People Give Us Their Most Sophisticated Malicious Compliance Revenge Story
16. We're Going To Court? Sure, Meet Ya There!
“Back when my wife and I were much more newlywed than we are now, we hired ourselves an architect and went whole hog on having our cozy little dream home designed.
While this was being done, we went shopping around for a parcel of land on which to have it built, which went quickly and easily, and we even got a pretty nice deal on a half-acre lot that was just far enough back in the sticks for us to be happy, but close enough to our jobs that it wasn’t much of a commute.
Best part of all? No Home Owners Association. There weren’t any active back in that area because, point-blank, it was full of poor people back there. Dirt poor country types and working poor wage slave types.
We made very sure with our lawyer that no previous owner had ever had the title amended to allow for any HoA nonsense as well, because that’s a thing some real estate developers like to do – they’ll buy up a property, get the title amended to force the membership of that property into a local HoA (that they usually operate or are in cahoots with those that do) and then resell it with that as a new requirement for any prospective buyer to automatically agree to when they sign the title.
Flash forward to August 2019. March 2020, if you know what I mean, was just around the corner, but nobody knew that yet. Everything was that which passes for normal out in those parts, and my wife and I had since moved to a different location but retained that property as one of our various rentals.
It was our dream home for several years and we loved that place. Moving was tough. It was a good neighborhood out there and folks were very welcoming.
Then a company that’s totally not named Ryan Homes or anything even slightly similar came in and spent some years buying everything up back there that got the market and pressuring folks into selling, which worked out for them only too well.
And of course, they gentrified everything. For three years and some change, there was massive amounts of the old being torn down and hauled out and the new being built up and sold.
The HoA was built right in, because of course it was. Folks with bucks enough to throw down on horribly built houses that looked nice from the front moved in one by one and two by two, property values in the area skyrocketed, property taxes skyrocketed right along with them and more of the less-poor people were forced to sell because they got taxed out of their own homes.
My wife and I knew what was coming from the get-go.
We knew those dinguses from Totally Not Ryan Homes were going to come sniffing around our way not to try to buy us out, but to see if they could finagle, schmooze or threaten us into joining the HoA they were installing.
It was inevitable. Lots of information is public record. They knew we had the bucks. They knew we were living below our means by two orders of magnitude. They knew we clearly meant to be exactly where we were because we sure didn’t have to be.
They knew they didn’t have a snowflake’s hope in heck of pricing us out on taxes, so they tried nagging us to death and coming right up to the line on harassment, always to ‘talk to us about joining the HoA’.
They failed. They got told by One Expensive Lawyer to find something else to do before we all got super busy helping them find things to worry about.
And so they desisted for some years.
Then my wife and I moved and got the property set up as a rental.
Absolutely Not Ryan Homes starts bothering our tenants there, both trying to get them to pressure us into putting the property into the HoA as well as getting our tenants riled up with the most outrageous lies about what could happen if we, the owners, don’t ‘protect our renters better.’
My wife and I were livid after hearing about this crap, and so we got ahold of Definitely Not Ryan Homes to let them know that this was our formal request that they stop bothering our tenants and that all further communications would be from our Really Expensive Lawyer.
They must’ve assumed we were bluffing or maybe whoever was in charge of thinking that day didn’t show up for work, because they just kept right on with their nonsense.
It got so bad that they were even sending fake but convincing-looking envelopes with ‘EVICTION NOTICE’ that, upon being opened, said…’ Could be what you find in your mailbox one day without our wondrous HOA!’ and containing information about the benefits of the HOA.
We gathered it all up and got the tenants to talk to our lawyer and got the police involved to get the ball rolling on a harassment investigation. Another formal request to cease and desist was sent to Never Ryan Homes by the Very Expensive Lawyer, which they… Utterly ignored.
I think their guy that’s supposed to come to work and think about things quit a long time ago. Maybe he never told anyone. Maybe nobody noticed.
Whatever the situation on their end, when my lawyer talked to their lawyer, their lawyer told my lawyer that their client was doing everything legally and that if we wanted to pursue the matter in court, that was what we’d have to do.
So we did.
I’m not sure what kind of lawyer magic my lawyer and his fellow legal demons worked on this front, but we were in court for one single hour when my lawyer and their four lawyers and the judge had a private talk after the preliminary hearing.
A half-hour later, the lawyers from Maybe Ryan Homes come back into the courtroom looking like a quartet of cats that had been peed on. My lawyer takes a seat beside me and says ‘They’re going to settle.’
And I was like ‘I didn’t think we were that far along into this yet.
What happened?’
And he said, ‘They built fifty-one homes in COUNTY OF CONCERN over two years. Every single one of them was inspected before the closing of the sale by a real estate agent that never actually got around to getting her home inspector license.’
And that’s how Was It Ryan Homes The Whole Time paid me ten grand to not sue them while they got bent over by the county and the state and tag-teamed like the new boy with the pretty lips in a prison yard.”
15. I Can't Work With You? Fine, But You'll Still Be Paying Up
“I started this job in Dec 2018. The team was small, 7 of us, including me.
Quickly after I started, it became clear that 5/6 didn’t like me at all.
The bullying started off subtly… ignoring me. I was aware of what they were doing, so after a little while of this, I began mirroring their behavior. They didn’t like that.
It escalated.
I began to develop migraines from the stress. As much as I hadn’t been bothered in the beginning, there’s only so long you can go in an environment like that without some kind of effect. By this point, it had been several months.
The migraines started to affect my attendance regularly. Of course, they didn’t like that either, and things continued to escalate.
The manager knew all that was happening, but nothing changed.
Well, anyway. I wanted another baby, so my husband and I decided to use the job for what it was worth – a nice 9m long paid maternity leave.
So about 1 year after I started the job, I became pregnant.
Then came my birthday. I was expecting nothing, of course. But I got a card and some chocolates from ‘the girls’ – aka, the only one with a conscience signed it from the girls because she didn’t want me to get nothing (and knew they’d flat out refuse).
Put it down to pregnancy hormones, but when she gave it to me, I of course knew it was only from her and cried my little eyes out. This was a Thursday. The next day, I asked my manager to work alone. I covered all the wards (I was a hospital phlebotomist) by myself while they stayed in the clinic.
When I was done, I helped out the nursing assistants in the clinic across to avoid them.
Later my manager came down to see me & discuss. Apparently, they had complained to her that I had not helped them at all, even though it was so busy that they’d have to get the NAs to help (which was a lie since I was with the NAs all day, they never had to go help).
I explained to the manager what had happened and that I just needed some space as the alternative would have been to go home. I began crying again, pregnancy, and the inevitable stress of being ganged up on for over a year by 5 people every day just gets to you after a while.
The manager told me to take the following week off (‘free’ of charge – ie, she’d not write me up).
When I came back the following Monday, I wasn’t ok, but I was better than I had been. I wondered what my reception would be and lo and behold!
It was crap. A whole confrontation went down, where one of them had the audacity to ask me if I had considered their feelings when I told our manager I didn’t want to work with them on that Friday (scoff!). I knew I had turned some kind of mental corner because I laughed in her face, finally stood up for myself instead of ‘just ignoring’ it, and then walked off to do my job.
And I didn’t feel bad about it!
This was in Dec 2019. At this point, I was about 6 weeks pregnant. And this is where my revenge began.
I was pretty unwell through my pregnancy, and so heavily protected by UK laws, and by the hospital’s very own maternity policies, I wasn’t making much of an effort to go to work when I didn’t feel 100% ok to do so.
Needless to say, I had quite a chunk of time off between Dec 2019 and early 2020.
Fast forward to March 2020 and as you all know, crap was in full swing and we were days away from a nationwide shutdown. Of course, ordinarily, this wouldn’t affect me, because I worked in a hospital. But this is where (finally!) my malicious compliance comes in…
It was a late March Monday morning and I was in unusually high spirits on the way into my shift. My morning sickness was finally starting to abate and there’d been no drama for a little while. And I did actually really like my job when I was allowed to just do it!
So I was in quite a good mood and I even greeted my witchy colleagues cheerily.
Well.
I was greeted with a sharp ‘you’re not coming in here!’ I was confused, unsure as to what I could have possibly done over the last 4 days that I hadn’t even seen this woman.
So after asking her what she meant, what she meant was she and our other colleague didn’t want to go on the wards so they’d just stuck to the clinic and had planned to send me there instead (we’re meant to do the wards first and they start an hour before I did).
Well, my manager and I had already agreed I’d not go to the wards due to my pregnancy.
I sensed danger and went to call my manager. I let her know what had transpired and we agreed that I’d just find a spare room in the clinic and work in there.
So I did.
Not even 30 minutes later and lo and behold, grumpy colleague comes storming up to me, demanding to know why I didn’t share the whole story with her. I say ‘what story? There is no story?’ She says the agreement between our manager.
I said what business is it of hers. So she yells at me, ‘Well, you can’t work with us!’ I snap and tell her to sort her attitude out and walk off from her. A very ballsy move for me!
Well, I’ve had enough.
I go to see my manager to tell her so. And when I get there, after telling her what was said, I say since this colleague likes to act as my supervisor so much, how about I finally take some direction from her? I won’t work with her, or any of them – I’m done.
My manager not only agrees but tells me to shield instead, preserving my pay, fully paid sick leave, and PTO. Which took me up to my mat leave start date. Winner.
And the kicker? They were stuck short-staffed for a full year, and my job was legally protected until I officially left it (which was not until March 2021).
So I walked out mid-shift, left them high and dry, and in the words of my manager: they brought it on themselves.”
14. You Didn't Retire? Oh, But You DID, And We'll Treat You Like You Did
“My friend (I’ll call her Sandy) worked at a travel agency in British Columbia, Canada. It was a small, owner-operated business with the owner and three employees including my friend.
Everyone worked Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
One of my friend’s coworkers (I’ll call her Jane), an older woman in her early to mid-sixties, was a long-time nuisance employee. Among other sketchy behavior, Jane was always scamming ways to take time off over and above her official paid vacation time.
In order to make up for the lost hours, she would claim overtime hours/pay by supposedly going into the office during her off hours “to finish up” work without being requested by the owner to do so.
Despite being caught in her own lies on a number of occasions and being warned about trying to claim unsanctioned overtime, the owner of the travel agency was reluctant to officially reprimand Jane or get rid of her.
The reason being is the owner discovered after she had hired Jane that Jane had actually been fired from her previous job at another local travel agency for pulling the same stunts; however, Jane had sued her former employer for unfair dismissal and had won a settlement.
After a few years of my friend Sandy working at the travel agency, the owner was ready to retire and offered to sell the business to my friend. Sandy took her up on the deal and took over the business while keeping on Jane and the other employee.
Once again, just as the previous owner was afraid to get rid of Jane, so was Sandy for fear of being sued.
When Sandy took over the business, she instituted guidelines regarding taking time off and she established an official “no overtime” policy. Jane would still try with her shenanigans but was far less successful in getting what she wanted with my friend in charge.
However, Jane still had one trick up her sleeve when she wanted to take time off on a whim. Sandy was a divorced single mom of two boys who were heavily involved in youth hockey. She would sometimes leave the office an hour or two before closing to get her boys to hockey practice or a game.
In order to avoid requesting in person and potentially being denied, Jane would wait for Sandy to be out of the office to book a day off if she didn’t feel like coming into work or had made plans. Sandy would then arrive at work the next morning only to discover that Jane wasn’t coming in.
Despite this happening a number of times, Sandy would usually let it slide since there was now a definite “no overtime” policy. Therefore, Jane could no longer claim to come into work on the weekend or after hours in order to try and make up for the day off.
She would either miss out on a day’s pay, in turn saving Sandy some bucks as the owner, or it would come out of her remaining paid vacation days. Moreover, two people in the office at one time could usually handle everything. Jane not coming in was really a no-loss situation for Sandy.
There was one time, however, when Sandy was going to be away for one or two work days just before the weekend to take her boys to a hockey tournament. She told both Jane and the other employee both verbally and in writing that they could not book time off for the dates in question since she would be away and needed both of them in the office.
Within a few days of giving this notice, Sandy went into the office on a Saturday to do some paperwork and go through the sales for the week. This is when she discovered that, only the day before, Jane had booked a trip for her daughter and son-in-law to Las Vegas as well as a plane ticket in her name to Calgary where her daughter lived. Both the trip to Vegas and the ticket to Calgary coincided with the dates Sandy would be out of the office.
Sandy then checked the vacation booking schedule to further discover that Jane had indeed booked the days off that she had expressly been told she couldn’t have.
Not mentioning she had discovered the travel Jane had booked for herself and her daughter, Sandy emailed Jane telling her she would have to deny her the days off since she had already been told they were unavailable because she (Sandy) would be away and needed Jane in the office.
Through a continuing series of email exchanges, Jane replied and outright lied to Sandy with some excuse about her daughter getting some long-awaited medical treatment or surgery, and that she needed to go to Calgary to help out for a few days and look after her granddaughter.
Sandy replied to this lie by telling Jane she knew about the trip she had booked to Vegas for her daughter and son-in-law; that Jane’s trip to Calgary was most likely to babysit her granddaughter while her daughter was in Vegas; and that she would still have to deny Jane the days off especially since she booked them after being told they were unavailable.
Jane countered in her subsequent reply, without even addressing the fact that she had been caught in a lie, that she had been a dedicated employee of the travel agency for several years and couldn’t understand why she was being treated so unfairly after all she had done for the business.
She then wrote that since she wasn’t being treated as a valued employee, she had no choice but to retire and was giving her two weeks’ notice. Despite Jane’s threat, Sandy replied that she would still be unable to grant her the days off and left it at that without making any mention of Jane’s threat to quit/retire.
Sandy then contacted her accountant, who also acted as her de facto business advisor, and explained what had happened with Jane. Also aware of Jane’s previous shenanigans, Sandy’s accountant told her that this was the out she had been looking for with Jane, and she had it all in writing.
He told her that Jane had essentially resigned/retired and all Sandy needed to do was honor Jane’s desire to do so, let her finish out her two weeks, or pay her two weeks’ wages in lieu with no further severance pay legally required since she hadn’t been fired.
The following Monday, Sandy went into the office early accompanied by her long-term partner to act as a witness. She put Jane’s belongings from her desk into a box and took the things that were the property of the business. Since Jane was old school and had resisted inputting client information in the computer database, this also included a small box filled with index cards that had client phone numbers, addresses, credit card information and other personal information noted on them.
In the meantime, the other employee arrived for work, and they all waited for Jane to show up.
Jane arrived just before 9:00 acting as though nothing had happened and greeted everyone with a “good morning” as she walked through the door. However, she was apparently taken slightly aback when she noticed Sandy’s partner seated in the far corner of the office.
At this point, Jane was mid-way to her desk when Sandy informed her that there was no need to go any further and that she had accepted Jane’s notification of retirement. She then handed Jane a cheque compensating her for the hours she had worked in the current pay period as well as two weeks’ wages in lieu of Jane finishing out her final two weeks before her “retirement”.
Jane was dumbfounded and went into panic mode, “But I didn’t retire! I’m not ready to retire!”
Sandy responded that indeed she had retired, given her notice, and had proof of it in writing. All Jane could do was continue repeating, “But I didn’t retire!
I’m not ready to retire!” while unsuccessfully attempting to get the support of the other employee who refused to come to her defense. Sandy then pointed to the box containing Jane’s belongings, wished her a happy retirement, and told her to leave the office. Jane quickly rifled through the box and noticed that the small box containing the index cards with client information was not there.
She insisted that Sandy return it to her which Sandy refused to do explaining that it was the property of the business, contained personal client information and that she would be in violation of Canadian privacy laws if she were to let Jane take it.
Jane’s shock had now turned to obstinance and she refused to leave without the box. Both the other employee and Sandy’s partner had started to get involved, repeatedly telling Jane to just leave.
Sandy then informed Jane that if she didn’t leave, they would have to call the RCMP (Canadian police), at which point, Sandy’s man dialed 911 to inform the dispatcher of a disgruntled former employee at XYZ Travel Agency who was refusing to leave the premises.
Within a few minutes, two police officers arrived, and Jane immediately ran to the door ranting about being fired and about the missing box of client info. In order to de-escalate the situation, one police officer told Jane to come outside and explain to him her side of the story.
The other officer remained in the office to hear Sandy’s side of the story agreeing that Jane was not legally entitled to the box of client info. The other officer then reentered the business and told Jane to wait outside. He said that Jane was insisting that Sandy was holding onto her personal belongings, namely a box of important information.
Both Sandy and the officer who had spoken to her explained the contents of the box to the other officer who in turn agreed it was not Jane’s property. The police officers then picked up the larger box of Jane’s personal belongings, took it outside to Jane, and told her she needed to go home.
To rub salt in Jane’s wounds, the next day, Sandy put up a large sign in the window of the business congratulating Jane on her retirement and even put a small announcement in the local newspaper doing the same thing. The icing on the piece of revenge cake was Sandy, when filling out the necessary government forms for when an employee quits/gets fired/retires, made sure to check the box labeled “retired” for the reason for Jane no longer being employed. By doing so, Jane was ineligible to collect unemployment insurance benefits.”
13. Order A Pizza With A Gazillion Toppings? Okay, But It'll Take Longer To Cook
I never understand customers like this.
“I used to sling pizza and I had this one couple who would regularly come in and order a specialty pizza (think meat lovers) but with 3x the amount of toppings. Like extra extra everything plus they would add extra, extra of other toppings that weren’t originally on that pizza like olives and onions.
So of course this meant that it never cooked thoroughly (even after sending it through the oven twice+). Every single time they would complain about the pizza being too burnt on the edges and not cooked enough, and it took too long and they also wanted more of the toppings.
I tried repeatedly to explain to them that every extra topping you add makes the portion size of all the toppings go down. I don’t even understand why we were allowed to add so many toppings on at the register.
Anyways, about the 5th or 6th time I replaced the pizza for them (because they kept complaining to ‘corporate’ and received credit) the man came in again and said they spoke to corporate, and corporate wants me to make the pizza the way they want it.
I knew that isn’t true (there really wasn’t a corporate that customers could call, just a call center, and those people did NOT care) but I decided I’d do exactly what they asked, but made sure to explain to them that if I made it their way and it didn’t turn out well they wouldn’t be getting any more remakes.
I took the order and made it as they were expecting..kind of.
I put full portions of each topping on that monster. To say that pizza was a freaking mountain is an understatement. It didn’t even fit in the oven. I had to take the toppings off, lol.
I did feel a little bad at this point knowing full well they paid (with the store credit) over $40 for this 1 pizza and there was NO way it would ever properly cook, so I did give it 2 runs through the oven but that still didn’t help.
It was pan-to-pan toppings so getting out of the pan sucked and I just put and cut it right in the box so the toppings wouldn’t fall everywhere, after I cut it the slices disappeared under the toppings and you couldn’t even see the crust, so it just looks like a giant pile of trash toppings dumped in a box.
I couldn’t even close it lol.
I brought it to the customer and he started to lose it on me saying it took too long and it looked like a mess and he wanted another credit. I pulled out his receipt and asked which part wasn’t up to par.
He said it didn’t look cooked and I reminded him how I warned him of that with this amount of toppings and I would’ve cooked it longer if he hadn’t been complaining about time (I also showed him the at-home cooking time and temps on the box).
I showed him the crust underneath and went through all the toppings and extras.
Everything was accounted for as he asked for it so I told him I’d let management and corporate know that it was made to his liking. Never saw them again.”
12. Refuse To Pay Me For My Work? Then It Never Happened
“I’m naming the company name because I’ve had many issues with them and everyone should be warned. So, have to say this first – beware of working for the delivery service Shipt.
Today, I picked up an order for delivery. It had gone promo (money added on) on Shipt. It was for delivery in a town that is 15 minutes from the store of purchase. Alright, not too bad for $16, especially since I live within 10 minutes of the town I was delivering to.
I take it.
I go to the store, received the groceries, and I’m on my merry way!
I send a text to the customer that I’m on my way and will reach them before ____ time. No response, so I give a quick call. It does a weird thing and ends.
Doesn’t even go to voicemail. Huh. Whatever, I sent them a text. Get to the house, knock, no answer, leave the bag outside the door, and walk away. Make it to my car. Start said car. A woman pokes her head out the porch door as I’m about to leave (you were very lovely, woman on the porch, thank you for your kindness), and waves me down, looking HIGHLY confused. So I (unfortunately) stop the car and get out.
The woman asks what this is.
“Why, your order, ma’am!” I say, looking all happy.
“I didn’t order anything,” she says.
Oh no.
“Did anyone else in the hou-”
Nope.
Oh no no no. So there is a wrong address on the delivery. I’ve never dealt with this before, and I have to leave to catch a movie with friends in 30 minutes.
Cue me going door to door at each house on that small street while reaching out to Shipt support AND while trying to call the customer AGAIN. Does the same weird thing with the phone. Give up on that. Proceed to knock on doors. Nope, nope, nope, nobody’s.
Alright.
Shipt’s suggestion?
“Just drive back and return it!”
Um, no, Shipt, I am a delivery contractor. I am not a volunteer nor am I a charity. I am hired by you to fulfill deliveries. As far as I am concerned, I have delivered to the address on file.
I am not reaching into MY bank account to correct someone else’s mistake. For the total extra 30-minute round trip, I’ll need $10 on top of the initial pay (thanks gas for being so expensive).
No, they say, we’ll give you $8.10.
No, I say. I have plans in now 10 (what should have been 30, mind you) minutes that I will now miss.
$8.10 will not cover the gas and wear and tear for the extra thirty minutes. I will need no less than $10, or I will leave them on the curb of the noted delivery address, 580 blanking street.
We’ll give you $5 and can’t do any more than that, they say.
Wait, I say. $5 on top of the ADDITIONAL $8.10, to make $13.10 on top of what I’m being paid, or just $5? (I want everything in writing specifically because I KNEW Shipt was going to do exactly what they did next).
Oh, yes, $13.10, but we can’t do any more!
They say.
Fine, I’m returning it to the store now, I say.
Go to the store, do the whole return process, get in contact with Shipt as they directed me to with the requested information….
GET A MESSAGE ON MY PHONE FROM SHIPT to the effect of, “Your order has been canceled and $20.80 issued to your account.”
…What?
I contact Shipt, say I’m confused, say it looks as though they were only giving me $5 on top of the original order payment when they said I would be compensated $13.10.
I was told, OH, we won’t give you any more than $5.
…. But you already said… Is there someone else I can speak to?
Nope. $5. Take it or leave it.
Alright. Fine. Don’t want to pay me the agreed-upon wage? That’s a breach of contract, meaning you never actually paid me for this return. So, what did I do?
I marched right back into the store, asked the worker who had taken the return what she had done with it, snatched the bag up, strode up to a manager, informed them of what happened, and told them since I wasn’t being paid to return the groceries I would be taking them back to the last place I was contracted and paid to deliver them – 580 blanking street.
Told him if he wanted to be recompensated for the groceries, he could charge Shipt, as they were not willing to pay to have them returned.
Messaged Shipt from my car informing them of this and gave them 30 minutes (yep, plans definitely ruined, it’s now 2 hours later) to rescind their rescinsion and pay me what they actually agreed to and owed me.
Had to reach out two separate times because the first girl (despite me being very polite) would not go to anyone else, such as management, to ask for an exception to this policy considering THEY HAD LITERALLY TOLD ME THEY WOULD PAY ME MORE. Actually had the gall to ask if I had taken items I had returned, and all I had to say in response was, “Did you pay me to return them?”
The second girl was much more helpful. Reached out to her team to see if anything could be done. Shipt still wouldn’t be swayed, but I thanked her profusely for at least trying. So, in the end, they said they wouldn’t do any more than $5.
I told them, alright, I reject that offer. Just pay me for the original delivery because 580 is where they’ll be. You can pay another Shipt shopper $15 to come get them.
Drove back (it was on my way home), dropped them off, and left.
I’m not a charity.
I don’t work for free, and I certainly don’t pay to work. I’m going to be messaging ShopRite corporate directly along with NJ Labor board because this is not the first issue with wages I’ve had with Shipt, and honestly, ShopRite should seek compensation from them.
Have fun paying for the more than $13.10 of groceries that are now rotting on the curb, Shipt!
SIDE NOTE: To anyone who may say, “You’re being entitled!”…. no, I am not. It is not entitled to expect an agreed-upon wage. It is extortion to expect me to work for less than agreed. Imagine you accepted an order from a delivery service, fulfilled that obligation, and suddenly they decided to pay you less than half for that completed order.
Or you’re working at a job and they suddenly cut your pay without any notice or agreement upon your part. As I explained to them, I never would have returned the groceries for $5 because it wasn’t MY mistake (would have returned them with no problem if it had been) and I would be PAYING to return them, plus the missed plans, plus the lost time.
So, no, I am no way in the wrong, and I don’t care what anyone who thinks otherwise has to say.”
11. Don't Want To Fix A Broken Ramp? I Guess I'll Just Close It Then
Sad that it wasn’t until the ramp was closed that they finally decided it needed to be repaired.
“A few years ago, I ended up working at a remote worksite. The crew I worked with had multiple jobs, one of which was unloading the truck that came in once a week with all of the site’s food.
The unloading area was at the back of the kitchen and hadn’t been designed well originally.
It was an uneven gravel ramp that led up to a roughly 4 ft loading dock. In an ideal world, the truck would be able to back up to the loading dock and the job would be reasonably easy. However, the ramp also wasn’t very wide, there was a dogleg in the run-up to it, and also the truck would be at an angle, so moving the pallets of food would be tough.
So the workaround was to have a forklift take the food from the truck, drive up the gravel ramp, and drop the food on the dock.
When I first got there we had a forklift operator who had worked with a forklift for years. He was good…like really good.
He made it seem easy. This wasn’t my first job working around forklifts, and I really appreciated how good this guy was. I’m not sure many others (especially management) realized that he made this short but tricky run in the forklift look way easier than it actually was.
He left, and management scrambled to get another guy licensed to drive the forklift. This guy didn’t have the experience, and he struggled. He lost a load off his forks at one point, and it was kinda scary. He was a ‘Yes’ man, and there weren’t many other options, so he persevered. A lot of us were worried it was just a matter of time before he tipped the forklift over the edge of the ramp.
The solution would have been to redesign the ramp, or at least pave it. The gravel was a large part of the problem, it was a little thick, so the tires would spin, a bit off-kilter, and it would develop potholes. The forklift needed to get a run-up to carry speed up this ramp, that’s how bad it was.
We complained, but the company didn’t want to do anything because they were building a new kitchen on the other side of the camp, so this one was going to be decommissioned. However, there had been zero work done on the new kitchen in the 3-4 months I’d been there.
This remote site was in Australia, and they have some pretty strict health and safety laws there. Companies will often have you fill out cards every day about what you saw that was maybe dangerous. I filled out one for this ramp every single week we had to use it.
But they didn’t do anything. The system was really there to cover themselves. Ie “you knew it was dangerous, it says it here on the card, so why did you keep doing the thing?” while also expecting us to keep doing the thing (how else were we going to get the food inside).
However one of the other rules pretty much gave the right to any employer to “Tag Out” something that isn’t safe. The company can’t overrule this, as if they do then something happens, it’s on them. These tags are normally used with machinery. Ie the machine is broken, can’t be used until it’s fixed. The tag-out system is not really designed for an area.
Cue Malicious Compliance. The ramp is broken/dangerous. I decided I’m going to tag it out.
I collected some cones and ropes and tagged it out. Went straight into the office to tell management what I did. Their faces were priceless. They had a week to come up with a solution as I did this immediately after we’d unloaded the weekly food drop.
At first, they told us that from now on we’d have to walk the boxes of food up to the storage areas. (This was obviously an attempt to turn the other crew members on me). However, the cooks stopped that idea dead. The weather was hot, the majority of the food was chilled or frozen, and we were only so many; there would have been a lot of food waste.
So after a day or so, they got to work putting in a paved path for the forklift. It was the bare minimum they would do (because they were “building” a new kitchen), but apparently, it cost them $7,000 and pulled guys away from other duties to do it.
Needless to say, I was not a popular person, and I heard that some of the management wanted to fire me, but there wasn’t anything they could do.
I left two months later anyway.”
10. Don't Tell Anyone I'm Quitting? Okay, But The Client Might Not Take It So Well
“I once wound up working for a company because it bought up small competitors (including my employer) across multiple states, and then smushed them together into one big firm with lots of clients. Each of us had different retention bonuses to stop us from just walking out.
The whole thing was a crap show, so the CEO appointed a new VP to lead my division, “BigBoss” and a new “HR Director.”
BigBoss was really interested in my specialism – he told me face to face I was doing all the right things for promotion, big things, etc. But others started demanding big pay rises to stay, and BigBoss was pretty mad about this because it screwed up his finance metrics.
He gave in a couple of times, and then wrote a memo saying no pay rises were permitted outside of the annual review. HR Director told everyone they wanted honest opinions about what was wrong and how to fix them, then started sniping people who’d told the truth and blaming them for the issues.
Great start.
Big shock, I didn’t get the promotion. A couple of insiders told me he’d just bad-mouthed everyone who was up for promotion to justify not offering any. I met him and said if I wasn’t promoted maybe I wasn’t a good fit and should leave, but he disagreed. Said I was a great asset, and that he’d figure something out.
My manager came back with his offer – it pushed the retention bonus further into the future, added some withheld stock perks, and pay rises that would build over multiple years and BigBoss would “support” me for promotion next year. Basically nothing now, but maybe in the future.
The shrug as my manager handed it to me said everything.
BigBoss then got a surprise opportunity to make a sale personally at a client he knew and impress our CEO. We had no experience in the area, but I had a reputation as being versatile and I was available so he asked me to head up a group of four contractors and make it look like a joined-up expert team from our company.
I decided this was a dead end, and given that my retention bonus was due (although no idea when they would actually cut me a check), I agreed to take a similar job at an unexciting but stable competitor. I wrote BigBoss with my two weeks, it had been a pleasure working with him, and what did he want me to do?
It was standard in our industry to get people off the premises ASAP, especially when joining a competitor. So I was a bit surprised when he told me to “carry on at the client” and “don’t tell them you’re leaving”. Truth was, he had nobody to replace me with.
Apparently, he then went to HR Director and my manager and lost his crap when it turned out I never actually signed his new retention offer. He tried to blame a couple of people for telling me not to sign, which wasn’t true and upset them as well.
HR Director then met me for an exit interview, and as I’d heard was pretty stressed because so many people were leaving, and their remit was to retain staff. I told them everything was amazing and I loved the company but this was a huge opportunity.
Then they said that because I was quitting, I wouldn’t be getting my retention bonus or performance bonuses. “It’s just industry standard”, they said. I explained that the wording was very clear, I had met every requirement, and they said it didn’t matter because that wasn’t what the words meant, and “if you want to argue terms, get an attorney.”
Hmm. So I stayed with the client for the next two weeks. I told the contractors I was leaving and asked what help they wanted, but they wanted to promote themselves directly with the client so were happier if I kept out of their way.
I just met colleagues for coffee and caught up on old times, talked about my new employer, what would be their final straw, and so on. A couple of days before I was due to finish, the client lead asked me if we could help out with something.
Well, I couldn’t tell them I was leaving, so I replied “Unfortunately BigBoss has said I am not permitted to discuss my future with you, so you’ll need to ask him directly.” The client immediately knew what was happening, and was fuming that he’d kept them in the dark.
Even more when they found out no replacement had been identified.
Then, as HR Director had requested, I took an employment attorney friend out for lunch. She was laughing her butt off when she saw the contracts and said they were some of the worst worded she’d ever seen.
I was totally right, they owed the bonuses and HR Director was just hoping I gave up. She helped me draft some legal docs, tacked on a bunch of additional fees she reckoned we could argue I was owed, and I sent them off.
I left the company without ever speaking to BigBoss or HR Director again.
I bumped into one of the contractors in a parking lot, and he told me the project had completely imploded. They replaced me with another contractor a month after I left, but by that point, they’d stopped working collaboratively and were competing with each other to win contracts directly with the client.
2 of them got terminated for performance issues, another quit, and the client decided not to continue using my old company so took on the only remaining specialist contractor direct. I caught up with a former manager for coffee, and they said BigBoss became increasingly paranoid about all the people resigning, and started trying to run office loyalty tests to identify disloyal staff, which of course made even more people resign.
Allegedly the CEO was getting angry because the financial and sales metrics were getting worse and the big target client he’d heard about had turned into a huge embarrassment.
Eventually, I received a satisfactory offer from the company’s law firm. It wasn’t a big settlement, but I was so happy that I’d seen it through.
My attorney friend said she knew the firm, and it had probably cost triple the amount I’d asked for in legal fees. I wish I could have seen BigBoss’s face signing that check. I checked LinkedIn a few months later, and HR Director had been terminated. One colleague still at the company said it was official because there weren’t enough permanent employees to justify them staying.
BigBoss then vanished a few weeks later, his office was just emptied and nobody spoke about him again.
I still work in the same city but haven’t seen either of them again. If I did, well, I was told to keep working, not to tell the client what was happening, and to get an attorney.
So that’s exactly what I did.”
9. Shorts Aren't Appropriate For Men Due To Leg Hair Being Offensive? Okay, Then I'll Shave!
Since when was leg hair unprofessional?
“Summer is here and temperatures are approaching +85f degrees on the hotter days. I’m located in northern Europe which means that this crap is hot for us, and to top it off the humidity is off the charts.
Leave a cold beverage out on the table for a minute or two and it is condensing as hard as I’m sweating. Puddles underneath and all.
We don’t have air conditioning at my office and probably never will have. When the weather gets like this the office turns into a steam sauna or at least a close approximation.
And there is nothing we can do about it.
We survive it the best we can by wearing fewer clothes. At normal temperatures, we wear the typical professional garb, but when the temperature rises, it is typically light dresses and skirts for women and shorts for men.
The unspoken rule was to just keep the designs professional, no Bermuda shorts, bikinis, or clothes with eye-searing colors. You know, normal common sense.
However, this year, shorts are suddenly a problem. If you have never experienced the glory of arbitrary rule changes before, then I envy you.
With that bit of context, “Summer Legs” will get on with the malicious compliance.
What happened is we got a new manager at the start of the year, and apparently this new manager has new manager ideas. Without warning a couple of days into “steam sauna at work season” the new manager decided that shorts were unprofessional, and in short order, he ordered the men in the office to go back to wearing heatstroke-inducing long pants.
No meetings, no talking with the people in the office first, no different alternative. Just, “Here are your new guidelines. Have a nice day.” kind of situation. Sent out over mail of course, shortly before the end of the day. The new rules were to take effect immediately.
Now I was non too pleased by this, and come next day I find out that neither was the rest of the men in the office. Mostly because each and every man went from being uncomfortably hot to now sporting his own little steam oven, and in the privacy of his pants, steaming a two-bun and two-egg combo.
Grumbles were had all around.
It should be said that when I think something is unfair I can get a bit confrontational, and I won’t take “just because” as a good enough explanation. Basically, I don’t play nice with arbitrary rules. As such, on the first day after the rule change, I found a moment to press the new manager for the real explanation.
As such things have a tendency to do, and after a bit of back and forth, I was finally presented with his reason… “Shorts are unprofessional because no one wants to look at hairy man legs.”
I honestly didn’t know what to say to that at first, because how do you argue against stupid?
Stupefied was the most fitting way to describe my state of mind after that bomb.
As I went on with the rest of the day I tried to figure out how to get this insane rule changed, because I sure as heck was not going to suffer more than necessary during the whole of summer.
I went to my buddy to get his take on it, and to no surprise, he agreed with my take. The new manager was just power-tripping or similarly changing rules for no good reason. Now the question became how to get under his skin and pull him down a peg or two.
If you have never dealt with the type of person the new manager is, then I can tell you that showing disrespect to their authority is the best way to get under their skin, and pointing out their stupidity publicly is the easiest way to enact change.
Of course with the additional added benefit of painting a target on your own back.
After a good half hour, my buddy had helped me cobble a plan together, and off I went to set it into motion.
First I got confirmation on the reason for no shorts.
Basically had the new manager confirm over mail that shorts were not allowed and unprofessional because of hairy man legs.
Then that evening I set to it at home, getting ready for wearing shorts to work the next day.
When the next day came around, I peacocked into the office wearing shorts.
In no time at all the new manager was on my case, and in typical new manager style he gave me a dress down in front of my coworkers. While he did this I was fighting to not let a grin surface on my face.
I think that humans are amazing in many different ways. One of which is that we don’t always pay all that much attention to the details of mundane things and as such can gloss over them with ease. But once your attention has been drawn to something you basically can’t ignore it or unsee it.
After the new manager was done stroking his ego, I broke. I could not hold in my smile anymore. With the biggest grin on my face, I pointed to my legs and said “But I shaved my legs.”
I think that broke the new manager for a full ten seconds.
He just kind of stood there taking it all in. Really looking at my legs, then looking back and forth between my legs and face a couple of times. You could see him trying really hard to make sense of what happened while my coworkers snickered in the gallery.
After he kinda got his bearing again, I pointed out that the problem with shorts was hairy man legs, and as they were no longer hairy, shorts should no longer be a problem.
I wish I could tell you that it devolved into an epic meltdown.
That new manager was soo far up his own butt that he was immune to reason and would ignore his own previous statement about professional wear and shorts. That the power battle in the office devolved into a battle for who would get the other fired.
That didn’t happen. Instead after a short while, still surrounded by the majority of the office staff the new manager declared that the men could go back to how it used to be.
I haven’t suffered any retaliation as of yet, and it seems that is not going to happen.
Which is good. It is also the gift that keeps on giving because I keep seeing the new manager’s eyes darting down to my manly shaved legs every now and again when I interact with him. I find it absolutely hilarious, and I am honestly considering keeping them shaved until it stops demanding his attention.
I have acquired a new nickname in the office which I guess is all in good fun. Many of my coworkers have taken it upon themselves to call me Summer Legs.”
Another User Comments:
“I used to work in manufacturing and we didn’t have ac but were allowed to wear shorts.
Then a new owner bought in and said, nope, no shorts and claimed it was an OSHA thing. For my readers outside the USA OSHA is the government workplace safety organization.
So the next time we had an OSHA inspection, we asked the guy about shorts in the workplace, he looked confused and said there was no such rule.
We got it in writing from him, presented it to the owner and everyone just started wearing shorts again, this was about 35 people. He wanted to say something about it to us but we hated him anyways and I think he was scared we’d all just walk out.
By the way, we made equipment that generated quite a lot of heat, so it was nothing to get up to over 100 in the building. Screw you, Dan. Glad I left that craphole.” Kirkuchiyo
8. Want Me To Give Your Daughter My "Candy?" Fine, But You'll Be Disappointed
“I have an entitled parent story with their kid.
I have two cats, and they both use the litter box, and it needs to be cleaned out often.
I usually put the litter in a grocery bag and double up the bag in case one breaks or has a hole in it.
So, I was cleaning out the litter boxes since I had a little bit of time before I needed to do my schoolwork.
I grabbed out the scooper and bags, and it so happened to be that the bag on the outside was a bag from a local candy store. I thought nothing of it and continued taking care of the cat business.
I got outside, heading to the dumpster, Entitled Daughter and Entitled Mother had a walk in our neighborhood.
Entitled Daughter comes up to me and says, “Hey can I have some candy?”
I was super confused and didn’t know where she thought I had candy.
Then Entitled Mom comes over. “Don’t play stupid. You obviously have a ‘name of candy store’ bag on you.”
I look at it and realize what they think they see. “Oh, no, this isn’t full of candy,” I said, trying not to tell her it has cat poop in it.
“No, you give Entitled Daughter some candy now, and we will be on our way,” She demanded.
I decided that I was tired of this crap. Literally, “Fine, have the whole bag,” I said and handed it to them.
They looked so pleased with themselves that it actually worked. But, once they opened the bag the disappointment on their faces was priceless.
“Hey, this isn’t candy!” said Entitled Daughter.
“You, give us candy as you promised,” Entitled Mom demanded from me.
“I never promised you anything. I told you it’s not candy, and you didn’t believe me,” I politely told her in a smart aleck way.
“NO, YOU DIDN’T!
YOU’RE A LIAR! A LIAR, I SAY, A LIAR!” Entitled Mom shouted at me.
Then, my mom came out of the house. “What’s going on here?” She asked and saw it was Entitled Mom. “Oh… I know what’s going on.” She came over.
“Your son promised my daughter and me candy, and he gave us a bag of crap!” She yelled at her.
“First of all, that’s not how you address me. Second, I can pull up the security camera footage, and we can see who is in the wrong here. It has audio, and if you are wrong, we could press charges on you for trespassing on our property,” she tells Entitled Mom.
The entitled mom took no chances and realized she was beaten. She took the bag of litter and threw it onto our driveway, and huffed away with the entitled daughter, flipping us off as they went away. And in response, my mom and I just death glared at them.
After they were a few houses away, my mom returned inside, and I picked up the bag. Thankfully nothing fell out, and the bag was still intact, so I put it in the dumpster. After that, nothing happened. We didn’t press charges over something that petty, and that was a good reminder of why we never interact with that family.”
Another User Comments:
“I hate when people don’t press charges on people like this.
She literally tried to mug a child for candy while trespassing on their parents’ property.
If you have audio and video evidence, send that crap to the freaking cops (or post it on social media).” RustyShackleford6911
7. Talk Louder? Alright, But Your Customers Might Hear All This Confidential Information
“I live in South Africa (our currency is the Rand, abbreviated to R, and R1 is currently worth about $0.06).
It’s also important to know that we have lightning storms in my province in January. These lightning storms often cause damage to electronics.
Additionally, security companies (everyone who can afford private security here has private security) and telecommunication providers will often push new installations and contracts at the beginning of the year, possibly because your security system or PBX may recently have been damaged by lightning and is out of warranty.
What this means is that January is busy for many people who work with telecommunication and security, and other industries.
I’m working on an ESP8266 project (It’s an IoT electronics thing that is mostly unimportant to this story), and I need 3 core security cables (that thin wire that has 3 insulated copper strands in it) to attach a sensor.
I head out first thing to a local retailer (a small security shop) and when I get there I see a line of about 10 people has already formed. I’m told I need to get in line to get a price, so I jump in line and wait my turn.
When I get to the front of the line and ask for the price of the cable, I’m told it costs R300 for 30 meters. Before I headed out I checked with a bulk retailer about an hour away (they are actually more of a wholesaler who also does retail stuff), and I knew that they were providing the same brand at 100 meters for R320.00.
I didn’t feel like traveling an hour there and an hour back, but they would deliver it to me for R99 tomorrow.
I’d like to get the cable now, and I don’t need 100 meters, so I ask to speak to the manager. Guy asks me why and I say I’d like to discuss the price with him.
I get attitude, but he asks someone to fetch the manager and I step out of the queue.
I notice that, despite social distancing and mask laws, people are pretty crowded in the store, but packed like sardines around the entrance (stores are only allowed to run at a limited capacity, but are not responsible for how the people queue outside).
Whatever – I got really sick in December, I’m wearing my mask, and if they want to drink their urine, who am I to interfere?
So I’m standing near the entrance as socially distanced as I can be when a guy walks up to me with his mask around his chin.
I recognize him, it’s the guy who told me in October that he couldn’t force people entering his store to wear their masks. He doesn’t like me. He asks what the problem is. I ask if there is somewhere more quiet we can talk (it’s noisy with all the people around), and he tells me there isn’t, and that he is busy.
I start trying to address the problem, and he tells me he can’t hear me with my mask on. I remove my mask and start talking and he tells me to speak up.
You know, I don’t really want to, but if that’s really what you want I guess I can help.
I speak as loudly as I reasonably can and say “I know your supplier is probably BIGRETAILER in Midrand (about an hour away), and their prices are online. I can see that you are charging about a 60% markup on their retail price.” NOTE: He’s probably paying wholesale, not retail.
I continue “I know you have to make a profit, and I don’t mind you adding a markup, but you are charging so much more that it’s cheaper for me to order it from them and have it delivered tomorrow. Not only that, you are charging so much more that, even considering petrol costs, it’s cheaper for me to drive out there and buy it from them directly.
I was wondering if you would consider dropping your price so that I can get it from you.”
As I finish I realize a lot of the people are looking at me. I look at the manager. He looks at me. He looks at the other customers and says “We don’t give discounts” and walks away.
As I start walking out a number of the people in the queue (who are probably going to be waiting about an hour in any case) ask for details on BIGRETAILER – Do they sell to the public? (Yes), Do they give bulk discounts (Absolutely), What do they sell?
(Almost everything. I give the web store URL). I see a bunch of these guys pulling out their phones and staring at the screen, I’m guessing they are checking out BIGRETAILER’s web store. I cross the road and get into my car. As I’m pulling out I see about a third of the queue disappear to their own cars.
I can’t say for sure, but I’m fairly sure my little conversation with him in public ended up being quite costly, with recurring lost business. Ironically, BIGRETAILER is in an area that has one entrance and exit, with one-way streets around a MASSIVE block that contains many telecoms, security, and tech retailers – when you discover it exists it’s like Christmas morning.”
6. Make A Mistake In My Termination Letter? I'll Still Follow It
“I was working for a security company, let’s call it ASD security
We had 3 shifts, day/evening and night for the weekday and 12 hours shifts for the weekend. Being the new guy, I was night shift. The job was at a trucking company. We were in a boot in the middle of the entrance and our job was basically to make a ticket that we give the driver for the in and outs of trucks.
Driver’s name
The license plate of the truck
Truck’s trailer number
Date stamped (did the stacks at night)
And we had a log for trailer numbers also that we cross-checked.
Because it’s a night shift and less traffic, our job was also a perimeter check, logging in all trailers and trucks in a separate log, stamping the date on tickets (maybe 200 tickets roughly if not more) and we were a call center for other security guards on other sites.
Meaning every hour, the other security guards would call me (around 12 of them) to check in and say everything is fine. If one didn’t check in, I called, if no one answered, I had to send a patrol car to make sure everything was ok.
Also making sure the doors are locked, the security system armed, and cleaning the boot.
The client of the trucking company complained to ASD security that I was #1 always on my phone, #2 didn’t like the fact that I was smoking (he said too much), and #3 that he saw me on a camera talking to myself and found it weird.
1: 1 week in after training was done, there was no way in heck I was going to be picking up or making 12 calls an hour. I got my old Bluetooth headset (single ear thingy) and hooked it up to the work cellphone. That helped me stamp the crap out of the tickets while taking the calls.
I could be on a security check of the property and still take calls and write down the incoming calls, I could even do the logs of trailers since I was hands-free. But hey, I was on my phone too much. What else to do at 3 am eating my lunch and browsing the web or taking 12 calls an hour.
2: because I had a routine down and I even changed the order of my routine so it does not become predictable. I was able to streamline my job and had free time, so I took breaks here and there, smoked, and went back to it.
I smoked at the designated spot that was near my boot, so I had a view of the incoming/leaving trucks, if one came by, I just chucked the smoke in the bucket and did the truck. Nope, the client didn’t like that.
3: well, that ties in to #1, or I would be singing to music that was playing in my earbud or me commenting out loud on something I was hearing on the radio.
Monday morning, my shift was about to end, everything it did, my checklist is empty of tasks to do, and who pulls up in an ASD security car, my director. She pulls me to the side, hands me a letter, and explains what’s happening. Letter of termination due to the client’s complaint.
Reason #1 – 2 and 3 and please sign on the dotted line.
The only thing I said was seriously?!
Here is my compliance, the letter stated that my termination was in 1 week. Here the laws are that if a company terminates/fires you, they have to give you two weeks’ notice, if the notice is shorter than 2 weeks the remaining time must be paid out.
I happily signed and she already signed her part. I went in the boot to collect my things. My supervisor is the one doing the day shift and was puzzled. He asked me what was happening. I just told him, Madame ASD Security just fired me and the letter says my last day is Friday.
He told me to stay in the boot and started yelling at the director while walking toward her. He came back swearing because he was not told ASD Security was firing me, they didn’t have a replacement guard and training was about 1 week.
Along came Friday, and my supervisor was not happy.
I had a trash bag with the uniform and gear they gave me. After my shift was done, I drove to the office, dropped the bag on Madame ASD Security’s desk, and left. She was not at her desk.
My phone rang, it was the director asking what the heck was going on and why did I bring back my uniform as I still had 1 week’s notice left to fulfill legally.
I just answered, As per the termination contract we both signed, on Monday 20th of May 20xx, the last day of work will be Friday the 25th 20xx. I am sorry but legally speaking, as this letter is signed by both parties if I come in to work past the 25th and something goes wrong I am not covered by ASD Security and this letter can be used as proof against me.
Please send me my check for the remainder of my two weeks’ notice by mail, have a nice day.
She tried to contact me again in the afternoon, but my phone was on mute as I went to bed. I woke up to a text message saying they are screwed and don’t have a replacement for me could I come in at least for that weekend.
I did not answer and never heard from her again.
My ex-supervisor called me asking if I was going to come in, said no. He was swearing because he had to call the day guy, put him on the night shifts, and take his place during the weekend.
It messed up the schedule and the hours of everyone, they had to fork out overtime not paid by the client because it was an ASD Security problem. They had to find a replacement ASAP and train him and get him to work solo during the following weekend, with more overtime, and more screwed-up schedules.
My shift was:
- Wednesday 11 pm to Thursday 7 am
- Thursday 4h45pm to Thursday 11h45pm
- Friday 11h45pm to Saturday 11h45am
- Saturday 11h45pm to Sunday 11h45am
- Sunday 11h45pm to Monday 7h45pm
- 8/8/7/12 35h week 1
- 12/8/8/12 40h week 2
I don’t recall 100% my schedule but it was something along those lines, it was a weird one, all that to accommodate the supervisor because he wanted a lighter week and the evening person couldn’t do Friday evenings and other bullcrap.
You can imagine the s******p with the schedule once I left.”
5. Charge You The "Real" Price? But That Means You'll Have To Pay More!
“Until February a few months ago, I used to work at this really old school gas station. What I mean by old school is that every task/chore in the station had to be done manually and these 3 were essentially the most important ones:
Put gasoline in people’s cars. This had to be done by me because the only way to start the pumps was to activate them with a magnetic chip. Also, as I said nothing was automatic, so if someone wanted to put let’s say 40$ worth of gas, I had to check the pump constantly as it filled the car to make sure it wouldn’t go over the desired amount.
For reference, modern gas stations where I live let you pick the amount you want on the pumps, then automatically stop when it has been reached. (Unrelated MC: Some people would insist on putting the quantity of gas they wanted themselves and I always told them sure whatever, but make sure to stop at the right amount otherwise you’ll have to pay for what you put in your car even if it’s more than you wanted. Spoiler alert: They almost never stopped on time and would always get upset at me for not stopping it before.
My answer would always be A. “You can either pay and we’re all happy because I told you to check what you were doing” or B. “You leave without paying, but in exchange, I call the police on you for gas theft.” Let’s say that 95% of the time they’d choose option A.)
Changing the gas prices. As I said previously, the pumps were quite old (probably dating from the ’80s) and that meant changing the digits for the price on the pumps one at a time (if the price was 131.9, and I needed it to be at 129.7, I’d have to put it to 131.7 first, then 139.7, and finally to 129.7), one pump at the time (I had to do this for 6 pumps).
So overall, you could say that these pumps were quite crappy to work with. That was the first part of this task, the second one was changing it on the sign. To do so, I’d have to take this little machine, plug it in the sign, then repeat the same steps I did on the pumps.
(Note that all this was done outside, which can be quite the pain in the butt when it’s -40°C. Yay Canadian weather lol).
Calculating how much gas was sold between the price changes. As you’ve probably guessed it by now, this was done manually too.
To make this short, this was also super annoying to do, because I had to calculate the amount of L/$ sold with a calculator, but I also had to make sure the register was balanced while serving a ton of customers. This was done at least 2 times a night and sometimes it could be as much as 4, so we had to make sure the register balanced from the previous price changes every time or we could not keep track of how much gas was sold.
Now on to the story.
It happened around 3 years ago on a really busy night while I was in the middle of rush hour. One of my superiors had called me to tell me to change the price from 1.309$/L to 1.259$/L. Ok cool, this isn’t a problem I always do this kind of stuff during rush hour, so in between customers, I change the price on each pump, but since the machine for the sign is still inside the station, I don’t have the time to go just yet and leave the sign at 1.309$/L (note that the pumps are now at 1.259$ so customers are actually paying “less” than what the sign says).
This is one of the few tips our manager gave us and encouraged us to do. If the price was going down we would always change the pumps’ price first then the sign and if the price was going up we’d do the opposite. This way, it’d look as if we were undercharging the customers because the sign was always at a higher price than the pumps.
The reason we did this was to avoid rush hour becoming even worse than it already was. If the customers saw the price on the sign go down they would rush to the station even more and that’d leave me no time to balance the register (which had to be done right away anytime there was a price change).
I know this may not be the best practice, but it helped us a lot because we always worked alone, although we shouldn’t have been (my manager’s boss was a cheapskate and wouldn’t let him hire more employees).
So now that the price has been changed I keep on doing my thing and try to balance the register as fast as I can so I can put the right price on the sign.
Everything’s going fine and then at some point I get this one guy. I put the amount he asks for in his car (it was something like 40$), and give him his receipt and that’s when he starts complaining and yelling at me. He says that the price on the receipt (1.259, so the actual price) doesn’t match the sign.
So I proceed to explain to him that I changed the price on the pumps first and that if he looks at them he’ll see that the price on the receipt matches them. All should be good now, right? Nope.
Now he tells me that I’m trying to steal from him and that I changed the price on the pumps after I gave him the receipt.
I tell him that this is not possible as I am in the middle of a rush and that the pumps’ price have to be changed manually one by one. He doesn’t want to hear it and keeps yelling that I’m overcharging him for gas.
Cue the MC.
So I tell him “Alright sir, you think I’m trying to steal from you? Then come inside and have a look at the security cameras. I’m telling you there’s literally no way I’d have the time to change the price”. He still doesn’t want to, now he wants to leave without paying because I’m not charging him the right price, and yells even more than before.
“Ok cool, I’ll charge you the right amount then”. So I go get my calculator and start calculating. The real price being $1.259/L, I check how many liters that is by doing 40/1.259 which amounts to around 31.77 liters. I’m right next to the pump with him and I tell him to look, even the numbers on the pump match in the hope he’ll see that I’m not stealing from him (like modern pumps, you can see the amount you’re paying and the amount of gas that’s going in your car while you fill it).
Nope, still doesn’t want to hear it. Alright then, here it goes 31.77L, 1.309$/L. “Sir you owe me $41.58, not $40.” That’s when he gets really mad and gets in his car ready to leave. So I gently tell him, “Sir, you’re gonna have to pay or I’m calling the police.” The look on his face just changed from angry to defeated in half a second.
The dude ended up paying $41.58, told me he’d make a complaint to my manager and that he’d never come back to the gas station because we were thieves. The joke’s on him; I knew my manager would side with me and dismiss the complaint.
Btw I worked there for 5 years and this was the first and only time a client ever complained about the price being lower than shown on the sign.
Most of them would just avoid telling me so I wouldn’t charge them the price displayed on the sign.”
Another User Comments:
“I worked at a gas station in the early-mid 90s. While our pumps were old compared to other stations at the time, they were at least still automated and could all be changed at one time.
In my case, it took more time to change the big sign outside than it was to change the price on the pumps. And like you, we did the pumps first if we were lowering them or the sign first if we were raising them so the price on the big sign is more than what we were actually charging.
No one ever complained if there was a discrepancy.” llaffer2
4. Residents Should Get Priority Over The Street Parking? Then So Be It
“I live on a cul-de-sac where I rent a back house from my landlords. There’s another elderly tenant who lived inside the landlord’s house I was very close with that we’ll call Good Sir.
I have these neighbors next to me who I had gotten along with for as long as I had lived here for years, the husband (we’ll call him Mr. Chill) especially has been cool with me. My neighbors have three cars between them two belong to Mr. Chill and his wife (we’ll call her Mrs. Hypocrite) and the other car belongs to their daughter (we’ll call her The Hog).
When times got hard, Mr. Chill’s family for reasons that didn’t make sense to me suddenly stopped parking their cars in the driveway and would park them all on the curb in front of their house as well as The Hog taking the spot I usually parked in more so than her parents did.
Finally, after a few months of this going on, I see The Hog outside and I ask her if she wouldn’t mind sharing the spot that I used to park with me explaining my situation of being overworked and exhausted from my job. She gives me an annoyed look and just responds by saying “I use it”, I realize I’m wasting my time, tell her never mind, and go inside.
Not even 5 minutes later there is a knock at the door and it’s Good Sir letting me know that the neighbors want to talk with me. Mrs. Hypocrite is standing there all angry, asking me what the problem is.
I explain to Mrs. Hypocrite what I said to The Hog and she apologizes for coming off so angry and says, “you know street parking is what it is, it’s first come first serve, and we’re not parking to try and give anyone a hard time.” The conversation goes nowhere but we end it peacefully.
About a week later I’m parked in my spot for a change and my girl comes over to visit with our child. It’s summertime and it’s hot. Towards the evening I get a knock on the door and it’s Good Sir. He says the neighbors want to talk and I see Mr. Chill standing right there and he just asks if my girl could move her car because she’s got a bunch of curbs behind her car but not enough for another car to fit.
Before I can even say anything, Mrs. Hypocrite shows up out of nowhere and goes off saying “I’M SICK OF GOING BACK AND FORTH ABOUT THIS! SHE IS DOUBLE PARKED AND THERE’S NOT ENOUGH ROOM FOR ANOTHER CAR TO FIT! I UNDERSTAND THAT SHE’S YOUR PARTNER, AND SHE’S VISITING, BUT I BELIEVE THAT RESIDENTS SHOULD GET PRIORITY PARKING FIRST. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU GUYS ARE TRYING TO SAVE THE PARKING FOR YOURSELVES!
AND I’M NOT DEALING WITH THIS ANYMORE! SHE NEEDS TO MOVE HER CAR!”
I’m in complete shock and have a lot I wanted to say, but I don’t and just go inside to ask my girl to move. She thinks they’re hypocrites and moves just because she feels like that’s all they have to feel proud of in their lives.
The only reason I gave in to them is just so my landlords do not get involved and risk it turning into them not wanting to renew my lease with me otherwise I would have said something. Funny enough even though they got mad at my partner for double parking, The Hog is the queen of doing that on our cul-de-sac without Mrs. Hypocrite telling her anything.
Last year in November Good Sir wasn’t doing too well and went into hospice care eventually passing away, unfortunately. He gave me his car as a gift and a thank you for being family to him. I now had two cars, two spots, and an idea.
Enter (Petty) Malicious Compliance.
Mrs. Hypocrite said that street parking is first come first serve and that residents should have priority over the parking, well then, so be it! I only need to use one car and the other can just stay parked. Since I am a resident, I decided to park whichever car I am not using in the spot that I would normally park and swap them out every two weeks in rotation.
My girl parks where Good Sir used to.
The Hog, her man, and Mrs. Hypocrite have not touched that spot since I started doing this since one of my two cars is always there.
As a little bonus too, Mrs. Hypocrite put one of their cars they aren’t using back in the driveway and when there’s a party going on and all the parking is taken up, the spot in front of their house is sometimes open and since, again, I am a resident and the guests have taken all the other spots, well, I guess I do need a spot to park at after all right?
Sorry Mrs. Hypocrite and/or The Hog, I guess you’ll just have to park around the block and take a nice walk to get to your house! I’m only following what you believe the parking rules should be!”
3. Don't Like It, Then Leave? They'll Definitely Be Leaving
“At the time I worked on an on-site Desktop support team (of about 13 people). These are your IT guys that typically wander around your workplace and go fix your computer in person. I had done this job for about a year at this point.
Times get hard, and of course, 95% of my job’s workforce is either moved to entirely remote work, or a hybrid schedule.
Now, what does that mean for a primarily on-site second-tier IT support team? Well, for one, it means that a lot of our workload shifted to being remote work, secondly it means that if something did need on-hand support we’d need to schedule that user to come into the office, and third it means that a lot of larger projects come to a grinding halt.
Now, transitioning a workforce of thousands to remote work on a dime was – for all intents and purposes, a nightmare. We had to distribute thousands of laptops amidst multiple supply chain breakdowns and teach a pretty aged workforce how to use VPNs.
Needless to say – we absolutely rocked it despite all the hurdles.
We spent a year plus managing hybrid schedules. Basically, for that entire time period, each one of us was on-site at least 2 full days a week and then coming in for an hour or two at a time for appointments with users (if they didn’t fit into our normal days).
This worked out for everyone, almost none of our users were ever regularly on-site, we always had 2-3 people in the office at any given time for emergencies, and we smashed through ticket queues.
Our team was heaped with praise on all sides!
But this wouldn’t be a malicious compliance story if that was the case, now would it?
So, after having rocked support IT and receiving praise from every department, management remembers a project that we’ve been putting off – Lifecycle replacement (LCR).
Lifecycle replacement is the fancy IT term for “replacing computers when they get too old”. We were supposed to start a massive LCR, but due to some rather ridiculous moves on the part of management (they dissolved the lifecycle team into Desktop IT), it got delayed.
Now they are in full panic mode and demanding massive quotas of LCRs are completed each week – despite two mitigating factors:
- We are not receiving enough computers in the first place to meet those quotas.
- It’s hard to force masses of employees who’ve had a taste of “work/life balance” to come into the office to replace a whole computer with their whole working lives on them.
So, quotas are not being met, and management is beginning to sweat because their bosses are wondering why this thing that was supposed to be finished a year ago is barely even starting.
Management decides that clearly, DESKTOP is to blame and thus sends out an edict that we are all to be on-site 8 hours a day 5 days a week, or else.
Now, unfortunately, our whole team had gotten used to not having to pay for parking downtown every day, and we had realized that if the whole rest of the workforce is still working remotely – that our being in an empty building every day was completely pointless.
We voiced our concern to our Supervisor, who, being the dutiful mouthpiece of our management, immediately set up a meeting with the whole team and themselves.
The meeting went a little like this.
Coworker: So, we’re a little confused about this edict you’ve sent out, that we have to be on-site a full day every day.
You guys have been praising our hard work, and I think we’ve shown that we can responsibly manage hybrid schedules.
Management: With people moving back into offices, we’ve determined there’s a greater need to have your team on-site, and with the ticket backlog we need to make sure the manpower is there to support the staff.
Coworker: But the backlog is due to us not having the equipment to distribute to the employees, as well as the majority of employees still working off-site. There’s nobody around for us to regularly support.
Management: Well, unfortunately, these positions were always meant to be on-site positions.
Me: So, will you and Supervisor be onsite all week as our main line of support?
Management: Our job positions don’t necessitate us to be on-site, so we’ll be coming in as needed.
Me: To address your point about ticket counts, I wanted to point out that I pulled completed tickets for April 2019 and April 2020, and we actually completed more tickets working a hybrid schedule.
Management: Look, this was always meant to be an on-site position. If you don’t like it, then there are plenty of other teams who offer remote work
Me: So, if we don’t want to pay for gas and parking downtown every day we’re free to find other positions in the company that fit our needs better?
Management: If you want to discuss this further, then you can schedule a time to meet with me when I’m in the office next Wednesday.
Needless to say, the entire team was furious. We had rocked hard times, been told how efficient we were, and then were being punished because management didn’t want to explain to their bosses the concept of “Supply chain issues”.
I immediately began searching for another position in my company, and very quickly found one that utilized some of my more niche skills with a very cool supervisor. I have ended up in a job where I have carte blanche to run as I see fit because I’m the only person with the necessary experience to do so.
But it doesn’t end there, our team had been whittled down to maybe 9 of the original 13 people. Once I left, that left 8. Three more followed suit and joined the remote helpdesk team, leaving 5 original team members.
Fallout – Management decided at that time since the primary focus was LCRs that they could just hire a bunch of low-paid interns to fill in the empty spots.
Now, the second whammy to this whole shebang, is that recently our Union had a new contract coming up and management apparently didn’t take much time to read the new contract…. because the contract forbids using interns to do the work of full-position union members.
So now the Desktop team consists of 5 original full IT employees and 5 interns who are only allowed to image computers.
Their ticket queue still has tickets from June.”
2. Want Us To Be Quiet? I'll Be Quiet Alright
“This happened when I was about 12. I grew up in a Christian church that is very strict about rules of conduct, including how women are supposed to dress. In some larger cities, they are more lenient, but in the suburban area where I lived, they had no tolerance for anything that deviated from the standard.
Youth service was on Sunday mornings, and it included anyone from ages 4 to 18. There was nothing fun about it: we had to sit through the entire sermon, pray, recite Bible verses, and sing hymns when told to. The kids would obviously get bored and find ways to tease each other, tell jokes, pass notes back and forth, and so on…
But not me. I was trying really hard to feel accepted. They already gave me a hard time because I wore nice clothes (not fancy or expensive, just too colorful for their taste) and I wanted to prove that I was worthy, so every Sunday I would sit quietly and refuse to engage in whatever the other girls around me were doing.
The pastor noticed the giggles and scolded our group. They stopped and continued as soon as he turned around, and that made them mad even more. So he pointed in our direction from the pulpit and yelled: “THE THREE OF YOU OVER THERE! (that included me – it took me a minute to notice because I was looking down) COME UP HERE RIGHT NOW!”
This is very uncommon because the pulpit is reserved for church leaders (all men), but he wanted to put on a show. We went up and he told us to kneel down and recite the entire Lord’s Prayer, one at a time, in front of the entire church.
“That will teach you to be quiet during service,” he said. The boys on the other side started chuckling but stopped quickly because they didn’t want to be next. I was livid – I hadn’t done anything wrong, yet I was being punished with this kind of humiliation.
The girl on my right went first. I was in the middle, so I would be next. Time for malicious compliance: he wanted us to be quiet? Fine, I’ll be quiet.
Two minutes went by of absolute silence. He ushered me: “psst, sister, it’s your turn.”
Two more minutes, and I continued in silence. The girl on my left discreetly poked me with her elbow. I kept my head up and didn’t say a thing.
I don’t know how much longer the awkward silence lasted, but eventually, he caved in, got up, and sent us back to our seats.
He never bothered me ever again. A few years later he was exposed for running some shady, greedy business and had to step down from his leadership role in the church.”
1. Make Us Wear Stupid New Company Shirts? I'll Wear It Any Way But Normal
“I (21M) work at a grocery store. Started as a courtesy clerk (or bag boy for the uncultured), but recently I’ve been training to be a checker.
Yesterday I was scheduled as a courtesy clerk, and I assumed it was going to be a normal day.
Several months ago, the dress code was relaxed to a significant degree. Before, we had to wear one of a few different company-issued shirts. However, in mid-December, we were told that now we could wear whatever we want, within reason.
(Apparently, the store director has a different definition of “within reason” than the rest of us.) So I started wearing my favorite shirts, normally the one from RWBY (anime) or one with Transformers on it. Yesterday I wore the TF shirt.
Upon arrival, everyone was wearing the same blue shirt advertising the store’s new mobile game.
You know how some stores have promotions where you get a few tickets with every purchase that you can then redeem for a chance to win prizes? Well, someone at corporate decided to do that, but in mobile game form. And honestly, I think the shirts are kind of stupid.
From here on, I will call them the ** shirt. I was told that all checkers had to wear them, but my manager (I’ll call her Patty) said she’d check with the store director (Greg) if that applied to courtesy clerks too. While Patty checked on that, I started my floor sweep.
Now, about Greg. He’s legitimately a great boss. There seems to be a recurring pattern with these stories where the boss has no idea how things actually work and is just a penny-pincher or whatever. Greg defies all stereotypes. He helps out all over the store.
He’s even been known to help bag groceries if things get nuts, though that hasn’t happened in quite some time. He’s also the one who showed me how to snake a toilet. Very hands-on. One time he worked in the bakery for a month straight until more staff were hired. Honestly, as my first boss, he’s kind of setting up all my **ture bosses for failure.
All this is to say, I wasn’t trying to get back at him for anything. I was just trying to have some harmless **n. And protest a rule I think is stupid.
So anyway, turns out all front-end staff have to wear the ** shirts. Fine.
I spent the floor sweep coming up with ideas to peace**lly and play**lly protest.
Malicious Compliance #1:
I wore the ** shirt as a headband. It wasn’t long enough to tie, so I taped it down. Patty saw me like that, smiled, and told me I probably had to “WEAR IT, wear it.”
Malicious Compliance #2:
I put the ** shirt on in the bathroom, and then put the TF shirt on over it, making sure you could see the ** sleeves. That one got caught by Greg, who told me the ** shirt “needs to be over.”
Malicious Compliance #3:
This one was my favorite and I think it lasted the longest. I called it “the Tape Cape.” I put on the TF shirt, and then draped the ** shirt’s sleeves over my shoulders, and taped them into place.
Eventually, I got the idea to use a pride pin to save a piece of tape, but I’m still calling it the tape cape because it rhymes and I love it. Took Patty quite a while before she noticed (both shirts are blue) and she laughed. She didn’t tell me to change it or anything.
Eventually, Greg saw me and told me to “wear it right.” His mistake was not defining “right.”
Malicious Compliance #4:
I put the TF shirt away and actually started wearing the ** shirt. Head in the head hole and arms in the arm holes. Just inside out, is all.
This one might have lasted longer than the tape cape, but I wasn’t keeping track. Greg didn’t notice at first, but when he did he just said my name in a disappointed tone, so I figured it was time to change tactics.
Malicious Compliance #5:
Backward.
That’s all, just backward. Greg came up to me to give me my three-year pin and told me I almost had it right. Giving me the pin was a mistake, though. Because I had one more trick up my unwanted sleeve.
Malicious Compliance #6:
You may be thinking I’ve exhausted my options at this point.
I have to wear the ** shirt the proper way now, don’t I? Yes, I do. But no one told me I couldn’t wear a cape.
Yep, I did a reverse of the tape cape, so the TF shirt was covering the graphic with inexcusable puns on the back.
I used the pride pin and the three-year pin that had just been given to me.
That lasted all of 30 seconds. So I unpinned the TF shirt and put my hoodie on. At that point, Greg said he was going to put a more clear copy of the dress code up near the punch-in clock and in the break room.
Remember when I said that he and I had different definitions of “within reason”? Yeah, apparently we’re allowed to wear whatever we want as long as it’s plain color/plaid, and has no logos or graphics on it.
So actually, as I write this, it’s occurring to me that as written, the ** shirts are in violation of the dress code.
I guess I could start writing reports about everybody violating the dress code, but that would cross the line from “harmless **n” into “needlessly petty”. Maybe I’ll just put up a post-it note on the dress code.
So yeah, in conclusion, I exhausted all my options and had to wear the ** shirt right side out, tag in the back, with nothing covering it for the rest of the day (which by that point was less than an hour).
From all indications, this will last as long as the promo will, about a month. Then we’ll switch to normal plain clothes. It’s a bummer that I won’t get to wear my RWBY and Transformers shirts to work anymore, but honestly, I’d rather go plain and boring than the ** shirts, just out of principle at this point.”
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