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workplace malicious compliance

Small company gets bought out, new CEO demands employees to look busy, cue malicious compliance: 'We're basically creating a public perception of busy without actually doing too much'

Small company gets bought out, new CEO demands employees to look busy, cue malicious compliance: 'We're basically creating a public perception of busy without actually doing too much'

It's a tale as old as time. You have the perfect job at a small company, everybody manages their workload well, and things are going smoothly. Then, the company finally gets bought out by a larger one, and a new CEO enters the picture. What follows is a seismic cultural shift with new expectations, responsibilities, and rules. This thread was posted to Reddit by RevolutionFriendly56 , who shared their side of the story after their new CEO decided to lecture everyone about loyalty and staying bu…
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employee employment-discussion job malicious compliance work employees technician overworked-employees workplace Horrible Bosses workplace malicious compliance employment in the workplace

Cell tower technician forbidden from using competitor's phone, leaving them unable to communicate while working on site, leading to boss's firing: 'You can't use a competitors phone!'

If you’ve ever worked a job where your work site was off-site, then you know exactly how this goes. It’s not unusual for some superior, probably your boss’s boss or boss’s boss’s boss, to make important decisions about the manner of your work and instate policy that makes very little sense in the reality of your working conditions. Almost always, they're sitting behind a desk in a city a long way away and entirely disconnected from the reality—even the context—of your job. The problem is that t…
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customer support customer service workplace discussion workplace-stories jobs job malicious compliance clients retail work customers client customer workplace workplace malicious compliance employment in the workplace - 36730117

Client disregards advice resulting in faulty $10k order of embroidered company t-shirts: 'Have fun refunding a $10k order!'

This is something that comes up now and again that anyone offering specialized services to clients will certainly resonate with. It's amazing how often a person or an organization will pay for services, products, and the expertise that comes along with them, only to refuse to accept the advice that they're paying for. And with ego-fueled hubris, they suddenly decide that they know what's best. The old adages might tell us that “The customer knows best” and that "The customer is always right in…
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Fast food worker's hours cut after violating company policy despite manager's mistakes: '[I] threw my manager under the bus'

Fast food worker's hours cut after violating company policy despite manager's mistakes: '[I] threw my manager under the bus'

This mistreated employee managed to find a loophole that worked in her favor! She had been in an on-and-off relationship with her manager , which of course, was not the wisest of ideas but it happens. The biggest issue here is that she was the one who was unfairly punished while her manager had yet to receive any ridicule for his behavior. According to company policy, relationships among employees need to be disclosed to upper management. However, this was a two-way street and it was just as mu…
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customer support customer service workplace discussion workplace-stories jobs mechanics job malicious compliance retail work customers customer mechanic workplace workplace malicious compliance employment in the workplace - 36759557

Customer refuses to pay for oil change, demands mechanic put old oil back in: 'His truck might last another year at best'

It's always important to be weary when money is involved, and the fact that everyone has heard a tale or two about a scamming or dishonest mechanic adds to their apprehension when facing a service bill. The problem with thinking everyone is trying to get one over on you all the time is that you'll blame everyone for everything and find yourself constantly at odds. Typically, these types of demands from customers are a way of avoiding footing the bill or in the hopes that you might knock somethi…
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'I forwarded boss's own email back to them': Boss tells employee not to cover for two coworkers to avoid giving him another raise, backfires when both coworkers are out

'I forwarded boss's own email back to them': Boss tells employee not to cover for two coworkers to avoid giving him another raise, backfires when both coworkers are out

Defining an employee's core responsibilities is a key and careful task that can backfire or protect you depending on the situation. Here , we have an employee who occasionally covered for two of his coworkers if they were off at the same time and had brought up to their boss that he was the only person at work who was capable of doing so simultaneously. This helped the employee when he was negotiating a raise, but after the raise, his boss told him that he should focus on his core responsibilit…
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'You want a phone call EVERY time? Will do!': Employee puts in tons of overtime to maliciously comply with micromanager's demands, gets him fired

'You want a phone call EVERY time? Will do!': Employee puts in tons of overtime to maliciously comply with micromanager's demands, gets him fired

Getting caught in between the demands of different authority figures within the same company is not always easy to navigate. Not only are you catering to the needs and requests of your direct supervisor, but now you have found yourself having to cater to the whims of the person who signs your paycheck and your micromanager's paycheck. That is the conundrum that this Redditor found himself in and it triggered a lot of insecurity from his direct manager, who insisted on getting an extensive updat…
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employment Job workplace discussion employment issues antiwork Horrible Bosses workplace-stories jobs employment-discussion job employee employees overworked-employees malicious compliance

Employee gets buried in busywork when boss sees their clean desk, going forward they pretend to be busy with decoy files and folders: 'I learned my lesson'

Working in modern workplaces can be exceptionally exhausting. Constant distractions due to open-plan offices tear employees away from their work. At the same time, success is attached to social and political status with heavy reliance on the “optics” of busyness rather than employees' actual effectiveness in completing their tasks. The reality is that we all work differently, and forcing all staff to work what you perceive to be the “appearance” of hard work will result in a performative cultur…
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'I cost them $100+k': Contractor denied phone access in warehouse to speak to supervisor, entire team collects paycheck and walks out

'I cost them $100+k': Contractor denied phone access in warehouse to speak to supervisor, entire team collects paycheck and walks out

It turns out there is a price to enforcing unnecessary rules and regulations. This Redditor worked as a contractor for various warehouses, often leading the same team of employees. Usually, he needed to be on the phone during the work days so he could continue updating his supervisor, but on this particular job, there was a rule against non-managers having phone access. Despite the fact that the Original Poster (OP) was leading the team and had all the same responsibilities as a manager, he was…
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Entitled boss gets what he deserves for not believing employee's injury, has to pay employee a week of sick leave instead of the requested one day

‘He got his note’: Employee sprains ankle and requests one day of paid sick leave, boss demands to see a doctor's note and ends up paying a week of leave per doctor's orders

"This gets met with more attitude so I ask if I’ll be getting paid sick time for the day I missed yesterday. He says no, not without a doctors note. . ."
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workplace discussion workplace-stories jobs job malicious compliance work workplace workplace malicious compliance employment in the workplace - 36664837

Boss repeatedly asks employee to work shifts while they're on leave to enjoy the birth of their first child, employee quits instead: 'How about I take a permanent vacation...'

“ Most employees don't quit their jobs....they quit their bosses!” This phrase has been bandied about in internet employment discussions for some time and remains steadfastly true. Any job—well, almost any job—is tolerable to a certain level just as long as you enjoy the people you're working with. Even the most grueling work at odd hours can be managed as long as you have solid, reliable leadership and coworkers whom you enjoy. In these types of workplace cultures, the work itself is almost se…
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work workplace employment Job workplace discussion in the workplace workplace-stories jobs malicious compliance workplace malicious compliance Technology tech support talesfromtechsupport

Major client foolishly insists tech support delete all data, tech support refuses to comply saving the client's business: 'Their entire company basically shut down for an afternoon'

When it's your job to ensure important information is protected, and someone insists that you delete it, even if it's the client themself, you'd be right to pause for a moment and reassess the situation if something doesn't sound quite right. Clients tend to woefully overestimate their abilities in the matter they're contracting you to handle, so they may be asking you to do something they don't fully understand the implications of. This tech support specialist worked for a small organization,…
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employment Jobs workplace discussion employment issues Horrible Bosses workplace-stories jobs employment-discussion job malicious compliance workplace malicious compliance employee mechanic mechanics

New "nepo baby" boss strong-arms lead mechanic into organizing his tools for the boss to use, mechanic locks up his tools and leaves: 'I am currently sitting in my car [...] browsing job listings'

If you've ever worked in an industry with technicians or mechanics, you know there is one rule that must be followed: Never (NEVER) touch their tools—or tell them how to organize and manage them. This is true even if the company provides the tools, but it is especially true if the mechanics buy and use their own toolsets. As one commenter cleverly pointed out on the original thread, this story was shared: Asking a mechanic to organize or tidy their tools so that you can borrow them is like your…
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workplace-stories jobs malicious compliance workplace malicious compliance Jobs employment issues antiwork Horrible Bosses employment-discussion job employee employees overworked-employees

Manager insists all personal phone calls be directed to them in an effort to stop employees needing their phones at work, predictably backfires: 'No phones allowed at work, tell them to call me directly!'

There is just a certain degree of oversight that doesn't need to occur in any situation. Sure, you might like to keep a tight lid on operations and your staff, but you can guarantee there are certain things that you don't need—and probably don't want—to know. At any rate, there reaches a point in your career where enough is going on underneath your level of authority where requiring any one thing to pass across your desk will result in an amount of work that you can't possibly keep up with. You…
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jobs malicious compliance workplace malicious compliance Jobs employment issues antiwork Horrible Bosses employment-discussion job employee employees overworked-employees

'Try to pile on more work to increase your bonus? Not gonna happen...': Manager tries to put the work of 12 people onto a 7 person team to get a bigger bonus, supervisor won't let that happen

There's this trend that happens in every industry, across every workplace, where managers think they've come up with a clever and original new idea to increase profits. See, there are really only two ways to do this: Increase revenue or decrease expenses. However, increasing revenue is hard and takes effort and new ideas, so instead, they start looking at the bottom line. The first place they're going to look at at this point is staffing. Employees and labor are huge expenses, and management is…
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'I'm still gloating over my [win] over corporate Karen': Worker maliciously complies with boss's request to park bike in designated spot, results in six hours of OT

'I'm still gloating over my [win] over corporate Karen': Worker maliciously complies with boss's request to park bike in designated spot, results in six hours of OT

It's always frustrating when someone from corporate swoops down out of nowhere to boss you around. Here, we have a part-time worker at a delivery company who was lectured by an obnoxious Karen from corporate that he had to park his bike in their “correct” spot. Even the worker's immediate supervisor suggested that he ignore the Karen's mandate in certain situations as she likely would not notice, but this worker wanted to prove to the Karen why her unnecessary enforcing of this rule could backf…
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