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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/M0Savage on 2024-05-12 11:33:10+00:00.
Twenty plus years ago I was working at a commissary (think grocery store) on an army post. I worked in the produce department and one our duties was to make fruit and vegetable trays for customers one order.
I started out making them pretty much like everyone else. Celery in this spot, cherry tomatoes here, broccoli like so. One day and officer's wife asked if I could make a vegetable tray but she wanted it a bit fancier. I love to cook and wow people with my knife skills. I slided things thin and layered them and pretty soo I had something that looked like it belonged on a wedding buffet.
Of course other people saw it and they wanted something similar. So I became the veggie and fruit tray guy.
My supervisor and I didn't get along very well. I would stop what I was doing and take a customer to the products they were trying to find or I'd go in search if I didn't know where exactly, especially after a reset. For some reason my supervisor didn't like it. She didn't see it as going above and beyond, she saw it as abandoning my duties.
Anyways one day she told me that I couldn't make the trays anymore unless I followed the book which she handed me. No more fancy trays because "it took too long". It took me the same amount of time as anyone else making a regular tray.
I cracked open the book on my break and I smiled. You want by the book? You get by the book.
The next tray I made took four hours. My boss almost went berserk. I told her that with each, individual fruit or vegetable I had to wash, sanitize and rinse them separately because that was what the book says. and with eight different fruits or vegetables I had to spend about half an hour filling and draining the sink each time as to not cause cross contamination.
I transferred to a different section shortly after that.