I get it. Boss-people have loads on their minds. Sure, they can forget things or get things wrong, all because of how many plates they are trying to spin at the same time. But sooner or later one (or some) of them will fall down, breaking into a spectacularly incredible amount of bits and pieces.

And then an employee, who was more or less wrongly assessed as being bad at task and time management, will take these shards and have the boss walk on them himself. Figuratively speaking, of course.

More Info: Reddit

Sure, being a boss does mean having a lot on your plate, but that doesn’t excuse you from keeping tabs on everything yourself

Image credits: LinkedIn Sales Navigator (not the actual photo)

Otherwise, your employee might do that for you, and so the next time you go blasting them, they might just prove you wrong. Painfully

Image credits: u/coversbyrichard

And so when the employee was asked to keep track of everything, they maliciously complied, providing a detailed account of things in the end

Image credits: Alex Kotliarskyi (not the actual photo)

The story goes that Reddit user u/coversbyrichard had a performance check recently and was told that his task and time management was not up to par. OP did admit that there was room to grow, but ultimately said that the company ought to invest into proper management tools to even begin expecting quality results.

Whatever the case, the comment irked OP something fierce and malicious compliance soon ensued. The boss requested that OP keep track of everything, everything being the keyword to maliciously comply with.

Everything soon turned into keeping tabs on every phone call (or just every piece of communication, period), every task, every email, every delivery, practically everything timestamped and (probably) collated. Or something. You get the idea.

So, some time later, the boss-man sent an email, complaining that “this has got to be the 4th or 5th time I’ve asked you to do so and so task.” Without hesitation, OP immediately referred to his insanely compliant record log to rain some knowledge on the superior who had no idea what treat he was in for.

OP proceeded to recall every little detail of every little move made in response to the task at hand, all time stamped to the minute. There were six instances specifically, all of which showed that the boss not only never even asked the second time, let alone the 4th and the 5th times, but the task was also complete. An hour after the initial request, actually.

[Cue that one old meme where Maury Povich proves that something was a lie.] OP was glad to have been told to keep records of the tasks and times, even if it was extra work to a crazy degree. This proved that OP was not the problem, even if the boss would not admit it. Incidentally, the boss did not respond to this at the time of the post. He did later on, admitting he was wrong. So that’s a win.

Image credits: Visual Tag Mx (not the actual photo)

11,400 people who upvoted the post on Reddit and threw some well-deserved awards at it couldn’t agree more. Many considered this to be a piece of art, not only in how it’s executed, but also how it’s presented as well.

One commenter pointed out that this might just mark the point when the boss begins his quest to get rid of the employee, but OP pointed out that it’s already been happening for 2 years now. It’s hard to replace someone who’s paid below market rate working on the company’s key product.

Others shared stories, like this commenter, who had a boss who couldn’t keep anything the same to save his life. OP started taking notes, detailed enough for when the boss started nagging them about it, they would just show him what actually happened and then the boss would retreat. The nagging subsided, hopefully because the boss also started taking notes.

The comment section was also where OP explained the computer wizardry he employed in the process for those wondering.

In one comment OP pointed out that it wasn’t him who was forgetful, but the boss. And being forgetful not only meant that task management efficiency was out the window, but also that time management efficiency was also out the same window.

Image credits: John Schnobrich (not the actual photo)

Bored Panda reached out to Carl Pullein, award-winning productivity and time management coach and author, to discuss time and task management at work. Immediately, given OP’s extreme response to their boss, we had to ask where one should draw the line:

“The line comes when you leave no space for the unknowns that will inevitably come up each day,” explained Pullein. “The call from an angry customer, a stressed-out colleague who needs your immediate help or a sudden family emergency. Getting better at managing time is all about knowing what must be done and ensuring you have sufficient time allocated for that.”

“It does go deeper because it’s not just about our work lives. If we’re not spending enough time with our family and friends and getting sufficient sleep, that will negatively impact our overall effectiveness at work, which could be why a boss feels you are not good at time management. It’s more likely poor energy management.”

Pullein goes on to say that employee assessments in terms of time management can’t ever be accurate. It’s because folks can’t manage time. It’s fixed and as unmanageable as the laws of physics. However, what we as humans can manage is what we do with the time we have and that’s where productivity comes into play.

“What I’ve found is problems with productivity are caused largely by poor management communication. If a boss does not communicate clearly what they want and by when then their team’s productivity will drop,” elaborated Pullein. “The best managers are clear about what is expected and by when and will do everything they can to remove barriers so their team can get on and deliver what is expected.”

And while management can get a clear picture of a situation based on deadlines and results alone, Pullein points out that there are factors that throw a wrench in the works. It’s things like unrealistic expectations and not allowing the team to do its job because of meetings (that could’ve been emails) that can mess with this clear picture.

Image credits: Fabrice Florin (not the actual photo)

Slack (very appropriately) suggests a number of very simple, yet very useful tips on how to manage it all.

Knowing is half the battle in many things, so running a time tracker might just give you the perspective you need to understand where the time leak is. Another aspect of knowing is having a goal in mind, knowing its priority level and setting reasonable deadlines. Having all this in perspective might help keep you on track.

Other tactics include sticking to a set daily schedule (or establishing one if need be), tackling your most difficult tasks first, batch-processing similar tasks, and avoiding multitasking. When things are familiar, when your mind is rested and ready, and when you avoid wasting precious time on things—this is when the optimized time management magic begins.

Pullein also added a clever idea on how you can one-up your time-management game: “If I were management, I would implement an hour block on everyone’s calendar between 9:30 and 10:30 am for deep-focused work. No meetings, urgent messages or emails sent between team members during that time.”

“As an employee, I would structure my day so I had time for focused work and an hour for dealing with communications. If my boss were interrupting me too often, I would have to develop the courage to speak with the boss to see if we could set some boundaries.”

“To improve your time management skills, learn the art of time blocking, but do it at a macro level, not a micro level. Find some time each day for focused work and block it off in your calendar. (That one tip will transform your time management).”

All of this translates to improved work quality and effective use of time as well as less stress and more self-confidence in your work. And if you think all of this is just too much, remember that we live in a computer age where much of everything has already been automated and so computers are our friends—make use of it.

You can also make use of a computer to visit Carl Pullein’s website, Twitter (sorry, force of habit, X), YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn where he posts frequent discussions and shares his expertise on all things productivity and work optimization. There’s also his online courses and books, Working with Todoist and Your Digital Life 2.0, for a bit more productive inspiration in your work life.

But before you do any of that, we have a comment section. Share your thoughts, opinions and other biased or not so biased personal or collective convictions in it below!

Over 11,000 folks upvoted the post, pointing out the artistic execution of the malicious compliance

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