rSlash - r/Maliciouscompliance I Cost My Boss $3,500,000 By Obeying Him

Episode Date: February 7, 2021

r/Maliciouscompliance In today's episode, OP's factory enacts an incredibly stupid new policy that requires them to lock down dozens of machines to do simple, 10-minute repair jobs. OP warns his boss that this will be a pointlessly expensive procedure, but his boss tells him to just do as he's told. OK, boss, sure thing! OP follows his orders and shuts down half the factory to fix one tiny little part, costing the company $3,500,000. Oops! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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of dollars. Our next Reddit post is from WireNut. This happened about 15 years ago at a large manufacturing plant where I was one of 120 industrial electricians. Also, this happened in the department in which I was primarily responsible. These jobs pay upwards of 30 bucks an hour and I was making 34 bucks an hour at the time. This was my career for decades before I retired last year. I now get a pension from them in fully paid healthcare. This wasn't just a run-of-the the mill job. This was something I took very, very seriously. Our safety administrator retired, so a new guy started and decided to audit all the lock and

tag up procedures everywhere in the facility. Moving forward, I'm gonna abbreviate lock and tag out to Lotto. This place employed 4,000 people and was over 1.5 million square feet. So this was a massive undertaking. Many of the machines in my department were large multi-station transfer machines where the parts go into several drilling or milling or tapping or boring operations.

And are then transferred to the next station and turned in between operations. Basically, an operator loads a raw part into the machine and wants to come back out to the operator that part is finished. The cycle time for this machine was about one minute and it was a key part in expensive final products costing upwards of $50,000 each. It was made clear to me that the company lost $50,000 for every minute the machine was idle as a way of insulating urgency in me as if I needed it.

As I said, these machines had multiple stations that each had its own specialized operation to accomplish all automatically. This, of course, involved many switches, buttons, computers, motors, encoders, and drives, all of which are used in industrial automation and sequencing. Usually, when an electrical part broke on a particular station, I would shut down the electrical power for that one station to perform my repairs and replacements. This worked just fine, and I could usually perform just about any repair within 15 minutes or less. The management people usually didn't even know anything unusual happened, as the operators were on piecework and went off and skip a break to make up for the shortfall.

That is, until the new Loto procedures were released for those machines, the new procedure required anyone performing repairs to L-toe every station for every kind of energy potential. This includes electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, and gravity. Since this was a union facility, this required the services of an electrician, a plumber, a mechanic, and a millwright. It also required something like 38 individual locks to be applied by the aforementioned skilled tradesperson.

It also required about 4 to 8 hours of work to complete this task. Keep in mind, these were huge machines that would take up an area the size of a gymnasium and could cost tens of millions of dollars to buy. When I saw the new Loto procedure, I grabbed my boss and the production supervisor and showed it to them and explained in detail why this was ridiculous, unnecessary, and unworkable. My boss got the safety administrator and we all had a conference and I was told, basically, that's the way it is. The very next day, a type of switch called Approximity Switch failed on one of these machines. Normally, this is a 5-10 minute repair.

Cue malicious compliance. I doodifullyy the production supervisor that he lost his machine for the rest of the shift and half the following shift. He chuckled and said, huh, yeah sure. I said, dude, I'm dead serious. I got my boss, told him I needed 38 little locks, a plumber, a mechanic, and a millwright. He looked at me like I had three heads. I said, remember that conversation we had yesterday? It just got real. My boss said, show me what you need 38 locks. Okay, so I brought him to the machine, pulled out the 10-page

illustrated, notated, laminated, load-up receipt drop the machine, and counted where each and every lock needs to go. 38. I said, I also need the other tradesman here as well. I figured the machine would be rendered safe by the end of the shift. Mac knew the repair, Allie and other 4 hours to remove the locks since at the machine out to be ready to run by lunchtime. Just fix it the way you usually fix it, my boss told me. Put that in writing, I said. Just fix the stupid thing was his unhelpful reply. I think you need to give me that in writing, or you need to get my union rep here. Those are your two choices. I am not going to get fired over this. About this time, several minutes suits and ties showed up to find out what

the problem was, called into action by the production supervisor I previously mentioned. He and I had a great working relationship and he knew what was going down, so he started making phone calls when I let him know the machine was broken. To make a long story short, an hour-long meeting was held which included my union rep, after which I was provided written permission to make the repairs as I always had. The new safety administrator had been properly scolded and learned a lesson. Management learned to just let OP do his job, and the machine was running 10 minutes after I received the paper. This delay was a loss of 3.5 million dollars according

to their math. That loss would have been 24 million if I had to follow their procedures to the letter. All the new procedures were put into place with a lot of input from my colleagues and me. The same thing happened with 500 other people as they had also been provided with new ridiculous load-o procedures. OP, you saved that company from over 20 million dollars in losses. That would have been a really good time to ask for a raise. Our next reddit post is from a quiet borderline. This happened today, and my brother and I are still laughing about it, except for Gabrielle, my stepmother, and my dad, who was embarrassed. Dad came into town to visit my brother and market me for a few days and brought Gabrielle with him. My stepmom Gabrielle has her good trades, but she does have this one really nasty trait. She is notoriously picky and critical when it comes to food.

You know the stereotypical snooty and rude French character in movies who always complains, that does not how it's done in France. She's this way when it comes to food. Going out to eat with her is embarrassing. She constantly sends food back, is insisted on food being made a certain way, and always demands certain things done a certain way. One time, she asked the waiter to bring some mustard to the table, and not two minutes later, she called him back because... Zip mustard is old, bring us a new, unopened bottle! Ha ha ha! back because Zip musted his old, bring us a new, unopened bottle.

More than once, I've had to apologize to the wait staff on my family's behalf and told the manager that I'll vouch for them should Gabrielle leave a better view on their site. She's made waiters and managers cry. She's THAT bad. Honestly, I have no idea why Dad puts up with her when she does that. Because I know that he's just as embarrassed as Mark and I are. We can only talk it up to Gabrielle having a magical hoo-ha.

When they got here yesterday, for some reason, they insisted they wanted to go out to dinner. Dad recommended our new favorite diner, which is known for its breakfast at any time of the day. We live close to a major interstate, and the thing about truckers knowing all the best diners and holes in the wall in all 50 states and then some is true. It's right out of the 1950s, with every leather booth filled with truckers or locals, waitresses who automatically know their regular orders by heart and don't put up with anyone's garbage.

A bustling kitchen, which, while spotless, is just worn enough to let you know how many people have been there. In other words, it has character. It may not look like a 5 star restaurant, but it has some of the best breakfast you're ever going to eat. I was hesitant to take Gabriel there if only because I didn't win a ruin the staff's day. Mark and I have been there enough times at the waitstaff and cooks know us. However, dad wanted Gabriel to experience a true American classic and was offering to pay, so off we reluctantly went. Luckily, we got

there during a not really busy time, so I told dad to find a parking spot and would go in to get us a table. The reason I did this was so I could warn the staff about Gabrielle and apologize in advance for anything she did. Fortunately, our usual waitress, Mary, thanked me for the warning and warned the rest of the staff. We go in, get our booth, and Gabrielle tries pulling her usual stunts. I won't go into everything she did because we'll be here forever, but I'll leave a highlight real. Earn the points, share the journey. With the TD, AeroPlan visa infinite card, earn up

the 50,000 bonus AeroPlan points. Conditions apply, offer in January 3, 2024, visit tdairplan.com for details. These side marios all you can eat is all you can munch a soup, salad, and garlic home of mom, me, and I move out of being. One, Gabriel sent Mary back three times with the coffee because in order it was too cold, it was too hot, and not enough cream. Finally, Mary, who doesn't let anyone push her around, just slap the coffee pot on the table along with the cream and sugar and told Gabrielle to make her own coffee.

This may mark in me, chuckle, and Gabrielle steam. While waiting, Gabrielle decided to a call Stephanie, another waitress who had just started and told her to get some fresh biscuits. Not ask. Tell. Poor Stephanie does as told, and then Gabriel made a fuss about the packets of butter not being soft enough, despite Stephanie explaining that all the butter was kept cold for safety reasons. Gabriel made a snide remark about how Stephanie couldn't wait an extra 5 minutes to let the

butter soften, which made Stephanie tear up and me about ready to tell Gabrielle to go screw a french chef if food was so important to her. 3. When our meals did arrive, Gabrielle was quiet during the meal, not making any comments. I was unsure what was going to happen as a result. Either she really liked it, which I doubted, seeing as I've never seen or compliment anyone's cooking whenever we've gone out, or she was planning some nasty barb, which I doubted, seeing as I've never seen or compliment anyone's cooking whenever we've gone out. Or she was planning some nasty barb, which I feared.

When Mary dropped off the bill, Gabrielle took it before Dad could and said she was paying. Because I was sitting next to her, I saw that Gabrielle left a big, fat, zero in the tip line and left a note about. It's as cute as that's American chefs think they're good, coasts, when they never stepped in a real kitchen before. Pooved me wrong. Before closing the little book, the receipt came in and hiding it so nobody else could see what she wrote.

I was pissed when I read that note and was about ready to slap Gabriel. I know the chef servers who work at this particular diner learn their skills on the job, and if you ask me, they have every right to be as proud of their work as someone who went to culinary school would be. While I'm looking at going to culinary school myself to become a pastry chef, I respect people who learn by working in kitchens and on the floor because they have first-hand experience.

I took out a hundred bucks using the ATM at the diner and gave it to the staff as a tip along with an apology for her behavior. I was embarrassed and angry. Fortunately, they didn't hold it against us and told me that Mark and I were always welcome back. I also decided I was going to get back at Gabriel. There was a benefit to this lockdown. During this time, bored out of our wits and wanting to better our skills, Mark and I have been binge watching recipe and cooking how-to videos online along with practicing. And while I don't like bragging, I'd say we've become quite good. We know how to smoke our own bacon, cure corn, beef, make creamy scrambled eggs and bake flaky

croissants, and that's just a sampling. When we got home, I told Mark my plan and he was grinning ear to ear. The next day, while Gabriel and Dad still slept, Mark and I got up early and got right to work. We prepared scrambled eggs, home cooked bacon, biscuits, and a fruit salad. Dad woke up early and smelled the breakfast, waking up Gabriel by saying that the kids were making breakfast. Dad came downstairs first and Mark asked him to set the table. Gabriel came down as we were finishing up and she sits down, not offering to help. While Gabriel commented about how it smells just like a restaurant she went to in France and couldn't wait to taste everything. Mark and I served dad and then

our plates before putting everything back. Gabrielle looked at us, confused. I looked at her and said, oh, I thought you were going to a French cafe for breakfast. You did write on the receipt at the diner that you thought it was cute that Americans think they're good cooks if they haven't said foot in a real kitchen and you wanted someone to prove you wrong. Dad looked at Gabriel, his eyes wide as all the color drained from Gabriel's face. My dad said, you wrote that? Well, hop to it I said, sitting down. Enjoy your French breakfast with your French chefs.

Gabriel's face reddened before she left. I don't know if she was embarrassed or angry, but we were able to have a nice breakfast without any Gabrielle's complaining. She did come back after getting breakfast and has been nice and quiet all day. Hopefully she learned her lesson and dad grows a backbone. Our next bread of poses from Musa-Lom. A bit of context here. I'm originally from Syria and I spent about 7-8 months in Sudan Africa. That country is a third world country and super poor, so it didn't have any good jobs,

but at the same time prices were so cheap you could live on around $100 a month. That covered Rand, bills, food, and water. However gasoline was so expensive that you might need 50-100 US dollars just to commute to work. As for jobs, the best you could do with our prior experiences to either work in a restaurant or a factory for at most 100 US dollars, which meant you had to be close to the job or get them to cover transportation. So around five months ago, I got in contact with a restaurant owner and talked with him about a job offer I saw. The job we talked about was being a warehouse manager for the restaurant.

My shift starts at 8 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m., seven days a week with only one vacation day per month. Also, I could one sandwich per day for lunch and one meal per week to take home. I asked about the salary and he said that we'll discuss it later. I asked how I'll organize the warehouse and he said that he'll provide me with a laptop

to work on later. I agreed to work a trial period of one week and then we'll discuss the salary and see if it works out. The first day on the job, he hands me the keys of their warehouse and when I open it, I find a huge mess. I ask my coworkers about it and they say that no one has worked as a warehouse manager for the past few months. I go and I start looking at what we have in the warehouse and I start taking notes.

I created a new Google account on my phone and made a new excel sheet on it and sorted everything there. By the end of day one, I had gone through most of the things in the warehouse and I only had about two words to describe what I saw there. HOLY SH**! It was such a mess that the workers didn't even know what they had in the warehouse. For example, if they needed mustard and looked on the shelves and didn't see it, they would just buy a new box.

And I can say for sure the warehouse was left like this for more than a year, because I found meat in the freezer that expired more than two years ago. On the second day of the job, I started actually doing my job by ordering new supplies, sorting the list I made on my phone by types we can find items more quickly, and putting away the expired products, etc. Out of nowhere, my boss comes to the warehouse and gives me a list of everything in the restaurant and tells me to take their attendance because the guy responsible for this is busy with other things in the kitchen.

I tell him I still don't know anyone in the restaurant, but he insists that I can just learn their names while doing your job. Okay, whatever, I'm trying to impress in the first few days so I'll do it. By the end of day two, I'd finish putting everything into my phone, throwing away all the expired ingredients and even taking attendance. All that was left was physically sorting out the warehouse to make it more organized, and I did a great job so I was hoping to get a good reply from the boss. I go to discuss things with my boss at the end of my shift.

I show him how I sorted everything on my phone, and I tell him that once he brings over a laptop, we can just move the file there and it's easy for anyone to check the inventory. Then I explained to him the state of the warehouse when I came in and how much work I did to fix it. And he was really impressed and praised me for a job well done. Then I asked how much my salary would be. Your salary will start at $60 USD. And then as you work I'll improve it and maybe in a few months you'll reach 120 US dollars.

I can't even afford to live on that. Transportation between here and my house alone has been 50 US dollars. Are you telling me to not eat or pay rent during this month? If you don't like it, then you can just leave. I figured that he wasn't someone to be reasoned with, so I immediately answered, okay, and left. The next day, one of the coworkers there calls me asking where I keep the list of the inventory because he didn't find it, and I answered that there is no list. He was surprised and asked about the list I showed my boss, and I said, oh, that was

actually on my phone. He then asked me to send it to him and I replied, I'm sorry, but since I quit, I'm just gonna delete the file from my phone. Have fun sorting through that mess, and I replied, I'm sorry, but since I quit, I'm just going to delete the file from my phone, have fun sorting through that mess and I hung up. It wasn't that big of a victory, but at least I didn't give them the results of my work for free, because as it happens, those two days at my work there were unpaid. That was our slash malicious compliance, and if you like this content, check out my Patreon where I publish extra episodes.

Also be sure to follow this podcast because I put out new Reddit episodes every single day. and if you like this content, check out my Patreon where I publish extra episodes. Also, be sure to follow this podcast because I put out new Reddit episodes every single day.