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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/DareAffectionate7725 on 2024-08-14 09:36:21+00:00.
Hi all, thought I post this here while I am being maliciously compliant at my current job (TLDR; at the end).
I have been with the company (10.000+ employees) for 4 years and switched departments last year due to relocation to another country and changed my contract to be fully remote. I really enjoyed the company and position as well as daily tasks and was challenged in many ways and learned a fair bit. But it wasn't a position with (contractual) remote possibility, so I decided to change departments and to a fully remote position.
The new team was very small with just 4 people including the manager. When I joined the team I started by organizing their chaos into a workable structure and road map strategy on how we can achieve the completion of the open tasks and requests. My manager at that time was useless, but we got along fine and he let me do my thing. However there are certain types of requests and changes where I do not have the authority to approve and it needs to go through my manager to the higher ups for approval. In all that time, all the requests that I forwarded for approval (or just Feedback) were still open and waiting.
No matter how many 1-1 or team meetings we had, they are being pushed further out pending approval. For the first few months I had already completed all assigned tasks where possible and helped out in other teams when I could.
This particular manager was promoted after 3 months of me joining and hired his replacement. The new manager joined us 3 months later and reports to my old manager. At this point I mainly worked with other teams and helping them, all my tasks are waiting approval and no new tasks were given.
I am somewhat relaxed with new people during the on-boarding process and make sure they have time to digest it all properly and understand the background. So again 3 months later and having learned what type my new manager is, I gave up on explaining the complex environment and what is required to be able to deliver results for me/us as a team. At this point, I have worked in that team for 9 months, onboarded my new manager and completed everything I could complete and helped my colleagues getting on with their open work. Naturally other teams didn't always need my help, so I was a bit idle for most of my managers onboarding time.
Over and over again have I stated to my new manager that I have nothing to do, unless open tasks are given approval or new ones are assigned to me and I asked to please escalate if any of it really needs to be done.
2 months ago my new manager exploded on me during a meeting to stop asking for approval on the open tasks and wait for feedback. I specifically send a follow up email to get that in writing and promptly received a response back to wait for feedback or new tasks.
Well, that's what I do now. I wait and do nothing besides the weekly team meeting where I have no updates. I also no longer help out in other teams because of what my manager said. (if the teams really needed my help, they have to go though my new manager, and any request received was rejected)
And I will keep waiting until (hopefully) it will explode.
Edit 1
My managers boss knows all of this from his own time managing the team. I have spoken to the big bosses (CEO and CTO) about it and followed it up twice with an email including everything that is still l open, including items he needs to approve himself. So I think they are very well aware of the situation, it just doesn't have priority right now.
All 'evidence' is saved in a accessible team space and I have a personal copy, both I keep updated when somethings comes up.
Fallout
One team member resigned last month and the other one is already looking for a new job. Important to know, there is a 20 year age gap between me and the other two members of the team, they still need/want more experience. Our new manager is early 60 and should retire soon-ish.
We had an impromptu team meeting yesterday without the manager where we basically all laughed about this situation, but were sad at the same time that we could not use our skills.
Personally I decided to ride this wave and see where it goes. Because let's be honest, who doesn't enjoy being paid without having to work.
TLDR
Manager said to wait for feedback before doing any more work and to stop following up. Waiting now for 2 + months with no work and no feedback.