If you ever thought that business is a dog-eat-dog deal, there are a number of professions that do much of the same by making employees compete against each other for a higher salary.

Sure, it motivates employees to do their best and directly rewards them for their actions, all the while also rewarding things like backstabbing and [insert any other literary sneaky corporate stealing word here].

But sometimes you don’t have to be sneaky or anything. All you have to be is maliciously compliant and follow orders as letting someone else screw themselves over works better as they can’t blame you!

Cue this little story right here where a waiter simply followed their coworker’s suggestion of switching sections at their restaurant—only because she insisted on doing her makeup there and then—which bit her on the rear as she missed out on a good tipper.

More Info: Reddit

Being late to work isn’t the end of the world, but it can still cause a problem or two. Or more. It depends

Image credits: Revol Web (not the actual photo)

A few years back, Redditor u/iamjayjayisme used to be a waiter at a restaurant in Jersey. As is to be expected, patronage depends heavily on the season, and this time around, it was the slow one. And less patrons meant bigger competition among servers as to who gets what table and this determined their tips.

Moreover, OP has a work ethic whereby they come to work early so as to properly prepare for their shift and start, already prepared, on the clock. But not everyone has the same work ethic, as is evident from OP’s coworker Kayla.

One chronically late employee ended up on the receiving end of a problem when they passed up on an opportunity to wait for a well-tipping table

Image credits: iamjayjayisme

Kayla would also start work “on the clock”, but hers was a different interpretation of it. While OP started ready at, say 5 o’clock, Kayla would walk in the door at 5 o’clock. Then she proceeded to prepare for her job for about 15 minutes. Namely, she worked on her makeup—something that OP considered a task best done at home.

Now, so far, it all seems fine and dandy from the employer’s point of view. According to the US Department Of Labor, commuting on one’s own isn’t considered work time, unless it’s a business trip or the company chooses to compensate for it as a bonus.

As for whether preparation for work is considered a part of the job, it’s one of those it depends sort of answers. Business and Corporate Law Attorney Roy H. Gordon, Esq., MBA explains in his article that if it’s a necessary task, regardless of difficulty, it should be compensated. But, if it’s something that takes less than 10 minutes, let alone has a questionable impact on the benefits for the employer, then it might not be compensated.

While technically the employee was never really late for work, she would spend 15 minutes of work time doing her makeup, which in turn delayed her work

Image credits: iamjayjayisme

Image credits: Harry Metcalfe (not the actual photo)

Anywho, a lot of Kayla’s coworkers found issue with that, but nothing was really done about it, so all that was left for them was to just accept and live with it. But, then an interesting situation happened.

One day, all was as it always was. Kayla came in “on time” and darted towards the bathroom to put her face on. OP was asked by the host where she was, to which they replied “in the bathroom”; “oh, she has people waiting already, gonna need to talk to her.” They went to talk, and at the end of that back-and-forth between the host and Kayla, OP overheard “Just switch my section I’ll take the next one, I don’t care.”

Well, one time, when work couldn’t wait, the employee still decided to avoid it by suggesting their section be taken on by someone else, only to later learn it was a table of 14—big tippers

Image credits: iamjayjayisme

The host returned, told OP they were in charge of Kayla’s tables now, and invited them to go set it up. Why set it up, you say? Turns out, the two people standing next to the host—the people who Kayla was supposed to already have greeted and sat down—were actually early and would be a part of a party of 14. What is more, it was the party of Mr. Moneybags (obviously, not a real name, but both OP and I share the sentiment that it’d be cool if it was real), a local celebrity of sorts who had made a fortune in landscaping and real estate. And just a nice guy.

So, they set up the table, the rest of the party arrived, handshakes, kind words, it was a lovely time for everyone for the next 2 hours. Except Kayla. It was at this point that she realized just how colossal her goof-up was. And she actually made another mistake—she checked the tip afterwards, only to be greeted with another oof moment.

And she actually made another mistake—she checked the tip afterwards, only to be greeted with another oof moment

Image credits: NanshyOfficial (not the actual photo)

“She actually left the restaurant about a week after the story for unrelated reasons, so I’m not sure she learned her lesson. But she certainly realized she made a mistake that day,” added OP in our interview. “The other coworkers were also tired of her, so they found [this situation] amusing. She actually avoided [me] the rest of the shift. Didn’t make eye contact with me or anything.”

OP is an aspiring writer now, and has gotten into the habit of writing every day. Some of it can be found on Reddit, where they remember moments from their life in various subreddits that are mostly very supportive. Incidentally, the folks on r/MaliciousCompliance responded to it with over 3,700 upvotes (97% positive).

In response, some folks shared stories, or better or worse patrons. And even more people jumped in on the discussion about when work truly starts and when it truly ends, how much management was supposed to have already dealt with this, the whole pay a decent wage thing, among others.

“Actually, from a lot of the comments I saw, people were sharing their opinions on tipping culture in the US. I’ve always heard some people saying that they never tip and that if a server wants a better income they should get a better job. I’ve always wanted to tell people who believe that and if they really do believe that, then they should tell their server that at the beginning of their meal. That way the server will know that they can do the bare minimum and so those people see what your tip is actually for your server to be attentive to you,” concluded OP.

You can read the post and all of the comments in context here. Or if you want more malicious compliance stories, you can check this one, this one, and this one out.

But before you do that, do share your thoughts and opinions about anything and everything that you feel has to be put out there on the topic in the comment section below!

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