rSlash - r/Maliciouscompliance My Manager Told Me To Quit, So... I Quit! BYE-BYE!

Episode Date: July 5, 2021

r/Maliciouscompliance In today's episode, OP's company has an obnoxious policy about phone use. A manager catches OP on his phone, and of course the manager decides to lecture OP despite the fact that... OP is the most useful and productive worker in the entire company. OP takes his manager up on his offer to quit, leaving his manager dumbstruck. Be careful what you wish for, boss! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to R-Slash, a podcast where I read the best posts from across Reddit. Today's subreddit is R-Slash malicious compliance, where OP teaches our racist customer a lesson. Our next Reddit post is from Elmer the Amish. I work for a flooring company running installation for one of our markets. The vast majority of the crews that work with us are filled with guys, and the occasional gal from Central America. Being in a state with blue cities and red country in between, we definitely get some
Starting point is 00:00:25 of the good ol' boy mentality with some of our customers. We had an install a few months ago, and the customer specifically requested. Don't send no dirty Mexicans down to my house! While we do have some guys from Mexico, we truly have the full range of Central America represented in our subcontractors. So we do our schedule, and we don't send any of our guys from Mexico. The salesman was in the installation office when the customer called, rather frustrated. I thought I told you not to send Mexicans out here.
Starting point is 00:00:55 Yes sir, you did. So why are these Mexicans at my door saying they're from your company? Well sir, it looks like Gustavo is at your house today. Gustavo is actually from Honduras. At that point, the rest of us couldn't hold in our laughter, so the salesman left the office to finish the call. Gustavo and his crew were allowed into the house to install the flooring, but we haven't made a repeat sale to this customer just yet.
Starting point is 00:01:19 Down in the comments, we have this story from Kit Kat. I used to work in a museum. One day, we had a very difficult woman come in and the front desk had to call the cops. When the two cops showed up, one white and one not, she started screeching and yelling that she's not gonna be arrested by an f-ing Mexican. The non-white cop just sighed and very calmly said, well ma'am, I'm from Puerto Rico, so I guess I can bring you in. The woman was so flabbergasted that the cops were able to get her in handcuffs in halfway at the museum before she started screeching again. Our next bread at Postes from Henry.
Starting point is 00:01:54 Years ago I lived in a trailer park, and during a summer when I inherited my dad's little fishing boat, I was informed that I wasn't allowed to park the boat in our driveway. To be clear, the boat fit completely in the driveway and it didn't hang out into the road. When I mentioned that the rule was nowhere in my lease, they said, oh the rule was changed this year, it'll be on your next lease. And they were right, it was. I asked what they expected me to do with my boat and they said, there's a community lot at the end of the block where tenants are expected to park their trailers and boats, you can park it there for free.
Starting point is 00:02:25 Great, that'll free up space in my driveway then. I decided to play along instead of fighting it, and when I went to get my boat out of the lot that Saturday, the gate was locked. I am patiently stomped over to the office, said that I wasn't told the gate would be locked, and I wasn't given a key to get my boat out. Oh, the residents don't get keys to that gate. Hold up. You're requiring me to park my boat there, but you're not giving me access to my boats. All you have to do is call the park
Starting point is 00:02:51 maintenance guy when you need to get something out and he'll come open it up. Now, I try to argue with them about just how inconvenient that is for literally everyone involved. And how it would be so much simpler to just make a bunch of copies of the key and sign one over to each person who has to keep something there? Hell, just let me borrow the key right now, I'll go to the hardware store and I'll pay to get my own copy made. You could even make a sign for all the keys and make us pay a fee if we lose it. Sir, we don't do that for security reasons. If there are multiple keys floating around out there, then anyone could get access to
Starting point is 00:03:23 your boat. I decided to ignore how stupid that was, since if my boat was in my driveway where I really wanted it, then anyone could get access to it and that's what tongue locks are for. I smiled and said, you know what, you're right. I wasn't thinking clearly. Please give me the phone number for the maintenance guy and I'll just give him a call when I need to get my boat out. I went home and checked the weather for the weekend. Warm, sunny and calm all Sunday. Sounds like a perfect day for fishing.
Starting point is 00:03:52 And you know what, I want to make the most out of my fishing dribb so I'm going to get an early start. I woke up at 5 in the morning, got myself already, packed my gear into the back of my truck and drove on over to the trailer lot. I then called the maintenance guy, who answers with a groggy and clearly still half asleep. Ugh, hello? Me in my best cheerful, chipper voice. Good morning! I was told that I have to call you to get my trailer out. It's like five in the morning, you're gonna have to wait. No sir, I've got a lot of stuff to do today and I need to get an early start so I'm gonna need you to get to that lot now.
Starting point is 00:04:29 I can tell the maintenance guy is starting to get irritated. Give me five minutes. About ten minutes later he pulls up to the gate, very visibly disgruntled about the whole thing. I just give him a smile and say, good morning. He unlocks the gate and says, do you need your trailer to move tree limbs or something? Oh no, my boat's on it and I need it for fishing. That couldn't wait until a decent hour? Nope. My life doesn't revolve around your sleep schedule.
Starting point is 00:04:55 Of course, if I had my own key to this gate, then you would need to be here at all. I had a great day fishing, and when I got back, the gate was no longer locked, and I never saw the lock on it again. Our next reddit post is from Lovely Haired Pianist. I work for a pretty well known home improvement store, and we have a break room in the back with a TV for us to watch programs and sitcoms on our break. On this particular day, no one was using the TV. It was turned off and everyone was on their phones. So, I figured there was no harm in plugging in my switch and sharing the fun and letting people have a go at it. While I'm
Starting point is 00:05:29 watching people play, my supervisor walks in and sees the setup. She informs me. This is the company's TV, so you can't use it for personal entertainment. Big bummer since people were having fun, but I can't lose my job, so I pack up my switch. That day on my way home from work, I passed by a house that has a massive old school TV out front that they're giving away for free. It was even bigger than the work TV, and it still worked. The next day, I hauled this massive TV out of my car and into the break room. I got a few outlugs, but I don't care. I was too focused on malicious compliance. I plugged that sucker into the wall right beneath the company TV, which looked tiny by
Starting point is 00:06:09 comparison, and I hooked up my switch for people to play. My supervisor walks in and sees people playing on a bigger monitor. I'm not using the company TV, but I am using an even bigger personal TV. People are playing the switch and having a good time. She tried to say something about how I was blocking the viewer causing disruption in the break room. But the other TV was turned off anyway, and people were intensely watching as two co-workers were racing around in Mario Kart.
Starting point is 00:06:36 So I don't think it was that big of a deal. I'm not really sure if I'm gonna get in trouble for this, but it'll be worth it if I do. And I think that I might be able to argue that I follow the rules. Part of me expects of this TV will mysteriously disappear, and that security will magically have no footage of who might have taken it, which will be funny because it's so big, but it's a thought that counts.
Starting point is 00:06:57 Man, I don't know why managers are so insistent on being mean for no reason. What's that? An employee being happy during their break time? Not on my watch. Like, what was even the point of shutting down that video game in the first place? They're on break time, in the break room, doing something they find fun, so what's the problem? Our next reddit post is from a FASTA DOB. I've worked at many retail chains, and I've had many terrible bosses. Here's one story I can tell without any repercussions. At one job, my old boss confronted me because I was two minutes late. On the previous day, that same boss had asked me to come in on my
Starting point is 00:07:34 day off and at an earlier time than I normally do. I agreed to come in on my day off and work a shift that I'm not normally used to but it's retail. It can't be that difficult. My boss asked me to work from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and I showed up at 7.02 a.m. Normally, everyone gets a 5 minute leeway and being late is not a habit of mine at all. Normally, I show up 5 minutes early every day and wait for my time to start. So, I clocked in and walked to my department with a drink that I purchased the previous day. As I walked into my department, the manager greeted me and said, When I schedule you at 7 a.m., I expect you to be in the department by 7 a.m., not one
Starting point is 00:08:15 minute later. We can't pay you to clock in by something and then start working. Over the course of a year, that adds up to hundreds of dollars of lost labor for one individual. I told my boss that I had purchased a drink yesterday and that I just clocked in two minutes late. My old boss replied with, that's not my problem, you need to plan better. You were scheduled at seven and we're losing cost of labor for each minute that you're
Starting point is 00:08:41 not here. Be in your department at your schedule time. And actually that's not true at all. I spoke to a payroll employee and she explains to me that the company doesn't pay you three minutes before or after your schedule time. So if you clock in at seven then you're not getting paid until seven oh three. If you clock in at six fifty seven then you're not getting paid until seven. The same applies for when you return to lunch.
Starting point is 00:09:05 However if you clock on at 704, after that 3 minute window you begin getting paid immediately that minute. My boss was right, I did need to plan better. I asked for a pronoun of my time stamps going as far back as I had a record. I tallied up each day that I had arrived 3 minutes early and I did not get paid for those minutes. I counted well over 330 minutes within a three month span that I was not getting paid for, which ended up being a little over $110.
Starting point is 00:09:34 I gave my boss a copy and said, pay me for the minutes that I worked and was not paid. My old boss then replied, that's not how our company policy works. He then went on to explain to me exactly what I already knew. However, in doing so, my boss reveals that he's contradicted himself and exposed himself as a liar. When he realized that he had contradicted himself, it was incredibly obvious because his face went bright red and he started smiling. Clearly he had been caught.
Starting point is 00:10:03 Well you know the policy, we can't pay you for that. In that case, I'm going to begin my shift when I'm getting paid, not a minute sooner. It's not like you're losing labor if you're not even paying the employees during that window of time. Schedule me at 7 if you like, but I'm not clocking in until 4 minutes after that, and you won't be losing any cost of labor for it. And I won't be losing any pay over the company policy. For about three weeks, I clocked in four minutes late every day, no matter how early I arrived. I eventually got a warning from HR that I was treading on thin ice and I was very close to getting a write up.
Starting point is 00:10:38 I explained the entire story to the HR person, because seemingly she didn't like my manager either. She laughed pretty hard at the whole thing and offered me didn't like my manager either. She laughed pretty hard at the whole thing and offered me a department transfer with higher pay. She reminded me that my behavior could get me terminated and she thought the transfer would be a fresh start. Instead, I put in my two weeks notice and think her for a wonderful opportunity. Sometime later I also bumped into the HR manager who was working in an entirely different field. I asked her what happened to my old boss.
Starting point is 00:11:06 She laughed and said, he didn't quit, we fired him for time theft. Apparently my old boss would take a lunch, leave the building, and never clock out for it. Our next Reddit post is from joyful death. I work as a direct support person. My company has some serious hate towards cell phones. They used to fire people on the spot that they got you with your cell phone out. Because of COVID, my company has been suffering
Starting point is 00:11:29 really badly. They've lost about 40% of their staff, so they're basically hiring pretty much anyone who applies and they'll throw over time at anyone who asks for it. But even then, they're still really struggling. I work with a large amount of clients, so I'm pretty much capable of doing anything that supervisors can do. I'm also the person who trains new employees. Last week I was working, and I was bored out of my skull, as usual. So I was on my phone.
Starting point is 00:11:57 One of my managers snuck up behind me and tapped me on my shoulder. I turned to look at my manager and casually said hi. The manager pointed out that I was holding my phone and gave me this long lecture. I told my manager, I worked 16 hours a day and took on extra work just to give my supervisor some breathing space. So when there's nothing else to do, yeah I'm gonna be on my phone. My manager then smirked and told me to put my phone away. He told me that I had to come down to the office some time with an exp you days for a disciplinary hearing. I reminded the manager of how awful some of my co-workers were.
Starting point is 00:12:31 They would show up hours late to work every day. They would literally fall asleep on the job, etc. And still, they didn't get fired. So it's really unfair of them to get all up and arms about me being on my phone. My manager said, well, if you can't stay off your phone, then this isn't the right job for you. So I went to grab my stuff and clocked out. My manager was jumping all over the place, screaming about how I can't abandon my clients.
Starting point is 00:12:58 I told my manager that if I wasn't being nitpicked for tiny things that don't affect my job, then we wouldn't be in this jam. My manager begged me to stay for just a little bit so someone could come and take over. I said nope, I got my car in drove off, with my manager just standing there watching me dumbstruck. An hour later, a supervisor contacted me and apologized for what happened. I was informed that they really need me around and from now on if someone comes in as long as they put my phone away, no one will say a word.
Starting point is 00:13:31 Since I like my supervisor and I'm friends with a lot of my coworkers, I don't want to make things harder on them. Also I need the money. I reluctantly agreed to come back the next day. But if I ever hear one more thing about me being on my phone, I am gone. Just a few hours ago, that same manager came in and saw me on my phone. I just put my phone in my pocket, stood up, and we had a short conversation about work issues. My manager didn't say a single word about my phone. That was our slash malicious compliance, and
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