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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/smeghead9916 on 2024-04-01 19:52:29.
This is an incident where I refused to maliciously comply because it would have resulted in someone getting hurt, and was then proven right. Sorry if this isn’t allowed.
I work in the distribution centre for an electrical appliance brand. I’m a forklift operator, we use fork trucks to transport smaller appliances on pallets, such as microwaves and vacuum cleaners, but we use counterbalance trucks with clamp attachments for transporting large appliances, such as washing machines and fridges. Our fridges can be packaged two different ways, sometimes they are in boxes (with polystyrene for protection), and sometimes there is just plastic over the polystyrene. The plastic packaged fridges are slippery and can sometimes slip from the clamps, while the boxed fridges don’t slip easily because there is more friction, this is important to the story.
This morning, I was tipping a container full of fridges, they were all plastic packaged. To fit as much as possible on the container, the loaders put fridges lying on their side on top of fridges that are standing upright. These top fridges can be fiddly to take out, and once out they are placed on what I call “the flipper”, which is a pile of pallets stuck together with a flat board stuck on top, we use the edge to rotate the fridge upright.
As I was taking one of these top fridges out it slipped within the clamp, I still had a hold of it, but it was now at an angle with the top pointing towards the ground, and now almost impossible to put down without damaging it. We don’t get in trouble for damages, management accepts that stuff gets damaged sometimes, also most damages are just to the packaging, so they just need to be repackaged. However, we try to save something if we can, this was not one of the times where this would be likely.
One of my coworkers still wanted to save it, and was standing behind the flipper ready to grab it. He told me to open my clamps slightly and let it fall slowly…this only works with boxed fridges, there is no friction to stop or slow down a plastic wrapped fridge, even with the tiniest amount of slack. Where he was standing, he was in danger of being hit by the fridge, and I told him so, the other guys chimed in and told me to let it go, and I refused until he moved away, which he finally did. As predicted, I opened my clamps the tiniest amount and it dropped fast, with the back end bouncing upwards right to where his face would have been. Had I maliciously complied, he might have ended up with a broken nose or jaw.
“Told you,” I said.
Despite the drop, there was minimal damage, just a small crack in the polystyrene.