malicious compliance

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When one mistake catapults extreme measures. Oftentimes, after we make a mistake, it’s very difficult to prove to somebody who’s in charge of us that we won't make that same mistake again. That’s where malicious compliance comes in handy. I struggle with the use of the word ‘malicious’ for it, even though, of course, I understand what that word is trying to evoke, but I think that maliciousness is not malicious at all; in fact, I think it’s civil, graceful, and assertive.

Manager demands to proofread every email that employee sends, and he maliciously complies, causing problematic delays for the company: ‘We suddenly got loads of follow up requests, responding to which of course needs approval from the manager’

These are the type of stories we're likely to hear more often from now on: employees performing heroic tasks in defense of human beings in the fight against bots. It's not that the bots are mean, bots don't have intentions, it's that they are sometimes created only for optimising companies' expenses and needs, and not for helping us, their confused and tired customers.

Employee is forced to talk to customer service bot instead of a person and ends up developing another bot to run up the company’s AI bill: 'Maybe they'll provide customer service now, instead of foisting the responsibility on a chatbot.'

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Manager refuses to spend $50 on external software, insisting engineer waste company resources developing a platform in-house: 'This project was costing the company roughly $4,000 in billing hours'

All around the world, employees struggle with this type of manager, the one obsessed with everyone looking servile and energetic, who will stop at nothing to achieve the desired look. The part that not every manager considers is that to become servile and energetic, employees need to be at least a little comfortable and, hopefully, unconcerned about knee pain.

Manager obsessed with "professional appearance" says cashiers look "lazy" if they’re sitting down and bans chairs completely during shifts. ‘Within like 2 weeks, the front end became a disaster.’

Automation has proved itself to be an amazing cutting-edge tool, and knowing how to automate tasks on a computer is currently the holy grail of useful skills, but we are, at the same time, only beginning to see its downsides. For example, the Redditor who shared this story could potentially extinguish the job of an entire department if he shared his hack, so he wouldn’t only have to deal with the loss of his own job but also with the responsibility of getting all his teammates laid off.

Employee finishes his ‘real’ work by 10 in the morning and spends the rest of his day pretending to be busy, leading him to debate whether or to come clean to his boss: ‘I automated 3 hours of my daily work. Now I spend that time pretending to be busy'

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New-hire fast food worker told to stand in one place and not move, they comply, standing still and not helping customers for more than 30 minutes: 'I’m sorry, I would get that for you but I’m not allowed'

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New manager requires hand-written approval of every repairs request, causing massive delays in repair jobs, CEO steps in to reprimand management

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Fast food employee told by manager to stay out of the kitchen, employee follows her orders, denying service to customers: 'I’m sorry, I would get that for you but I’m not allowed back there right now'

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New manager targets respected senior technical specialist and threatens him with a PIP, completes more tasks in 2 days than the boss did in 6 weeks before management intervenes: 'I did it over 20 times faster than him'

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Manager demands warehouse employee follow closing checklist to the letter, they comply getting overtime and making the manager late to leave: 'By the time I finished everything, we were almost an hour past closing time'

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Call center employee avoids being blamed by their manager, Derek, after carefully documenting their manager's conflicting requests and creating a paper trail

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Employer denies $27 parking reimbursement, employee makes them pay henceforth with 1st class train rides, costing 3 times more 'as per travel expense policy'

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Top-performing star technician quiet quits and begins "working to rule," weaponizing company policy after being repeatedly passed up for promotion: 'Update: After 6 months, they've finally noticed that the quality of my work has dropped

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Manager deletes event planner's spreadsheet, insists on doing it their way, which takes more time; their micromanagement predictably backfires: 'He insisted his way was better. Alright then'

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Neighbor uses large truck to block homeowner's EV charger that he paid to have installed in his own parking space: 'I cleared it with the HOA paid for the professional install'

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Manager demands new hire employee write shorter reports, employee complies: 'He came to my desk. In person. To discuss the report'

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