rSlash - r/Maliciouscompliance Bully Me? It'll Cost You $200,000!

Episode Date: July 12, 2022

Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code RSLASH at Manscaped.com. Unlock your Big Groomed Energy with MANSCAPED™. And remember, when you trim the hedges, the tree stands taller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to R-Slash Militius Compliance, where OP complies and costs his company $220,000. Today's episode is brought to you by Manscaped, the global brand for men's grooming and hygiene products. When I record R-Slash episodes, I do it in an airtight sound booth, so trust me when I say that I really don't want to be stinky. Imagine farting in an airtight box. Yeah, not pleasant. So that's why I'm happy to be sponsored by Manscaped, which specializes in caring for a guy's stinkiest regions, your pits, your butt, and your balls. Yep, that's right, they've got ball deodorant

because who wants stinky balls? Not you and certainly not your partner either. Their performance package 4.0 comes with a bunch of stuff. Body wash, shampoo and conditioner, the aforementioned geodarin and ball toner, as well as a nose trimmer and hair trimmer for keeping your lower regions under control. Order now and you can get a travel bag and underwear thrown in for free. Go to manscape.com today and get 20% off plus free international shipping plus two free gifts when you use the promo code R-slashit checkout.

Our next Reddit post is from Brightric. Back in the 1980s, I worked for a sporting goods company as a catalog designer. It was a small company that was privately owned. I was the entire advertising department. I created four catalogs a year. These were responsible for most of our mail order sales pre-internet to the tune of around $700,000 a year. We sent the catalogs via bulk mail using a mailing service. This let us send them for a much discounted

rate. To do this, required the use of a bulk mail permit and placing the permit info in the mailing area of the catalog. Technically, this is called a FISH. Enter a new boss, Ron. For some reason, the company owner hired Ron as a favor to a friend. From day one, Ron was micromanaging, questioning everything, and screwing up my very tight schedule. This was before computers were common, so everything was done by hand. As in literally typing out copy and reducing it on a photocopier to fit, I would develop the photo film myself, make prints, etc. The actual printer had to add screens to the

photo so they would print, burn metal plates, and so on. This was all time consuming and expensive. Deadlines could not be missed. So when Crunch Time came around, I was stuck with several 16-hour days. I was complaining to the owner, but he really couldn't care less. I really wanted to stick it to Ron and the opportunity presented itself. Ron's constant threats of, it's my way or you're fired, were getting to me. Our latest pre-summer catalog was done, and summer was our big season. I had to give him my mock-up, which was photocopy cheat staple together of the final catalog for his approval. This was a new step that I had to add after he demanded it. He looked at it and sent it back with

several pointless revisions. This included a note to remove that ugly permit box because it wasn't needed. The place that he had worked previously stuffed their maillers into envelopes, and the envelopes had a feast. However, their mailer did this last step. I simply asked him to initial the changes because this was the final approved version, and it was going to the printer the next day. There was no time to check it again, so he did. I knew this was going to be a total mess and it's something I would have never done in the past. 50,000 catalogs were printed and shipped directly to the mailer.

The day they arrive at the mailer, the boss gets a call from the sales rep. He says, we can't mail your catalogs. The boss storms into my area of the building and is literally screaming. Ron is now pissed and yelling at me and he's joined by the owner of the company. I swear, we're talking Spiddle and Froth, vain bulging screaming. This is a minimum two week delay, wasted money, lost sales, etc. I explained what happened to the owner, Ron's threat to fire me and showed the owner the changes to the final copy, initialed by Ron. The owner was going to give Ron a second chance

until the bill came in from the printer. They had to stamp 50,000 catalogs by hand. Labor was almost $8,000. Adjusted for inflation, that's $20,000. Plus, our early summer sales boost was off by about $50,000 from previous years, or about $200,000. Adjusted for inflation. Ron was fired. I was left alone after that. Oh my god, you'd think people would know. Can I get you to sign this? Can I get it in writing? That should be a red flag that says, wait, hold on, am I doing something stupid? This person wants me to write it down. They say they want it in writing. They say they want my signature right here. Am I doing something stupid? Because maybe, maybe I'm doing something stupid here. Ron apparently doesn't have that good sense. Our next reddit post is from Finney, MC. This is from about 15 years back. I was working in Brussels, but I had to be in the head office in Frankfurt quite a bit. So there are

three ways to get from my home to Frankfurt, which is about 320 kilometers away. By car, by train, and by plane. I was already told that I couldn't use my car because they would have to pay me a pretty decent amount per kilometer driven. So I used to go by high speed train. It was very easy. I would walk to my station, take the train to the big station, take the big station to Frankfurt, and then take the tram to my hotel and workplace. The only luxury I afforded was a first class ticket because the first time I did this, I had a second-class ticket. Found a woman and a toddler in my reserve seat that made a complete mess and refused to move, so I ended up standing for almost an hour in the little open space at the end of

the wagon. Also, when ordered in advance, the price difference wasn't even that large, like 20 euros. Okay, so almost a year later, I'm still zipping between the two cities by train in first class. When I get an email from HR telling me that I'm violating the travel rules and they won't pay back my expenses next time. I ask them what the rules are. The only reply I get is a link that says, either a second class train ticket or an economy flight, and I ask them if exceptions can be made, and they reply, no. So the next time they expect me in Frankfurt, I book a plane ticket, which is hilariously expensive.

On top of that, as per the travel rules, I add a cost per kilometer for driving my own car to the airport and back, the parking fee for five days, and an S-bond tickets. So, all in all, I had to spend about five times more than the most expensive train tickets. I received my exception to travel in first class about a week later. Our next reddit post is from Mother P. Back in the days before unlimited mobile phone calling plans in long distance, I had a company paid flip phone. There were all kinds of fussy rules attached to using it. No texting, no long distance calls, no special ringtones, and no using the camera. Like I said, fussy rules.

The one exception to the no long distance calls rule was for travel. In my job, I rarely would have to travel to a different calling area, i.e. roaming, but if I did, I was permitted one long distance call per day to call home. That's it. So, the day came when I had to travel and stay overnight in a hotel for work. When I arrived at the hotel, I called my wife to let her know that I arrived and spent a couple of minutes talking to my kids. I got some supper, did some work in front of the TV in the hotel room, and went to bed. The next day, while I was at the conference I was attending, I got a call from my home office. Since I was in a large hotel, the call dropped, so I had to call back later.

I didn't think anything of it. I went back to my session and enjoyed the speaker. Later, after I got back to the hotel, I called home to say goodbye to the kids. I got the answering machine and left a message. I didn't think anything of that, either. The next day, I returned home and went on with my life. At the end of the month, I got a call from the finance department. O.P. It's the finance supervisor. I'm just reviewing your latest cell phone bill, and it shows an unauthorized long distance call. Really? What was the date? April 3rd. You

made a call to your office number at 9.20am and then another one to your home number at 6.15pm. Oh yeah, that's when I was at a conference. The first call was to meet from the office, but I got cut off and had to call them back. I called home from the hotel later. So, how would you like to reimburse us for the call? I beg your pardon? The second call, you have to reimburse for the unauthorized long distance call. You have an expense claim from the conference, so I can deduct it from that, or you can pay directly.

How much are we talking about? Ten cents. Ten cents? Ten cents. Would you like that deducted from your expense claim? I thought I was being punked. Seriously, I sat in stunned silence for a few moments. I said, no, you know what, I'll pay you directly and I wish to supervise you a pleasant day. I opened my drawer where I had some spare change, took two nickels, taped them to a sheet of paper and wrote, for cell phone charge, and then my name. I then took a company envelope, addressed it to the finance office, in a different building but within walking distance away, folded the sheet of paper and put it into the envelope. I've put the envelope in the outgoing mail tray, the postage for which would be paid for by my company.

A few days later, I got a call from the company's comptroller herself. This lady was three pay grades above me and usually wouldn't interact with someone on my level. Apparently, the supervisor complained about me. What's with the nickels?" she asked. I explained the situation, told her the supervisor had insisted that I pay the 10 cent charge and I complied. She laughed out loud.

The paper, envelope, and postage had cost the company more than what they recovered. The following month, the finance department updated the cell phone policy. From then on, only long distance charges and excess of $10 had to be reimbursed. Our next red appost is from Brother P. As a school principal, one of my responsibilities is to solicit parents to join the parent advisory council. In fact, it's written into law with specific regulations as to the composition, frequency, of meetings, etc. One of the requirements is that the meetings have to be held at a time that's convenient to parents.

A decade or so ago, I was the principal of a small rural high school that was in a town that served as the hub for a larger area. Most parents of the school worked in town, but lived out in the countryside, some as much as an hour away. Because of this, the only way to get parents to attend meetings was to hold them right after school at 4 p.m. Parents were either done with work themselves or could make arrangements to dip out a little early, attend the meeting and get home at a decent time. This was particularly important during winter because it was pretty dark and snowy on the rural roads. Partway through the school year,

the district hired a new superintendent who had oversight of the high schools. She had come from a large urban school district, so she didn't fully understand or appreciate how a rural school district worked. At our first meeting with all the principals, she asked each of us for a summary report of school operations, including parent meetings. I'd do tofully submitted mine as requested and forgot about it. A few weeks later, I got a call from the superintendent. We chatted, got to know each other a little bit, and then got down to the real reason for her call. I see from your report

that you hold parent meetings at 4 p.m. she said. Yeah, that's the best time because everyone gets home at a decent hour, I said. A lot of people here have long drives home, myself included. She took this to mean that I had scheduled the meetings around my personal convenience. Well, when I was principal, I always held them at night so that more parents could attend. I think you need to start holding your meetings later. Well, I don't think parents will attend. No, no. The meetings have to be open to all parents and held at a time convenient to them, she insisted.

I think you should start at 7pm to make sure that all parents have the opportunity to come. Now, in a big city school, this works just fine because most families live within a short drive, but the boss is the boss. Cue malicious compliance. Okay, not a problem. Say, why don't you attend the next meeting so that you can introduce yourself to the parents, I suggested.

She immediately agreed and sent the calendar invitation for a month hints at 7pm. My school was located about a 90 minute drive north of the administrative offices where the superintendent worked, and she herself lived an hours drive south of it so she was in for a long day. The day of the meeting rolled around, and the superintendent arrived at the school around 6.45pm in anticipation of the meeting. She brought donuts and cookies and I supplied coffee and water. I had set up the library with a big conference table and seating for 30. No one showed up. I suppressed the urge to say, I told you so.

Down in the comments PanPan asks, how did she handle the parents not coming? Did she argue more? Did she complain about the long drive she had to make home? Was there any appreciation for what the parents go through at all having to drive for close to an hour on a daily basis? And Opie replies, to her credit, she kind of sheepishly said, I see why you have the meetings early, and we had a donut in a laugh about it.

Our next reddit posted from Ultra Superman. I'm in a senior position at a service desk, and like everywhere else, if we see a ticket come in that's already been resolved or it's a duplicate request, we just cancel the tickets and move on with our day. Well, we have this one user who's a vice president, and they're the type of person who thinks the world revolves around them. So they'll send in a ticket, then five minutes later send in another ticket, and so on and so on, until there's like a dozen tickets in the system.

Well, a few weeks ago we introduced a new password policy with an additional policy that makes you change your password after a reset, and you can't use a password that you used before. This was a big change considering our previous policy had no requirements. Most users figured everything out pretty good, even the VP. Now, this is where the malicious compliance comes in. With this new password policy, we also included a policy that all tickets must be completed before resolving them, and you can guess who brought about this change. So the VP went on vacation for a bit. Then they came back and forgot their password, and like normal, they would send in a dozen or more ticket requests. Now, in the five minutes or so between their tickets, we would get 1 to 5 other tickets

come in and it takes like 10 minutes to go through a single ticket. So my team and I went through every ticket like we were told to do and we were counting the number of times that we reset the VPs password because we knew this was coming to come back on us. So low and behold in the span of about an hour we reset their password 11 times. This is when our manager comes in and behold, in the span of about an hour, we reset their password 11 times. This is when our manager comes in and says, I just got an email from the VP and they say that you keep resetting their password. The manager is a good guy and I just remind him of the new ticket policy. He chuckles and heads back to his office and he forwards us an email with the subject,

STOP resetting my password! In the email, it says they had to change their password 12 times, and they're running out of passwords they can think of, and to stop resetting their password. I reply all to the email and say, due to the new policy of tickets where we have to action each one before resolving it, we had to reset your new password a number of times. No less than an hour later, our department gets an email from the president that says, we've reviewed one of our new ticket policies and believe this

is not the best use of your time. So we're going to ask you to recant this policy. Needless to say, we stopped the policy because it was dumb from the start and surprisingly, the VP actually started sending fewer and fewer tickets. That was our slash malicious complianceitius Compliance, and if you like this content, be sure to follow my podcast because I put out new Reddit podcast episodes every single day.