rSlash - r/Maliciouscompliance I Cost My Greedy Landlord $250,000

Episode Date: June 28, 2025

0:00 Intro 0:07 Chairs 3:13 Restored 7:16 Hours 10:33 Schedule 11:58 OT 14:03 On time Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to r slash malicious compliance where a new manager learns an old lesson. Our next reddit post is from Dickfartbutt. I've worked for a major US airline for a long time and at several different airports. There's an area behind the baggage counter where the bags get sorted for their respective flights after they've been checked. We're on our feet most of the time, but we each have chairs at our workstation so that we can sit and rest for a minute when there's a lull in the bags coming down. Every few years, there will be a hot shot new manager who's gonna turn this airport around and make it the best performing one in the system.
Starting point is 00:00:34 And they all seem to have the same idea. Take away the chair so the agents are always standing at the belt. Now, the agents in this area are generally on the senior side, as it's indoors and out of the elements. We've done this job for a while. We know how to do the job efficiently, and we really do our best to avoid screw-ups. But as long as human error is a factor,
Starting point is 00:00:56 there will always be some. Taking our chairs does nothing but piss us off. Their BS excuse usually is to frame it as a safety issue, like a tripping hazard. So smaller or oddly shaped bags get sent down in a plastic tub so they don't jam the belt. Maybe you've seen them. We take them off the belt and stack them up on the ground for someone to come by and collect them. Well not anymore. We let them pile up on the belt making it a giant pain in the butt for some poor bastard to collect them, making it a giant pain in the butt for some poor
Starting point is 00:01:25 bastard to collect them, who then complains constantly to the manager. We say, sorry boss, they're a tripping hazard on the ground. Next, we start following the rules. Our employee handbook lays out very clearly what the company's expectations for us are in our job duties. We're only expected to pull one bag per minute and take bags out no later than 20 minutes before the flight departs. Maybe you've already guessed, but those expectations are nowhere near good enough to actually complete
Starting point is 00:01:56 our tasks. So, by the company's own rules, we were already going well beyond what was expected of us. We start giving them the bare minimum, one bag per minute, 20 minutes prior to the flight. The manager was pissed. He and the supervisors were throwing bags, and us being unionized, we documented and grieved every single time it happened. And the company, a few days later, had to pay out several thousand dollars to agents for covered work. Delays across the board. 1,500 bags missed that day.
Starting point is 00:02:30 The next morning, the chairs were back in their spots, and we continued as normal. And afterwards, no one would give that manager the time of day. A lot of passengers got screwed over that day, but we were working exactly to the rules our company had given us, so you can blame the airline, not the agents. The handbook was changed after a while, but only extending it to 35 minutes prior instead of 20. And it's still one bag per minute, last I looked.
Starting point is 00:02:58 I was lucky enough to be part of three of these events over the years, but this was the most satisfying. Brilliant manager strategy! I know what will boost production! Making my employees suffer more! Our next reddit post is from mal adjusted. My family and I moved into a house in 2008. 5 bedrooms, 3200 square feet, 1600 bucks a month. It was a decent price in 2008, and the rent stayed the same for many years. Since I am reasonably handy, I would fix things myself rather than bother the landlord, an old man.
Starting point is 00:03:30 I lived there for so long that I also made quite a few upgrades. In 2024, the owner passed away, and his son inherited the property. A week later, he gave notice of intent to inspect the property. During the inspection, he kept trying to open drawers and look through my belongings, which isn't legally allowed, and was rude when I stopped him. As he left, he handed me a notice that my rent was increasing to $4,000 monthly, about $1,000 over market value. I would have paid higher rent if it had been reasonable, but I wasn't paying that much
Starting point is 00:04:06 My month-to-month lease was worded to require three months notice to raise the rent I pointed out this fact then gave him notice that I'd be moving out at the end of those three months a few days later I was served with an eviction notice the month-to-month lease also required three months notice to evict me without cause, so he tried evicting me WITH cause. He claimed I'd made unauthorized modifications to the house and sited the back door with a dog door installed. I still had the original door in the garage and the previous owner's permission, so it was neither unauthorized nor a modification.
Starting point is 00:04:44 Regardless, the judge decided I needed to move out within 30 days, or he would grant the eviction. Additionally, he explicitly ordered that all modifications be restored to the original. This is where the malicious compliance comes in, and I'm sure you already see this coming. All the smart house additions I made were removed. The tool shed in the yard was removed. The pond was filled in. Closet organizers were torn out. Garage organizers were removed.
Starting point is 00:05:12 The updated appliances were replaced with basic models. Every update I made was removed. Then I moved out. He sued me for removing everything. His lawyer cited a law that says any changes to the property become part of the property, and it's illegal to remove them when vacating the property. However, my lawyer pointed out the order from the previous judge stating that all modifications must be restored to the original. I provided receipts for all
Starting point is 00:05:41 the things I'd removed, proving I'd added them and was required to remove them. I won the case, and he had to pay my legal fees. A few months later, I got a call from the landlord's sister. Some of my mail hadn't been forwarded, and she wanted to ensure that I got it. We had a short conversation about the entire ordeal. She told me the house was actually inherited by four siblings. Her brother had lied to everyone. First, he raised rent, knowing I would move out.
Starting point is 00:06:09 He already had a deal to sell the house to one of these big rental companies. He told the siblings the house would have negative equity and nobody would get anything from the sale. In reality, the house was paid off and worth about $700k. The rental company had made an offer on the house, which included all the stuff that I later removed. He couldn't afford to replace everything, so they took him to court over the sale. Since all four siblings were listed as owners, all were named in the lawsuit, which is how they learned the truth. In the end, the house sold
Starting point is 00:06:41 for $550,000. In exchange for not pressing fraud charges against him. His free siblings split the proceeds, and he got nothing. So if the landlord had just been polite to OP and cut him a fair deal, he could have made $700k, but instead he made nothing. Good news for the other siblings, they made what, probably about $175k each from the sale of the house. No wonder the sister was so happy to chat with OP. OP just made her a ton of money.
Starting point is 00:07:14 Our next reddit post is from Rajah already taken. I started working for a non-profit in 2019 after being a volunteer member since 2000. It was supposed to be temporary for three months or so, but the non-profit dragged their feet hiring a permanent replacement. I'm fairly well off, not filthy rich, but debt-free and comfortable, and I didn't need the money, so I never billed for my hours after working 15 months full-time. It was supposed to be $25 an hour, but I was willing to work for free if they just found a replacement in a reasonable time.
Starting point is 00:07:46 They were pressuring me for an invoice, so I finally invoiced them for 40 hours a week for 15 months, and it was about $60k. They were livid, for a variety of reasons I didn't understand. They accused me of lying about my hours because I was a new father, and my wife had gone back to work after maternity leave, and there's no way I could have worked that much. When I told them I had my son in daycare instead of staying at home with him, they sarcastically said, now you know what it's like to work an actual job like the rest of us. They were mad that I wasn't volunteering my time anymore like I used
Starting point is 00:08:22 to, but I insisted I was and that my build time was only for the TV bingo fundraiser and not for any other non-profit activities. They didn't believe me. I tried to tell them my hours were actually more than I build for, and my hourly rate is greatly reduced compared to what I would normally charge for all the work I was doing – IT, e-commerce, web design, marketing, HR, operations, bookkeeping, TV production, etc. But they said they didn't care about my rate reduction. They insisted that I charge my normal rates for my actual hours, and then deduct 10 hours
Starting point is 00:08:57 a week for volunteering. Which is about 10 times more hours than any of them volunteer for. Okay, bet. I started charging them 40 to 120 bucks per hour depending on the task. I recorded all my tasks and hours in great detail. I charged for any time I spent doing what was normally volunteer work for the non-profits. Then I finally deducted 10 hours a week. I was billing an average of 50 hours a week after the volunteer hours were deducted.
Starting point is 00:09:28 I also took the opportunity to start hiring more people under me on their dime so I could work way less than I did in the first 15 months, but still get paid the same if not more. They couldn't say anything because it was exactly what they asked for. I was billing $1,000 per week before malicious compliance, and then about $3,000 per week after malicious compliance, which I started trimming back down closer to $1k a week after cutting my own hours. These guys kept doubling down and accusing me of incompetence and fraud over the next year and a half that I continued working, but I didn't care. They turned my passion into a terrible job
Starting point is 00:10:06 that I didn't need. So I stayed until all my amazing employees were hopefully set up for success and wrote that nonprofit out of my life for good. I didn't feel any guilt over being paid for my time with them because I raised more money for them in 30 months than they had raised in the 100 years
Starting point is 00:10:25 before then. To be clear, I'd raised them 30 million gross, about 20 million net. Our next Reddit post is from velvetvanillawhisper. I used to work at a small retail store where the manager was obsessed with sticking to the schedule. Like no helping with tasks that weren't written in your official hourly breakdown. One day, I finished my assigned duties early, stocking a small section and organizing a shelf.
Starting point is 00:10:49 I saw a coworker struggling with a heavy delivery in the back and offered to help, like any normal human would. My manager saw me and stormed over. What are you doing? That's not your scheduled task. I explained that I was just helping out, since I was done early. Doesn't matter. Follow your schedule exactly!
Starting point is 00:11:06 Okay then. So I went back to my area, which was spotless, and just stood there for a full two hours. Staring at the already stocked shelves. Customer asked for help. Sorry, not my department. Boxes were piling up in the back. Not my task. At the end of
Starting point is 00:11:25 the shift, the manager gave me a weird look and said, you didn't do much today. And I just smiled and said, I was following the schedule exactly like you asked. She never said, oh it's a she. Well I gave the manager a stupid guy voice so you'll have to imagine a stupid girl voice instead. She never said that again. It's actually amazing how bad some managers are. The correct response wouldn't have been, don't help that person with the heavy delivery. It would have been, hey, I'll help with the delivery too. What's wrong with people?
Starting point is 00:11:56 Our next Reddit post is from Finity. I work in finance where unpaid overtime is often expected. For several months, I worked 70 to 75 hour weeks due to a major platform change and resolving issues that followed, something unfortunately common in the industry. I put in more hours than most of my coworkers to the detriment of my mental health, thinking it would be recognized. Instead, our VP blamed me for a team error that hadn't even been reviewed by our managers yet.
Starting point is 00:12:27 He told me working so many hours was a shame considering how much money the new platform was and that if we couldn't learn to be more efficient, AI might replace us. Meaning me. As in, implying that I'm bad at my job and not working efficiently, which is not the case. That was my wake-up call. I cut back to 45 hours a week, stopped working weekends, and only did what was necessary, and slightly more just mainly out of respect for my direct manager, who has treated me
Starting point is 00:12:57 well. Without me overextending myself and volunteering myself, the problems quickly grew, exposing that the real problem was the unrealistic timeline pushed by the VP, resulting in key reports and requirements from the new system which aren't working due to poor planning. After I shared the VP's comments with a few co-workers, they also quietly stopped working excessive hours. And it's been a consensus that our VP is a terrible leader and hard to deal with.
Starting point is 00:13:25 The only reason many of us stay are because of our immediate bosses. Eventually, the VP had to hire another staff on my immediate team, between pressure from the CEO on results, plus rehiring because one of the coworkers quit. This coworker's role was very hard to replace because we're honestly underpaid for our level of expertise. I think the VP finally started to realize how complex our jobs really are. I'm now looking for another role myself, and I can't wait to see how he handles my departure, especially since our new and improved system has only made my tasks more complicated.
Starting point is 00:14:00 Our next Reddit post is from wowthatssocool. The timekeeping system at my job runs on a 15 minute increment schedule. Basically, if you clock in during the first 7 minutes of the increment, it rounds you backwards to the start of that segment. If you're in the last 7 minutes, it rounds you forward to the end of that segment. For example, you clock out at 4.52. Congrats, the system says you left at 4.45. Now, if you clock in and out multiple times a day, like for lunch, that's four punches, and potentially up to 28 minutes lost or gained depending on where you land in those increments. Shortly after I started, I began getting flooded with emails about being short a few minutes on my timesheet,
Starting point is 00:14:40 and was told that I had to submit paid time off, even though I worked full eight-hour days, sometimes more. It didn't matter that I was physically at work. If the system said I was short, I had to burn time off. So I started paying attention, really close attention. Here's the twist. My employer doesn't pay overtime in cash, but they do give you one and a5 time off if you earn it. So 1 hour of overtime equals 1.5 hours of pay time off.
Starting point is 00:15:09 With some strategic clocking in and out, always landing on the helpful side of the 15 minute window, I've gotten good at squeezing out those 28 minutes extra a day. That adds up to 2 hours and 20 minutes of overtime a week, which, when converted at 1.5 times, becomes 3.5 hours of paid time off every week. All for doing exactly what they asked, watching the clock very closely. Thanks for the free time off. OP, I'm really happy for you, I am, but let's be honest, you earned that time. If you worked the extra 15 minutes, then you earned that extra overtime. So it's not really so much malicious compliance, it's just getting what you earned.
Starting point is 00:15:52 So congratulations, I suppose. That was r slash malicious compliance. And if you like this content, be sure to follow my podcast because I put out new Reddit podcast episodes every single day.

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