You know you’re in for a treat when the main character in your story doesn’t really understand what they’re doing. Let alone doesn’t let their ego calm down so they’ll even have a chance at understanding.

Well, it’s not a treat for the person who has to deal with it, but when a satisfying resolution is imminent, mostly thanks to the main character themselves, then you know it was worth it. Worth enough to pop up on Reddit.

A Redditor recently shared a malicious compliance story telling the tale of how they followed their boss’ cleaning instructions to the T, leading to $5,000 going down the drain.

More Info: Reddit

Usually, bosses like to make employees pay dearly for broken equipment, but sometimes they themselves empower the breaking without knowing it

Image credits: Daniel Lobo (not the actual photo)

Here’s a story of a person whose very bad boss had a very bad idea of how to clean their new $5K meat slicer, leading to a very bad time for her

Image credits: pettyrusty

Image credits: WineCountry Media (not the actual photo)

Image credits: pettyrusty

The problem with cleaning a delicate piece of machinery as thoroughly and inappropriately as how the boss suggested is that it’s gonna destroy all the grease, and with that your ears will bleed

Image credits:  Pixabay (not the actual photo)

A Redditor, masquerading with a throwaway account u/prettyrusty (for good reason), recently shared a story of how their boss effectively instructed her employees, as well as herself, to destroy a $5,000 piece of meat slicing machinery.

The boss was one of those nasty managers who resorted to belittling and shouting instead of providing respectful constructive feedback. It didn’t help that she just wouldn’t listen to reason. Oh, and it all happened in a deli-type establishment.

One day, the boss bought a $5,000 meat slicing apparatus to replace the old one. One might suspect that the old one’s fate was foreshadowing for the new piece of equipment, but I digress. The slicer came with very detailed and precise instructions on how to properly maintain and clean it.

However, the boss had a different idea in mind—so as to keep up with hygiene standards, her idea of clean included cleaning the machine more thoroughly than what the manual suggested, i.e. including the insides and cogs and otherwise disassembling the machine to a degree people shouldn’t even dare to go to.

Not only that, but the machine will also get rusty, and then eventually it will break down and you’ll be out $5K, which is exactly what happened here

Image credits: Photograph Curator (not the actual photo)

After a conflict or two (including berating, belittling, and any other negative be-word), OP understood that it wasn’t worth the hassle and simply decided to maliciously comply with the boss’ orders. To make matters worse, the boss still found things she didn’t like about OP’s methods, so she even instructed them to do it several times a day.

The result? Considering that the lubricant was supposed to last about a year and a half, the amount of thorough cleaning that was done shortened it to just a few weeks. And not everything was stainless steel, mind you. The insides were corrosion-friendly, so the machine started screeching like sirens in the Odyssey in no time. And it didn’t take long for it to start gasping for air… well, doing the machine equivalent of it.

“My boss did ask, rhetorically, at one point how the hell the machine got to that stage so fast. I answered that it’s probably because we’ve been scrubbing the lubrication and corrosion protection off several times a day, and I take great pleasure in the memory that she completely ignored me. It’s the only time while I was there that she didn’t snap back at me, and I like to think she remembered back to when I explicitly told her that if we clean this thing in that way, this is exactly what would happen,” concluded OP, remembering the story long after they’d quit.

For context, any immediate answer on Google will tell you that [1] cleaning a meat slicer is a very particular job requiring very particular steps and methods, depending on the models, [2] maintaining a machine the way it’s supposed to will ensure it lasts longer, and [3] for the love of god, wear gloves.

Moral of the story: read the manual, and rest in peace, “Spinny Dude”

Image credits: Anna Shvets (not the actual photo)

Sure, there are various alternative hacks out there, but none of them really want to assume any risk considering how strict food hygiene regulations can be for public dining venues. Whatever the case, treating each slicer with love and respect, as per the user manual, is the best thing people can do and OP’s boss flat out refused the love. So, win stupid prizes, right?

Speaking of prizes, the post was quite a hit on r/maliciouscompliance, garnering over 4,300 upvotes (98% positive) and generating some commenting. Some showed some love for how OP wrote the piece, using analogies I wholeheartedly approve of, while others expressed their condolences for the slicer, wishing it didn’t have to suffer the torture and tyranny of the boss’ cleaning methods and subsequent grind.

Yet others just had to throw out puns into the mix, like “I bet it sounded wheely bad” and “so you are saying they wanted it ‘squeaky clean’?” making some of us slowly clap and throw them a very angry upvote.

Speaking (again) of which, why not throw an upvote our way and smash that upwards arrow on this article? And then why not also smash your keyboard (caps lock off, thank you) sharing your slicer or deli or meat or flat out crummy boss stories in the comment section below!

Folks online loved the story, how it’s presented, and even shared some of theirs

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