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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Ready-Branch87 on 2025-09-05 10:19:46+00:00.
Back when I worked at a mid-sized company, my manager decided that our team wasn’t “thorough enough” with our project handoffs. We already kept notes, but he announced that from now on, every single step had to be documented in detail. His exact words were: “If it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen.”
Alright then.
On my next project, I documented everything. Booting up the computer, logging into the system, which buttons I clicked, why I clicked them, screenshots for every screen, timestamps, file sizes, you name it, it went into the record. By the end, my “handoff” wasn’t the usual 6–8 pages. It was a full 198-page binder, neatly organized, with a table of contents.
I dropped it on his desk with a satisfying thunk. He looked stunned. “What is this?”
I smiled and said, “The complete documentation, just like you asked. Every step is there.”
He had to carry that binder to the next project review, where people actually laughed at how absurd it was. After that, he quietly clarified that we only needed to document “the important steps.”
Malicious compliance achieved: I followed the rule exactly, and he never asked for that much detail again.