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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/FirefighterSea6973 on 2025-07-04 07:11:59+00:00.
So I work as a social media manager for a small boutique that sells overpriced candles and crystals to suburban moms. It's actually not a bad gig - the pay is decent for entry level, and normally I'd have a lot of creative freedom to post whatever fits the vibe.
Enter my new manager. She got promoted from sales to "Digital Marketing Director" (aka my boss) about three months ago, and she has absolutely zero experience with social media. Like, this woman still uses Facebook to post blurry photos of her breakfast.
Anyway, she decided that every single post needs her personal approval before it goes live. And I mean EVERY post. Instagram stories, comment replies, even liking other accounts' posts. Her reasoning? "We need to maintain brand consistency."
At first I tried to explain that social media works best when you can respond quickly and authentically, but she just kept saying "I need to see everything first."
The problem is, she takes forever to respond. I'd send her a simple post about our new lavender candles, and she'd take 2-3 days to get back to me with "looks good!" Meanwhile, our engagement is tanking because we're posting maybe twice a week instead of daily.
After about a month of this, I decided to maliciously comply. If she wanted to approve everything, then I'd make sure she got to approve EVERYTHING.
I started sending her approval requests for:
- Every single story I wanted to post (sent individually)
- Each comment reply, even ones that just said "Thanks!"
- Requests to like other accounts' posts
- Approval to follow new accounts back
- Permission to use different hashtags
- Requests to share user-generated content to our stories
But here's the kicker - I also started requesting approval for platform maintenance stuff. Like, "Can I approve this tagged post to appear on our profile?" and "Should I archive this expired story highlight?"
Within two weeks, she was getting 15-20 approval requests per day. Her phone was constantly buzzing with my messages. She started taking even longer to respond because she was overwhelmed.
The breaking point came when a customer left a complaint in our comments about a delayed order. I sent her a message asking for approval to respond, then waited. And waited. Three days later, the complaint had been seen by hundreds of people, and other customers started chiming in with their own complaints.
The owner saw the social media disaster unfolding and called us both into a meeting. My manager tried to explain her "brand consistency" strategy, but the owner just looked at our analytics showing our engagement had dropped by 60%.
I got to explain that social media requires quick responses and that the approval process was killing our online presence. The owner asked if I felt confident managing the account independently, and I said absolutely.
My manager is now in charge of "strategic oversight" (aka she reviews our monthly analytics) and I'm back to posting freely. Our engagement bounced back within two weeks, and I even got a small raise.
The best part? She still occasionally asks me to send her drafts of posts "just so she can stay informed." I happily send her screenshots of everything after it's already been posted.