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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/brookssofi on 2025-07-09 21:18:58+00:00.
I used to work at a luxury watch store in mall. We closed at 9 PM, but most nights we’d be done with all the cleaning and closing tasks by 8:40. With no customers around, we’d just quietly wait out the last 15-20 minutes.
One day, our regional manager walked in unannounced around 8:45, saw us sitting and talking, and got mad. Next morning, we got a new rule: “No closing tasks can begin until after 9 PM”. He wanted us “working until the very end”.
Fine.
We stopped doing anything before 9. Every display, register, cleaning task all of it waited until the clock struck 9:00. Which meant we didn’t finish until 9:30 every night. And since our contracts gave us paid overtime if we stayed late, we started racking up extra pay every shift.
After two weeks, corporate started asking why labor costs had spiked. But we kept following their instructions exactly. It wasn’t until senior exec watched us standing around doing nothing for 20 minutes before madly closing up after hours that they finally dropped the rule.
New policy: “Use your judgment just make sure the store looks good until closing”.
Amazing how fast common sense returns when budget take a hit.