Malicious Compliance

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Substantial_Desk_670 on 2025-07-02 14:28:26+00:00.

This happened decades ago for a food production company where I was a Quality Control manager. I regularly checked the quality of the food we produced and the food production lines for four plants in the area.

One plant I inspected was operating within tolerance and received a generally good report, but I had to note one potential hazard: the parking lot was in terrible condition, and the dust that employee vehicles kicked up and they entered and left work could enter the plant and contaminate the food production line. I gave a copy of my report to the Plant Operations Supervisor, and suggested he get it taken care of before the USDA inspector noticed it.

His response: “You were here to inspect food production, not the parking lot!”

“I'm here to ensure the quality of the food product that leaves this plant.”

“Bullsh–!” and then he said the words every malicious complier thrives on. “Don't tell me how to run my plant!”

Six weeks later, the USDA inspector shut down the plant, citing the quality of the parking lot and the heightened risk of dust entering the food production line. Who knew?

But even then, there was a work-around that could have kept the plant open. Only… plant operations had demanded that I don't tell them how to run their plant.

Even so, I had to ask, the following month after the lot had been repaved and the inspector had finally approved the plant to be reopened: “Why didn't you just close down the parking lot and have the employees park on the street?” Schedule the repave on a weekend, the plant could have stayed in operation.

He didn't lose his job. In fact, he retired from that company. So I guess it was a lesson learned? But he didn't talk to me again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/beerbellybegone on 2025-07-02 13:03:43+00:00.

English is not my first language, please be kind.

Back when I was in the army, my tank driver was someone who you'd really not want to spend time with unless you absolutely had to (like, for instance, if you were in a tank crew with him and needed the tank to actually get from point A to point B).

When it comes to crew breakdown in a tank, it goes like this:

Tank gunner (my position) - coolest job in the tank, you get to shoot the big gun. You also have to do the least amount of maintenance work on the tank.

Loader - does most of the bitch work in the tank. Has to carry and load multiple heavy tank shells (~45-50kg each). Not much maintenance work, but spends like 2-3 hours cleaning the 3 machine guns.

Driver - drives the tank. Pretty simple, but a good driver will give you a smooth ride, a bad driver will make you feel every dip and bump in the terrain. Does the most maintenance work since they are in charge of the tank tracks and bogies (steel wheels in the tracks)

Tank commander - knows how to do all the positions, doesn't do any maintenance since they are usually in briefings on maintenance day.

A good crew knows how to begin to think alike, doing things together without asking. It helps that you sleep together in the tank, so you all get to know each other pretty intimately (nothing like pissing in a water bottle to remove any shyness between crew members).

When it comes to maintenance, you can either have all the gunners from the platoon get together and work on all the platoon's tanks together, same with drivers/gunners, or each crew can do their own tank. Usually we prefer the first option because it goes quicker.

In this case, my crew was sent to support an infantry exercise on a different base in the middle of the desert on our own - we were simulating a whole tank company, but budget cuts meants only one tank was sent. Sunday we got to base and deployed with our tank down into the exercise area. Monday-Wednesday night we exercised. Thursday morning the drill ended, and it was maintenance day. Crucial element here is that you don't get to go home for the weekend until your maintenance is complete, the flip side being that you could leave as soon as maintenance was completed and signed off on.

The entire exercise, the driver was being a complete ass. I don't know if his girlfriend broke up with him or whatever, but he was even more annoying than usual. Aside from his attitude, his driving was so bad the TC almost broke a rib one time, and I nearly got a black eye when shooting in motion and he (unintentionally, I'm sure) aimed straight for a small ditch. By the time Thursday came around, the loader and I couldn't get rid of him for the weekend quickly enough. But alas - first, maintenance beckoned.

One of the tasks the gunner has to do is clean the cannon with a oiled cleaning rod - this is a three man job, loader in the tank and two people clean it from the outside. It can't be done by one person no matter how strong they are. I asked the driver to help me since the loader was inside the tank. The driver angrily told me he didn't want to hear from me or speak to me. No worries. I found somebody to give me a hand for a few minutes and we got the job done.

I completed the rest of my maintenance work pretty quickly (like I said, not much, actually) with the help of the loader, and then I gave him a hand cleaning the machine guns. The two of us were done before lunchtime, just waiting for the TC to sign off on our work so we could start our weekend early.

Driver, on the other hand, realized that he didn't have any other drivers to help him maintain the tracks (tension, tightening bolts, greasing ports, etc.), and he had told us to F-off. He was still working on the tank when it got dark and was told to stop for safety reasons. He had to continue the job on Friday morning and missed out on a day of leave.

I wanna say that his attitude changed on Sunday when we got back to base, but you know it didn't. Thankfully after about 2 more months of his nonsense he was transferred out. I have no idea where he is today. I'm still good friends with the loader and TC, the driver can get bent.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Quick_Pear1429 on 2025-07-02 08:32:52+00:00.

So, about 10 years ago now, I worked the FIFO lifestyle — and it was great. We would work 8 days on and get 6 days off. On the days we worked, it would be 12-hour shifts, and ours was 6 a.m. till 6 p.m.

Anyway, we got this manager, and they were good at first, but over time they became more strict. One day, we were leaving at 5:55 p.m. — which was very common for us, as we carpooled from camp to site (about 5 km away) in our work vehicle, even with the boss. We would leave camp at 5:30 a.m. and be at work shortly after, usually commencing at 5:40 a.m. most days, if not earlier.

So, one day after leaving 5 minutes early, we were pulled into the office and told that we had to stay until 6 p.m. moving forward. Even after we mentioned that we mostly ate at our desk instead of going to the lunchroom — cue malicious compliance.

The boss would get to the car at the normal time (5:30 a.m.), and we wouldn’t get to the car until 5:50, even 5:55 a.m. at times. We stopped eating at our desks and took our two breaks away from work in the lunchroom. If disturbed, we’d ignore it or say we’d get to it after lunch. And we stayed till 6 p.m., even if work was completed.

Some urgent tasks — that were normally done while most people were on breaks — stopped getting done, or took longer. Sometimes the work carried over to the next day. Their manager caught on about 3 weeks later and asked us why. We explained what had happened.

That afternoon, we were informed we could leave 5 minutes early moving forward, as long as the work was done. Let’s just say the manager only lasted another 6 months (not sure if they were forced out or quit).

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/LilMissYuna on 2025-07-02 07:58:13+00:00.

At my old job, management decided that everything needed to go through the ticket system. No more quick fixes or hallway questions. If it wasn’t in a ticket, it didn’t happen.

So I did exactly what they asked. Every single little thing got a ticket. Mouse batteries low? Ticket. Printer jam? Ticket. Someone couldn’t remember their password? Ticket.

By the end of the first week, their system was so clogged they couldn’t keep up. Managers were drowning in tickets about tiny issues they never cared about before. Pretty soon they “clarified” the policy. We were supposed to use “common sense” and not ticket everything. Sure. That’s definitely what they said the first time.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/xaliwill on 2025-07-02 01:27:12+00:00.

I (18F) work part-time at a frozen yogurt shop. We don’t have strict dress code - just “look neat”, so I usually wear jeans and a simple tee. It’s clean, comfy, and I’m in my feet all day.

One shift, my manager pulled me aside and said, “Next time, try to look more professional. You’re representing the brand”. I asked what she meant. She just vaguely said, “Something more formal.”

Cool.

Next shift, I showed up in a black pencil skirt, white blouse, blazer, and flats - full office mode. Hair slicked back, makeup done, even wore perfume. Everyone thought I was going to a job interview.

I scooped yogurt like that for 6 hours straight.

At the end of my shift, the same manager said, “Okay, that was a bit much…” I smiled and said, “You asked for more professional.”

She never mentioned my outfits again.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/happyguy193 on 2025-07-01 21:03:43+00:00.

This was back in the COVID days. The firm I worked in back then had 2 partners in charge of basically the whole show. One of them was genuinely concerned about covid and decided to create the alternate week WFH groups and rules, you get the idea. Then the other one was a true old school boomer who believed that you're not working if you're not in office. The boomer would literally call me back to the office on my WFH days to come back. This was regardless whether I had been to risky areas the days before (i.e. big gatherings or whatnot. I'm not in the States btw and the rules at our area were somewhat nonsensical but still needed to be followed, mask, crowd control etc but u could do ur private parties LOL).

So ofc I gave up and just came daily regardless of shift to the disgust of the other one who actually crafted the rule. "Aye sir, I'm being called back in, can't fight ur friend there u know". Obv I didn't say it this way but I delivered this message to them.

One day I came to the office after having a big gathering with a few colleagues the day before (the people in my WFH grp who didn't need to report to the office obviously, and they don't report directly to the boomer so there's that) and one person from that group informed the office that she tested positive for COVID that morning. So there's me who wasn't supposed to be in office but became the harbinger of bad news that morning coz now we have a potential carrier (me) who'd have not been in office had the rule was followed. They literally sent me for some PCR testing the same day and the result came back positive within few hours. The news literally sent them into panic mode as my other colleagues in office that day informed me and I was told to not come back in office for at least 2 weeks (yea, told u so mofos). The guys who sat near me were also told to WFH without exception for a week and to test for COVID again before they are allowed to office.

The COVID itself hit me pretty hard and that was the first time in my life I coughed till my lower back actually hurt. But the satisfaction of knowing I instilled that fear in them was something I grin about to this date. That boomer actually got scared for once and finally shut up about the whole WFH thing. Since then the WFH rule was followed properly till COVID finally waned off itself but that was a fun memory.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/SoftyLushieVelvet on 2025-07-01 20:17:08+00:00.

I was house-sitting for my sister for a weekend while she and her husband went on a trip. They have a big, spoiled golden retriever who’s super sweet but incredibly picky with his food.

Before leaving, she gave me a long list of instructions, including not feeding him any human food because she's trying to train him better.

The first night, I give him his kibble. He sniffs it, looks at me like I’m stupid and walks off. Barely ate all night. Next morning, same thing. Hardly touching his bowl.

By lunch the second day, I call my sister just to check. She said he’ll eat when he’s hungry. Just stick to the plan. No human food.

He went almost 36 hours without eating. When I tell my sister she replied.. OMG why didn’t you give him chicken? He only eats if you mix in shredded chicken!

I reminded her of her own rule.

No human food.

She was annoyed, but also admitted that she should’ve said chicken’s the exception.

Dog got his chicken. Lesson learned.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Flirtsparkk on 2025-07-01 18:21:39+00:00.

I used to work at a busy sandwich shop. During rushes I’d jump on the register to help out, even though it wasn’t really of my job. One day manager got mad over a small order mistake and told me, right in front of everyone. “Never touch the registers again. That’s not your job.” So the next lunch rush hits. The line starts backing up. People are waiting out door. The manager is trying take all the orders on their own and looks completely stressed. I just kept restocking napkins and wiping tables. I was doing exactly what I was told. After a while they gave me this look and asked if I could please help at the register. I said. “Sure. Just wanted to follow what you said.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/MrJokster on 2025-07-01 15:04:31+00:00.

I am the type of person who doesn't get a lot of symptoms when sick. A scratchy throat, a runny nose, but nothing that really knocks me out of commission. However, I try to remain aware that anyone else my contagious self infects might not be so fortunate.

So one morning I wake up feeling off and text my boss that I'm going to Urgent Care & will let him know what they say. I get strep throat a lot and had it again, so they give me antibiotics & send me on my way. Call my boss and ask him if I can work from home (100% of my job can be done from home). "No," he says. "You either need to take a sick day or come in." So I tell him, "Okay, see you shortly."

Now, my boss is the type of person who doesn't really listen. He hears what he wants to hear and most everything else goes in one ear and out the other. I pull into the parking lot, put a mask on, and head straight to his office. When I barge in, he's in the middle of a video call, so my one colleague overhears all this and has to keep from laughing.

Boss says, "Oh, they gave you a clean bill of health?" I say, "Nope. Like I told you on the phone, I feel decent enough but am sick and contagious." I reached into my pocket to pull out a pill bottle, "Gotta be on these antibiotics for at least a day before I'm not." I even coughed a bit for dramatic effect as I stood there, breathing his air. "Oh," he says, the color beginning to drain from his face. "Well, why don't go you ahead and work from home today."

"I'll do that, boss." Funny how that's fine now that he's at risk.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/FeralFaee on 2025-07-01 13:54:16+00:00.

I originally posted this as a comment on another thread, but a few people messaged me saying I should give it its own post. So here we are.

About ten years ago, I worked for a mid-sized manufacturing company that did contract work for a lot of big-name tech companies. We were always under pressure to meet tight deadlines, and it was common for employees (especially on my team) to rack up a ton of overtime. We weren’t forced, but we were compensated really well for it. I was young, hungry for the extra cash, and honestly proud of helping the team hit goals.

Enter new management. Our old supervisor retired and was replaced by a guy I’ll call Dan. Dan came in hot, trying to “shake things up” and “streamline operations.” Classic. One of his first big changes? He decided that too much overtime was making him look bad to higher-ups. Said it made it seem like he couldn’t manage his team’s workload. So he called a meeting and announced that going forward, we were not allowed to log overtime unless it was pre-approved in writing. And spoiler: he wasn’t going to approve it.

We tried to warn him. We told him how much we actually needed that extra time to hit the ridiculous deadlines that were promised to clients. He waved it off, said we should “work smarter, not harder.” So fine. We did exactly what he wanted.

We all stopped working overtime cold turkey. No staying late to help the next shift, no logging in early, no coming in on Saturdays to prep for big shipments. We worked our 8-hour shifts and clocked out, nothing more.

At first Dan was thrilled. He kept bragging in meetings about how he’d “fixed the overtime problem.” But within two weeks, the cracks started showing. Orders got delayed. Shipments missed deadlines. Customers started calling, pissed off about late deliveries. Dan started staying late himself trying to figure out why things were falling apart, but the dude had no clue what actually went into the day-to-day work.

It all came to a head about a month in. We missed a massive delivery for one of our biggest clients, and they threatened to pull their contract. Dan ended up in a panic, trying to throw overtime at us to catch up. By then, most of us were over it. A few people bailed and found other jobs. I stayed long enough to watch him eat crow, then I moved on too.

The best part? The higher-ups eventually figured out that his no-overtime policy was the root of the problem, and he was “let go” (aka fired) about six months after he started.

Moral of the story: Be careful what you wish for when you try to fix things that aren’t broken.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/OwlNo1068 on 2025-07-01 07:57:41+00:00.

Had a narcissist GM. I was in a a senior role in a small company. The GM hounded staff and expected me to join in, while I did my best to protect them. After huge staff turnover it was my turn to be the target.

One of my tasks was to liase with our agents in China. We had a multitude of manufacturing projects under way from initial design to shipping.

I'd communicate with the agents via WeChat which is similar to Whatsapp. And because I'd been working with the agents for a while, when we were talking about projects there would be side chats about the weather or holidays or family.

Now I was under the microscope, the GM demanded I share ALL my communication with her. I have no idea why but I did exactly what she said.

I took a screenshot of each message sent or received separately and sent it to her via slack. Our conversations were not very exciting but I made sure to send her each and every message. A simple conversations like the following which would be 10 separate slack messages. I made sure to get the name and time stamp so she could see exactly what I was doing.

Hello / Hello, how are you / I'm good, how are you going? / Great! Things are busy / Oh here too! / I'm looking forward to the weekend / Do you have plans? / Nope / Just relaxing? / Yes ✋🏼

Obviously relationships are important in business so I made sure I was extra chatty, and in the interests of efficiency kept the messages as short as possible.

The first day I'd sent her several hundred messages on slack within a couple of hours. Even sent her "haha" and emojis.

The next day she told me she didn't need to see all my correspondence after all.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ladyshadowfaax on 2025-07-01 06:04:42+00:00.

A couple years ago, I was asked to create an internal competition for employees. I designed the whole thing; the format, the communication strategy, how entries would be judged, everything. It ran nationally, was a hit, and the winning entry even went on to win an external national award.

Fast forward to the next year and my boss is asked to give a presentation at the awards ceremony about the competition. Naturally, since I built it, I put together his entire presentation; the slides, his speaking notes, even rehearsed it with him.

Turns out, some other companies that were at the presentation wanted to learn how we did it. My boss sets up a few meetings with their reps, invites me along, and says, “I’ll do most of the talking, but I’d like you to listen in.”

I’m thinking - great! What a cool opportunity, and it’s nice of him to include me.

Then the meeting starts.

He opens with, “So this was my idea from the start…”, and proceeds to go on, and on, for around 15 minutes about his “vision” and how he supposedly “led the strategy from day one.” He went so far as to say that I was invited “to learn some more about the strategy, since (let’s call me Sarah) was part of the team who set up on the day.” I was stunned. I kept my face neutral and nodded along.

Then came the questions.

Simple ones, too; logistics, structure, what tech we used, how we got employee buy-in. He fumbles. Repeats himself. Starts sweating. And then starts turning to me with, “Actually, Sarah can probably elaborate on that.”

That’s when the malicious compliance kicked in.

With my best poker face and a sweet smile, I replied: “Oh, I’m not too sure on that one. Your strategic vision was really integral here, I wouldn’t want to misrepresent it.”

He tried again later with another question.

“That’s a great point, but again, this was your brainchild. I was only part of the set-up team.”

He floundered through the rest of the meeting. The reps were polite but clearly unimpressed. Afterward, he was quiet for the rest of the day.

Next time, maybe don’t claim sole credit for someone else’s work.. especially when you can’t communicate it’s strategy or the work behind its implementation.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/SyntaxPetal on 2025-07-01 05:25:26+00:00.

Last week I woke up feeling awful fever, cough, the whole thing. I messaged my boss to ask if I could work from home so I wouldn’t get anyone sick. He replied, “No exceptions. If you’re well enough to work, you’re well enough to be here.” So I dragged myself in, coughing and sniffling the whole time. The look on his face when I walked through the door was priceless. By the end of the day, he told me to go home and said I could work remotely after all. Funny how that works.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Interesting_War559 on 2025-07-01 02:34:43+00:00.

I work at a call center and my supervisor Janet has this thing about bathroom breaks. She says people abuse them to get off the phones and we can only go during our scheduled 15 minute breaks or lunch. This seems ridiculous to me because sometimes you just need to use the bathroom and it's not like I'm taking 20 minute breaks.

Last week she specifically told me I was taking too many "unscheduled restroom visits" and that I needed to plan better. She said from now on I can only leave my desk during designated break times unless it's a true emergency. The way she said emergency made it clear she didn't think I'd ever have one.

So now when I need to use the bathroom outside of break time I make sure to treat it like the medical emergency she wants it to be. I put my phone on hold and announce loudly "I have a bathroom emergency and need to leave immediately." I practically run to the restroom and back to show how urgent it is.

Yesterday I had to do this twice and both times I made sure to let Janet know it was an emergency situation that couldn't wait for my scheduled break. Other people started looking over and she seemed embarrassed but she can't really tell me not to go when I'm following her emergency protocol.

My coworkers think it's funny but I'm starting to feel awkward about the whole thing. Janet has been giving me weird looks and I'm worried this might backfire on me somehow. Maybe I should just try to hold it until break time like she wants but that seems unreasonable for a basic human need. I don't know if I'm handling this right.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/GMSryBut on 2025-06-30 23:07:26+00:00.

First: I am german and english is not my native language, so I apologise for any mistakes I may do

A little bit of background: Due to horrible teachers and my easily intimidated personality, I developed the fear of making mistakes, since I was getting yelled at constantly for making some. Now, my body tried to avoid school and the stress that comes with it by developing the habit of vomiting, to prove my mother I was sick so I could stay home. Problem was, my body tries it a LOT when I get stressed out. Now I can surpress that habit to a certain degree, if I focus on my breathing and close my eyes. But sooner or later, I have to leave the stress causing situation or I vomit.

Now a little bit of German background, since I don't know if this concept exist in other countries. We call it "Zeitarbeit" and google Translated it to "temporarily employment", but long story short, it just means that you don't apply at the company you want to work for, you apply for the "Zeitarbeit"-company (ZC) who then find jobs for you. You go to the ZC, give any important informations they need to find you a job you don't totally hate and if they find something, they call you and you have an interview with the new company you may work for. Then, if you agree to work there, you are a temporarily employee for 6 month. After the 6 month, they either let you go if the company believes it doesn't work out, or you get hired and now have a full job. In Theory, that sounds awesome. In practicallity, the companys spare money if they let go of the temporarily employee and circle to new ones, so your chance of staying is barely non existing. Not to mention, in the 6 month, they don't need a reason to let you go, other than to say "it doesn't work out".

Now to the story: The first two jobs I got through ZC, I try hard to impress them, doing overtime, work more outside my job description, always beeing on time and never be sick. I ignored my mental problems and drown them at home to endure everything. However I wouldn't be here if I got hired. This story takes place in 2018, my 4th job, a factory where I have to pack and sort stuff. However now I was far less enthusiastic, no overtime, keeping to my job description but I still was always on time and stayed my 40 hours/week. HOWEVER, the manager "demanded" overtime nearly daily. I wasn't going to do it, not for minimum wage, and she didn't like it, but I was doing my job so I believe she kept me in for the full 6 months before they let me go.

But then, I made an absolute fatal mistake by daring to get sick! I got a cyst very close to my private area and I could barely walk, stand or even sit. Laying was uncomfortable but at least not painful. I went to the doctor, got antibiotics and a doctors note for 7 days. (5 for the anti biotics and 2 to see if it helped enough). I called in my job to state I was sick for a week but my manager demanded I gave it to her in person, or she would let me go then and there.

Now I was annoyed, tired and in pain that I have to go in, since I was just in my second month working there, so I accepted and my parents drove me in.

I waddled like an X-legged Penguin through the factory into her office. She didn't saw me walk since she was writing something. I put the doctors notice on her desk, close to some other documents. She looked up at me and started talking . . . a LOT! Now, You can imagine that condescending Karen tone in her voice.

She started lecturing me how she dislikes I don't do overtime and now that I'm lazy and went to the doctor to get a "week of paid vacation". That I need to work on my working morale and that my chances of getting hired are VERY slim and I need to put in 110% if I want to have a chance.

Now, my pain around my private area started worsening due to me standing so I barely listened to her after that, but I noticed her voice got louder and louder and she, somehow, talked herself into rage, nearly yelling at this point. . . And I felt my stomache started turning.

I started my strategies to keep my stomache calm since I knew, it would be maybe a few minutes of her complaining before I can leave. I tried to cut in to explain that I need to go home to rest but she had none of it and interrupt me, telling me how disrespectful it is to interrupt some. (The irony, lel).

Cue my malicious compliance: I stopped calming down my stomache and let it does what it want to do and surprise, surprise, not even after a minute, everything comes out, hitting her desk and covers some of her documents AND half of my doctors note. Her face was absolutly priceless, though I wished I could enjoyed it more, next to my pain and new taste. After her initial shock and silent, she FINALLY sent me home to rest. I still think about it till today.

After the week, I came back rather healthy and I got pulled into her office, where she and another boss/Manager waited for me. After a few words back and forth, they asked me, why I didn't even try turn around as I vomited, since I apperantly damaged/destroyed some important documents.

And even though I was not obligated to it, I explained the cyst I had, that I couldn't even walk, stand or turn around without a lot of pain, let alone going to the next restroom or trashbin. And that I shouldn't even been there in the first place, since a doctors note can be hand over AFTER I came back. The other manager/boss looked super pissy at my manager. After more unimportant back and forth, I returned back to work.

I still got let go after the 6 month but I wasn't sorry about this job. I then decided to start focussing on my mental health and my addiction problem.

For the last bit of fact; the manager was gone quickly after me and the factory was destroyed end of 2024. According to some of my old colleagues, they were constantly f/hiring and more and more people were quitting on their own.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Kevincav on 2025-06-30 20:14:51+00:00.

Sorry if this isn’t exactly malicious but it kind of is, also I’m writing this on my phone and my autocorrect hates me

Short but funny story from college. I was taking a science class back in my college days. I had a ti-89ish calculator for all my classes. My professor apparently a rule where you couldn’t use scientific calculators, you can only use a basic one. Well, on a test day I brought in my regular ti calculator and the professor came up to me, saying I can program that and to use my phone instead. The funny part, I’m a software engineer (I was going for a computer science degree at the time of this) who probably could figure out how to write a basic calculator app with anything I could have cheated with. From then on out, I just used my phone, knowing that I could secretly cheat if I really wanted to just because you can program your ti but not your phone apparently.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/cccanaryyy on 2025-06-30 15:36:36+00:00.

I finally have one.

I send two reports to our biggest client every week. One I send Tuesday and again on Friday. This is the open order report- every order we are currently fulfilling. The second I send on Monday. It’s the report for what orders we have shipped the previous week. This gives the customer a full image of open and closed orders.

Mind you, I specifically requested that the tool to generate the second report be created. Sending the report AND the creation of the tool used to send it were both my idea.

In my 1:1 on the 18th I explained to my manager that I need to send the second report on Monday because the information is not updated in our software in a timely manner on Friday, so sending it on the Monday of the following week ensures everything is current. The tool has an option to select which dates are reflected in the report. So today, Monday 6/30, I would select the dates for last week (6/23-6/27).

My manager misunderstood and thought that if I send the report on Monday, it would include that Monday and four days of the previous week, Tuesday-Friday. He sent me an email on the 26th saying he did not like this solution and found it confusing. He said, effective immediately, we would need to adjust my hours to extend to when billing is complete, which is around 4:30pm (I work til 4).

I absolutely don’t mind staying to do the job I’m paid for, but I knew that due to the delay in updating, the shipping report would not be current. I also knew it would reflect five days of the same week and not one day of the current week and four days of the previous week.

I went to his office to clear this up, and I said two words before he interrupted me in a raised voice. “I don’t care! I want the report sent on Friday!” I immediately said “okay, (Manager)” and went to leave but he continued going off. I said something else and he shut me down again. “You need to send the report on Friday! End of discussion!” “Okay, (Manager).”

Cue malicious compliance.

The next day, I stay later, refreshing the report that I know is not going to update. I generate it and see that Friday’s shipments are missing. I send it as instructed and leave.

Shortly after, he emails saying the report is not complete and I need to send one Monday morning. I don’t work on the weekend so I just saw it this morning.

I tell him that I have one tool to get this done and there is a delay in the system and tell him this is why I suggested sending on Mondays. I ask him if there is another tool or method I am unaware of. I tell him the invoicing report and the shipping report don’t match.

He says, “that’s the problem. You sent the report without looking at it.”

I let him know I DID look at it; but I did what I was instructed to do. Now we look (even more) unorganized and inconsistent to our biggest customer. He says the information should be available on Fridays and he asked a higher up for details on when the report updates. That higher up said that the report DOESN’T UPDATE UNTIL 4:30pm-5:15pm. WHEN EVERYONE IS GONE.

Most recent correspondence: “FYI. We can talk about when we want to send the report.”

Oh.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Fit_on_my_sace on 2025-06-30 11:37:37+00:00.

Context: I’m a paramedic that works semi rural (1 hour drive to hospital). We work 12 hour shifts from 6-6. Commonly we would arrive at 5:30 so the off coming crew could go home earlier after handover of equipment.

Anyway. The 5:30 arrival time was a “gentleman’s agreement” so that the off coming crew wouldn’t have to attend a call out that would put them over their finish time and potentially breach their 14 hours maximum working time (Local driving laws can’t be working for more than 14 hours if your job involves driving, at 14 hours you must stop driving no matter where you are unless you have a critical patient).

Occasionally a job would come in during that 5:30-6 period which the new shift would take and then claim the early start as over time (standard practice here, normally never a problem).

One day the Manager sends out an email stating that no staff should be turning up early and starting work before 6 because it was costing too much in overtime.

So that’s what we all did. Every single crew which was 30+ staff. At the peak of winter which is usually one of the busiest times of the year.

It sucked finishing late a fair bit but making the boss pay us 2+ hours of overtime and giving them the headache of driving us back to station once we breached 14 hours instead of paying for 30 minutes was great.

After 2 months of haemorrhaging money in overtime payments, we get another email “You can now go back to the 5:30 arrangement”.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/LovelyKittenPetals on 2025-06-30 05:58:22+00:00.

This happened back when I was in school, few years ago.

I had this one friend. She was cool most of the time, but when it came to money, she turned into a human calculator. If we went out to eat and the bill was $19.87, she’d insist on paying exactly that and not a penny more. Never rounded up, never covered tax or tip and definitely never chipped in when we ordered shared stuff.

Anyway, one weekend we hit up a burger place with a few other friends. I spotted her because she forgot her wallet, again. Her total was like $12.63 burger, fries and a drink.

A few days later, she comes up to me and says, Hey, I’ve got your money. But I only have a twenty. Do you have change?

I didn’t.

So she goes, Okay, then I’ll just give you the $20. But I want my change back later. Exact change. I don’t want to be short even a penny.

I nodded and said, Sure thing.

So later that night, I swung by my dorm, grabbed this big jar where I dumped all my random coins, and sat there counting them out while watching Netflix. I made sure it was exactly $7.37 in dimes, nickels, pennies, and just one quarter for fun.

Next day, I handed her a sandwich bag full of coins.

She looked at it, confused and asked what it was.

I said, Your change. Exact, just like you wanted.

She never pulled that exact change stuff on me again. In fact, next time we went out, she rounded up and offered to leave the tip.

I guess Malicious compliance won.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/jasmantle on 2025-06-29 19:32:25+00:00.

This happened a few years back, when I was between jobs, a mini-recession was underway, and I wanted a who-cares job in a high-energy environment. I ended up managing a food stand at the local NHL hockey arena. In the stand there was myself (Stand Lead), one head cashier, a cook, a runner, and a number of cashiers.

This company started from the position that all their employees were crooks - sorry to be so blunt, but that was their reality. It was not an unfounded position - refilling beer cups and pocketing the cash from the sale was not a rare practice. I had two of my cashiers fired after secret shoppers caught them.

The trick was to do this with non-inventory items. At the start and end of a night I counted everything: Beer cups, the cardboard triangles on which pizza was served, popcorn bags, bags of potato chips, etc. Bulk items could not be counted: Popcorn, draft beer, nacho chips, etc. At the end of the night we garbaged the bulk items that cannot be carried over to the next night: Cooked hot dogs, pizza sliced, popcorn, etc.

We may have wolfed down a few items. "We're closed, I'm going to toss these three leftover slices in the bin, anyone want one?" I recorded the waste (three slices), but they may not have all made it into the garbage.

Apparently some suit envisioned that stands might loading up with extra food from the delivery folks, or cooking extra hot dogs. Manglement got their panties in a twist about us eating the garbage, and sent a memo that all waste was to be boxed up and carried down to the warehouse.

So we did as told. After counting the waste, into the box went a random assortment of pizza slices, hot dogs, and popcorn. It wasn't put in neatly. There was always lots of popcorn. Manglement probably didn't care about the popcorn, but the directive was vague so they got it anyway. The box was stuffed with popcorn. If the warehouse ever did anything with what was in that box, it would be a fermenting fly-infested mess by the time they got around to opening the boxes. At the after-work beer party the directive was discussed, none of the stand leads liked the assumptions made regarding our integrity, and they adopted the practice.

A month or two later I had reason to chat with the warehouse on another topic, and I asked them what they did with all the food waste that was brought down. Answer: We toss it right into the dumpster, we're not digging through that mess. "You never go in and count anything?" Nah, the suits tried to make us, but we refused, we already have full time jobs and they wouldn't hire anyone whose job description was to dig through garbage. It's just the suits trying to intimidate you stand leads.

I resumed binning my waste, and not lugging anything down to the warehouse. Nobody noticed. I passed the word. Neither we, nor the warehouse, told management. The empty suits never noticed.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/UnfoundedConfidence9 on 2025-06-29 07:55:40+00:00.

So I work in a pretty low stress job, which makes it absolutely hilarious that my boss demands that whenever we take our paid time off we "give a good reason"

Like, dude, why do I need to give you a good reason to take my vacation days? They're mine, I'm entitled to take them to dedicate the time to my new hobby of staring at the ceiling, it ain't none of your business.

Well I had planned to take a few days off to recharge after a (very relatively) intense work week. Unfortunately the boss thought this was a great time to send out a "reminder" email that if we intend to take time off we need to provide a reason & have it approved. This was a mistake on his part.

I went into his office, head hanging low, and started talking about my dad's cancer, how intensive chemotherapy was, I didn't make myself cry but I was putting that theatre class I took in college to good use, I might have even hit him with "and I'm just so used to seeing my dad as this strong, invulnerable guy, but... he's just human, y'know? And soon he might be gone... how do you even deal with something like that..."

Now by this point my dad had been cancer-free for years, so this was purely performative, but my boss just looked so uncomfortable, it was great. I wish I could say this caused the boss to send out an email saying we no longer needed to give a reason for our time off, but no such luck, instead I just kept coming up with other traumatic life experiences to justify my vacations. I think my grandma died 3 times these past few years, poor woman. I may have to come up with something new for when she actually does die. My boss still gets visibility uncomfortable whenever I come to ask for time off in person instead of via email, it's kind of hilarious to me.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Main-Ad7685 on 2025-06-29 03:59:52+00:00.

TRIGGER WARNING

I've been working at a poultry farm for about a year now (it's legal for 14 year olds to work in agriculture in my state), and I was always a hard worker who, in spite of my personal and brief legal troubles, was very productive and intuitive. As a result, I was very well liked by the management. The owner of the farm eventually acquired some more land, and the manager decided to break it down more, and appointed me as one of the assistant supervisors of the newly acquired chicken coops. I had this really annoying coworker who was always whining about "the patriarchy holding her back" and not being paid as much as the other workers. (She was just really lazy and spent all her time on her phone.) I overheard her trash talking me to a coworker, saying that she would have gotten the job, but that the owner passed her over because I'm a suck-up. Later that day (she didn't think I had heard her), she asked me for a raise (she thought I was easy prey because I'm young). I planned just to turn her down, but I had a better idea. Unfortunately for her, the guy who got rid of the waste had just moved out, and he earned about 3-4 dollars an hour more than the other workers. So I assigned her waste duty. We still work together, I'm still her (assistant) supervisor, but she's gotten real quiet about my management skills. As it turns out, you still don't want to screw over your boss even if he's 15.

(Yes I know most feminists aren't like that. I'm just telling the story as it was)

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Dr_Pillow on 2025-06-28 16:58:58+00:00.

I spent a few years at this company. The pay there is not as competitive and we all got measly 2–3% raises each year, nothing close to inflation levels. I had been in a starter position and still studying on the side, so I agreed with my boss already a couple years ago that I'd get a promotion once I graduated.

Well, last September I graduated, and asked for my promotion. I had looked over the worker union's salary statistics and the median would be around a 18% bump for me. I didn't expect to get that much because, besides them being a cheap AF, the economy was bad and they had just downsized like 15% of the staff in July. Luckily I had gotten myself into a strong position of being one of the only ones left with some unique skills, so I survived the downsizing. Anyhow, I show my boss a copy of the statistics and ask for the median.

Boss scoffs and proceeds to fight as hard as he can to justify lowballing me. He says several things baffling to me, not limited to:

• “damn, you’re rich bro” about my salary (no dude, I'm really struggling in this economy)
• “If I give you more, you’ll just spend more” (not your concern what I do with my well-deserved money).
• “no one at that level makes that much here” and that the statistics must be wrong. (I later went around the office to find colleagues in that level. First co-worker I ask? Earns exactly what I asked for.)
• Brought up some concerns about my 'communication', petty things like me not replying to a colleague's email for like 3 days (3 days during which I was off-site to give a course somewhere).

But my favourite thing he said was: “You can go look for other jobs to see how much others are offering, you’ll see it's not going to be any better”.

He lingered on my salary adjustment until December, "negotiating with HR", and then finally offers me 11%, which is around what I actually expected. But, there's a catch… next year I would not get the usual 2-3% salary adjustment like everybody else. WTF. I told him: "deal".

You see, I had taken his advice (or rather called his bluff) and was already getting quite far in interviews.

Come January, I land an offer from the top company in our field (think Google, Apple) offering me what would have been a 35% bump. I hit my boss with the news, he promptly panics. Says they want me to stay, they need me, my performance and development have been great, etc... but they can’t match that offer because “not even top management makes that much”. I obviously didn't believe him, but I said "I understand it's not fair that I earn more than everyone else, just do your best".

He runs to the top boss' office and somehow, within 30 mins, they magically found budget for a 30% raise. Perfect, now I had leverage to negotiate an even better offer from my future boss. After all, I had already made up my mind to leave long ago.

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/raycostello on 2025-06-28 14:18:27+00:00.

TL;DR: HOA harassed me about brown patch, so I seed bombed it with aggressive mint. Now mint has taken over the entire neighborhood and HOA can't remove it due to their own rules.

So this happened last year but the mint is still spreading and the HOA is still losing their minds, so I figured you'd appreciate this.

I live in one of those cookie-cutter suburban developments with an HOA that has nothing better to do than measure grass height and count dandelions. Behind my house there's this steep slope that's basically a dead zone - terrible soil, gets destroyed by sun, nothing grows there. Looks like shit but it's not my fault the builder graded it wrong.

Enter the HOA Compliance Committee (aka three retired Karens with clipboards).

They start sending me violation notices about "insufficient green coverage" and "failure to maintain community landscaping standards." I try explaining that it's an impossible area but they don't care. They want it green or they want fines.

I spend like $200 on grass seed - dies. Another $300 on sod - dies. Hire a landscaper for $800 who basically tells me "some places aren't meant to be green" then leaves. More violation notices.

Finally I'm browsing Reddit at 2am (as you do) and see this post for "Bad Apples Doublemint Seed Bombs" that claims to solve "impossible erosion problems." The whole thing sounds sketchy but I'm desperate and facing HOA fines, so fuck it - $35 for 5 seed bombs.

Here's where the malicious compliance begins.

The violation notice specifically said I needed to "establish adequate green coverage using appropriate plant materials for erosion control." It didn't say WHAT plants. Just "appropriate" and "green coverage."

So I read up on mint. Turns out it's actually EXCELLENT for erosion control. Deep roots, spreads aggressively, thrives in terrible conditions. Technically checks every box they demanded.

Friday evening I chuck all 5 seed bombs onto my dead zone like I'm lobbing grenades. Saturday morning I email the compliance committee that I've "deployed professional-grade erosion control featuring premium mint varieties selected for aggressive establishment in challenging terrain."

Sounds official as hell, right?

Plot twist: It actually worked.

Six weeks later my dead zone is GREEN AS HELL. Thick, lush, beautiful mint covering everything. The compliance officer does her walkthrough and actually COMPLIMENTS my "creative landscaping solution." Violation notices stop. I'm feeling pretty smug.

Plot twist #2: Mint doesn't understand property lines.

By fall I notice mint popping up in the common areas. Underground runners had snuck under the fence and were colonizing the neighbors. Spring comes and mint is EVERYWHERE - around mailboxes, along walking paths, even in their fancy entrance landscaping.

Here's the beautiful part: The HOA charter (section 4.2.7 if anyone cares) specifically prohibits "removal or disturbance of vegetation that originates from individual property owner plantings without explicit written consent."

They can't touch the mint without violating their own rules.

Current situation (ongoing chaos):

• HOA hired THREE different landscaping companies. All basically said "you have mint now, learn to love mojitos"
• Community Facebook group is 50% people complaining about mint, 50% people asking where to harvest it for cocktails "
• Last month's HOA meeting included 20 minutes of heated debate about "aggressive aromatic species management"
• They're trying to revise the charter but need 75% homeowner approval and everyone thinks this is hilarious

Best part: Karen #1 from the compliance committee now sends passive-aggressive emails about "residents who deliberately introduce invasive species" but can't name names because that would be "creating a hostile community environment" (section 2.1.4).

My neighbors love it. Free mint for everyone. The mailman said our whole street smells like a spa. I make mint juleps with ingredients harvested from the community mailbox area.

The HOA wanted green coverage. Mission fucking accomplished!!!!

EDIT: i keep getting dmed for sourcing, search bad apples seed bombs on ebay , they work way, way too well lol

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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Ashmunaday on 2025-06-27 22:16:06+00:00.

Right after finishing my training, I landed my first full-time job in quality control at a mid-sized chemical company. The team in the lab was five people - me full-time, the others part-time. The company always claimed that even though they were not part of the union, they still paid according to union contracts (I am from Germany, many industries are unionized and generally all employees get the contracted pay, no matter if they are members or not). It was good money at the time, I had no reference and no reason to doubt. Until I got engaged 7 years later. My fiancée had the exact same training, worked for a bigger company and they actually followed the union contract. The starting wage was the same, but real union contracts had pay raise after set times. This led to a difference in 600 € per month. I was a bit upset, to say the least. I was looking for a new job, but a 3-months notice period was too long for many possible employers. So, being frustrated and not really attached to my old job, I was free to comply maliciously in a way I would never recommend to anyone who wants to keep their job. I copied the part of the union contract with the wage table. There was a nice little relation between training level, tasks and wage ranges. armed with this and a secret weapon I asked for a talk with my manager. In his office I laid the union contract on his table, showed this nice little table and said something along the line: "You always tell people the this company pays according to the union contracts. Look at this, there is a gap between my skills and tasks, and my pay. It's a 600 € gap. So, to comply to your statement, there are two ways to fix this: First, I get 600 € more, Second, I stop doing many of my tasks. Which one should it be?" He wasn't thrilled. Said I was "really leaning out of the window with that statement" (a German idiom, basically: getting bold). I replied: "30% of your department's manpower is sitting in front of you. My fiancée is getting paid the real union wage and we are looking forward to move together, question is where, as we live 120 km (about 75 miles) apart. My biggest obstacle is my 3-month notice period." Then came my secret weapon: I pulled out a fully written letter of resignation and asked for a pen to sign it. Long story short: I got the 600€ raise. I stayed there for another year. So basically I was malicious and my employer complied. Hope this qualifies.

TL;DR: Boss said we follow union pay. I showed we didn’t. Gave him the choice: raise my pay or reduce my tasks. Had a resignation letter ready. Got the raise

P.S. I do not recommend pulling out a resignation letter unless you really mean it. I did.

P.P.S. Yes, this formatting is intentional. just to be safe.