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“Oh, You Want Individual Emails? You Got It”: Woman Teaches A Passive-Aggressive Coworker A Lesson On Email Etiquette
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“Oh, You Want Individual Emails? You Got It”: Woman Teaches A Passive-Aggressive Coworker A Lesson On Email Etiquette

Woman Sends A Demand To Coworker In A Passive-Aggressive Way, Starts Getting 60 Emails Instead Of Just 1Woman Learns The Hard Way That Not Following Email Etiquette Won't Slide After Coworker Maliciously Complies To Her Request“Oh, You Want Individual Emails? You Got It”: Woman Teaches Her New Passive-Aggressive Coworker A Lesson She’ll Never ForgetPassive-Aggressive Woman Asks Coworker To Send Her Individual Emails Instead Of Grouping Everything By Type, Regrets It Almost ImmediatelyEmployee Gets Rude Message Asking To Send Everything In Separate Emails, Maliciously Complies By Sending Them More Than 60 Emails Per DayWoman Asks Coworker To Send Records In Individual Emails And Ignores Follow-Up Questions, Regrets It When She Starts Getting 60 Emails Instead Of Just 1
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Nobody enjoys getting passive-aggressive emails. Especially when your colleague is making illogical demands and ignores your attempts to clarify what they mean. Sometimes, the best antidote for this is a bit of malicious compliance—following their demands to the letter. Often, people quickly realize that what they asked for is far from what they actually wanted.

Redditor u/phantommichaelis shared how she taught her passive-aggressive coworker a lesson about courteous communication. The OP explained to the r/MaliciousCompliance community how she’d usually send out internal emails to Records, grouping patient information by type. However, a new employee demanded that she send each appointment individually, rather than all in one tidy email.

Eventually, the redditor relented and did just that. Scroll down for the full story and how her colleague reacted once she got what she wished for.

Bored Panda has reached out to u/phantommichaelis vis Reddit, and we’ll update the article as soon as we hear back from her!

RELATED:

    Dealing with passive-aggressive colleagues can be a nightmare. Thankfully, a bit of malicious compliance can set things right

    Image credits: ThisIsEngineering (not the actual photo)

    An employee shared how she dealt with someone’s rude request concerning how she sends work emails

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    Image credits: Stephen Phillips (not the actual photo)

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    Image credits: Karolina Grabowska (not the actual photo)

    Credits: phantommichaelis

    In short, redditor u/phantommichaelis maliciously complied with her rude coworker’s request. She sent 60 emails back to back, instead of sorting everything neatly by type. It took 2 extra hours, but the payoff was pretty quick. After just 2 days of this, the passive-aggressive coworker quickly realized the mistake she made.

    The result? A crash course in email etiquette: introduce yourself, say ‘hello’ and ‘thank you,’ don’t make demands out of thin air, and don’t ignore people’s attempts to clarify what exactly it is that you want. Politeness and basic civility both go a long way when emailing someone.

    There’s also the possibility of calling the individual or meeting up with them in person to diplomatically get to the bottom of what’s going on. There’s no substitute for open and honest communication… though malicious compliance is often far more fun!

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    According to a study done in 2013, regularly dealing with passive-aggressive behavior leads to employee burnout. BBC Worklife notes that this sort of behavior has an overall negative effect on the company and those who work there. Productivity and workplace culture both suffer. In other words, passive-aggressive behavior is something that you really want to avoid at any company. However, dealing with it is another challenge entirely.

    “Passive-aggressive behavior can be difficult for organizations to address because it’s often very subtle and indirect in nature. It’s fairly easy for someone exhibiting passive-aggressive behavior to deny any bad intentions behind their actions or try to manipulate the situation by claiming to be the ‘victim’ rather than the aggressor,” New York-based careers expert Amanda Augustine told the BBC.

    She explained that some passive-aggressive coworkers are trying to get other employees to react to their remarks. They enjoy subtly manipulating others. The best approach here is to “control your emotions and force yourself to remain calm,” no matter what they say or do. You’re denying them what they really want: a reaction.

    If that doesn’t work, talk to someone higher up in the company about what’s going on. Your superior or HR might want to look into how the other employee is behaving. However, before going into a group meeting to discuss this, be sure to have clear evidence about what your colleague has done. This will prevent them from denying everything you say as they try to pretend they’re the victim, weaseling out of the entire confrontation.

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    The author of the story responded to a few comments

    Here’s what some other people thought about the situation

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    A few readers even shared some similar work stories

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    Jonas Grinevičius

    Jonas Grinevičius

    Author, BoredPanda staff

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    Storytelling, journalism, and art are a core part of who I am. I've been writing and drawing ever since I could walk—there is nothing else I'd rather do. My formal education, however, is focused on politics, philosophy, and economics because I've always been curious about the gap between the ideal and the real. At work, I'm a Senior Writer and I cover a broad range of topics that I'm passionate about: from psychology and changes in work culture to healthy living, relationships, and design. In my spare time, I'm an avid hiker and reader, enjoy writing short stories, and love to doodle. I thrive when I'm outdoors, going on small adventures in nature. However, you can also find me enjoying a big mug of coffee with a good book (or ten) and entertaining friends with fantasy tabletop games and sci-fi movies.

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    Jonas Grinevičius

    Jonas Grinevičius

    Author, BoredPanda staff

    Storytelling, journalism, and art are a core part of who I am. I've been writing and drawing ever since I could walk—there is nothing else I'd rather do. My formal education, however, is focused on politics, philosophy, and economics because I've always been curious about the gap between the ideal and the real. At work, I'm a Senior Writer and I cover a broad range of topics that I'm passionate about: from psychology and changes in work culture to healthy living, relationships, and design. In my spare time, I'm an avid hiker and reader, enjoy writing short stories, and love to doodle. I thrive when I'm outdoors, going on small adventures in nature. However, you can also find me enjoying a big mug of coffee with a good book (or ten) and entertaining friends with fantasy tabletop games and sci-fi movies.

    Austėja Akavickaitė

    Austėja Akavickaitė

    Author, Community member

    Read more »

    Austėja is a Photo Editor at Bored Panda with a BA in Photography.

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    Austėja Akavickaitė

    Austėja Akavickaitė

    Author, Community member

    Austėja is a Photo Editor at Bored Panda with a BA in Photography.

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    Shane S
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    You have nothing to feel bad about if you reached out for clarification and were ignored. Also, a little politeness goes a long way. If she’s new, she shouldn’t be asking you to change a process that already existed. Most of the time, things are done a certain way for a reason.

    Marcellus II
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    As they (used to) say, "never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel", and here don't demand finicky things from people who get paid by the hour --- you're rewarding them for complicating your life.

    zak
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I would have drafted and finished all 60 emails, and then hit send on all of them one after the other so they would receive all 60 emails in under a minute 😆

    R. H.
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    That would group them in a time frame. I would stagger them in bursts.

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    Shane S
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    You have nothing to feel bad about if you reached out for clarification and were ignored. Also, a little politeness goes a long way. If she’s new, she shouldn’t be asking you to change a process that already existed. Most of the time, things are done a certain way for a reason.

    Marcellus II
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    As they (used to) say, "never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel", and here don't demand finicky things from people who get paid by the hour --- you're rewarding them for complicating your life.

    zak
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I would have drafted and finished all 60 emails, and then hit send on all of them one after the other so they would receive all 60 emails in under a minute 😆

    R. H.
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    That would group them in a time frame. I would stagger them in bursts.

    Load More Replies...
    Load More Comments
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