK before stacking them to dry, which I find bizarre, so I used to rinse things. I also used to follow the directions on the commercial dish soap, diluting it to the recommended ratio.
But chef was not happy with this, he took me to one side and in his deep mumbled West Country grunt said “fuckin’ hurry up, don’t rinse and get more washing up liquid in there, these fucking trays are greasy”
So, I increased the dish soap dosage by about 1000% and I didn’t rinse a thing.
That morning, all but one of the cooked breakfasts were sent back as the food unsurprisingly “tasted like washing up liquid”. One couple left two days early and the hotel manager summoned the chef to his office. Chef was furious, but didn’t say a thing to me, just threw things around and swore more than usual.
After that day he took it easy on me and even offered me a job the following year.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Fast-Educator5330 on 2025-03-21 04:22:31+00:00.
A few years back I worked for an entity in the middle east. While the salary was low, they gave generous 40 days off, plus public holidays (which was basically 2 Eids that were 5 days each). With 20 unused days being transferred to the next year
As I worked with locals who were untouchable, the HR would be strict on me. And my boss who was also not a local would just bow down to what they said.
So when a local colleague of mine who started working same time as me (in different department) was allowed to take time off after 3 months but my 2 days leave was rejected as I had to work 6 months before accessing leave, I was a bit annoyed.
6 months in, and it aligns perfectly with ramadan, and due to everyone fasting, I remember we were able to leave at 1..so when HR came to ask if I'll be taking holiday during ramadan I see her panic as I say along the lines off 'why would I' and that I get a week off for eid after ramadan...2nd half of the year I enjoyed days 30 days off (20 of my own, plus 2 Eids).
The better part was my second year. I transferred 20 days, plus my 40 days, plus 2 Eids. Remember my boss asking for my leave plans for the year and his face dropping when I showed him I take a week off every month of the year, apart from Ramadan of course- and I still had balance to transfer to the next year.
I found another job mid way through my 2nd year. So unfortunately couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted, but at least I got paid out for unused days
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/lunaDolliey on 2025-03-20 22:40:19+00:00.
at my old job we used to have flexible lunch breaks at work. Could go anytime between 11:30-2:00, just made sure someone was covering. Worked fine.
New manager comes in, says "Everyone MUST take lunch at exactly 12:00. No exceptions." Okay then.
12:00 hits. We all just… walk away. Phones ringing, customers mid-sentence---not our problem. Boss looked panicked, trying to handle it all.
By the time we got back, it was a complete mess. Next day? New rule: “Lunch between 11:30-2:00 is fine.”
Oh, so back to normal? Cool, boss.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/sidgewitt on 2025-03-20 20:01:45+00:00.
I used to work at a large telecommunications company. Above me was my manager "Albert" ; above him manager "Barry", above him, senior manager "Collette" (not their real names).
My job was to provide management reporting, which I did largely though Excel, with some fairly fancy graphs, some macros and an array of formulae (including some array formulae).
---o---
Colette was a young, ambitious manager who knew how to network, say the right things to the right people, and sound confident whether or not she had any clue about whatever she was managing. Consequently she'd been over-promoted, Peter Principle style, to a role she struggled with.
But due to her nature she continued to act as if she was in control, and wanted to show her excellent management.
One of her traits, which I'd witnessed on rare occasions where I, as the data expert in my area, had been invited into a meeting with her to help explain some data issues, was that her reaction to hearing problems was to decide on the spot she needed something to be done and that she needed to be kept informed of progress on a weekly basis. This might make sense for a serious issue, but not for a minor issue which she should just have trusted lower level staff to deal with.
---o---
Barry was an experienced, ambitious middle manager who wanted promotion to senior management. In his view (and he was probably correct), the way to his goal of promotion was to tell Collette everything she wanted to hear.
If Collette had a target to reach 1000 widgets, Barry would tell her we'd made 1000 widgets. Whether or not we had.
---o---
Albert had worked at the company for 25 years; he was good at his job but past caring about fighting to do a good job and just wanted an easy time as he eyed up retirement.
If Barry asked him for something daft, he'd say it was daft, but if Barry still wanted it then he'd instantly capitulate.
---o---
And at the bottom of the chain, I actually made the reports they wanted. They had no idea how I do this - it's an era where managers in their 40s and 50s grew up without computers, and can barely sum a few numbers in Excel without help. They think all the pretty graphs and macros and calculated cells are bona fide magic and have no comprehension of whether a task takes ten minutes or ten hours, whether it is manual or automatic.
I hated it whenever they had a meeting and Collette would require a new report on something as a kneejerk reaction. I knew that 90% of the time, by the end of the week she'd forgotten she'd asked for it, and if the problem wasn't that bad she'd never even look at them unless it was raised afresh in a new meeting.
-------------o-------------
This particular year I was extra busy, we'd had redundancies due to the global financial crisis so I was doing about two roles at once, and Albert tells me that Barry told him that in their managers meeting, Collette said she needed a new report, run weekly, that shows which the top three colours of widgets are.
I explain to Albert the colours are irrelevant, it's just whatever colour comes from the supplier, and they're buried in the ground so no-one sees them anyway. So Collette can't possibly need to care about that at a senior level.
Albert agrees, says he's already explained that to Barry, but Barry said that Collette wanted it, so we have to make it anyway.
So I make the report; it takes about 40 minutes to run each week because it's a slightly fiddly manual copy-and-paste from a system we have no budget to automate an export. I put it in the shared folder where Collette can access it, and send an email to all three of them with a link to the folder.
For eight weeks I do that, and I hear no mention of it from anyone. I suspect no-one is looking at it because Collette probably forgot she asked for it ten minutes after the meeting in which she asked for it.
I explain to Albert I don't have time to keep making these when no-one is looking at them anyway, I have other more important things and they'll be late or low quality if I waste time on this. I have too much on, so can I stop making this report.
"No because Barry doesn't want to stop making something Collette asked for. You need to keep making the report."
"Even though it's not useful anyway? They're probably not even looking at it."
"Yes, you have to keep making the file weekly."
Urgh.
In the folder so far: Widget colour report Week 1.xls Widget colour report Week 2.xls Widget colour report Week 3.xls Widget colour report Week 4.xls Widget colour report Week 5.xls Widget colour report Week 6.xls Widget colour report Week 7.xls Widget colour report Week 8.xls
What a productive five hours spent making all those, I think. Eight files full of pretty graphs that no-one will look at. Might as well not have anyth.. oooh...
That week I get a blank Excel file.
I change the text to bold, red, font size 18.
Right in the middle of Sheet1, I write:
"ERROR with data upload. Data link failed. Error code 2387AGT"
Then I go to Save As, and save it in the folder:
Widget colour report Week 9.xls
I mean technically I still made a report, right? Because there it is right there in the folder.
---o---
A week goes by. Nothing said.
I copy file v9, paste it in the folder and rename the 9 to 10
Widget colour report Week 10.xls
Another blank Excel file just saying
"ERROR with data upload. Data link failed. Error code 2387AGT"
---o---
After about five months of copying that same file, doing my 40min report in four seconds in what is one of my most efficient pieces of work ever, I finally get Albert to review my workload, and he agrees something needs to stop.
In addition to some reports I really do make, that really do take time and I get to drop, I casually mention "Oh, and there's that weekly widget colour report - I know Barry still wants it, but I just realised yesterday that there's some problem with the data upload and it's not been working the last few weeks. They don't seem to have noticed though, so perhaps they're not actually looking at it?" 😯😉
Albert believes the line about the fictional data upload as it's all technical wizardry to him, so just agrees and says ok, stop making it, and if Barry asks for it again we'll have to investigate the problem with this data upload.
"I'm confident we can fix it if needed, probably just needs a bit of Ctrl-C Ctrl-V work done on it," I grin.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/CatlessBoyMom on 2025-03-20 18:50:39+00:00.
This one is my husband's.
Hubby works in an HVAC department that covers multiple buildings. The department usually runs a crew of 5, even though they really need 6, so they all pick up overtime each week. This has long been an argument between their boss and his boss who thinks the crew is wasting time and shouldn't actually need the OT.
Not too long ago one of the guys burned out and left. So the crew was down to 4 and boss's boss decided that it was the perfect time to not only prove that the OT was unjustified, but that they didn't actually need to replace the 5th crew member. How was he going to prove this, you might wonder. He wanted an email from each crew member detailing what they did and how long it took each day.
Luckily for the guys on this crew, hubby has spent many years dealing with adaptive technology. Namely text to speech and speech to text.
So the next morning when each of them started they began recording their actions. Right down to "removing screwdriver from toolbox. Unscrewing screw from bottom left corner of compressor access panel."
At lunch, each man copied the text to an email (without cleaning it up) and sent it off to boss's boss. At the end of the regular day they did the same with the second half of a normal day. Then they each put in 4 hours of OT. At the end of their OT they did the same again.
They came in the next morning to an email requesting that they not document their time any longer. A few weeks later they were training a replacement for their fifth crew member. They still don't have the sixth that they need, but their boss no longer hears complaints about the amount of OT they each put in.
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Think "pronouns are stupid"? I have no problem calling you by the ones you've listed.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ChezEden on 2025-03-20 13:46:02+00:00.
Disclaimer here: I am not located in the US, but in a country where LGQBT rights, anti descrimination policies and DEI (actual DEI, not whatever the GOP has conned people into thinking DEI is) are very common things.
I work for a large company that has a template for email signatures. On this template is a spot for pronouns beside your name. Many of us put our pronouns there. Honestly it's super handy because we have a very diverse workforce and never meet half the people we interact with (internal or external) in person so sometimes I don't know the gender of who I'm talking to. I find it especially tricky if it's a name I'm not familiar with and isn't obviously masculine or feminine (to me- who only speaks two languages). I have accidentally offended cisgender people before by misgendering them (once it was a man named Lindsay and I fucked up).
Anyway ... while our head office is in the middle of a huge city, many folks work out of satellite offices, some in VERY rural areas. One of these folks thought it would be hilarious to list his pronouns as "it/thing". I have met this man before and do know for a fact that it was to "make fun of the use of pronouns" and not genuine in any way.
So those are the pronouns I am going to use for him then. I called him "thing" in front of a big boss at a meeting awhile back and acted very innocent when people looked confused. I explained that I was trying to respect his pronouns in his email signature but that I don't have experience with it/thing pronouns so I was struggling a bit and hoped I got it right. The big boss (who isn't a fan of bigots) looked very confused and asked him what I was talking about. He actually started explaining how it was a joke about how "pronouns are stupid". I politely excused myself to go to the washroom and when I came out they were still talking and the boss did not look pleased with him.
He no longer has any pronouns listed in his signature.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Great_Palpatine on 2025-03-20 07:32:27+00:00.
I used to work in a medical facility in a military camp where the guy in charge wanted updates on every small thing, no matter how minor.
His reasoning was that it was his medical centre, so he needs to know whatever's going on.
Context: there were always at least two medical staff on duty overnight and on weekends. The medical facility was fully staffed on weekdays.
He requested the on-duty medical staff send him updates by text, and got really pissed when there were no updates.
Ok. Message received loud and clear.
When I was on duty, he was very well informed.
I'm taking over duty? Update.
Sending someone to the hospital? Update. This is possibly the only legitimate use of the update. However, we could be sending someone to the hospital or to a bigger camp at night, and this could be multiple people. You want an update every time something happens? You got it. Sending one update per person, in the middle of the night!
Dealing with some administrative duties at our camp's headquarters? Update for each time I had to go and perform this administrative duty. Again, multiple updates in the early morning and late evening.
Getting off duty? Update.
The fallout: Over the course of the first weekend (Friday - Monday) when I was on duty, the man was updated multiple times. On Monday when he returned, he implemented a new rule: updates only when there are major casualties (e.g. requiring CPR), and when "important duties or incidences occur". He left the interpretation of whatever is "important" up to us.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/alycifer on 2025-03-20 00:50:03+00:00.
I'm a bartender in a corporate restaurant. We have our own section of the walk in, which is caged off and locked, for beer, fruit, mixers, wine, etc. We've always kept it locked and the bartenders keep the keys behind the bar. We recently got a new manager who decided, seemingly without reason, to take the key away and insisted that we not only ask to have it unlocked, but also have her follow us into the cooler to watch what we're taking. When I say without reason, there's been no discrepancy as far as inventory and no signs of theft, so I can't think of a single reason to have changed the system besides her being a control freak. It's also super annoying to need a manager to open the cage because we pull from it multiple times a shift and are frequently in a rush to do so. So picture this, it's a Monday. Just got through a busy weekend. Everything needs restocked, right? Our new favorite manager was also leading the shift. I needed to stock beer and wine, cut fruit, make mixers, everything. So, following protocol, I asked her to unlock the cage and follow me in. That is what she wanted us to do, after all. Except I did my tasks one at a time. First beer (which took multiple trips, and she locked the cage in between every one). Then wine 15 minutes later. Each mixer, one by one, after that, probably every 5 minutes. Then fruit, grabbing one fruit at a time of course. First oranges. Then limes 10 minutes later. Lemons 10 minutes after that. Oh, and then more lemons, because we need wedges and wheels. Imagine my surprise when the keys were back behind the bar the next morning.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Jealous-Surround-228 on 2025-03-19 19:56:04+00:00.
Quite a few years ago I was the senior graphic designer for a sign shop. This one customer was always a pain in the butt, but you get that and you try to keep the returning client happy. One day the owner sent over a design for a new sign to go on a scoreboard as part of their sponsorship package at a local sports oval. This meant we invoiced the football club, not them.
Now, their logo is maroon and she wanted a red background when usually it was white. I told her that I wouldn't recommend it because for one, you would not be able to read it from a distance (across the other side of the oval), the colours are too close, and two, it would look shit (I was a bit more professional). Usually we would also just make the logo all white, but she insisted that wanted the maroon one. Well, the sign was made and installed. And because I've been doing this job for a long time...well...it looked shit. Oh well, we were paid, client happy, move on.
A few months later she asks for another sign to replace it as apparently it is hard to see from a distance and her husband, also working in the business, isn't happy. Go figure. She also says that we should do it free of charge because it looks shit and it's my fault. Remember, the football club had paid for it. I politely tell her no, she approved the design....remember? So her husband writes me a harsh email about how I should never have made it that colour, that it's not in line with his company's brand, and I need to replace it. I got the feeling that his wife was blaming me, so I sent him the receipts. The whole email chain with my recommendations, her insistence and approvals. Said no, I will not be replacing it free of charge. Shortly after wife writes me another email saying, they will never use my business again. Delete all their files now.
Thank you. Done. Hallelujah I will never have to deal with her again. Although deep down I knew that that would not be the case, as we also sponsored that sports oval. The club used us for all their signs and printing. And I knew that I would need to have their logo for something sometime in the future. Knowing this, I maliciously complied. evil laugh Delete.
Now we just can't use a jpeg or png file. We need special files that I had set up for their business, all on brand to print consistently at the right colour. Like years worth of files, adverts and signs. This means it can be very easy for us to just slot in predesigned work when needed. A 5 minute job in some cases.
Maybe a few months later the football club needs their program printed, with all the sponsors included. My time to shine, I was so happy haha Mentioned to my contact that I need this business' logo and advert. He said he will get them to send it through. Now I'm not sure why...but they never sent it through for me on time. It was so strange haha. So I sent printing proofs without this particular logo/advert added, mentioned I still didn't have it and if they wanted this printed in time I needed it asap. I was kind of hoping that I could print it without them in it, but the footy club were diligent and wanted them in.
I then get a short message from this business saying to just add in their usual advert. What?? The one you told me to delete a few months back? Sorry I don't have it. You need to send me a print ready file in this size.
About 2 weeks later I got the ad to put in. They mentioned to keep it on file for future designs.
I heard they had to pay someone to design up something for them. They also got someone else to make up a new sign to replace the shit one. They would if had to pay for that too as the club never ordered one through us. Hahahaha
I still stick my finger up as I drive past their business.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/stonkstogo on 2025-03-19 17:57:22+00:00.
I worked at a therapy clinic for a short span. We would use towels, and pillow cases frequently for exercises and icing/heat applications. We had just moved to a new site that did not have an in house washer or dryer, and my director had no intentions of hiring a contractor to deliver and pick up linen. We were tasked by the director with taking the linen home ourselves and washing it. Many of my coworkers just took it as part of the job, but I did not agree. We were hourly workers and that was blatantly a work related activity. When it was my turn to take the linen home, I clocked in on my phone prior to starting the washer, and clocked out only after I had taken out AND folded all of the linen. A week later my manager sends me a text questioning my extra time, and I simply replied with I was on the clock washing the linen. It was not long after that we had a new contractor coming by the office weekly to pick up and deliver fresh linen.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/DrD3adpool on 2025-03-19 16:26:43+00:00.
This happened a few years ago, I no longer work with this company because this MC isn't the first time where I thought my personal health and safety was taking the backseat to the requirements of the company.
I worked for a security company, my assignment was the vehicle depot lot for the gas company. My duties were to sit in an aluminum trailer shack in the corner of the lot and monitor for suspicious activity. In Philadelphia, many of these areas were targeted by catalytic converter thieves. I was also supposed to make a patrol every hour to ensure the security of the site. Other than my patrols and to use the bathroom, I was not permitted to leave the box for any reason. My uniform was my usual long sleeve button up shirt and long pants, but also I was required to wear a boiler suit and hardhat for safety from things I might encounter on my patrols.
Originally, I only wore the boiler suit and hardhat to do my patrols because it was July and the air conditioner in the box didn't work. However, my site supervisor came for inspection and threatened to fire me if I wouldn't wear the boiler suit and hardhat while sitting in the box as well.
So I did. The end of July/beginning of August 2022 was one of the worst heat waves in Philadelphia history. On a good day, it was 140°+ in the box as it was made of aluminum and sitting in direct sunlight for the duration of my shift. Three days in and I passed out standing in the men's room from advanced heat stroke. The gas company staff called an ambulance for me. I was airlifted to the hospital (traffic in this part of the city was notoriously terrible late afternoon/early evening and every second counted.) At the hospital, my body temperature was 105.6 and my pulse was a blistering 147. It took doctors TWO DAYS to get my temperature back to normal and address all of the damage the excessive heat had done to my body.
While I was getting lifesaving care at the hospital my "abandoned post" was infiltrated by three men who stole the catalytic converters from 18 vehicles. The parent company was LIVID and when I was inquired as to why I wasn't at my post when the theft occurred, my doctor at the hospital took the phone and informed them of my condition upon arrival at the hospital.
In the aftermath, I was reassigned. The broken air conditioner in the box was replaced by a 40,000 BTU unit that required a separate generator to power. A few weeks later, my security company lost its contract with the gas company after my replacement fell asleep in the box while the thieves returned to steal another 20 catalytic converters.
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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/TechnicallyCant5083 on 2025-03-19 15:24:56+00:00.
I saw this post and decided to share my own military malicious compliance story. This story isn't about the US military but I will use US army terms.
Some background: I spent most of my military service in a 'communications command and control center'(CC for short), which isn't as glorious as it sounds, it was mostly emails and Excel. Our CC was relatively high in the command chain, we were more 'big picture' managing the operability of communication systems across the whole military. The ones actually doing the work in the CC are enlisted soldiers but because the work was relatively important, the commander of the CC was always an officer.
At the time of this story I was an E3 (enlisted soldier, 3rd rank), I had a lot of time and experience on the job. One day we got a new commander, an O1 fresh out of officer school. She had a really shitty 'I'm an officer you must respect me' attitude. I was more time than her in the army, I was also older, and my work involved interacting with officers with much higher ranks than her, so I couldn't give a shit, but I tried playing nice.
Our work at the CC had a pretty normal procedure, we'd get some report, say "maintenance A starting", something like that would usually be filed away immediately because we knew about it ahead and they usually didn't affect anything. A report like "someone dug through a fiber optic cable and a whole post lost internet connection" would usually lead to us making some phone calls trying to understand if there are backups, who could fix it and when, and lastly when we had all of the relevant info we would notify our commander.
She didn't care about that procedure, she wanted to be involved and assert her control. One day she saw a report on one of our computers that we didn't notify her about yet, so she got really angry and said "from now on you are to notify me about every report!" big mistake. The CC worked 24/7 but there was only one commander, so if something really important came up we would wake her up in the middle of the night, but most stuff was kept to the morning.
Well que malicious compliance. That night the night shift woke her up about 10 times, and they were being nice. The day after she was visibly sleep deprived. I was on the next night shift and called her for EVERY report, sometimes we'd get multiple a minute, she was basically doing the night shift with me. At around 5AM she said "fine you don't have to report everything, you know what's important and what's not".
So for conclusion I'm gonna steal u/CaptMaxius 's line- "outrank doesn't mean out-know". Let your subordinates do their fucking job.