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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/theflamingheads on 2024-01-31 10:34:11.
I used to work at a large hotel restaurant that had busy periods scattered across the calendar. One week you might do 6 hours, then 50 hours the next. They needed staff with flexibility, so they also needed to offer flexibility to staff members who often had two jobs, were also studying, single parents etc. All staff were on casual contracts. They made it easy to request time off and to swap shifts, which worked for management and staff. Until the new manager arrived.
The new manager, I'll call S, had experience managing a small chain coffee shop. Now she was working as a department manager and was responsible for the restaurant, separate bar and other pop-up venues. There was a long list of things she wasn't good at. One of them was writing rosters. She tried to keep the old system going but after a few months, she completely gave up on any kind of flexibility. End of year exam? No time off for you. Friends wedding with 12 months notice? Too bad. Funeral? Birthday? Childcare? Not happening, not sorry. And if we didn't show up to work it would be a written warning. The only way we could get time off was to call in sick.
Malicious compliance:
Staff started calling in sick almost every shift. The earlier we called in the more S would ask of us (Yeah I'll just need you to call around and find someone to cover yourself. or I'll just need a sick note by this afternoon. That would be great.) Before this, sick notes were not necessary. Now a policy was brought in that no sick note = all shifts cancelled until one was brought in. Doctors sick notes were around $25 so attending those weddings and final exams started to add up. Until we realised we could just write ourselves a declaration that we truly were sick and have it notarised, for free. People's cars also started to "break down", buses would be "late". You can imagine what it was like.
My final Christmas there I decided to spend it with family because it was going to be my grandfathers last one. Unfortunately for S, my car "broke down" on the 24th while I was several hours away and it was a 4 day weekend so no mechanic would be open until the 28th. Christmas morning I called to tell S the bad news. Her voice was full on disbelief as i told her my predicament. She was pissed but there was nothing she could do because I wasn't actually breaking any rules.
I had the best Christmas I'd had for a long time. When I got back nothing was said about my absence. I left a few months later. Eventually upper management forced her to bring back some flexibility and suddenly staff stopped getting sick so often. She never figured out the rostering. After working for several more years in that position and being passed over for promotion a number of times, she eventually quit and moved back to her home town.