rSlash - r/Maliciouscompliance Steal from Me? It'll Cost You THOUSANDS

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

0:00 Intro 0:08 Late to work 3:40 Discipline 6:16 On the clock 7:55 Mobility 10:54 Employee handbook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to r slash malicious compliance where a stupid Karen learns not to mess with the IT guy. Our next Reddit post is from Yeetzee. So my name is Mark and for the past five years I've been working at this mid-sized tech company. It's been great or at least it was until six months ago when we got a new HR manager, Susan. Now Susan is the kind of person who loves rules a bit too much. She came in with this idea to revolutionize the workplace, but all she did was implement a bunch of unnecessary and strict policies. The one that really got under everyone's skin was her new attendance policy. It stated that if anyone was even one minute late, more than three times a month, they'd face immediate suspension without

pay. No excuses, no exceptions. This was crazy considering we're all seasoned professionals, not school kids. But Susan was adamant and the policy was enforced to the letter. Now usually I'm very punctual, but life happens, right? Just my luck. I ended up being late three times in one month. The first was because of a massive traffic jam.

The second was due to a power outage that killed my alarm. And the third, well, I overslept. Each time, I was barely five minutes late, but Susan didn't care. She slapped me with a suspension notice. I was fuming, but then I remembered something important, our employee handbook. I read that thing, but then I remembered something important, our employee handbook. I read that thing cover to cover when I first started, and something about

the suspension policy stood out to me. I dug up my copy and found the section I was looking for. The policy stated that suspended employees must leave company premises immediately and are not allowed to engage in any work-related activities during their suspension. A plan started to form in my head. You see, at that time, I was in the middle of a critical project for a major client. It was a huge deal for the company, and I was the lead developer. Without me, the project would grind to a halt. So I decided to follow Susan's policy to the letter. The next day, I walked

into Susan's office and handed her the suspension notice along with a printed copy of the employee handbook suspension policy. I told her, as per the company policy, I'll be leaving the premises immediately and I will not partake in any work-related activities during my suspension, including the Johnson Project. The color drained from her face. You can't just leave the Johnson Project, she exclaimed. But I just shrugged and said, company policy, Susan, I'm sure you wouldn't want me to break the rules.

I gathered my things and left the office. The fallout was immediate. The project team was in disarray without me and the client was getting antsy about the mis-deadlines. The CEO himself called me two days into my suspension, begging me to come back. I explained that I was merely following company policy, as enforced by Susan. Long story short, the CEO had to intervene. My suspension was lifted and I was back at work the next day. The best part, Susan's ridiculous policies

were all reviewed and mostly scrapped. She's still with the company, but let's just say her enthusiasm for rulemaking has significantly diminished. So there you have it, folks. Sometimes following the rules a little too closely can be the best form of rebellion. And always, always know your employee handbook.

And most importantly, Susan forgot rule number one of surviving in corporate America. Never mess with the IT guy. Our next Reddit post is from a trucker's thoughts. I work for a freight delivery company, drive a semi truck, and usually go out on 10-15 deliveries a day. Our policy is that when you deliver to a residence, you have to take a picture with the work phone as an additional proof of delivery. This is changed so that now, if the delivery receipt says residential, you have to take

a picture of it, regardless if it's going to a business or a house. There are so many small details on that delivery receipt that can get missed, so this is an important detail. One day last week, I have a delivery for Laura Lopez. It was being delivered to a construction company that Laura is an employee of, but the receipt doesn't say that it's residential. I make the delivery and leave, no picture. Next morning, my B-word of a supervisor says, I have a write-up for you. Puzzled, I ask her for what?

For the Laura Lopez delivery yesterday, it was residential. I explained to her that it was delivered to a business, and the receipt did not say residential. My manager wasn't having it. I should also mention that her and I butt heads often, and she's been trying to get rid of me for some time. I told her that we need to go talk to my manager about it, so we do, and he sides with me because she has no ground to stand on. This infuriates her. I tell her that under no circumstances will this be an issue again.

That day is when I start my malicious compliance. I take pictures with the work phone at every stop. So what actually happens is whenever I take a pictures with the work phone at every stop. So what actually happens is whenever I take a picture on the work phones, it sends a pop-up to her computer with the picture and she has to acknowledge it before she can do anything else on her computer. I crashed her computer three times that day. At just one stop, I took 20 pictures. I get a call from her telling me that I have to stop taking pictures. I politely tell her that I'm covering my butt and I'm not going

against policy. I'm giving you an order! I laugh and hang up. And wouldn't you know it? She wrote me up for it. I don't even argue with her. I say we need to take it to my manager. I walk in and he says, what now? I tell him the story, he looks at her, takes the write up and rips it up. Are you seriously writing him up for overperforming? She had no words and I still take a picture at every stop because I'm petty, lol. Opie, what you should have done is when your manager ripped up the picture, you should have taken a picture of her face. Then, when she got back to your computer, her shocked face would be staring at her,

waiting for her approval. Our next Reddit post is from UndocumentedMexican. I'm an UndocumentedMexican immigrant. I moved to the US three months ago and I've been working at a hand car wash ever since. The car wash I work at is staffed with fellow illegals. We all lack ID and most of us have limited English. These factors interfere with our integration into American society. Our boss is very cheap.

He'll clock us off when it's quiet and clock us on when it's busy. Sometimes we'll work 25 minutes, then wait 15 minutes unpaid in the staff room. We still have to stay on site the whole day though. I guess that's to be expected at a business like a car wash which has very thin margins. So what did we start to do? We simply started to work slowly and perfectly when it was quiet. We would work at half speed. We'd wipe down all the windows and tires, even if they were clean.

We'd wash the underbody and engine bay. We'll wash the brake pads. We'll even wash the door jams with a sponge. We'll clay treat all the cars. We'll apply armor on all the surfaces, even non-visible ones like the engine bay. We'll even vacuum the spare tire bay. All in all, will work very thoroughly when it's quiet. Before this, I would only be on the clock for about 3 and a half hours, but since we started to adaptively work, now I clock about

6 hours easily. You know, OP, actually, I'm pretty sure that car washes have some of the highest margins of any industry. Car washes and dry cleaning businesses are apparently extremely, extremely profitable. I found that out one day. Our next Reddit post is from wrestlestragon. I'm a disabled veteran, and at the time this actually happened, I was solely depending on my walking stick. I couldn't walk more than 10 feet maximum without assistance.

I was asked by a friend to be a bridesmaid at her wedding. She quickly proved herself to be a bridezilla from hell and everything had to meet her vision. Everything had to fall within her very rigid scope of what the aesthetics should be. She made a couple of what she claimed were innocent comments about my walking stick. I offered multiple times to not be a bridesmaid, and I would assist in any other way that I could help. She refused every offer and insisted that I had to be a bridesmaid. Then I heard from another close friend, also a bridesmaid, that she was very upset that I was insisting on using my walking stick. Apparently, the bride made a comment that she was just going to hide my walking stick

and I would just have to go without it. According to this mutual friend, the bride had tried to laugh it off as a joke. Well, there was no doubt in my mind that the bride was going to have my walking stick go missing, so I made arrangements. Sure enough, the wedding rolls around and while I'm getting my hair and makeup done, my walking stick disappears. I was not happy and I told everyone that I have to have it back. I cannot walk down the aisle without it.

The bride insisted that she didn't know where it was and she looked everywhere but I was just going to have to make do. I said, so after you joked about taking my walking stick, it goes missing and you want me to just make do? Her exact words were, you'll just have to do what you can do to get up the aisle. Cue malicious compliance. I texted my boyfriend.

He went out to the car and brought in the mobility scooter that I had rented just in case I needed it. I had him put the scooter out of sight where we could get to it easily, and then here the other bridesmaids physically supported me. We made our way to the back of the hall for the start of the ceremony. The bride had been talking to her father and not paying attention, so she didn't see the scooter until she started to walk down the aisle. And what does she see? Her three bridesmaids. Two of them standing tall and then me sitting on the most hideous looking multicolored with

Sparkles mobility scooter that I could find. If looks could kill, she would have destroyed me. Within seconds of the ceremony ending, my walking stick had been found. She and her new husband brought it over to me, told me it had been found, and I could get that god-awful scooter back out to the car. I mustered up a tear and told her I was so sorry, but I was in so much pain from having to try to walk without my walking stick that there was no way that I would be able to go without my scooter. I'm very proud to say that the scooter is in over 90% of her wedding photos.

OP, what I thought you were going to do was literally crawl down the aisle, but I like your idea a lot better. Our next Reddit post is from Honeststar. I worked for a company with great pay and benefits, one of which was Vacation Days. I worked there for years without any performance or attendance issues. I was also an employee who wouldn't work overtime. I gave 100% while I was at work. That's all I have to offer. Other than that, no issues.

Each year, I would pre-plan my vacation days. We had to put our plans in a calendar for approval, and I wanted to receive my approval before confirming my plans, so I did everything as early as possible. I had no vacation request problems for years, and I didn't hear of other employees having issues with their vacation time or pay. Then, one year, all of a sudden, after using all but four of my vacation days, management said that I had no additional paid vacation time. I reviewed our online handbook, gathered my requests and approved time off, and checked my pay stubs to verify the paid vacation days that I'd taken thus far. I presented everything to management

for research. My direct manager said that he checked and that I did not have four additional vacation days like I thought. That was not good enough, so I asked him to forward this to his manager. His manager said the same thing. I didn't think that was good enough either. Eventually, my concerns reached the big center manager. The center manager called me into a meeting. I again presented my findings, showing that I had four unused vacation days left. He then began discussing changes to our vacation policy

while making eye contact and smiling. He turned his computer around to show me the new handbook they constructed reflecting the new vacation policy. Wait a minute. What? There's an online employee handbook. Yet I'm supposed to go buy a new handbook that the employees don't know about? Make that make sense. I politely said, okay, and walked out. I removed my four days from the vacation calendar. I then began chatting with other employees to see the number of days they had taken off for that year and the number of days they might have left.

Conversations like, how was your vacation? How long did you stay? Are you choosing a different place to spend the rest of your vacation days? Asking these and related questions allowed me to calculate the number of vacation days they used or had remaining. I didn't find one other employee who had the same issue that I was having with vacation time. I waited a couple of months and filed a lawsuit while working there.

Other employees didn't know about my lawsuit, at least not from me, but I'm sure management knew. The discovery process of the lawsuit revealed an email chain. The email chain showed the center manager directly asking human resources about my 4 unused vacation days and human resources confirming that I had 4 unused vacation days. The center manager used a fake new handbook to cover his butt as well as the butts of other managers, denying my unused vacation time. Shortly after that, we settled, and they paid me thousands for those four unused vacation days.

I had to resign, of course, and the center manager and other management as well lost their positions, retired, or quit. All I wanted was my unused paid vacation time, but what I received was much more. 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.