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Boss Tells Woman To Keep Baking Pies Until She Arrives, Underestimates Her Efficiency
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Boss Tells Woman To Keep Baking Pies Until She Arrives, Underestimates Her Efficiency

Manager Walks In To Find Over 400 Pies, Worker Just Shrugs: “She Told Me To Keep Baking”Boss Tells Woman To Keep Baking Pies Until She Arrives, Underestimates Her Efficiency“She Told Me To Keep Baking Until She Came In”: Woman Maliciously Complies To Boss’s OrderEmployee's Genius Malicious Compliance Leaves Boss With 400 Unexpected PiesEmployee Surprises Rude Manager With 300 Extra Pies No One Needs As Part Of Malicious ComplianceWorker Maliciously Complies With Boss’s Instructions, Ends Up Baking Over 400 PiesWoman Bakes 400 Pies In Delicious Malicious Compliance That Leaves Boss Under Fire“What Am I Supposed To Do With All These Pies?”: Woman Bakes 400 Pies After Boss's Unclear OrderEmployee's Genius Malicious Compliance Leaves Boss With 400 Pies: “She Told Me To Keep Baking”Bakery Is Left With Hundreds Of Pies After An Act Of Malicious Compliance From Employee
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Sometimes employees are expected to follow the boss’s orders even if they’re vague at best. And quite often they try to, some led by malicious compliance.

The latter is exactly what drove redditor u/Ok-Fishing-6604 to be an exemplary employee and reach results even the boss couldn’t have seen coming. The superior told the OP to bake an undefined number of pies, which she did; but instead of bringing a smile to the boss’s face, it made her furious instead. Scroll down to find the full story in the OP’s own words.

RELATED:

    Unclear instructions at work can end in some quite unexpected situations

    Image credits: Wavebreakmedia (not the actual photo)

    This bakery employee met unclear instructions with malicious compliance

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    Image credits: karandaev (not the actual photo)

    Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)

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    Image source: Ok-Fishing-6604

    Proper communication is crucial for the well-being of both the employees and the business

    Image credits: Canva Studio (not the actual photo)

    Proper communication is important in any workplace, whether it’s a bakery or an IT business. It is important not only for employee morale or maintaining amicable interpersonal relationships but also for the profitability of the company itself.

    The OP’s example showed that proper communication—or saying as little as one number, for that matter—could have saved the company money that was wasted on the surplus of pies. The 2022 State of Business Communication report revealed that miscommunication costs US businesses over 12,500 dollars per employee each year.

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    In addition to that, Forbes suggested that communication failure can disrupt a business on a fundamental level. It pointed out that it often becomes the cause of lack of focus and innovation, loss of purpose and credibility, and a drop in employee morale. Consequently, improper communication at a company can affect quite a few of its employees.

    According to a 2023 survey, 49% of respondents believe poor communication negatively impacts their productivity. Moreover, roughly 50% say it affects their job satisfaction and an additional 42% admit it increases their levels of stress. The survey unveiled that only roughly one in ten employees don’t feel impacted by inadequate communication.

    Quite a few people enjoy having pumpkin pie as part of their Thanksgiving meal

    Image credits: Element5 Digital (not the actual photo)

    In the OP’s situation, poor communication meant that the task was not clear, which led to unfavorable results. Unfavorable for the company, at least, as the employees likely didn’t mind coming home with a pie or two; especially right before Thanksgiving.

    Director of marketing for ‘Legendary Baking’ in Denver, Colorado, Mark Van Iwaarden, told Baking Business that, “Pies have always been event-oriented or holiday-­oriented where people are buying them for a specific purpose to go to a specific event or family gathering.” He added that numbers show a consistent demand all year round, except for the sudden jump around the holidays.

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    Statista’s data showed that the majority of people enjoy having pumpkin pie as part of a Thanksgiving meal. According to a 2022 survey, as much as 70% of them either love or like it, while 24% feel less fond of it or hate it completely. (Only 6% couldn’t make up their minds about how they feel about pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.)

    The OP seemed to love pumpkin pie herself, considering that she brought ten of them home and told her fellow redditors in the comments that it’s nice to have yummy leftovers. She also revealed that she comes from a big family, which is why the pies did not last long. Reddit users also shared their thoughts in the comment section.

    The OP provided more details in the comments

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    People shared their reactions and applauded the OP’s way with words

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    Miglė Miliūtė

    Miglė Miliūtė

    Writer, BoredPanda staff

    Read more »

    A writer here at Bored Panda, I am a lover of good music, good food, and good company, which makes food-related topics and feel-good stories my favorite ones to cover. Passionate about traveling and concerts, I constantly seek occasions to visit places yet personally unexplored. I also enjoy spending free time outdoors, trying out different sports—even if I don’t look too graceful at it—or socializing over a cup of coffee.

    Read less »
    Miglė Miliūtė

    Miglė Miliūtė

    Writer, BoredPanda staff

    A writer here at Bored Panda, I am a lover of good music, good food, and good company, which makes food-related topics and feel-good stories my favorite ones to cover. Passionate about traveling and concerts, I constantly seek occasions to visit places yet personally unexplored. I also enjoy spending free time outdoors, trying out different sports—even if I don’t look too graceful at it—or socializing over a cup of coffee.

    Ieva Pečiulytė

    Ieva Pečiulytė

    Author, BoredPanda staff

    Read more »

    I'm a Visual Editor for Bored Panda. I’m also an analog collage artist. My love for images and experience in layering goes well with both creating collages by hand and working with digital images as an Editor. When I’m not using my kitchen area as an art studio I also do various experiments making my own cosmetics or brewing kombucha. When I’m not at home you would most definitely find me attending a concert or walking my dog.

    Read less »

    Ieva Pečiulytė

    Ieva Pečiulytė

    Author, BoredPanda staff

    I'm a Visual Editor for Bored Panda. I’m also an analog collage artist. My love for images and experience in layering goes well with both creating collages by hand and working with digital images as an Editor. When I’m not using my kitchen area as an art studio I also do various experiments making my own cosmetics or brewing kombucha. When I’m not at home you would most definitely find me attending a concert or walking my dog.

    What do you think ?
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    g90814
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "we have orders for 100. Make 10 extra, just in case". so much easier.

    Sonja
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    How is this malicious compliance? It's just compliance. OP even asked if the instructions were correct and got very clear instructions: keep baking until I tell you to stop. So they did 100% exactly what they were told after asking. All they knew was that they needed lots of pies. For all OP could have known 400 pies were needed since they didn't get any clarifications despite asking. Malicious compliance is, when you know what you are meant to do but intentionally misinterpret the orders you got to sabotage whomever gave the order. But that wasn't the case here. They just complied. It's at best petty compliance.

    Pamela24
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Yeah, I agree. "Malicious compliance" has become an overused buzzword on Bored Panda lately.

    Load More Replies...
    brandyy17
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    i did something similar only it was cookies. my mom didnt kno who was coming over for christmas but the usual definitely were. my siblings r from my dads first marriage. one sister has 4 kids, my other sister has 3 and my brother has 1. wen had no idea if they were coming or not. the kids love my cookies so i figured id make extra incase they did show up. well i wasnt paying attention and ended up making 250 cookies. good thing too bc everyone came along with a suprise visit from our family friend and his wife and daughter. all my neices and nephews got an extra christmas present that year. a box full of cookies.

    Ash
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "I wasn't paying attention and made 250 cookies" has the same energy as that Margaret Mitchell quote: "In a weak moment, I have written a book." 🤣

    Load More Replies...
    Load More Comments
    g90814
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "we have orders for 100. Make 10 extra, just in case". so much easier.

    Sonja
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    How is this malicious compliance? It's just compliance. OP even asked if the instructions were correct and got very clear instructions: keep baking until I tell you to stop. So they did 100% exactly what they were told after asking. All they knew was that they needed lots of pies. For all OP could have known 400 pies were needed since they didn't get any clarifications despite asking. Malicious compliance is, when you know what you are meant to do but intentionally misinterpret the orders you got to sabotage whomever gave the order. But that wasn't the case here. They just complied. It's at best petty compliance.

    Pamela24
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Yeah, I agree. "Malicious compliance" has become an overused buzzword on Bored Panda lately.

    Load More Replies...
    brandyy17
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    i did something similar only it was cookies. my mom didnt kno who was coming over for christmas but the usual definitely were. my siblings r from my dads first marriage. one sister has 4 kids, my other sister has 3 and my brother has 1. wen had no idea if they were coming or not. the kids love my cookies so i figured id make extra incase they did show up. well i wasnt paying attention and ended up making 250 cookies. good thing too bc everyone came along with a suprise visit from our family friend and his wife and daughter. all my neices and nephews got an extra christmas present that year. a box full of cookies.

    Ash
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "I wasn't paying attention and made 250 cookies" has the same energy as that Margaret Mitchell quote: "In a weak moment, I have written a book." 🤣

    Load More Replies...
    Load More Comments
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