You'd probably be horrified at how common these types of requirements are within certain industries. The industries where manipulative employers tell you with a smile that you're a "family"… while simultaneously plotting how they can squeeze as much unpaid labor out of you as possible. Working in the service and retail industries is no walk in the park—that should not come as a great surprise to anybody. The frantic and inconsistent demands of these businesses place considerable strain on staff…

It's always surprising when decisions directly contradict an organization's stated values and fly in the face of their own data and analytics. Yet, many companies' responses to remote working are exactly that, choosing to return to offices despite increased productivity and record profits. It leads one to wonder… why? The real answer we'll never know, but it is probably close to what is often theorized in these discussions: Somewhere a manager—who still hasn't adapted to their perceived loss of…

Undertaking a gambit with the sole purpose of making someone else look ridiculous—well, that's a risky move. There's a good chance that the whole thing could backfire and make you look ridiculous instead. After all, you should never put down all your best monsters at once when your opponent has a trap card face down on the field. (Mirror Force, anyone?) This manager tried to use a security guard's report as an example, presumably as a way of humiliating them to get them to leave the company. Th…

When you have a job, it's usually best to do that job if you want to keep it… Not get embroiled in a war of petty acts against a coworker who wanted no part in that war in the first place. If you choose the latter pathway, you need to be prepared for any consequences that follow. Redditor u/Peach_Gfuel shared this story to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit about their coworker who insisted on getting revenge on them for a perceived slight. u/Peach_Gfuel had previously worked for the Qual…

Being embroiled in an ongoing prank war sounds like a lot of fun—until you find yourself in one. It turns out there's not much that's desirable about constantly being on edge, wondering when the next strike will happen, especially when that strike is likely to come at the most inconvenient time. This is doubly true when you didn't consent to partake in the prank war, to begin with, and it always seems to come from that one clueless coworker who thinks they're hilarious despite being merely obno…

What often gets lost in translation in our workplace culture is how important leave is. In fact, it's just as important as the work itself. From a business-first perspective, you need to be able to maintain an appropriate work-life balance in order to remain at peak effectiveness. Even if you're someone who is all about your career, taking time off will help you come back refreshed and reinvigorated—with the right headspace and fresh ideas to tackle your job. This worker shared their story of h…

This military wife commanded her husband's soldiers to salute her and the stickers on her vehicle, which led to a little tom-foolery from the soldiers who maliciously complied with their orders (as grunts are wont to do.) As commenters have pointed out, what is it with the "Military Wife as an entire personality" stereotype? I suppose it's not an entirely unique phenomenon—people will build a personality around the darnedest things. I'm not preaching from a pulpit here; I do it too. If you had…

Taking credit for your subordinate's work is a part of being in charge. After all, if you're managing the team, delegating, and making things work, you deserve it—partly. However, it's incredibly important to give credit where credit's due and recognize the people who actually did the work, came up with the ideas, and put in the time; pretending you did it yourself is dishonest and a good way to get a whole lot of bad karma barreling down on you. Plus, you might end up in a circumstance like th…

Sometimes people try to get away with everything and anything they can without thinking of the repercussions it might have on someone else. It makes us shake our dam heads so hard. Be a little empathetic, maybe? Did you ever think that maybe the world doesn't revolved around you? It's even more frustrating when these kinds of people repeatedly get away with pulling this kind of BS . It truly brings down humanity ten times. Recently, a man working as a delivery guy for DoorDash called out a woma…

Interviewing for a new job can be tough, especially when the employer has unreasonable expectations about the job they're hiring for. Common examples of this will be wildly unmatched desired levels of experience versus compensation on offer or an advertised position that has just too many duties for one person to reasonably attend to. This usually means that the job is a non-starter and not worth pursuing. The employer is constantly going to be disappointed by the tasks that aren't being comple…

This manager found their workload increased dramatically when their co-manager was fired for a ridiculous reason. They then had to operate the entire store alone, which was rife with unique issues. The boss continued to be pettier and pettier. When they finally hired a replacement co-manager, they expected the manager to "cut their hours" immediately, which led to the titular confrontation. This thread was posted to r/MaliciousCompliance by the manager in the story, Redditor u/A-Stackhouse. Whe…

Problems will present themselves in our lives with a constant certain predictability—it's how we go about solving those problems that determines the course it will take. Say you have a bad boss or are otherwise unhappy with your job—what do you do? Do you sit and silently suffer, day after day, week after week, month after month? If you don't have to, why should you? Take your life into your own hands and find something better. That's what this worker has done following advice they received whe…

Imagine submitting a cover letter that is so well written and on point with calling out and solving the company's problems that you immediately get contacted by the company's lawyer and a frantic department head who demand to know where you got your information. Then, after all of that, you still don't get the job when they balk at your compensation request… Talk about a roller coaster! If you've ever wanted undeniable proof that you have the qualifications for a position and are generally skil…

You can always judge the strength of someone's character by their willingness to accept, acknowledge, and correct their own mistakes. Similarly, a manager blaming their worker for organizational failure above the worker's pay grade says much about their leadership. It's completely fair for a worker to expect that everything is taken care of when they have followed the instructed process. Reprimanding that worker—via poorly structured text messages—for the ensuing lack of communication between t…

There's nothing worse than being uncomfortable at work; that's why you'll never catch me in a suit and tie. That and the fact that copywriting isn't really the right field for dressing to the nines. So I'll rephrase: That's one of the reasons why you'll never catch me in a suit and tie. Imagine being told that you can't do something because “the policy” or SOP only to come to find that it's not actually a written rule at all. The hilarious thing that happens here is how quickly something gets c…

Older generations think that millennials and Gen Z have no work ethic. Obviously that's not true across the board, it's just that younger folks aren't inclined to work for jobs with no benefits, living wages, or humanity. One millennial recently got accused of faking being sick at work to get out of his shift, even though he had a fever, chills, and was violently ill in the bathroom.