rSlash - r/Maliciouscompliance How A Stupid Karen Ruined A Kid's Birthday Party

Episode Date: May 5, 2021

r/Maliciouscompliance A particularly picky and stupid Karen hires OP to bake a cake for a young girl's birthday party. The Karen gives OP overly specific and detailed instructions that are just plain wrong. OP tries to warn Karen that the cake won't turn out the right way, but the Karen just refuses to listen. So what does the Karen do when OP delivers bad cake that perfectly fits Karen's request? She spends the kid's entire birthday party whining about it, because that's what every kid wants to hear on their birthday! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Today's subreddit is R-Slash malicious compliance, where a Karen wants to have her cake and eat it too. Our next Reddit post is from Sheet Mask Wine Baking. I'm a part-time home baker. I took it up while I'm studying from home during the pandemic, and it's basically a fundraiser for my charity since I can't do my monthly fundraiser bake sales on campus anymore. I'm also the only person selling baked goods in my entire area, so my items are very popular. Specifically, this one particular type of cake I make that people absolutely love.

The other day a lady called me and she wanted to place an order for one pound of this particular cake. She said that she tried it at a friend's house and she loved it and she wanted it for a niece's birthday. I told her that I use metric measurements so my cakes are actually 500 grams. And to be clear, one pound equals about 450 grams. So my cakes are actually bigger than 1 pound. She said that she wanted a 1 pound cake, so I dropped it because it was more or less the same thing. After I took the order and quoted the price to her, she started giving me more instructions. She said the birthday girl is 16 years old, so decorated according to a 16-year-old girl, which is super vague instructions.

She also said to add such and such to the cake and write four different things on the cake. I explained to her that all these things included were not in the base price and the things that she wanted would make the cake a lot heavier and pricier. She said, make it a £1 cake for the £1 cake price. Okay, I get the hint. You want a one pound cake with those specific customizations. So I made the cake just that. I removed some of the ganache and made thinner layers so I can incorporate her additions

and so keep it at exactly 454 grams. No more, no less. The lady came to pick up the cake and she went ballistic because I was trying to rob her in the name of charity. And the cake I made was in no way one pound because her friend's cake was bigger. I tried explaining to her why her friend's cake might have looked bigger and that this cake was exactly one pound like she wanted. She refused to listen and created a huge scene and said that she wanted a refund.

So, I brought my scale out and weighed the cake in front of her. 454 grams exactly. The lady saw the number and went, ah-ha, I was right. You're trying to cheat me, it's 50 grams less. I said no, that's exactly one pound like you wanted. I opened up Google Converter and showed her that one pound is exactly 454 grams, not 500. I opened up our conversation on my phone and showed her the message where I told her that I make 500 grams standard cakes and she said she doesn't care, she wants one pound. She was a bit gobsmacked and she said that I should have some professional courtesy and

make it 500 grams and that I'm trying to cheat her. I'd had it with her. I told her, ma'am, you said that you wanted exactly a 1 pound cake. You said it to me four times. So you can take this exactly 1 pound cake, or you can take your refund and leave. I can find other people who would want to buy this one pound cake. She took her one pound cake and left, saying that she would never buy anything from me again. And she would make sure to let others know it too.

Later, her niece followed my page on Instagram and dropped me a message apologizing for her aunt. She said it was the best cake that she'd ever had and she was sure to tell everyone about my bakery. So the fact that this 16 year old girl went out of her way to track down OP on Instagram and apologize makes me think that this aunt must have spent the entire birthday party complaining about this cake. Instead of, you know, celebrating her niece's birthday.

And it's a sweet 16 birthday too, which is a huge milestone for young girls. And instead of enjoying her birthday party, this poor girl had to listen to her Karen Aunt complain nonstop. Our next Reddit post is from Aussie Golden Doodle. I was working at this clothing store years ago, which didn't offer commission. It was the brand's first store in my area, and I stayed with them for about two years. They were pretty desperate too, because they hired me on the spot. Anyways, all the supervisors who I liked ended up quitting, and the remaining ones were

just plain, not nice. I was the youngest person on the team, and they always excluded me and bullied me. I guess because of jealousy, which I never understood, because even though I did get positive reviews from customers, we did not have sales commissions. I just liked to help, and I liked fashion. I also lived nearby, so they would often call me in to cover for people. I was always flexible for them, but this one supervisor just had it out for me. My hours got cut, they were messing with my mental health, I needed a change. I applied to this other job, and I was quite sure that I got it. My plan was to book two weeks off of work around the time this start date would be.

My supervisor didn't even want me to take time off, despite the fact that I hadn't taken time off in two years. Fast forward to the day before my two week vacation, I got the job. I show up at my old job when I'm not on shift and ask to speak with my supervisor. We talk, I quit. She was acting all happy that I was quitting, but I didn't care. I was over it. The supervisor made it clear that I was still required to work on my shifts for the next two weeks, and I had better not slack off. I smiled at her, thanked her for acknowledging my work ethic, and then put my name tag in keys on her desk. She looked confused.

I reminded her that I took two weeks off, so this is goodbye. I turned around and left. My mental health has been so much better without her, and the store is now closed permanently. Our next reddit post is from Momana. A couple of summers ago, I took a part time job as a server at a local restaurant. I already had a full time job, so this was just for experience and to pick up some tip money on the side. The pub inside the restaurant had been closed for a few years after the old owner couldn't afford it anymore, so when the new owners picked it up and got it ready for opening again, the town

was pretty excited. It's a bit of a town landmark right in the middle of our main street. I applied as soon as I found out and I ended up getting hired. I was one of the younger servers alongside a few older ones. Most of us were women and the older servers really looked out for us and experienced ones. Overall, the others in the team were really nice, save for a couple of nasty ones. My new boss, Gary, was... was well not as great. Gary's favorite saying was, if you have time to lean you have time to clean. He thought that if we took even a second to catch our breasts he was losing money from us slacking off. On slow days he would find menial, pointless

task for us to complete. Wipe the bar counter even though it had been wiped three times in the past half hour already. We organized the menus, even though they were already perfectly organized. Fill up more condiment cups, even though there's already 50 salsa cups ready to go. Stuff like that. The most tedious task, especially in the early months of summer, was sweeping the side alley that leads to the patio. There were these massive maple trees along the path and they would drop leaves and seeds

like crazy, especially on windy days. One afternoon, in early June, there were only a handful of us working. It gets slow, and I get assigned a sweeping task. I sweep up the back alley as much as I can, but the wind is blowing and the trees just keep dumping more and more seeds onto the path. I do my best until a coworker calls me back inside to help serve tables. She didn't want me to miss out on tips. Bless her. I see the table, get their orders and start entering them in. Just then, Gary storms up to me.

What are you doing? Entering table 15's order? Why? The side alley is a mess. I don't pay you to slack off. I swept up as much as I could before the table walked in. It's a really windy day. That's why it keeps getting full of leaves and seeds.

You're more than welcome to check the compost bin for how much I actually did sweep up. No, we do not finish things halfway here. You're going back out there and finishing your job. I want it to be spotless. The other waitress Linda can take table 15. Embrace the holiday season with a Starbucks red cup in your hands. Your favorite festive sips are back and it's time to make every moment just a little more magical.

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Gary then switched table 15 from my account to Linda's account. Linda and I get along great. Linda told me, oh hang on to your share of the tips. That's not to make Gary angry. He really wants me to make it spotless. Does he know how impossible that is? I have to be out there all shift. That's when Linda gave me a smile

and the light bulb turned on in my head. I still had two hours left in my shift and it was going to be right into dinner rush. I grabbed the broom and dustpan and got to work. I would sweep up as much as I could, but every so often, another strong breeze would come by and hundreds of more helicopters he would flutter to the ground. I just kept going. At this point, it started to get

busier inside the restaurant. A line began to form outside the door. Linda was taking care of my tables, but very soon it became clear that the service needed someone else to help. Linda let them know what was up, and most of them, who tolerated Gary at best and hated him at worst, understood. I kept on sweeping. Like Cicophus in the Boulder, the task was never ending. I scooped up pile after pile after pile of leaves and seeds to no avail. After 45 minutes or so, the side door suddenly opened to reveal a red-faced Gary.

Why aren't you in there serving customers? I just gesture at the alleyway. As if the gods themselves had heard the malicious compliance brewing, another strong breeze shook more season to the partially cleared alley right in front of Gary's face. The look on his face was priceless. He told me in a quieter voice to get back inside and start taking orders. I handed the broom off to him, and he began to sweep and sweep and sweep. The other servers and I had a good laugh about it inside, and I managed to make decent tips that night. Gary realized that he couldn't exactly fire me for following his orders perfectly, and ended up being more relaxed about the side alley. No one really cares about some leaves and seeds on the ground, so long as they're not obstructing

anyone. On my next shift, I found a broken broom in the garbage. I'd like to think that that was the work of Gary, ridden the face and exhausted from paddling against Mother Nature. Down in the comments, I'm going to read this post from historical turn. Some say that if you listen closely when the wind blows, you can still hear Gary sweeping. Our next reddit post is from Uchipinska. I worked for a major government contractor for a government agency.

I'd risen up through the ranks because I have good technical knowledge and I have an act for seeing the big picture which helps me see potential problems. I was very good at what I did. Many managers didn't like me because I pointed out problems and I stated facts with that regard for management politics. And I never sucked up.

Some managers even gave one of my colleagues, Bob, a suck up, credit for my work. Then they desperately needed my technical expertise on a very large project worth over $10 million. I wrote most of the technical specifications, identifying risk areas and the consequences of bad procurement decisions. Bob dismissed my argument, says, that's no big deal, and we can work around that. So management ignored me and ended up buying inadequate equipment.

I was reassigned again, and Bob was given what should have been my job, which was a promotion and a big race. My parting gift to the project managers was a detailed memo highlighting every technical problem that I foresaw and how it could have been avoided. It was a very long list of nearly a hundred watch items and they ended up hitting almost all of them. As usual, management ignored me. Due to company policy and excellent performance reviews, management couldn't fire me immediately, but I could tell that I was being set up for termination. I was assigned a job to work directly with a customer as a liaison, actually sitting on the customer site. Management figured that I would

be irritating and distract the customer from the company's issues. In the meantime, I'd keep our company informed about what the customer was saying behind closed doors. And I was supposed to tell the customer what the management wanted me to say what was happening at the company. Management intended it to be a do nothing job to keep me out of sight and out of mind. However, I don't do do nothing jobs. I take my job seriously. But after a couple of months, management told me in no uncertain terms that I was not permitted to answer the customer's questions about what was going on inside the company

on the project. And that I was not permitted to talk at internal company meetings where the customers needs were being discussed. I was muscled and set up for failure, or so they thought. Now comes the malicious compliance that ended with Revenge. When the customer would ask me a question, my responses were pretty much like, I am not permitted to tell you whether the project is significantly over budget, or management won't let me tell you whether or not the company is dropping design requirement for features

A and B. I explicitly complied with the management's directive of not answering the customer's questions, but I slipped in enough hints in my non-answers that the customer knew where to look and what questions to ask. The customer also kept meeting minutes and recordings that reflected that I did not answer questions about the subject under discussion, which was technically the truth. This was very critical later. Eventually, management couldn't hide that the project was way late and way over budget, which didn't surprise the customer thanks to my hints. The customer ripped the company a new one in their periodic contract performance review.

Note that on government contracts, it's extremely difficult to get a low-performance score. My company got a very low-performance score. It was ugly, and the company lost a lot of contract bonuses, which would have been a big part of profits and management bonuses. And Bob was under so much stress trying to solve the problems that I'd warned him about that he had a major heart attack, and he had to retire on medical disability at the age of 42. Naturally, management wanted me to be the scapegoat so they could fire me, but the customer liked how I worked, and they protected me with very careful language

in the performance of Brazos. Basically, I was the only person in my company doing my job correctly. Upper management didn't dare fire me or they'd anger the customer even more than they already had. Possibly to the point of having the contract taken away for non-performance. One particularly nasty manager who really hated me had to give me a significant pay raise in bonus because of my work. The fallout from the review was bad enough that corporate headquarters did some management shuffling and a few of my antagonists were suddenly gone. My raise and promotion ended up not mattering because the customer hired me directly to work in the same project but on their side.

This caused management to absolutely freak out because I knew all their dirty secrets and tricks. However, I never read it on my former employer. I didn't have to. Thanks to my help, my new co-workers had already figured out where to focus their attention and what questions to ask to get past the company's BS. I complied strictly with the terms of quitting

from that company and gave away no secrets after I left the company. One of the best parts was that during meetings, all I would have to do was put on an evil grin and my former managers would freak out wondering if I was about to unearth one of their skeletons. I never did. I just liked watching them squirm. They got so paranoid about being caught trying to lie to the government that they were admitting bad news up front. Because of this, things got even worse for the company. They decided to dry letting their legal

hounds on me for violating company non-disclosure agreements, but the customers meeting minutes proved that I hadn't disclosed anything. The contract was restructured to eliminate several blind spots the company had used to their advantage. The customers oversight of the company rose significantly. Profit margins on their contract shrink. Several of the management's favorite employees were suddenly sending out resumes because their protection was disappearing. Even more managers retired or found other jobs. It was glorious to watch, doubly so because I let them do it to themselves.

And I was extremely happy in my new job where I still work today. That was our slash from delicious compliance and if you like this content be sure to follow my podcast because I put our new Reddit podcast episodes every single day.