They say “find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” That’s Mark Twain, by the way, but others say it too.

Anywho, there’s more to it than just loving your job, though. Factors like colleagues, the work environment, salary and a bunch of other things do mean that your mileage in a company may vary.

Well, it was all fine and dandy for this Reddit user who spent over a decade working at a company that ended up being sold to someone who, more or less, ran it into the ground with their business choices.

The Redditor gives a detailed account of the rise and fall of the company he worked at for 14 years with a very satisfying dash of malicious compliance.

More Info: Reddit

New management means change, but this company’s way of changing things ended up turning against it as this one employee wasn’t having any of it

Image credits: Stephen Dann (Not The Actual Photo)

So, Reddit user u/nicklo2k (Nick), with whom Bored Panda got in touch, went to r/MaliciousCompliance, a subreddit dedicated to sharing stories of people conforming to the letter, but not the spirit, of a request, and told a lengthy, yet intriguing story of how the company he used to work for changed management and it all went downhill from there.

While it all sounds pretty standard as businesses go, it was actually the methods that triggered our story’s protagonist, who was one of the company’s best specialists and employees. Salaries were turned to wages and cut quite a bit, the more experienced staff was laid off to save on costs, among other things.

This Reddit user shared a lengthy story of how he ended his 14-year run using malicious compliance at a company because of its awful cost optimization tactics

Image credits: u/nicklo2k

You see, Nick was one of the few employees who wasn’t laid off, as he was supposed to teach a batch of newcomers the ropes. But one day the new boss sat him down and started accusing him of things he didn’t do at work. ‘Gross misconduct,’ she called it.

Image credits: u/nicklo2k

Despite being a role model employee, new management called him in to discuss ‘gross misconduct’, which ended up being a lie

Image credits: FTTUB (Not The Actual Photo)

This turned out to be a ploy to get Nick to settle for a smaller salary, or be fired. But he wasn’t having any of that. He maliciously complied to the rules of the manager’s own game with the help of his own legal knowledge as well as the help of a lawyer.

Image credits: FTTUB (Not The Actual Photo)

The catch here is that getting fired meant immediately losing a client—and hence a huge project and a big payout for the company. So, what started off as a 2 weeks’ notice of mercy offered by the management quickly turned into Nick’s rightful 12 weeks’ notice with all of the benefits intact. And this is all because he knew his rights and was the only one left who the clients could trust. The manager’s hands were tied.

Image credits: FTTUB (Not The Actual Photo)

Nick’s last 12 weeks were hard as management was pampering everyone with spas, while he was pushed to work hard

Image credits: Ondřej Odcházel (Not The Actual Photo)

For the remaining 12 weeks, Nick worked the same way he did for the past 14 years—”I didn’t coast. I didn’t slack. I didn’t badmouth the company on my way out. I continued to train new staff. I continued to deliver the product in my own, personal, exceptional way,” explained Nick.

Plot twist. Here comes the day after his last day at work, when, one, the replacement Nick worked hard to train said he quit immediately in solidarity with Nick, and, two, the manager received Nick’s legal letter against his unfair dismissal. And of course she couldn’t fight it because he had that key ‘gross misconduct’ conversation on tape, which was secretly recorded because it’s legal where he lived. Remember us saying he had legal knowledge and a lawyer helping? Yep, that’s how you win.

Image credits: FTTUB (Not The Actual Photo)

The whole thing blew up into a lawsuit and a settlement out of court. Nick left regardless, and the company continued to tank. “The business is still afloat, but barely,” concluded Nick in his post.

The story of malicious compliance with a satisfying ending drew quite a crowd, garnering nearly 49,000 upvotes as well as over 250 Reddit awards.

Nick told us that he wouldn’t change anything in how things were done: “I’m happy with how I handled things. I didn’t rush into anything. Everything I did I thought out and researched beforehand.”

People said that while the story was quite long for Reddit, it was certainly worth the read. Some praised his ability and skill at defending himself. This was besides all those who admired his work ethic.

Others liked the satisfying ending of it all, where the good guy stood up and the bad guy got some karma. It was not instant, rather slow karma, but karma nonetheless.

In the end, though, Nick ended up suing—adding fuel to an already huge fire

Image credits: FTTUB (Not The Actual Photo)

It’s been a couple of years since all of this has happened, so we asked Nick of there were any developments in the story, but no, nothing really happened. He did say that the old business looks like it has survived the pandemic as he saw the company advertising again.

Nick also shared some advice, should any of our readers end up in a similar situation: “Document everything. Even if it may seem unimportant at the time, it may be very useful to you down the line. Also, learn your rights. An internet search can provide you with a huge amount of information which you can use.”

The story featured in this article was abridged for reader convenience, so if you want to read the whole thing, be sure to visit the original Reddit post here. Or you can read a similar story here. But before you go, why not let us know your thoughts on all of this in the comment section below!

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