This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/mala-mi-2111 on 2024-07-19 17:14:17+00:00.
Yesterday was a weird day and I was a tiny bit shaken. I'm not sure I did my first malicious compliance or not. So tell me if it wasn't
There's [my company] and there's [the other company] and both cooperate once in a while. In my company I'm one of 2 people who have a monthly ticket for trams and buses. The rest travels by cars. The other company is in the old city zone where only cars with an official permit can travel and park. So if my boss needs any person to go there, it is my co-worker or I. 2 days ago he asked me, because I was around while the collegue was on lunch break. I was to deliver some documents.
It is faster than hiring a courier, because a courier must take a package to warehouse where it is registered and then goes out. So it could take a whole day, if a courier picks it up late. And if my collegue or I go to the other company, it is only 45-60 minutes.
The way my boss explained, I was to go to the other company and they set a time interval 15.00-15.30 so I was to leave around 14. Ok, all clear, my boss wrote an email when I was leaving, so they knew when I was to arrive, they confirmed, all was set.
I was there just after 15. I was to leave the package, no can do. Their lady manager was to check it and then notify my boss if some documents are missing. So where is she? I missed her. Whole 5-10 minutes. And I was to wait for her because not 1 person in the other company knows which documents were in the package. But it's all good, she'll be back in 15 minutes, not to worry. And don't tell your boss. That part was weird. So I grabbed my phone, wrote a message, something like "there's a misunderstanding, sending email", then a detailed email with description, but not blaming the other company. There must be a misunderstanding, because [and here I put what they told me]. The time stamp was 15.03 so I was definitely not late. What was even more weird, my boss checked the reply from lady manager, she confirmed. Not an employee, the lady in person.
So I sat there, grabbed a book on my phone, all perfectly fine. Some 30 minutes later my boss asks if I delivered the documents. No lady manager around. I asked and they weren't allowed to call her. But there is no need to notify my boss, they were sure she'd be here any minute. So I wrote another text, "no lady menager around, sending email", added detailed description including their statement "they weren't allowed" and kept waiting.
Next 30 minutes, no lady boss. My boss called them, they pretty much repeated what they kept telling me, I added another email "boss, I listened to your conversation, they aren't happy, but I couldn't wait outside, they insisted I was not to wander around with the documents", got "not a problem, do what they suggest and notify me immediately", I kept waiting.
They wanted to get me a mineral water, I drclined, wrote to my boss, got email back. Close to 16.40 the lady manager barges in. Why wasn't I earlier as they decided? I grab my phone, read the time stamp, read the email with set conditions, she went redish-purple, got the package, I can go. I'm sorry, I can't go, I was told repeatedly she was to check if documents aren't missing. She insists, I write a text to my boss, "[she] doesn't want to checks documents, sending email". And I read the message. She was not happy, but at last decided to check the documents. I thanked her, waited for her email to my boss and wrote another email immediately. Left only when my boss wrote back that she really confirmed all the documents were in the package.
Later she contacted the owner and blamed us!
So it was my luck that I wrote all the emails so religiously and when the owner called my boss all furious, it was easy to deliver copies. My boss asked me today to his office and let me read emails to/from the owner of the other company. There was a lawyer who explained that in normal circumstances I wouldn't be allowed to read it, but the lady manager insisted we did something wrong, especially me. And as it was also about me, I was to read this even if I wasn't the recipient. They also asked me to print the emails directly from my email account and screenshots from my mobile, plus write a detailed note from all of this including time stamps from my emails, which I did.
I don't know what it was. A weird power play? A way to discredit the other company? I don't even know if it was a malicious compliance or not, sorry. I don't think my boss or the lawyer will tell me more. Possibly if they try to sue, but why should they?