People Reveal Their Whimsical Revenge Story

“I always thought about this awful job I had, and I just knew I had to have a malicious compliance story from it. Crazy how I never thought of it until now…

So in 2018, I was a freshman in college, and after being unemployed for a month, I took a job at a major sports department store where they don’t wear blue.

So my store manager, who we’ll call Daniel, was a major jerk. He’d make crude jokes that get him reported to HQ, gossip about employees to other ones, and generally favor men over women (which I’ll explain).

So I worked at this store for nearly a year, and the turnover rate was abysmal. They’d hire many people who were still in high school and expected them to devote 20 hours a week, which, of course, was not what they’d sign up for as many wanted about 12-15 since they were involved in extracurricular activities.

However, Daniel showed no remorse and would even drive people to quit by either dropping their hours to less than 5 or hiking them up to 30, knowing that they couldn’t work them, which often left us understaffed.

The store was attached to a mall, so we got a lot of petty traffic that would turn into actual sales.

However, due to the lack of training by Daniel and his poor oversight in appointing people to train new hires, the customer service in the store was falling dramatically, which halted sales, which led to a decrease in merchandising. The store was a $12,000,000 store when I started but had fallen to $8,000,000 in a few months because HQ was losing money by stocking a poorly managed store.

Daniel took out his frustration on the staff, and here is where the malicious compliance starts:

Daniel was on a “good reviews” crusade and often demanded us to comply with the customer, even if they were dead wrong, just so they’d leave a good review.

I worked in footwear, and there is nothing like the an**r that arises when telling someone that the oh-so-popular shoe that they desire is out of stock in their size. Because a customer got upset with me over their size being out of stock, I was charged with cleaning the bathrooms. I never did this, because, like the overachiever I am, I learned how to work in multiple departments without getting a raise.

Thus, Daniel was a wee bit appreciative and never asked me to clean it. Now, I am easily disgusted. The mere thought of rotten food or bugs or anything I deem ungodly deplorable with gets me dry heaving. And I explained this to Danny boy, but he replied with “just get it done.” So, I and Brent went to clean the men’s bathroom (since it was a two-person job), and might I mention that Brent’s disgust-o-meter is also not tolerant.

So we sprayed Febreeze, took out the trash, and ran out of there for our lives. Leaving the dirtied mirrors, toilet paper floors, and feces-stained walls untouched.

I came in the next day and was told that I did an awful job and that I was never to clean the bathrooms again.

So when Daniel asked me to do it a few weeks later, I reminded him of his instructions, and we all watched in marvel as a manager cleaned it (which he said was a big deal since it was not in his job description but yet it wasn’t in any of ours either since he had told many of us that the store had janitors in our interviews).

But, that’s just a mini malicious compliance. See, I had grown tired of Daniel in my waiting months at the store. Many of my friends had quit or found better jobs, the hires got worse, and Daniel got much ruder. He attempted to show dominance at any chance he could and even forced a “do we have a problem here” convo with me when I didn’t rush to change into the new company uniform, which was not my size, because I was helping a customer.

Which then resulted in me getting chewed out because my “chest was popping out” and my “figure was showing too much” as a result of the medium shirt I was forced to wear. But Daniel committed to his paladin-esque crusade and denied us basic human rights in the spirit of good customer service.

A pregnant coworker with a doctor’s note was denied a chair while working at the register, a coworker with seething cramps was not allowed to go home though she couldn’t stand, and another was barred from taking off to witness her daughter’s prom send-off. But in contrast, a guy left his phone at home and he was allowed to not only get it but take the rest of the day off.

Another called in because of a hangover and was told to rest up and that he wouldn’t receive a strike. And his favorite star boy was allowed to disappear often and be on his phone right in front of Daniel, and he didn’t even bat an eye.

Even the men there were obliged to the notion that they were treated far better than the female staff. And one day, Daniel chose to single me out.

Not to toot my own horn, but I am a very hard worker. And Daniel abused that by scheduling me my shifts in different departments and speed training me, knowing I’d catch on quickly.

I even had to train new employees though I wasn’t a lead, because I “got good reviews, and conducted the most footwear services last year.” And after I demanded a raise, my $11 an hour; 35-45 hours a week summer paychecks were looking nice in spite of the horrible managing.

But school started up again, and I informed Daniel that I needed to return to the somber 15 hour weeks that I had last semester. He said that I was lying and that he never gave me such little hours, till I hit him with a pic of the schedule that I had from March.

He didn’t like that chin tap, and replied with, “I’ll see what I can do.”

So next week, I see the schedule and see that not only was I scheduled from 12 am-6 am for inventory, but those also were my only hours. 6. Hours. But I think, “Oh, they ain’t doing you dirty, KV; this is obviously a mistake.” So I seek out Danly the Manly and tell him of his mistake and responds with:

Daniel: “That wasn’t a mistake; you said you needed fewer hours.”

KV: “Yes, but I can’t work past 10 because I have school, and I just wanted to drop to about 15-20 hours. Which is more than I did last semester.”

Daniel: “Well, everybody has to work inventory.”

KV: “But Lindy and Richy don’t have it because they also have school. Plus, Lindy, Richy, and Michael all have more hours than me, but they’re all in high school and just started working here.”

Daniel: (noticing he is running out of excuses) “Well, they are more available than you, and we award availability.

If you can free up some time, then maybe we can talk in a month. But you need to get your priorities straight.”

You got it, dude!

So as someone who takes disrespect with a pillar of salt. I considered quitting right then and there, but my anxiety kicked in, and began to worry about cash flow.

So I went home on my break and complained to my family, and my mom so eloquently expressed:

“Just quit the job if it got you this stressed out! It ain’t like you got a family to feed.”

So I took my single, no child-having, empty-bellied behind up there and worked the last two hours of my shift. The air in the building hit differently knowing I wouldn’t have to spend more time in it awake than I did my own home.

I was calm, cleaned the footwear deck efficiently, and made sure I was the last to clock out. As I approached Daniel at the exit I said:

“So yeah, this will be my last day here. I got my priorities straight, and school is my number 1.

I recently got an internship there, and I’ll just go there because they are more accommodating to my needs as a student. Thanks for the time here, sucks that we couldn’t work it out”

And with that, I watched his face turn white, and he said something about not being able to work for the company again due to my lack of a two weeks notice.

Didn’t care, was never going to work there again, and now every time I come to the mall and he happens to see me, he doesn’t look me in the eyes, speak to me, and rushes away from the counter so he doesn’t have to ring me up.

You got what you wanted Dan.”