If you have never heard of “malicious compliance," let this tale be your introduction to it. What it means is that you do exactly what you are told, I mean eeexaaaactlyyyy. You take every word literally. So if your boss says they don't want to see you being late anymore, then say “no problem!” and just stop letting them know you're late. Because they said they didn't want to see you being late anymore. None of those words told you to stop being late. You get my drift here? This Reddit story is…

It's tough for a single employee to hoodwink an entire company, although when CEO's turn a blind-eye to rational, practical advice, rare opportunities can present themselves for the huddled masses of lower employees to get a slice of the pie. In this case, a graphic designer worked for a rapidly growing startup...

People often ponder what ‘being cheap’ looks like in a company, and it is strongly apparent that those particular people do not work in cheap companies. In too many places, bosses love to assign their employees extra work, giving them multiple jobs to do that don't necessarily fit their job description, and cheap out on hiring somebody else to do what needs to be done. Most of the time, they get away with it. But every so often, an employee shows them who is boss, by maliciously complying to a…

How many red flags does one need before it's time to quit and run? Imagine going through an interview process and being told an hourly rate that you're comfortable with should you get the position. Then, you get said position and you're told the exact same number as you sign the contract. Now that the contract is signed and you're beginning to schedule your training, you're told a wildly different number by someone else. You contact your boss and they tell you not to worry about it. You move fo…

Coworkers talk. And I am a firm believer that this is a good thing. It's your right to keep your salary to yourself, but I think there isn't anything wrong with sharing how much you make with fellow coworkers. Companies should have to deal with the repercussions of giving one employee way more than another, despite them both having the same qualifications. In this oh-too-familiar case, OP found out that they were making a whopping 16 THOUSAND dollars less than one of their coworkers, who was wo…

It is not in a company's best interest to have their employees gather and hold a discussion about how much they are being paid, but it is certainly in the employee's best interest. Back when I was floor manager at a restaurant, I remember finding out that people who were way newer than I was at the job were getting about one dollar more than me. It doesn't really matter that it was one dollar (that adds up, by the way), it matters that this dollar is symbolic! Why should people who have fewer q…

This assistant isn't afraid to rock the boat. Every office place is different, and when you first begin working there, you start to learn the etiquette of the place. Some offices are very open and chatty, while others have unspoken rules that no one talks to higher ups. In some office spaces, people are expected to answer emails or phone calls immediately, whereas other places it's okay to take some time to respond. This might cause a few awkward moments for newcomers! This assistant writes tha…

When you start getting your paycheck later and later, know that you are aboard a sinking ship. No company that has its finances in order is paying its employees at the latest possible date. A Redditor, u/heyomeatballs , was working a WFH customer service job for three years and was the only employee in the entire customer service department, which should probably already tell you a lot of what you need to know. OP stated that in the beginning, the job was actually pretty good, and the pay was d…

Remote workers love working from home and Boomers simply can't wrap their brains around that. Nowadays, with so many jobs going remote, some managers are panicked that they'll never get the chance flaunt their $400 ties in front of their lowly employees, over-squeezing their hands with every handshake and blurting uselessly affirmative business mantras to ‘boost morale’. Okay Boomer, but we don't need to waste 2 hours in the car to commute to the office just to...

If there is one thing worse than an annoying boss, it's an annoying coworker. This coworker in particular got promoted, presumably because they were related in some way or another to upper management. That wouldn't be so terrible if they had any work morale whatsoever. Ten years ago, OP was working in a company that did salary packaging. The service that the company offered was basically collecting mortgage statements, rental agreements, credit card bills etc., and then advising their clients'…

This employee tried over and over to tell their boss that they were making a mistake . Some bosses just always want to think they're right. U/Ars-Torok had a great malicious compliance story to tell, and while it's a long story, it's totally worth the read. The OP writes that while rising through the ranks of this company, they worked with a few different bosses. One was a great boss who could solve anything… and the other was Steve. Steve was the kind of boss who thinks they are right 100% of…

Have you ever been so good at your job that you get rewarded by having more responsibilities throw onto your plate? The more efficient you are in your job, the more likely you are to be doing the work of several other employees. Naturally, being an invaluable employee would never earn you a well-deserved raise, but in this case, one man figured out a loophole in order to get paid for the amount of work he was doing.

Being a team player can mean a lot of things. It can mean being a communicative collaborator. It can mean taking on tasks that are normally outside of your primary responsibilities in order to further a collective goal. One thing it does not mean, however, is taking a pay cut. Unfortunately, in this economy, that seems to be one of the latest tactics employers are using to avoid mass layoffs, but one has to wonder if the executives at the top are making the same sacrifices. In fact, one should…

The anti-work movement has been going on for a while now, and contrary to what it sounds like, it's not that people don't want to work. Rather, people want to get paid appropriate, reasonable amounts for the work they do, to be appreciated, and not be micromanaged. That is apparently too much to ask for, nowadays, at least. People are fed up with working conditions, with their bosses, and with their coworkers . Companies try to convince you to 'give your all' to them, to work hard, for you 'wil…

Malicious compliance is one of those rare, juicy opportunities that don't exactly present themselves very often. But once you get that golden ticket, bets are out you're gonna use it. In this case, OP was one of the few employees in this world that actually liked their job. That is, until his firm merged with another CPA firm, and other managers entered the picture. These managers were the exact opposite of what OP was used to… they were heavy believers in micromanagement (we all know how that…

‘Know your worth’ is a phrase we usually hear when we're down in the dumps on a break up, but some of the unlucky few get this 3-word pep talk from strangers online when they get fired from a dead-end job. In this case, a loyal employee and construction manager for a large company, got fired after he got extremely ill. Because he had to call out sick for 2 months, the higher ups decided he was no longer ‘employee’ material and phoned in their pink slip.