Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
then open in external browser
and click "Open in External Browser" 
51
“Alright Man, Whatever You Say”: Employee Maliciously Complies With Incompetent Supervisor
Few things are more frustrating than an annoying superior. Whether it’s micromanaging, yelling, or being short-tempered that they specialize in, they can sure make their employees’ life needlessly more difficult.
This redditor was no exception. When the company hired a manager to run the warehouse he was working in, the superior didn’t make the day-to-day any easier. On the contrary, he got on the employees’ nerves, which eventually led to malicious compliance.
RELATED:
Some managers are only good at annoying their employees
Image credits: Tiger Lily / Pexels (not the actual photo)
This redditor chose malicious compliance to deal with an aggravating superior
Image credits: Kampus Production / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Tiger Lily / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Crypto Crow / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Image credits: RedEd024
Image credits: Djordje Petrovic / Pexels (not the actual photo)
People spend roughly ten years of their lives working
An aggravating superior can make things difficult on many levels, from affecting the workflow to impacting the employees’ health and well-being. That comes as no surprise considering that an average person spends roughly 90,000 hours of their lifetime at work; that’s more than a decade of life spent dealing with work-related matters and people.
Unfortunately, many employed adults reportedly spend this decade next to people they wouldn’t consider dear to their hearts, to put it mildly. Goodhire’s survey of 3,000 Americans working in ten of the most popular sectors found that while 70% of them actually enjoy working for their manager, the rest—don’t.
Not only that, more than eight-in-ten of them say they could do their job without the manager’s supervision—as the OP seemingly did before and after the supervisor joined the company—and roughly as many believe they could even do their manager’s job themselves.
Based on Goodhire’s data, micromanaging and asking employees to work outside of the scheduled hours are the things superiors do that employees hate the most. Another survey, carried out last year by Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), found that other aggravating habits include playing favorites, taking credit for others’ work, discussing poor performance in front of other people, and informally threatening to fire employees respectively.
Image credits: Yan Krukau / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Quite a few employed individuals have had to suffer from a toxic environment or people at work
Whether it’s playing favorites or micromanaging that gets on employees’ nerves the most, quite a few of them have had to work with a boss they would even call toxic. Needless to say, a toxic environment doesn’t make bearing the workload any easier. According to FlexJob’s 2023 survey, the majority of employed adults have worked in a toxic environment at some point in their lives.
The survey found that nearly nine-in-ten of them have worked with a toxic boss at least once, half of them have suffered increased anxiety because of such a superior, and more than four-in-ten have quit because of toxic behavior in their workplace.
A 2023 survey regarding working conditions in the US, published by the American Psychological Association, found that nearly one fifth of employees consider their workplace toxic; and they have to deal with the consequences. Nearly 80% of them have reported experiencing work-related stress in the month prior to the survey and nearly 60% felt negative impacts, such as emotional exhaustion, lack of motivation, and irritability or anger with coworkers and customers, among other things.
The OP seemingly didn’t let it all out on the customers or the fellow co-worker he was running the warehouse with; however, there was a time when he nearly got into an actual fight with the supervisor, a story that the redditor shared with fellow netizens in the comments under his post.
As per the redditors’ request, the OP shared another work-related story
Fellow netizens shared their thoughts in the comments
Poll Question
Total votes ·
Thanks! Check out the results:
Total votes ·
Newsletter
Subscribe to Access
Exclusive Polls
By entering your email and clicking Subscribe, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Privacy Policy.
Thank you! You've successfully subscribed to newsletters!
What do you think ?
Dan St John 2 years ago
I once received a truck load of pallets filled with hard drives from a large Japanese manufacturer, based in the US. I called them and told them I had them and what was I supposed to with them? We did some offsite mfg for them at the time. They told me I didn't have them, they were still in their warehouse. I said I was pretty sure they weren't, but they insisted they were right and I was wrong. It was over $700k in hard drives. I put them in a corner of the warehouse and waited. About three weeks later, I was talking to a purchasing person there and they started telling me a story about how they lost a truck load of hard drives and how that was going to impact sales and mfging. She was frantic as I think most of the company was.When she was done, I told her my story about the hard drives. She jumped in her car and drove across town to verify and guess what, they were their hard drives after all. I still smile when I think about that.
Mike F 2 years ago
Anyone who has worked with 18-19 year olds knows that there's no such thing as "I know what to do, I got this" and walking away. There was a reason a supervisor was hired. The individual may not have been a great fit, but there was a reason to have a supervisor. These are getting kinda tiresome.
Tammy 2 years ago (edited)
So my take away is the OP had a boss he didn't like and pulled out a box cutter on them because apparently 19 (or 20) year olds are allowed to show no emotional control.
Freddy M. (He/Him) 2 years ago
Unless I misread, the boss pulled the box cutter on him
Load More Replies...
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
Opinions of this story aside, all I can say is that for someone with a good eye, and who knows how not to mess with working processes & not interfere with the folks who execute them, that manager's job that was obviously completely unnecessary would've been a *sweet gig*
Dan St John 2 years ago
I once received a truck load of pallets filled with hard drives from a large Japanese manufacturer, based in the US. I called them and told them I had them and what was I supposed to with them? We did some offsite mfg for them at the time. They told me I didn't have them, they were still in their warehouse. I said I was pretty sure they weren't, but they insisted they were right and I was wrong. It was over $700k in hard drives. I put them in a corner of the warehouse and waited. About three weeks later, I was talking to a purchasing person there and they started telling me a story about how they lost a truck load of hard drives and how that was going to impact sales and mfging. She was frantic as I think most of the company was.When she was done, I told her my story about the hard drives. She jumped in her car and drove across town to verify and guess what, they were their hard drives after all. I still smile when I think about that.
Mike F 2 years ago
Anyone who has worked with 18-19 year olds knows that there's no such thing as "I know what to do, I got this" and walking away. There was a reason a supervisor was hired. The individual may not have been a great fit, but there was a reason to have a supervisor. These are getting kinda tiresome.
Tammy 2 years ago (edited)
So my take away is the OP had a boss he didn't like and pulled out a box cutter on them because apparently 19 (or 20) year olds are allowed to show no emotional control.
Freddy M. (He/Him) 2 years ago
Unless I misread, the boss pulled the box cutter on him
Load More Replies... PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
Opinions of this story aside, all I can say is that for someone with a good eye, and who knows how not to mess with working processes & not interfere with the folks who execute them, that manager's job that was obviously completely unnecessary would've been a *sweet gig*
You May Like 39 Of The Most Creative Acts Of Employee Misconduct Ever Recorded Guy Whines About Neighbor’s Plant Wall, She Cuts It Down And Gives Him A View Of Pure Concrete Manager Bans Overtime, Gasps In Shock When Employee Clocks Out: “Where Are You Going?”
Monika Pašukonytė
Denis Krotovas
Viktorija Ošikaitė
Related on Bored Panda
22
13