workplace malicious compliance

18-year-old café employee told by her new shift lead to stop talking, stops talking entirely, forcing the lead to backtrack: 'You’re not paid to talk, you’re paid to work'

Brad Dickson

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Boss questions employee's work ethic when they work from home for one day despite working their previously agreed upon WFH days from the office: 'You want me to honor my in-office-days? Okay, but you'll be forced to honor my WFH-days'

Brad Dickson

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Boss bans phones in the workplace, employee complies until boss needs to reach her urgently: 'I wasn’t about to get written [up] for breaking a policy she just finished enforcing'

Ben Weiss

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Boss pressures employee to postpone PTO due to upcoming project deadline, employee refuses, citing HR policy: 'Managers are responsible for planning around employee availability'

Ben Weiss

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18-year-old worker told not to come in at all if she's late for work, turns around and goes home: 'Instead of rushing in, I turned around and went home'

Brad Dickson

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Graphic designer told to stop "pestering" client, designer complies, client's project goes up in flames: 'As per your request, I did not follow up'

Ben Weiss

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'I stopped correcting Stacey's work': Employee told by HR to stop fixing boss's mistakes without approval, boss loses clients over too many errors

Ben Weiss

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Boss takes 15 minutes off construction worker's pay when he was 1 minute late, his refusal to work sparks chain reaction with other staff: 'I'm not getting paid until 6:15 so I'm not doing any work until 6:15. I enjoy what I do but I don't do it for free'

Brad Dickson

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Marketing demands review of all technical documents, programmer creates a fake protocol to mess with them: '[It was] called the "TP Protocol." [I]t could be implemented as a 2 or 3-layer network, each layer called a "ply"'

Brad Dickson

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Boss deducts employee's pay for officially clocking in late despite starting work early, employee maliciously complies: 'Never talk to me before I clock in'

Ben Weiss

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18-year-old receptionist told by boss to "stick strictly to your job description" complies : 'It was absolute chaos by the end of the day'

Brad Dickson

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'Can you cc me on every client email?': Employee complies with micromanager's demands and sends her emails of clients disparaging her work ethic

Ben Weiss

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Employee told to just focus on the own tasks as outlined in their job description, drops all other tasks forcing them to put a job ad out: 'Let’s stick to what’s actually in your job description, alright?'

Brad Dickson

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Delivery courier waits for 100 minutes to maliciously comply with demanding manager's request: 'The time stamp was 3:03 so I was definitely not late'

Remy Millisky

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Drive-thru manager forces employees to put order stickers on customers' cars, one customer throws tantrum on employee's behalf: 'My thoughts exactly, Susan'

Ben Weiss

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Manager belittles employee for rescheduling a client without emailing her first, employee maliciously complies by inundating manager with emails: 'If that’s what she wanted, I could play that game'

Ben Weiss

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