rSlash - r/Maliciouscompliance I Obeyed My Boss and Shut Down the Company

Episode Date: July 18, 2026

0:00 Intro 0:08 Manager please 3:10 Over perform 8:03 Expenses 11:10 Directions 14:28 Network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Conditions apply. Visit scotiabank.com slash h-I-SA to learn more. Scotia Bank, you're richer than you think. Welcome to our slash malicious compliance, where OP lets his boss deal with all the angry Cairns. Our next Reddit post is from Rugby Player. I work in customer services for my council, and because of the policies in my job, I have to be the bad guy frequently, as I have to say no to people. And frequently, people want to speak to my manager because of this. I always refuse to escalate because I don't engage with adult tantrums. Whether you speak to me or the CEO, it's going to be a no, so accept it now and move on with your day to avoid further frustration. I recently got a new

and a couple of weeks ago, someone complained about me for refusing to escalate the call. And he agreed with him and told me that, in the future, I should escalate the call if someone requests to speak to him. I explained to him that I don't escalate because it's pointless as they'll also say no too, as it's a policy. I explained that speaking to someone just to repeat what's already been said is a waste of both of their times, and that I don't want to contribute to this I want a manager view that people have. But he shut me down and told me that whenever someone requests a manager, I must call him and see if he's free. And if he's not, I should email him their details and the issue and he would call them back the next day. Cue malicious compliance.

The second someone requested to speak to a manager or someone in authority, I called him and asked him to take the call, and the first few times he took it. And then he suddenly became less free and started telling me to email him the details, and he'll call back later. Later started to turn into the next day or later in the week. I battered him with multiple escalations that I would have ordinarily refused over these last couple of weeks. As I was in the office, I could tell he was getting stressed because I could hear him on his escalation calls, and it was clear that he had bitten off more than he could chew with

dealing with these escalations. As the calls steered into the caller trying to get my, no turned into a yes by speaking to him. He was getting flustered and telling people that he would speak to the managers in other departments, and then he would have to call them back to tell them that he looked into it and it's a no, just as I told them already on my call with them. In a complete U-turn, he emailed me today to tell me that I can go back to dealing with escalation requests the way I want to, and if someone raises a complaint, he'll back me up. He went from, escalate to please shield me in the space of two weeks. What makes this such a self-fulfilling

prophecy is that all the calls that get forwarded to this manager are automatically going to be angry people who are yelling and pissed off and they want something out of him. He will never get nice calls, he'll never get pleasant people, he'll never get people chatting about the weather, always angry screaming Karens. So it's not surprising at all that those calls turned out to be a source of stress for him. Well, it's like that saying goes, the best way to solve your problem is to make it someone else's problem. Our next Reddit post is from Mando Man. I worked remotely for an auto parts company for almost four years, finally getting a promotion after the company merged with another. And even though I performed my duties better than the others in my department, I was

effectively punished for being so good. We had a point system that tracked how many tickets we worked, how long we spent on them, and whether the ticket needed a follow-up or could be closed as satisfied. The majority of my tickets could be closed because of one reason or another, and I always hit the metrics asked in order to secure a weekly bonus of $2.50 more per hour. Meeting my bonus put me above the $20 per hour range every week with very few exceptions. So I was satisfied thinking I was doing a good job. They required me to make a minimum of 200 calls to customers and pass 2,400 points to make the bonus. And every week, I would make between 300 to 500 calls and hit nearly 7,000 points.

In my youth, I got a degree from a local community college in video production, and that's always been my passion. But I was good at my current job and happy to be there. I got to take bi-annual trips to the corporate office up north, made lots of friends, and even the owners of the company knew me by name due to my job. performance. My wife had changed jobs and was working for the local sheriff, and one day she emailed me that there was an opening in the media department. I applied and went through the three-month process for possible employment, letting my current employer know that they'd be receiving a background check call. The process went smoothly, even resulting in me getting a call from the sheriff himself

saying he was excited I'd applied. Back to my current company. I'd been talked to several times about my numbers, with my supervisor telling me they were too high, and no one else makes nearly that amount of points. When I said that I was just following the metrics and doing my job, he let me know that changes were coming. On the day that I received my call from the sheriff about being accepted as a new employee, I had a meeting with my supervisor. Before I could tell him I was leaving, he announced that a new point system was going to be implemented. And if my current week's numbers were applied to the new schedule, my 7,000 points would only equal 1,800, far below the minimum for the bonus. When I mentioned this was essentially punishing good performance, he said,

well, that's what the company wants to do. So the old bonus put me above the $20 per hour line. My new job was going to start me above what I was making with the bonus, which made my decision to hand in my two weeks notice right then and there so much easier. What cemented my decision, was when I found out that even though I was going to finish my scheduled 40-hour week on a Friday, since the end of the pay week was Saturday and I wasn't working that day, I wouldn't get the comp time I'd earned. They were going to withhold earned sick and vacation time because of a technicality after four years of faithful service. I actually liked my supervisor. He was younger than my married son and disabled, a good kid with a great heart, but hated that he had to follow procedure in punishing hard work.

I told him as much and mentioned that I would do my original job description required, and nothing more for my last two weeks. It was glorious. We could take time off if our work was done and we had nothing else to do for the rest of the day. I focused only on my originally assigned areas and once completed I would clock out, putting in my comp time to make up for not being on the clock. I was able to use up all my time by my last day there, and because I wasn't helping anyone else, their work began to pile up. Not that I was doing it to punish any of the friends I made at the company,

but simply to get the point across. I could still see every ticket menu in all the areas where I had access, and their numbers began to climb out of control. I was contacted by my supervisor's boss on more than one occasion, asking me to help out. And when I would point out that it wouldn't be fair to take points away from the other people when I was about to leave, and that, per policy, I was done with my assigned duties and could therefore leave for the rest of the day, he would stammer, trying to convince me to do what was good for the company. I simply said, I'm doing what's good for me. Unless you can offer me more than what the sheriff is willing to pay, I'll only do what I'm paid to do here until my last day. On my last day, I checked the ticket queue once again before signing off.

My area had zero tickets, and other areas where I worked that would average maybe 10 open or unworked tickets daily now showed hundreds. What made me feel better was about six months after I left, I got a Facebook message from one of my old coworkers that I actually liked, wishing me a Merry Christmas, and telling me they still hadn't found anyone who could do as much as I'd done. Our next Reddit post is from Large Meat Feast. England, 2015, I was sent on a week-long mandatory training course through work. I already knew the subject backwards, but my boss wanted me to get the certificate to prove to upper management that his team was 100% certified. I was told that a train ticket would be booked,

as would a hotel, bed and breakfast only. I'd have to pay for lunch and evening meals, but I'd be able to claim up to five pounds per day for lunch, and 11 pounds 72 cents per day for evening meals. It was a really strange value, but I could eat easily within that limit. On the last night at the hotel, my food bill was three cents more than allowed. However, seeing as on the other nights I'd barely spent 10 pounds, I'd chance that I could talk to the finance people into approving it, as the total spend would still be less than allowed for the week. The Monday I returned, I completed the expense form with the receipt and handed it to my boss for approval. An hour later, was summoned to his office. He flatly refused to sign off on the expenses because I'd overspent.

When I tried to explain that I overspent by three cents, and that on Monday night I had actually underspent by two and a half bucks, I was lectured as to the reason that the limits were there, and to read the policy. He sent me back to my desk and told me to resubmit. Q malicious compliance. I read the policy regarding expenses. Then I read the staff handbook. my contract. As it turned out, I could claim for the following. Reasonable costs for calling my family in the evening. No receipt required. Five pounds per night for being away from my family. No receipt needed. 30 bucks each time I had to travel more than three hours, offered as an incentive. Regardless of time spent out there, it was equivalent to 40 hours. My standard was actually 37 hours,

but I'd only been billing for 37 hours. Travel to and from the venue was classed as being at That was overtime as it was out of hours and double on Sundays. Friday, as I was late home, was considered an overnight stay. I resubmitted making the adjustments and highlighting the sections of the policies. Where I'd expected around 75 pounds in expenses, with the extras in the policies I claimed for an extra 100 pounds. Then I filled in the time sheet for the travel overtime, which granted me an additional 150 pounds or so. The boss called me back into the office and, and tried to tell me that he wouldn't sign off on it. But I referred him to the policies and simply told him that if he refused,

I'd go above him and maybe submit a formal complaint about him. I did take great satisfaction in reminding him that if he hadn't told me to read the policies, then I would have never found out about all the extras. Yes, I did inform every one of my work friends. Yes, I did get all the claimed funds in my next paycheck. It's fitting this takes place in England because you guys came up with the perfect phrase for this. Pennywise, pound foolish. Our next Reddit post is from Speedy.

I was working at an IT help desk at a large hospital quite some time ago. We were expected to be at our desks, logged in, ready to take our first call by the start time of our shift. It took about 10 to 15 minutes to log in, load up, and log in to seven different programs, all with different passwords. So really, you needed to be there 15 minutes early. They were shared computers. Sometimes you could get away with just locking it and leaving everything logged in and running until your next shift. But if someone else restarts it in the meantime, you had to log back in to everything again. It was a constant pain point for us that was frequently raised, especially as, for example,

when medical staff needs to scrub up and scrub down, this is all during their shift time. My manager sent out a somewhat passive-aggressive email to the team. Hi, all, it seems that we're still having a lot of issues around our shift times. I want to clarify my expectations. If you're on a 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift, I expect you to be here, logged in, ready to go. And your status on the phone queue as available or on call at 6.59.59.m. If you want to make a coffee, fill your water bottle, or put your lunch in the fridge, this needs to all be done before 7 a.m. not after.

At the end of the shift, I expect you to be available or on a call until 4 o'clock and 1 second p.m. Only then may you log out and wash your coffee cup, etc. If you're going to be stuck in traffic, have trouble finding parking, or miss your bus, you'll need to manage your time better and leave earlier. Thanks! So, for a while, I comply, and I'm always available or on a call at exactly one second before my start time, just waiting for my moment. And it happens.

I get a call with a splash less than two minutes left on my shift and take the call. I get about as far as their name, where they are, and halfway through them describing their issue. I see the clock hit one second

over my shift time. I say, sorry to interrupt you, my shift is over. Goodbye. Hang up, log off, and go home. Of course they complain, and my manager pulls me into his office.

Oh, the manager is a guy. I gave the manager of Karen voice, sorry about that, you're going to have to imagine him as a guy now, asking me to explain why I did what I did. I explained, well, I was available on the phone until about two minutes before the end time of my shift. I answered the call, putting my status to on a call until one second past my shift time. So I logged out. My boss said, no, if you're on a call, you need to finish that call first. To which I reply, your email says that we're expected to be available or on a call one second before our shift time, which I have been. It also says that we're expected to be available or on a call until one second past our shift time.

And only then may we log off. I'm simply following your expectations and written directions. Of course, this was a very career-limiting move, but at that point, I already had my foot halfway out the door. O P, you don't get it. What they want is free, unpaid labor. Why is that so difficult? Our next Reddit post is from Doshan. I was working for a small business as my first IT job, but I have decades of blue-collar experience. I was the first IT person the company ever hired. My associate's degree is in IT, specializing in networking, only a few gin-ed classes away. My boss kept the platters spinning, but he has no formal training or amateur desire. He wants to offload the tedious work to me.

Three days prior, I was trying to get a mission-critical computer up and running again, the only computer with the shipping software, and hundreds of packages waiting to ship. I advised an immediate re-image. I had the tools on deck for just such an occasion, but I was overridden by the owner who wanted me to uninstall and reinstall things manually because he paid extra for tech support. It was his call, so I followed orders. I was on the phone for hours, and I didn't leave my post until the job was done.

This meant that I took my lunch half an hour later. No big deal for me. But when I clocked back in and got back to my desk, my boss was standing there, fuming because I took a lunch outside of normal hours. He insisted I must take my 30-minute lunch from 12 to 1 as per company policy. So today, the whole network goes out at 1225, and I had not yet taken my lunch. Nothing is working.

My own personal hunches tell me that this is because it's a factory building. There are lots of high voltage woodworking machines for factory production level of output. And all the Ethernet cables are unshielded. Just my hunch. But I can't really do a damn thing because my company rents out office space as a subletter. So we're not allowed access to the switches and routers. I have no admin access to the infrastructure. So I go to lunch.

My boss is standing at my desk when I get back today and gives me a passive-aggressive. The network is up, by the way, but refuses to call me out further. I had the I told you so on deck, though. Ah, yes, the stupid manager learns the age-old wisdom, never mess with the IT guy. That was our 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.