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malicious compliance

Employee requests three days off, boss demands doctor's note, doctor gets him six weeks off: 'They did not look pleased'

Employee requests three days off, boss demands doctor's note, doctor gets him six weeks off: 'They did not look pleased'

Trying to mess with an employee's time off is a risky game. These bosses claimed that they understood when their employee requested to have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off because of extreme burnout. Not only did these two supervisors deny the request, but also they tried to get this guy to cover an extra shift. It was as if the entire burnout conversation went in one ear and out the other, as if it did not matter. When the Redditor tried to reason with his supervisors, he had mentioned his…
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16-year-old maliciously complies with stepmom's rule after getting his driver's license: 'I can't drive ANYWHERE without permission? OK!'

16-year-old maliciously complies with stepmom's rule after getting his driver's license: 'I can't drive ANYWHERE without permission? OK!'

Sometimes, teenagers don't even need to disobey their parents in order to show them just how ridiculous they are acting. In this case, we have a ridiculous stepmother who decided to chastise the Redditor for driving to his friend's place briefly to show off his brand new driver's license. It's the kind of accomplishment you want to relay to your friends. This isn't just another “teenagers being silly" story; this is a case of “give the kid a break.” Unfortunately, the stepmom from down below de…
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Karen family cheats nanny out of $12.50, nanny charges them hundreds in unpaid hours: 'I was furious'

Good childcare is hard to find… and it doesn't come cheap. It's reached the point where many families are now weighing up the costs of childcare and finding that it actually doesn't make sense for one spouse to work when their entire salary is going to the childcare costs incurred by their absence. Even for families that can afford it, filling the gaps between childcare providers is particularly challenging, creating a mess of busy schedules and further complicating workplace obligations. For t…
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Boss sets strict dress code that they themselves are in violation, employee calls them out: 'My boss never came to me about [the] dress code after that'

When you're in charge, it's pretty important that you follow your own rules, drinking the Kool-Aid that you've set out for everyone else to drink. Anything else would be hypocritical at best, causing dissension and demotivating those you're supposed to be leading and generally just setting a bad example. Conversely, being consistent and fair in your leadership helps foster a culture of accountability; by holding yourself to the same standards you've set for everyone else, you demonstrate the in…
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Bookshop worker does their best to follow orders after supervisor demands they remain in a single section: 'Sorry, I'm busy'

Oftentimes in our lives, a weary, exasperated manager with sagging eyes will give us an order, desperate for us to follow it without asking questions. Depending on the dynamic of our relationship with that manager and the nature of the request, we might be more than happy to follow their direction—or we may, instead, choose to follow the literal meaning of that direction but not necessarily the intended purpose of the direction. This “malicious compliance” to their request will help balance the…
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'I don't need your input. Just do what I say': New manager flexes his muscles with warehouse temperature policy, employee tries to warn him, malicious compliance ensues

'I don't need your input. Just do what I say': New manager flexes his muscles with warehouse temperature policy, employee tries to warn him, malicious compliance ensues

Don't you just love it when the new manager makes things exponentially worse for everyone else? It's a common mistake that these horrible bosses tend to make. They come in and immediately feel like they know a better solution to the current system. Without properly hearing out all the employees' voices, they decide it would be more impressive to flex their muscles and insist that their solution is the proper one. Well, time and time again when this happens, the new manager stumbles. Either the…
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‘CEO sends dozens of emails every day’: CEO demands employees responds to all the emails he sends, leading to office dispute when employees can't get any work done other than answering emails

‘CEO sends dozens of emails every day’: CEO demands employees responds to all the emails he sends, leading to office dispute when employees can't get any work done other than answering emails

Are you familiar with the saying 'This could have been an email'? For those of you who don't, this saying refers to times when employees are asked to attend a meeting that could have definitely been avoided by simply sending an email about the topic. Well, as much as that saying can be true on some occasions, the amount of useless emails people get from their colleagues is unreal sometimes, and we could all agree that answering them can be the most annoying part of the work day. This brings up…
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'I've decided that enough was enough': Worker quits job after tactless manager tells them their 'abilities are not worth that much'

'I've decided that enough was enough': Worker quits job after tactless manager tells them their 'abilities are not worth that much'

Workers often leave their companies for better opportunities not because of the company itself, but because of bad management . The management structure of a business has a lot to do with an employee's day-to-day life. Some people have bosses who are micromanagers who want to hold their employees accountable for every minute of the day. With your boss breathing down your neck 40 hours each week while you're trying to write your emails and do your tasks, it's easy to get sick of the scrutiny. Ot…
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Know-it-all engineer asks machinist to fabricate a technically impossible part: 'The machinist was to machine a 12-inch part down to just over 13 inches shorter than it started'

Time, in a sense, is a resource that we spend doing different things, which is why when we talk about “spending time” on something, there's a literal sense to it. Through the sheer course of its slow march, the way we spend our time through the things we do, the things we think about, and the way we prioritize our responsibilities and personal interests goes on to shape who we become, what we know and what skills we possess. It might be a facile generalization, but for those familiar, I like to…
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Math teacher forced to use flawed software, maliciously complies with the help of her students: 'She had an army of eighth graders [...] send thousands of emails to the CEO'

Math teacher forced to use flawed software, maliciously complies with the help of her students: 'She had an army of eighth graders [...] send thousands of emails to the CEO'

Teachers have to put up with more in one class than what most folks have to put up with in their entire careers. As the child of a teacher, I can attest that it's far more than lesson planning, class time, and grading. It's also dealing with bureaucratic nonsense, entitled parents, difficult kids, and strange administrative policies that make absolutely no sense. In the case of this story, we are primarily dealing with the lattermost scenario. Here, we have an eighth-grade math teacher who was…
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Crystal shop owner insists on help from customs worker, ignores giant fee: 'He wishes her a nice day and tells her the bill will be coming in the mail'

Crystal shop owner insists on help from customs worker, ignores giant fee: 'He wishes her a nice day and tells her the bill will be coming in the mail'

This woman found out the hard way that she got what she paid for. She just didn't know that she was paying for something in the first place! U/OneGlassOne had an excellent tale of malicious compliance to share. They and their coworker work in a line of business that deals with commercial imports. They write that people need to fill out lots of paperwork when importing items into the country, probably in a similar way to declaring your valuables at the airport. This woman told the original poste…
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English teacher loses her mother's entire estate after her lawyer turns out to be a former student who uses case to settle the score

English teacher loses her mother's entire estate after her lawyer turns out to be a former student who uses case to settle the score

Some people consider their high school years to be some of the best they have ever experienced, while others detest the memory of those years and everyone who contributed to making them so challenging to endure. The story down below is an account of a frustrated lawyer. The original poster (OP), who is a lawyer, recently took on an estate matter that piqued his interest. The case was going well at first, and the OP was largely happy with the direction it was going. But as soon as OP discovered…
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'As a joke I put in... two extra zeros': Trucker gets paid $1500 an hour to unload his own trailer

This person managed to make a true American dream come true: making four figures per hour . Making $1500 per hour is something that most people dream about, but never achieve. Just think of what you could do with that kind of money. First, you could buy and eat probably like ten burritos. Then, you could buy a new game console. Then, you take all your friends to the movies and to laser tag. Then, once your first day of fun is over, you start saving up for down payments on houses or cars. Life c…
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Middle manager proposes to company owner replacing staff with AI, gets replaced himself: 'I have took his suggestions to heart and decided to automate his role'

It's hard to escape the conversation surrounding AI and the growing likelihood that we may soon find our jobs replaced by it. Yet, while some have attempted it, most seem to be falling short of success. While AI is proven to be effective at handling superfluous and repetitive work, it doesn't yet understand the subtlety and nuance of specific tasks, often lacking necessary details or fabricating information and then confidently reporting it as fact. So, at the very least, even where there is ef…
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Cheapskate manager destroys $4,000 worth of product after ignoring the advice of a wise warehouse guy: ‘You told me to use the old pallets... [so] I did'

There's a difference between being cheap and being frugal.
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'You want to put how much concrete in your Civic?': Customer insists on loading 1000 lbs. of concrete into the back of their small car despite employee's warnings

"The customer is always right" is an attitude that is purveyed throughout customer service... People will love to remind you at this point that one full attribution of the original quote is also reported as being “The customer is always right in matters of taste” meaning that or that customer service representatives should seek “to satisfy the customer regardless of whether the customer is right or wrong.” Both lend to the idea that the customer is not necessarily right about all things, just a…
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