rSlash - r/Maliciouscompliance Be Careful What You Wish For!

Episode Date: December 7, 2021

r/Maliciouscompliance In today's episode, a stuck-up worker at a company thinks that she's so valuable that company would crumble without her. That also gives her the confidence to go around treating ...people like garbage. When the opportunity arises for her to switch her job to a contract-based position, her boss is more than happy to maliciously comply. Then, he just doesn't renew her contract! Turns out, the boss had been looking for a way to fire her for years, and she just handed him a good excuse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to our Slash Milicious Compliance, where an abusive employee gets herself fired. Our next reddit posted from Zero Gravity. This isn't my personal story, but it happened to have friend at his company, and I thought that it was hilarious. The main characters on my friend Patrick, a 26 year old guy, Ali, a 29 year old girl, and the boss who's an older guy. Patrick and Ali worked at the same company in the same division under the same boss. Ali was abusive to all the employees in the division, but especially to Patrick, because he was a talented newcomer and he didn't suck up to her. Her bullying tactics included
Starting point is 00:00:36 taking credit for other people's ideas, convincing Patrick that other people in the division didn't like him, attempting to ruin the careers of anyone who didn't suck up to her. And last but not least, trying to get Patrick fired, which she almost succeeded in doing. She was so horrible to Patrick that his mental health suffered a decline. Everyone was vaguely aware of Ali's behavior, but she hid the worst parts of it, so it was never quite obvious or bad enough to get her fired. Plus, she was also popular with the company's clients who did know how awful she was and she was a favorite of one of the top people
Starting point is 00:01:12 at the company. Ali seemed untouchable. Until several months after the Patrick almost got fired incident, when the company started having a conversation about moving some of their employees to contract positions. Becoming a contractor would have its pros and cons.
Starting point is 00:01:28 Contractors would have to pay their own health insurance and would have no job security. But they would also be allowed to work for other companies. It was a great move for someone who was well known and wanted more visibility and options, but a lousy move for someone lower on the totem pole. Ali, who was somewhat a benarcissist, who believed that she was destined for greatness, waltz into boss' room and told him she wanted to switch to a contractor position.
Starting point is 00:01:51 She believed the company couldn't get by without her and would continue hiring her while she also got to work for other companies and gain fame and visibility within the industry. The boss was all smiles and pretended to be supportive of her. This is a great career move. Think of all the options you'll have. As soon as the paperwork was signed, he never hired her for a single contract, and her future with the company was ruined.
Starting point is 00:02:16 Ali eventually found employment elsewhere, but it wasn't as good as the position she left. Patrick found out the second part of the story years later. Because of what Ali had told him, he was under the impression that no one was on his side as good as the position she left. Patrick found out the second part of the story years later. Because of what Alie had told him, he was under the impression that no one was on his side and that his co-workers and boss actually liked Alie more than him. But they hadn't. It turns out the boss felt that his hands were tied because Alie was a favorite of one of the top people at the company. But as soon as Alie gave him an out, they allowed him to never have to work with her again,
Starting point is 00:02:45 he took it. Our next red posted from Sandervant Senti. All right, so for a bit of context, I was raised in both the Netherlands and Spain, and I moved to Austria a few years ago. This allowed me to pick up quite a few languages along the way, but to this day, my language of preference is English since it's the one I used the most in my day-to-day lifestyle. About two years ago, I decided I wanted to give the tourism sector a shot. My German wasn't the best yet, so it seemed perfect to be able to work in a multicultural environment. In this hotel, we had this cantina area where employees could eat their food and spend
Starting point is 00:03:18 their breaks. It was a great spot for socializing. After about six months of working there, I figured this was really not what I wanted to do with my life, and I thought that it would be a smarter decision for me to get a college degree and do something that I truly love, which I can happily confirm ended up being the right choice. But I would have to wait until summer was over to enroll in the next semester, so I planned to work halfway through summer, then quit to start studying and prepare for my first semester at university. After a staff meeting, I felt pressured to share the fact that I was going to announce
Starting point is 00:03:48 leaving later that week to HR. Of course, the one HR employee that was there took it as a personal offense that I wanted to quit. She called me into the HR office and asked me a bunch of questions, and I responded very mathematically about how I came to my decision and what my plans for the future were. So, at the end of the conversation, she decided to tell me that she would rather not have me speak English in the Cantina area with our co-workers since it was disturbing the German-speaking environments. I couldn't believe what I was hearing her say, but okay, I agreed. So, for the following week, as promised, I didn't speak a word of English or German
Starting point is 00:04:27 during my breaks with my coworkers. Just Spanish, Dutch, Catalan, French, and Portuguese with all the fellow immigrant coworkers I'd become friends with. The best part was seeing her pissed off face when she heard me talk and dutch with the gym of the hotel who happened to also be from the Netherlands.
Starting point is 00:04:44 And indeed, I did exactly also be from the Netherlands. And indeed, I did exactly as she told me to. O.P., that's good malicious compliance, but I'm kinda surprised because we have a really common phrase in English to use in that situation. It goes, go f*** yourself. Like someone's gonna try to micromanage you in your last week. Like what are you gonna do? Fire me? Okay, I just get severance pay. Please do. Our next reddit post is from OneMuse. When I was 12, my family and I went on a camping trip with my mentally abusive pill of an uncle and his family. One day we went to a beach that was a five-minute
Starting point is 00:05:17 walk from our campsite. I got there first and it was super windy, so I spent forever struggling to get my towel to lay still. Now, when I say that it was windy, I mean it was whipping up sand windy, and any sort of movement since sand flying through the air. It was great! When I finally got settled, it wasn't long until the rest of the group started filing onto the beach with my butthole uncle leading the way. My uncle decided to lay out his towel about three feet from where I was sitting. As soon as he finished, he looked at me and demanded that I move myself and my towel somewhere else. To this day, I can't remember what his reason for making me move was, but I can tell you
Starting point is 00:05:54 that it was absurd and I was thoroughly annoyed. So I got up and grabbed my towel in a very aggressive manner, causing a wall of sand to fly up and slam into my uncle's face. I'm pretty sure he wanted to kill me that day, what with all the screaming about how I did it on purpose and got sand in his eyes and mouth. But I swore up and down that it was an accident, so the rest of our family believed me, and they told my uncle he was acting insane. By then, everyone on the beach was staring at us, so he had no choice but to stop making
Starting point is 00:06:24 a scene and hate me in silence. I most definitely did it on purpose. Our next reddit posted from at Regina. At the time, I worked in a cafe spread across three floors, so my day generally consisted of 10 hours of running up and downstairs. I had slipped on some spilled motor oil in the car park on my way home, and my ankle had bent underneath me. I had initially assumed that I had slipped on some spilled motor oil in the car park on my way home, and my ankle had bent underneath me. I had initially assumed that I had just twisted it, but several hours later it was still throbbing. As well as swelling up so much that it looked like I was hiding a pair of golf balls under
Starting point is 00:06:56 my sock and turning a deep shade of purple. Since my next shift started in less than 12 hours and we were short-stapped as it is, I didn't want to call in sick, but I knew there was no way I'd be able to stand and walk on that foot for a whole day. I called my manager to explain and ask if I could. A, switch to the register for a few days, which involved much less walking. And B, borrow one of the bar stools to sit on behind the counter so I wasn't putting too much weight on my foot. I figured this wouldn't be a problem, but I was wrong.
Starting point is 00:07:26 My manager insisted that he wouldn't sign off on me having a chair without a signed doctor's note verifying my injury, even after I sent him photos of my wrecked ankle. Since my general practitioner was already closed, I went to the 24 hour walk in clinic. An X-ray and a lot of poking and prodding later, the doctor told me I had to ice it every few hours until the swelling went down, and keep all weight off of it for at least a week, and wear a brace for another two weeks after that. When I explained what I did for a living, the doctor presented me with a lovely note explaining that I shouldn't be at work at all for at least seven days. I wish I could have seen my manager's face when
Starting point is 00:08:05 I called to explain that I didn't need the chair at all, because actually I wouldn't be at work for the rest of this week and most of next week. Doctors orders. Funnily enough, I was never asked to produce a doctor's note again for the rest of the time that I worked there. Our next credit post is from Emotional Thunk. My neighbors were were selling their house and they'd been screwed left and right by the buyers. For background, my neighbor learned that he was being relocated to another city. He and his partner started working out the details and their house went on the market and was quickly closed with a deal pending. If you've never bought a house before, closing
Starting point is 00:08:39 can take between 45 and 60 days with things like inspections, repairs, etc. So they started that process. Their buyers came off sweet, but they quickly turned sour. The people they hired to inspect my neighbor's house were family members, and they came away with a huge sheet of things to be repaired to knock down the price. Many of those repairs they demanded be fixed at my neighbor's expense by a different contractor, despite the fact that my neighbor is himself a contractor. Then they started sending people to the house unannounced, which is totally illegal, and showing up to the property on their own. The nail in the coffin was that my neighbors had been strung along for a full 10 days
Starting point is 00:09:18 longer than they should have been because the buyers kept threatening to back out of the sale, despite having already signed paperwork without their knowledge. It was all very shady. As part of the contract, the buyers said my neighbors had to take, quote, all personal property and debris, claiming a financial penalty for cleanup if there was anything on the property that the buyers thought counted. So my neighbors spent a lot of time cleaning out yard debris, multiple dump runs, etc. But as the purchase was almost finalized and all this shady stuff started happening,
Starting point is 00:09:48 they had an idea. While one of my neighbors is a contractor, the other works in legal and has for 10 years. She looked at the contract and local home purchase regulations for the definition of personal property. Turns out that, besides the obvious, light bulbs also count. They went through and removed every light bulb they could find, except ones that were installed as part of fixtures. The sellers had to purchase nearly 200 bucks worth of light bulbs as part of their move-in,
Starting point is 00:10:14 which they didn't discover until they showed up with moving trucks. Our next Reddit post is from Crow. I was at the doctor's office today, and I had to bring my 15 month old twins with me. These kiddos do not enjoy being cooped up in a stroller, but letting them wander around isn't an option because they'll both immediately bolt in opposite directions. They have clean diapers, they've been fed and hydrated, so at this point any fussing is just stroller-related crankiness. In preparation for having to wait a while and wanting to be considerate of others who
Starting point is 00:10:44 were in waiting room purgatory with me, I pack the diaper bag full of endless snacks and sippy cups. Sure enough, five minutes in my twins lose their mind. So I instantly start giving them snacks and also walking back and forth in the very, very large waiting room. I'm in the back of the waiting room, so I'm not even close to being in anyone's way, and as long as I'm pasting, the twins will quietly munch away on their Cheerios. At one point I stop pasting, and this is where some cranky old lady decides to weigh in on my parenting. I hear a huffing noise and look over at her, and the second we make eye contact, she says, Oh my god, you have got to stop walking up and down that back area.
Starting point is 00:11:26 You're making me dizzy. Also you really shouldn't be feeding them that much. Just sit down and they'll relax too. Watching toddlers really shouldn't be that hard, huh. Thanks. Firstly, while my girls are very healthy, they were preemies born at 3 pounds and still very tiny, so I'll feed them all the damn Cheerios I want. Secondly, I'm not doing this for my benefit, or even the twins benefit, but for the benefit of all those around us. And at that point, I just didn't care anymore. Now for the malicious compliance.
Starting point is 00:11:58 I took her advice and sat down, right next to her. There were tons of empty seats elsewhere, by the way. They instantly start screaming their heads off, and what do I do? I just pull out my book and start reading. Anyone who's ever been seated next to a stranger's baby having a meltdown? Close your eyes. Imagine that awful moment, and now double it to account for twins. Within five minutes, she looks like she's about to snap and suggest they might want to snack, to which I calmly reply. Now, I really shouldn't be feeding them that much, and then calmly turn the page of my book. 10 minutes later, my name is finally called,
Starting point is 00:12:38 and this lady looks like she's ready to give up on life. I, however, have read my first chapter in ages. I guess watching toddlers really isn't that hard after all. Our next reddit post is from deleted. Back in my warehouse days, there were occasions where the customer service manager would ask for myself and a few warehouse workers to help him re-deliver and reinstall our repaired sofa for a customer. The day of the delivery, the customer service manager pulls me aside and warns me that this lady is extremely difficult and aggressive. In this instance, she ordered a leather sofa in a high-quality leather, paid top dollar, waited 22 weeks, and on delivery decided that she didn't like
Starting point is 00:13:18 the color. Now, normally, the company doesn't do reorders for things like this, but this lady made such a fuss and complained so much that the General Manager made an exception. We get to the home and our contract driver was starting to unload. The customer has chosen a massive 3-seat recliner with a metal frame and a bracket on the bottom. Normally, the metal bracket comes with special plastic stoppers that go on each foot of the frame and each edge of the metal bracket so that no damage will occur to the customer's floor. As we carefully navigate the sofa into this lady's lounge room, she starts loudly
Starting point is 00:13:52 complaining that us warehouse workers are dirty, stupid, lazy, and too slow. We begin to unwrap the lounge and this lady is getting impatient. She starts complaining to the customer service manager. How much longer is it gonna take? The manager reassures her that we're taking our time to ensure the sofa is unwrapped and in perfect condition. We also notice this lady has light wood and floor boards, so I immediately move to start placing the stoppers on the floor.
Starting point is 00:14:19 This woman starts shrieking. Why is he touching my lounge? Is he breaking it? I say, no, miss, I'm just don't talk to me. Get your filthy hands away from my lounge. I just need a few seconds to put these rubber. Put my lounge down now or I'm calling your manager. I shoot a look to the customer service manager and he just shrugs. We place the sofa directly onto the floorboards and we can already hear a scrape. The customer service lady hands the lady his paperwork.
Starting point is 00:14:49 She signs off on a successful delivery, signing off that we've assembled a lounge as required and placed it where she wants. This lady smirked at us and plops herself down onto the lounge. There's a scraping sound as the metal frame digs into the wooden floorboards. We just grab all the plastic packaging and make our way back to the store. Guess what was waiting for us? A customer complaint. According to this lady, we damaged her very expensive floorboards.
Starting point is 00:15:17 The customer service manager shows where this customer signed off in a successful delivery and that we assembled and placed the lounge to her satisfaction. She got exactly what she asked for. That was our slash malicious compliance and if you like this content be sure to follow my podcast because I put out new Reddit podcast episodes every single day.

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