While every workplace is more than entitled to set whatever boundaries, rules and codes of conduct they want, it all has to be properly documented and the employee has to actually agree to those terms.

However, when a company representative decides that something isn’t any longer a thing and starts demanding things that in turn make zero logical sense, malicious compliance might be in order to fix that… thing.

While it’s great to have arrangements and agreements with bosses regarding work style and schedule, it sucks when they aren’t honored

Image credits: seventyfourimages (not the actual photo)

And when they aren’t honored, folks who were told to track hours “in lieu” might just maliciously comply and resort to overtime

Image source: Anete Lusina (not the actual photo)

Image source: can3gxw

There were no numbers mentioned, but it was clear that the employee’s switch to formalizing on-call duty as overtime was a pain for the company

A Redditor recently shared a story of malicious compliance about the time they got reprimanded about leaving work early. For context, there was a spoken agreement about it—things simply had to be flexible given that IT problems can arise at any moment and some of them need to have been fixed yesterday.

In light of this, the request was to prompt for in lieu hour tracking rather than formalizing overtime. And this is what ultimately allowed OP to rightfully leave work early.

Well, despite all of this, some folks were unhappy. For whatever reason. This promptly prompted management to get involved and to essentially tell him he needs to be at work for the full 9 to 5 (or, 8 to 4 in OP’s case) shtick. OK, cue malicious compliance!

Essentially, every on-call moment that OP had immediately became overtime, formalized and submitted. And if it just so happened that there was a call outside of work hours that lasted less than a minute, as per laws and regulations, it was formalized as a full hour.

So, when the financial balance eventually reached the boss-people, all that OP could do is tell them that this is exactly what they asked for. OP didn’t work there for long. Jumped ship when a much better opportunity arose. That too, likely, was a hit for the company.

Folks online were engaged with the story in many ways, leaving 9.3K upvotes along the way

The r/MaliciousCompliance community approved of this. 9,300 upvotes (96% positive) later, folks were sharing stories of similar events happening to them. The overall consensus among all these storytellers was that doing things just because something looks good or bad is just plain dumb. But this particular breed of management never learns.

Others noted their surprise at how OP didn’t push for an on-call policy to be implemented. And it seems that it’s one of the most egregious things that folks working in IT have to put up with—being available all the time does lead to the sad realization that you’re truly never alone. In a bad way.

The discussion branched out into the idea that the ability of one coworker to understand the job of another coworker depends on the boss’ aptitude to explain it to them. You know, if Jenny thinks that Jake should stop being late all the time, while that has zero impact on his performance and it actually allows him to resolve problems when nobody else can—outside work hours—the perspective gives ground for bosses to keep the peace.

It goes without saying that the impact management has on employees is immense

We do keep getting back to the topic of good and bad management, but it’s one that can’t be exhausted nor overstated in today’s corporate world.

The impact that bosses have on their employees is significant. The biggest thing that suffers under a bad boss is productivity. Studies have shown that if an employee moves from a boss who’s considered an average to someone who’s in the 90th percentile, that could potentially lead to a +50% boost in productivity.

A huge part of this is thanks to some of the more universal traits of a boss, i.e. them being able to coach and teach employees, offer insights into the strategy and approach to the firm, and consider the employee’s career goals in light of this strategy.

Ultimately, the truth is that workers often quit bad bosses and bad bosses often leave companies. In those terms, it is unsustainable to have someone who’s horrible in the managerial position because nothing is stable when stability is a key part of a healthy company.

So, considering all of this, we’d love to hear what you folks think about anything you’ve read here today in the comment section below!

The IT worker was active in the comment section, answering questions and providing context to the story

In general, folks were all in on this one, praising the employee for sticking to his guns and suggesting other shenanigans

A number of people related by sharing their own stories

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