You’d expect a kindergarten to be full of toddlers, but a workplace? I mean, sure, if the company offers daycare benefits on site, and one stray kid slips through the cracks and sends a company-wide email on Tim’s computer saying he wants cake. But I digress.

Well, turns out, it can be the case. Not the toddlers running wild part, but the grownups acting like toddlers part.

Enter this one Redditor who got hired, yet was never really given an office because folks conspired against the idea of her working there because it meant her department would be taking customers from other departments. And of course nobody wanted that. But civilized discourse was not an option. For whatever reason.

More Info: Reddit

Office shenanigans do happen, but you probably wouldn’t expect a company’s leadership to act like a bunch of toddlers gatekeeping an office, right?

Image credits: Korean Resource Center (not the actual image)

Meet Reddit user u/intrepidshe, who recently shared a malicious compliance story on the very appropriately called r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit about her first grownup job experience. Bored Panda got in touch with Intrepid for an interview.

So, OP was just finishing her bachelor’s degree—a grasshopper in a highly technical and emerging field (working as a data analyst and systems admin), but one who’s very talented. And, actually, a fresh new recruit to work for a fresh new department—one that had all the potential to take customers from other departments all the while generating new business.

You can probably see why that is a problem. But, surprisingly, nobody took the opportunity to take on providing these new services, keeping all their clientele intact. This instead led to the creation of a new department that they’d all passively-aggressively despised and tried to prevent anything from actually happening.

Well, expect the unexpected, I guess, as this Redditor shared how she—new office blood—maliciously complied with not having an office for 3 months

Image credits: u/intrepidshe

Note that it wasn’t OP herself who was the problem, but the whole circumstance and situation of a new position that shook everyone else’s stable foundation. Nothing personal, just business. Still a pain in the backside, though.

OP caught on really quickly because they were all proactively trying to prevent her from getting an office. You know, so she’d have a place to work from?

“At first I thought it was a minor thing, people would get used to the idea. They just needed a little time. I didn’t understand the implications that some departments could lose revenue and personnel. They didn’t, by the way. Everyone benefited in the end,” elaborated OP.

The whole office gatekeeping thing by the leadership happened because of a decision to create a position that would supposedly impede the performance of other departments

Image credits: u/intrepidshe

So, she decided to go along. Why? Because the leaders who were actively partaking in these shenanigans would inevitably get exposed. It was just a matter of time. And location. Which ended up (more often than not) the mail room. Mind you, it’s a place that gets a lot of foot traffic around the office and so lots of people would notice.

The hopes for OP were that the leaders would start feeling guilty or annoyed and change their mind. Or they’d get caught by the higher-ups who had left toddler-hood behind ages ago and would not deal with the leadership’s tomfoolery. Either way, problem solved. But something magical happened.

Spoiler Alert: no performance hindrance ever happened, but what absolutely happened is malicious compliance that went better than expected

Image credits: u/intrepidshe

Image credits: Nexus at University of MIchigan Engineering (not the actual image)

“My [malicious compliance] plan came naturally to me. I was one of 10 children in my family and I saw my siblings get busted that way a lot. I was in the middle and learned to stay out of the fray,” explained OP. And childhood lessons came in handy this time around as, lo and behold, the president walked by and noticed OP working from the mailroom.

It’s important to note that OP had made friends with a lot of leaders in the 3 months she’d been there (because being tech savvy and just straight-up friendly pays off), but there was one that was just the worst. Mr. So&So. So, all in all, the corporate climate had changed a bit, but not enough for her to get an office. Cue malicious compliance!

After 3 months of working around the office, mostly the mailroom, OP was granted keys to the conference room, and the company’s toddlership was put to shame

Image credits: u/intrepidshe

Image credits: The Unwinder (not the actual image)

One short conversation about where OP’s office is later, despite having been there for a while now, the president marched down to that one leader’s office and gave him a piece of her mind about the situation. “I distinctly heard the yelling from downstairs. People outside probably heard it!” explained OP in her post.

[Surprise Batman cartoon transition].

The president came in, brought OP up to the conference room—which should probably be called the room of shame at this point—where every single leader was there at the table, face down. The president handed OP a key to the conference room, said that this would her office now (in fact, largest on campus and larger than hers), exclaiming “enjoy!” and walked out.

[Mic Drop].

Storytelling did not end there, as OP provided a followup of sorts with a different story, but the same Mr. So&So

Image credits: u/intrepidshe

Not only did OP win her very own (and very sweet) office in the end, all of the other leaders eventually became great colleagues (except for that one). But it does make you wonder, what was their end game with the whole office deal? And it’s a mystery to OP too: “I have wondered that in the years since. I think they wanted my boss to have to put me in her office, which was only 10 feet by 10 feet. I believe they wanted to take her down a peg for leading the change.”

But, mind you, working in the mail room wasn’t all that bad. Or at least it never seemed to be. OP elaborated in our interview that there were assistants working there too, and they ended up becoming friends, hanging out. The assistants actually enjoyed OP’s company. They liked seeing what OP was working on, and OP even helped one of them learn what she was doing.

Image credits: u/intrepidshe

And the post ended up becoming a gift that kept on giving as OP provided a followup story of sorts—another one about how her brother ended up working in the company and how that same one leader got into another conflict with OP about her brother and the president was involved. Needless to say, the two (well, seemingly more Mr. So&So rather than OP) had to learn to work together. And they made it work.

As of this article, the post had amassed over 16,000 upvotes and a handful of Reddit awards. “I was amazed in the comments by others who shared stories they experienced, like leaders getting in fistfights. At least my situation was never physically violent. There’s nearly always an upside in most situations.”

Image credits: u/intrepidshe

And folks did share their own stories in the comments. From similar leadership issues to office space shenanigans, folks seemed to relate to OP’s predicament in some shape or form. And even if they weren’t sharing stories, they were asking questions, being surprised at how petty and immature corporate culture can really be, and simply praising OP for her patience and kindness despite adversity.

You can check out the entire post as well as all the comments in context here. But before you skimp off to another article, why not share your thoughts on this bit of malicious compliance in the comment section below!

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