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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/thefarzin on 2025-03-24 04:37:55+00:00.
recently my friend told me a story from his life that’s a perfect fit for malicious compliance, and i decided to share it from his perspective. this happened about five years ago when i was working at a small tech repair shop. our boss was this guy named sergey — a classic control freak who thought being the boss made him smarter than everyone else. he didn’t know squat about tech, but loved sticking his nose in and telling us how to do our jobs. usually, us guys in the shop would just nod and do it our way, but this time i decided to play by his rules — and here’s what came of it.
we got an order to fix an old industrial printer. rare beast, bulky, barely any manuals, but i’d worked on a couple before, so i knew right away what was wrong — a clog in one of the feed gears and a worn-out belt. disassemble, clean, swap a few parts — five hours tops. i laid out the plan for sergey, he listened, then launched into his usual: “no, you don’t get it, it’s an electrical issue, you need to check the board, test everything with a multimeter, i’m the boss here, do it my way.” i tried explaining it was mechanical, but he started yelling that i was “young, cocky, and clueless,” and if i didn’t follow his orders, i could go home without pay. fine, i thought, you’re the boss, you know best. grabbed the multimeter, took the printer apart down to the last screw, and started testing every circuit on the board — exactly like he told me. it was slow, tedious, and totally pointless, because i knew from the start the board wasn’t the issue. but i didn’t just test it — i documented everything for a report: wrote down readings, snapped pics of every step, even sketched diagrams so sergey could see how “obedient” i was. took me two full days when i could’ve fixed the thing in half a day. finally, i stroll up to him with a stack of papers and say, “sergey, checked it all, board’s fine, what now?” he turned red as a beet — the client had already called, furious about the delay.
at that point, he figured i’d sabotaged him on purpose (though he dug his own grave), and barked at me to “deal with the mechanics since you’re so smart.” i shrugged, went back, cleaned the gears, swapped the belt — the stuff i’d planned to do all along. a day later, the printer was done, client was happy, but sergey looked like he’d been through a week-long spin cycle. after that, he tried bossing me around a couple more times, but i’d just ask, “like with that printer, your way?” — and he’d shut up real quick.
moral of the story: sometimes it’s better to let someone dig their own hole than argue. i knew i was right, but i complied out of spite — and he ended up screwing himself. still crack up thinking about his face after that report.