September 29, 2025 • 21 mins
Clueless Manager Tries to Get the Best of Him - Reddit Stories Malicious Compliance
Welcome back to another episode of our little corner of Reddit tales, where we dive into the satisfying stories from subreddits like Malicious Compliance. In this September twenty twenty-five edition, we're unpacking fresh top posts that flip the script on absurd rules—from epic ninety-second voicemails trolling a remote manager's clock-in demands, to Swiss IT engineers weaponizing labor laws against fixed-hour mandates for overtime mayhem. Expect IT restores exposing spicy secrets, fake job offers netting real forty-five thousand dollar raises, portal cleanups locking out the boss himself, and a historical gem of flag-banned locals parading red-and-white pigs as protest. Raw reads, real talk, and commentary on turning tedium into triumph. If petty policy pokes and slow-burn schadenfreude are your fuel, hit play for a full twenty to twenty-five minutes of compliance that bites back beautifully.
Tags: redditdrama, maliciouscompliance, voicemailtroll, laborloophole, filerestorefiasco, fakeofferraise, portalpurge, historicalprotest, officeabsurdity, pettypolicy, workwins, podcaststories,
Welcome back to another episode of our little corner of Reddit tales, where we dive into the satisfying stories from subreddits like Malicious Compliance. In this September twenty twenty-five edition, we're unpacking fresh top posts that flip the script on absurd rules—from epic ninety-second voicemails trolling a remote manager's clock-in demands, to Swiss IT engineers weaponizing labor laws against fixed-hour mandates for overtime mayhem. Expect IT restores exposing spicy secrets, fake job offers netting real forty-five thousand dollar raises, portal cleanups locking out the boss himself, and a historical gem of flag-banned locals parading red-and-white pigs as protest. Raw reads, real talk, and commentary on turning tedium into triumph. If petty policy pokes and slow-burn schadenfreude are your fuel, hit play for a full twenty to twenty-five minutes of compliance that bites back beautifully.
Tags: redditdrama, maliciouscompliance, voicemailtroll, laborloophole, filerestorefiasco, fakeofferraise, portalpurge, historicalprotest, officeabsurdity, pettypolicy, workwins, podcaststories,
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of our little corner of
Reddit Tales, where we dive into the satisfying stories from
subreuditts like malicious Compliance, I'm Your Host and to Day.
We're back with more triumphant tales of following the rules
to the absolute letter, flipping the script on clueless managers,
picky policies, and plain old power trips. It's another September
(00:23):
twenty twenty five edition, and these fresh top posts are
serving up that petty justice we crave, from voicemail marathons
that test a boss's patience to it restores the uncover
more than expected fake offers that land reel raises and
portal purges that hit too.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Close to home.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
If you live for the slow burn satisfaction of compliance
gone gloriously awry, this is your jam. We're reading these
straight from the source, sprinkling in some commentary, and keeping
it all real for about twenty to twenty five minutes.
Grab your victory mug and let's get complain. Our first
story is a blast from the past, but posted hot
(01:04):
this week, racking up up votes for its timeless troll factor.
The title Oh you want us to call you? When
we get into the office from poster El Gallo Azucarado,
and it's got that early two thousand vibe.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Let's read it.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I'm not even sure this belongs here, but I couldn't
find a trolling compliance subarate. It's so here we go.
I was a contractor on a y two K project,
seriously that.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Was nearing its end. There were four.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Texts out of about twenty five still working the project,
but we didn't have much to do. For the previous
month or so, we would have like one delivery to
do per day it was March two thousand or so,
but otherwise we just hung out in our tiny office
and played Duke Newcombe.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
We were on a.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Normal eight to five Monday through Friday schedule, but since
there was very little work to do, nobody was very
conscientious about getting to work on time. We didn't have
a punch clock or anything like that, just basically filled
out a spreadsheet each week of how many hours we worked,
always forty, even if it was.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Say thirty eight.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
We got a new manager who worked in a totally
different city from us. She never explained why the change
in policy, but she called us all over to her
office and let us know that we were supposed to
call her each morning when we arrived to let her
know that we are clocking in for the day.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Sounds tedious, but sure.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
One thing I don't think she realized is that our
office only had one phone, and when we tried to
call her to clock in, the final person to make
the call always ended up leaving a voicemail for her
after eight m They were there on time, but everybody
needing to use the same phone right at the same
time made it so they weren't able to call in
on time. I forgot to mention that the person wanting
(02:52):
us to call her to let her know we were
in the office never ever showed up in hers at
eight am, so we were always forced to leave voice mails.
At our team meeting at the end of the first week,
she called us out on being late with our voice mails.
We explained to her why she was getting the voicemails
after eight but her response was basically, this is your problem,
(03:13):
not mine. You're supposed to clock in on time. She
did offer a solution that if the four of us
were their only one call was necessary and we could
just all say hello on the voicemail. The next week,
we decided that we would make the voice mails as
long as humanly possible. I think we had ninety seconds
to record just to troll her. One of mine went
(03:36):
something like In Van HALEN'SHT for Teacher video, David Leroth
is quoted as saying, I don't feel tardy. And I'd
say that pretty much sums up my attitude to day,
because not only do I not feel tardy, I am,
in fact not tardy. For ninety seconds this would go on.
We'd try to time it so that right at the
(03:57):
very end of the voicemail we'd all say hello, we're
clocking in, hopefully making her listen to ninety seconds of
inane stuff just to get to us clocking in. It
wasn't long before we just put our hours in on
the spreadsheet like before. Oh, the ninety second soliloquis pure gold.
Imagine that manager's face deleting through David Lee roth Rantz
(04:20):
just to hear a chorus of hellos. Our poster's crew
turned a tedious check in into performance art and poof
policy forgotten. It's that effortless escalation that makes malicious compliance shine.
If you've got a voice mail villain in your past,
this one's cheering you on. All right, story too, because
September's dishing out the office absurdities. Next up, a timely
(04:42):
take down on work life whims. You want to fix
our working hours? Our contracts have something to say about
that from poster cocadoodlen MIAs mid month drop. That's climbing fast.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Here we go.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Early last year we had a new manager take over
them department. He previously headed another IT department in Germany,
but moved to Switzerland to take the role in ours.
Our team is spread over Switzerland, Spain, and Mexico, with
second line in Spain and Mexico and third line in
Switzerland and Spain. It was a few months before he
(05:19):
started making changes, and they were mostly small. We had
to record how much time we spent on tickets, provide
weekly updates on our changes and projects, and our monthly
department meeting became fortnightly. It meant a bit more bureaucracy
here and there, but it was mostly fine, nothing excessive.
But about six months in he made a change that
(05:40):
none of.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Us really liked.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
While Switzerland and Spain are both in the same time zone,
in reality, our times don't really line up. Employees in
Switzerland will start at any time between seven a m
and eight thirty m, while Spain can start later than
nine am. Lunch in Switzerland is often from eleven thirty
am to twelve thirty pm, while Spain will wait until
(06:05):
one p m or later. Home time in Switzerland ranges
from three thirty p m to five thirty p M,
while the team in Spain will often be online until.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Six p m.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
This means that meetings between the third line teams usually
take place between nine am to eleven thirty a m.
And two pm to four pm. That is about four
point five hours a day. Outside of those times, you
risk people not having started yet, having already gone home,
or being out for lunch.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
This is what our new manager didn't like.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
While he couldn't really do much about lunch times, he
saw the opportunity to align our start and end times.
After reviewing people's calendars, he determined that in forcing an
eight am to five p m working day would cause
the least amount of disruption to our schedules. This would
increase the number of hours where we're all available by
(06:59):
two per day or ten per week. When he told
us about the change, none of us were happy, even
those that wouldn't be impacted because it already aligned with
their usual start and finished times. Were annoyed on behalf
of those who would be impacted. When we asked why
the change was being made, we were simply told it
(07:21):
was about us all being online together more. Some people
complained that it would impact out of work commitments, and
we were told he would make allowances, but only temporarily.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
One guy said that he.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Only takes a thirty minute lunch break, so this would
mean he goes over his weekly hours. The manager said
he would look into that. Then an older member of
the team asked if he had run it by human resources.
The manager said no, this isn't something he needs to
run by human resources. The same guy then asked if
(07:53):
we would have to start recording our hours. The manager
said no, this has nothing to do with recording hours.
Turns out the manager made a mistake here. You see,
in Switzerland, by law, employees need to record their working
hours and employers need to retain records to ensure compliance
with labor laws. There are, however, a few exceptions. Smaller
(08:18):
companies can simply record the number of hours worked each day. Meanwhile,
senior employees can be exempted from logging their hours if
they meet a certain salary threshold and their role allows
for autonomy in the hours worked. All the engineers on
the team based in Switzerland had signed this waiver. It
(08:38):
wasn't uncommon for us to work eleven hours on one
day and then five hours on the next. It wasn't
uncommon for us to work thirty hours in one week,
then fifty hours the next. We never recorded these hours.
We never explicitly told our team leaders or manager. It
was simply understood that some days or weeks would be busy,
(09:00):
and as we managed our own time, we would make
up for it later. We were trusted to manage our
own time, and if we didn't sign the waiver to
exclude us from logging our hours, it would create a
mess for overtime time off in loo, et cetera. But
one of the conditions for signing this waiver was that
we were free to determine the majority of our working hours,
(09:23):
which courts had clarified was defined as fifty percent. If
we are contracted to work forty hours a week, then
our employer can fix twenty of those hours and we
can choose when to take the other twenty. The manager
had now fixed one hundred percent of our hours, we
were no longer eligible for the exception granted to.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Us for us.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
We could continue working the dictated hours, and legally we
would be fine, but if someone reported our employer to
the labor authorities for not having us log our hours,
we would all be four to start doing so retroactively.
This would mean calculating overtime for the past six months,
(10:07):
paying out for any excess hours, and potentially facing fines
for non compliance. The older team member who had asked
about human resources casually mentioned this in the next meeting.
The manager brushed it off, but word got around. A
few of us started a group chat, and we decided
to comply fully with the.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
New hours, but only on paper.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
We logged every minute, every break, every log in and logout.
Within a week, reports showed some folks over forty hours
due to short lunches, others underdue to traffic or kid pickups.
Overtime claims piled up, and human resources got involved. The
manager tried to backpeddle, saying logging wasn't required, but now
(10:51):
that we'd started, we couldn't stop without violating the waiver conditions.
He spent weeks in meetings with human resources and legal
recalculating back pay. Finally, he reverted to flexible hours and
we all went back to our waivers. No fines, but
a lot of egg on his face. Teel doctor. New
manager enforces fixed hours to boost overlap unknowingly voiding our
(11:14):
hour logging waiver. We start strict logging, triggering overtime chaos
and back pay demands. He flips the policy faster than
a bad calendar invite edit. Yes, this is based on
real Swiss labor law check Article nine of the Labor Act.
If curious, no names changed because anonymity is key. Few
(11:36):
contract clauses as secret weapons.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Genius.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
That manager thought he was streamlining, but Swiss rules turned
it into a paperwork avalanche. Our poster's team played the
long game, and the revert was sweeter than flexible fridays.
If international work woes resonate, this is your vindication. On
to story three were back ups bite back this This
(12:00):
one's a classic idigatcha fresh from late September. Absolutely must
restore my important files from What's it for in a way,
and it's got that chadenfreud sparkle dive. In one of
my early jobs was managing the back end server and
database for a desktop slash laptop.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
File back up system.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Very big company, and we had all the sales and
management laptops on regular back up schedules. Often the database
would crash and we would have to rebuild it. This
meant restoring files using the automated process was offline for
a few hours to sometimes a few days. Management put
out a notice that any restore requests must get my
(12:42):
manager's approval before we did a manual restore. Most times
it could wait for a day or so. This one
sales guy insisted that we restore his supercritical sales documents
immediately or he would escalate to senior management. My manager
told him to wait for one more day. Nope, he
went straight to the chief technology officer and got his way.
(13:05):
So as part of the manual restore process, we print
out the complete file list of what we would be
restoring and copied all the files to a digital versatile
disc that was to be sent to the user. Ninety
five percent of the files that were to be restored
were inappropriate pictures and videos, with a few word docks
and spreadsheets. So after printing the twenty plus page file,
(13:31):
report and burning the digital versatile disc. I took it
to my manager, She smiled and immediately set an appointment
with the chief technology officer. Needless to say, the sales
guy had a very intense meeting with the chief technology officer, sales,
vice president, and human resources. I heard he denied to
(13:51):
the end those files were his. I wonder what he
told his spouse when he had to look for another job.
T L doctor, be careful when you escalate with information
technology to restore your critical files. They will find those
others you shouldn't have been saving to your work computer. Ha,
the ultimate file folder fiasco. Nothing says compliance like a
(14:13):
full audit trail. That sales guy's power play backfired spectacularly,
turning critical docs into career killers. Our poster's manager MVP
for the handoff. A reminder company drives aren't for personal playlists.
What's your back up? Blunder? Moving on to number four,
where raises get a creative boost. Story four is a
(14:34):
buddy tale with big payoff. Provide a offer, don't mind
if I do? From one piper piping end of month banger,
Let's go. A few recent stories on here reminded me
of a friend of mine we'll call Dave, shared with
his permission. Dave was working for a company for a
few years. Liked it there, liked the job, liked everything,
(14:56):
but the pay. His company pretty much only gave if
you had a competing offer. Dave's boss knew this and
advised him as such, since he wanted to keep Dave.
Dave didn't want to interview anywhere else. However, the supervisor
had hired him we'll call him Bruce had moved.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
On to another job.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Dave called Bruce, told him the situation, and Bruce was
just like, I've got an idea. I'll send you an
offer letter. How much should you be making? Dave was
making eighty five thousand dollars at the time, and based
on his skills, experience, et cetera, should have been making
about one hundred ten thousand dollars. So that's what he
told Bruce. Bruce said not to worry and that he'd
(15:40):
take care of it. Dave gets an e mail from Bruce,
doesn't look too hard at it, and tells his supervisor
the next day that he has an offer and was
wondering if his job would counter Dave forwards the letter
from Bruce and Dave's boss gets back to him, offering
him one hundred thirty thousand dollars to stay. As it
turns out, Bruce, because he didn't actually need to budget
(16:03):
for this position because it was fake, put one hundred
twenty five thousand dollars in the offer letter. He also
had a knowledge of Dave's unit's budget, having formerly worked there,
and knew they'd afford it to keep Dave. And that
is how Dave maliciously complied with a fake offer letter
to get a raise. PostScript, Bruce moved to a third
(16:25):
company about five years ago and has since hired Dave
there in an executive role.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
He's doing well.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
In Yes, Fake it till you make it Literally Bruce
as the ultimate wingman, padding that phantom offer just write.
Dave's counter landed forty five thousand dollars richer, and now
their colleagues again, proof that networks beat negotiations sometimes envy
inducing Wright one more brother than Story five Number five
(16:55):
a portal purge for the Ages. Want me to clean
up users on the portal? Done, You're deleted from LILBYA.
This week's top Dog with over eleven thousand up votes.
Strap in I work in information technology for a big
company and manage a portal that a small group of
people use daily. Manager wanted me to go through the
(17:17):
list of users and remove any one who didn't need access.
Simple request. I reduced the list from one hundred to
thirty people.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Every one's happy.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Couple weeks later, manager is complaining that thirty users is
too much and wanted me to create a list of
all their names, what team they are a part of,
who they report to, and how often they need access
to this portal. Annoying request, but sure, I got it done.
He goes through the list and gets mad when he
sees names he doesn't recognize, even though our company has
(17:49):
a couple thousand employees, so he tells me to delete
all users whose name he doesn't recognize. Stupid request, but
OK done.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
We are a globe company.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
So immediately overnight I'm getting bombarded with emails that systems
are down and no one has access to log into
the system and fix it. My phone's going off, but heckett,
I don't get paid to work. At three m next morning,
my manager somehow gets mad at me for deleting the
users he told me to delete and tells me to
add them back, No kidding, Sherlock. Couple weeks later, he
(18:24):
again brings up that he's not happy and the system
is not secure. Too many users have access, blah blah blah.
Like brother, how bored are you? He wanted me to
review the list of users with him again. Twenty seven
of the users use this system daily. There are only
three users himself and two other people that are high
(18:46):
up management that don't use the system at all, but
are there for political reasons. He starts yelling at me,
telling me to delete anyone who doesn't use the portal
daily as part of their core job, and anyone knew
who wants access must fill out a form and explain
why they need it.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Ok.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Fine, hecke done. Couple weeks pass by and he goes manager, Hey,
I think something's wrong with the system. I can't log
in any more. Me Nope, bit's working just fine. Manager,
Then why can't I log in? Me? I removed all
users who don't use it daily as part of their
core job, quoted my manager from weeks ago, word for word, Manager,
(19:27):
add me back, Me slides him the form he created,
Manager greater than Colan's zero face me smiley face, it's
been weeks and he still hasn't filled out the form,
and I still haven't added him back. We are somehow
on good terms now. The form slide chef's kiss of comeuppance.
Our poster's manager turned security hawk into paperwork pigeon, and
(19:51):
now he's locked out of his own obsession. Global chaos
to personal payback. Malicious compliance at its bureaucratic best, laugh
out loud levels of petty.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
All right.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Story six, a historical nugget that's too good to skip,
wrapping with a throwback twist historical malicious compliance. Can't fly
our red and white flag, Fine, we'll keep red and
white pigs instead, Short but sweet from an anonymous history
buff linking to the wickie here. It is so in
the late nineteenth slash early twentieth century, the Prussians occupied
(20:25):
the area around Flensburgh, which used to be Danish before.
Under the new rulers, the locals were forbidden from flying
red and white Danish flags, so they started keeping red
and white pigs instead. That's it, pure poor scene protest.
Those folks turned a flagban into farm yard flare, parading
(20:46):
porkers as patriotism. Fast forward, and it's a breed called
heusum Red Pied still around to day. If rules cramp
your style, just pig it out, Timeless troll few. Another
round of rule reversals on malicious compliance. From voicemail epics
to pig parades. These September stories show compliance can be
(21:10):
a compliance killer. Thanks for tuning in. If this fueled
your inner rule bender, imagine venting yours below. Until next time,
follow those orders with flair friends. This is your host
signing off, stay scheming.
Welcome back to another episode of our little corner of
Reddit Tales, where we dive into the satisfying stories from
subreuditts like malicious Compliance, I'm Your Host and to Day.
We're back with more triumphant tales of following the rules
to the absolute letter, flipping the script on clueless managers,
picky policies, and plain old power trips. It's another September
(00:23):
twenty twenty five edition, and these fresh top posts are
serving up that petty justice we crave, from voicemail marathons
that test a boss's patience to it restores the uncover
more than expected fake offers that land reel raises and
portal purges that hit too.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Close to home.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
If you live for the slow burn satisfaction of compliance
gone gloriously awry, this is your jam. We're reading these
straight from the source, sprinkling in some commentary, and keeping
it all real for about twenty to twenty five minutes.
Grab your victory mug and let's get complain. Our first
story is a blast from the past, but posted hot
(01:04):
this week, racking up up votes for its timeless troll factor.
The title Oh you want us to call you? When
we get into the office from poster El Gallo Azucarado,
and it's got that early two thousand vibe.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Let's read it.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I'm not even sure this belongs here, but I couldn't
find a trolling compliance subarate. It's so here we go.
I was a contractor on a y two K project,
seriously that.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Was nearing its end. There were four.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Texts out of about twenty five still working the project,
but we didn't have much to do. For the previous
month or so, we would have like one delivery to
do per day it was March two thousand or so,
but otherwise we just hung out in our tiny office
and played Duke Newcombe.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
We were on a.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Normal eight to five Monday through Friday schedule, but since
there was very little work to do, nobody was very
conscientious about getting to work on time. We didn't have
a punch clock or anything like that, just basically filled
out a spreadsheet each week of how many hours we worked,
always forty, even if it was.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Say thirty eight.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
We got a new manager who worked in a totally
different city from us. She never explained why the change
in policy, but she called us all over to her
office and let us know that we were supposed to
call her each morning when we arrived to let her
know that we are clocking in for the day.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Sounds tedious, but sure.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
One thing I don't think she realized is that our
office only had one phone, and when we tried to
call her to clock in, the final person to make
the call always ended up leaving a voicemail for her
after eight m They were there on time, but everybody
needing to use the same phone right at the same
time made it so they weren't able to call in
on time. I forgot to mention that the person wanting
(02:52):
us to call her to let her know we were
in the office never ever showed up in hers at
eight am, so we were always forced to leave voice mails.
At our team meeting at the end of the first week,
she called us out on being late with our voice mails.
We explained to her why she was getting the voicemails
after eight but her response was basically, this is your problem,
(03:13):
not mine. You're supposed to clock in on time. She
did offer a solution that if the four of us
were their only one call was necessary and we could
just all say hello on the voicemail. The next week,
we decided that we would make the voice mails as
long as humanly possible. I think we had ninety seconds
to record just to troll her. One of mine went
(03:36):
something like In Van HALEN'SHT for Teacher video, David Leroth
is quoted as saying, I don't feel tardy. And I'd
say that pretty much sums up my attitude to day,
because not only do I not feel tardy, I am,
in fact not tardy. For ninety seconds this would go on.
We'd try to time it so that right at the
(03:57):
very end of the voicemail we'd all say hello, we're
clocking in, hopefully making her listen to ninety seconds of
inane stuff just to get to us clocking in. It
wasn't long before we just put our hours in on
the spreadsheet like before. Oh, the ninety second soliloquis pure gold.
Imagine that manager's face deleting through David Lee roth Rantz
(04:20):
just to hear a chorus of hellos. Our poster's crew
turned a tedious check in into performance art and poof
policy forgotten. It's that effortless escalation that makes malicious compliance shine.
If you've got a voice mail villain in your past,
this one's cheering you on. All right, story too, because
September's dishing out the office absurdities. Next up, a timely
(04:42):
take down on work life whims. You want to fix
our working hours? Our contracts have something to say about
that from poster cocadoodlen MIAs mid month drop. That's climbing fast.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Here we go.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Early last year we had a new manager take over
them department. He previously headed another IT department in Germany,
but moved to Switzerland to take the role in ours.
Our team is spread over Switzerland, Spain, and Mexico, with
second line in Spain and Mexico and third line in
Switzerland and Spain. It was a few months before he
(05:19):
started making changes, and they were mostly small. We had
to record how much time we spent on tickets, provide
weekly updates on our changes and projects, and our monthly
department meeting became fortnightly. It meant a bit more bureaucracy
here and there, but it was mostly fine, nothing excessive.
But about six months in he made a change that
(05:40):
none of.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Us really liked.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
While Switzerland and Spain are both in the same time zone,
in reality, our times don't really line up. Employees in
Switzerland will start at any time between seven a m
and eight thirty m, while Spain can start later than
nine am. Lunch in Switzerland is often from eleven thirty
am to twelve thirty pm, while Spain will wait until
(06:05):
one p m or later. Home time in Switzerland ranges
from three thirty p m to five thirty p M,
while the team in Spain will often be online until.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Six p m.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
This means that meetings between the third line teams usually
take place between nine am to eleven thirty a m.
And two pm to four pm. That is about four
point five hours a day. Outside of those times, you
risk people not having started yet, having already gone home,
or being out for lunch.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
This is what our new manager didn't like.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
While he couldn't really do much about lunch times, he
saw the opportunity to align our start and end times.
After reviewing people's calendars, he determined that in forcing an
eight am to five p m working day would cause
the least amount of disruption to our schedules. This would
increase the number of hours where we're all available by
(06:59):
two per day or ten per week. When he told
us about the change, none of us were happy, even
those that wouldn't be impacted because it already aligned with
their usual start and finished times. Were annoyed on behalf
of those who would be impacted. When we asked why
the change was being made, we were simply told it
(07:21):
was about us all being online together more. Some people
complained that it would impact out of work commitments, and
we were told he would make allowances, but only temporarily.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
One guy said that he.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Only takes a thirty minute lunch break, so this would
mean he goes over his weekly hours. The manager said
he would look into that. Then an older member of
the team asked if he had run it by human resources.
The manager said no, this isn't something he needs to
run by human resources. The same guy then asked if
(07:53):
we would have to start recording our hours. The manager
said no, this has nothing to do with recording hours.
Turns out the manager made a mistake here. You see,
in Switzerland, by law, employees need to record their working
hours and employers need to retain records to ensure compliance
with labor laws. There are, however, a few exceptions. Smaller
(08:18):
companies can simply record the number of hours worked each day. Meanwhile,
senior employees can be exempted from logging their hours if
they meet a certain salary threshold and their role allows
for autonomy in the hours worked. All the engineers on
the team based in Switzerland had signed this waiver. It
(08:38):
wasn't uncommon for us to work eleven hours on one
day and then five hours on the next. It wasn't
uncommon for us to work thirty hours in one week,
then fifty hours the next. We never recorded these hours.
We never explicitly told our team leaders or manager. It
was simply understood that some days or weeks would be busy,
(09:00):
and as we managed our own time, we would make
up for it later. We were trusted to manage our
own time, and if we didn't sign the waiver to
exclude us from logging our hours, it would create a
mess for overtime time off in loo, et cetera. But
one of the conditions for signing this waiver was that
we were free to determine the majority of our working hours,
(09:23):
which courts had clarified was defined as fifty percent. If
we are contracted to work forty hours a week, then
our employer can fix twenty of those hours and we
can choose when to take the other twenty. The manager
had now fixed one hundred percent of our hours, we
were no longer eligible for the exception granted to.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Us for us.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
We could continue working the dictated hours, and legally we
would be fine, but if someone reported our employer to
the labor authorities for not having us log our hours,
we would all be four to start doing so retroactively.
This would mean calculating overtime for the past six months,
(10:07):
paying out for any excess hours, and potentially facing fines
for non compliance. The older team member who had asked
about human resources casually mentioned this in the next meeting.
The manager brushed it off, but word got around. A
few of us started a group chat, and we decided
to comply fully with the.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
New hours, but only on paper.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
We logged every minute, every break, every log in and logout.
Within a week, reports showed some folks over forty hours
due to short lunches, others underdue to traffic or kid pickups.
Overtime claims piled up, and human resources got involved. The
manager tried to backpeddle, saying logging wasn't required, but now
(10:51):
that we'd started, we couldn't stop without violating the waiver conditions.
He spent weeks in meetings with human resources and legal
recalculating back pay. Finally, he reverted to flexible hours and
we all went back to our waivers. No fines, but
a lot of egg on his face. Teel doctor. New
manager enforces fixed hours to boost overlap unknowingly voiding our
(11:14):
hour logging waiver. We start strict logging, triggering overtime chaos
and back pay demands. He flips the policy faster than
a bad calendar invite edit. Yes, this is based on
real Swiss labor law check Article nine of the Labor Act.
If curious, no names changed because anonymity is key. Few
(11:36):
contract clauses as secret weapons.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Genius.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
That manager thought he was streamlining, but Swiss rules turned
it into a paperwork avalanche. Our poster's team played the
long game, and the revert was sweeter than flexible fridays.
If international work woes resonate, this is your vindication. On
to story three were back ups bite back this This
(12:00):
one's a classic idigatcha fresh from late September. Absolutely must
restore my important files from What's it for in a way,
and it's got that chadenfreud sparkle dive. In one of
my early jobs was managing the back end server and
database for a desktop slash laptop.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
File back up system.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Very big company, and we had all the sales and
management laptops on regular back up schedules. Often the database
would crash and we would have to rebuild it. This
meant restoring files using the automated process was offline for
a few hours to sometimes a few days. Management put
out a notice that any restore requests must get my
(12:42):
manager's approval before we did a manual restore. Most times
it could wait for a day or so. This one
sales guy insisted that we restore his supercritical sales documents
immediately or he would escalate to senior management. My manager
told him to wait for one more day. Nope, he
went straight to the chief technology officer and got his way.
(13:05):
So as part of the manual restore process, we print
out the complete file list of what we would be
restoring and copied all the files to a digital versatile
disc that was to be sent to the user. Ninety
five percent of the files that were to be restored
were inappropriate pictures and videos, with a few word docks
and spreadsheets. So after printing the twenty plus page file,
(13:31):
report and burning the digital versatile disc. I took it
to my manager, She smiled and immediately set an appointment
with the chief technology officer. Needless to say, the sales
guy had a very intense meeting with the chief technology officer, sales,
vice president, and human resources. I heard he denied to
(13:51):
the end those files were his. I wonder what he
told his spouse when he had to look for another job.
T L doctor, be careful when you escalate with information
technology to restore your critical files. They will find those
others you shouldn't have been saving to your work computer. Ha,
the ultimate file folder fiasco. Nothing says compliance like a
(14:13):
full audit trail. That sales guy's power play backfired spectacularly,
turning critical docs into career killers. Our poster's manager MVP
for the handoff. A reminder company drives aren't for personal playlists.
What's your back up? Blunder? Moving on to number four,
where raises get a creative boost. Story four is a
(14:34):
buddy tale with big payoff. Provide a offer, don't mind
if I do? From one piper piping end of month banger,
Let's go. A few recent stories on here reminded me
of a friend of mine we'll call Dave, shared with
his permission. Dave was working for a company for a
few years. Liked it there, liked the job, liked everything,
(14:56):
but the pay. His company pretty much only gave if
you had a competing offer. Dave's boss knew this and
advised him as such, since he wanted to keep Dave.
Dave didn't want to interview anywhere else. However, the supervisor
had hired him we'll call him Bruce had moved.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
On to another job.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Dave called Bruce, told him the situation, and Bruce was
just like, I've got an idea. I'll send you an
offer letter. How much should you be making? Dave was
making eighty five thousand dollars at the time, and based
on his skills, experience, et cetera, should have been making
about one hundred ten thousand dollars. So that's what he
told Bruce. Bruce said not to worry and that he'd
(15:40):
take care of it. Dave gets an e mail from Bruce,
doesn't look too hard at it, and tells his supervisor
the next day that he has an offer and was
wondering if his job would counter Dave forwards the letter
from Bruce and Dave's boss gets back to him, offering
him one hundred thirty thousand dollars to stay. As it
turns out, Bruce, because he didn't actually need to budget
(16:03):
for this position because it was fake, put one hundred
twenty five thousand dollars in the offer letter. He also
had a knowledge of Dave's unit's budget, having formerly worked there,
and knew they'd afford it to keep Dave. And that
is how Dave maliciously complied with a fake offer letter
to get a raise. PostScript, Bruce moved to a third
(16:25):
company about five years ago and has since hired Dave
there in an executive role.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
He's doing well.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
In Yes, Fake it till you make it Literally Bruce
as the ultimate wingman, padding that phantom offer just write.
Dave's counter landed forty five thousand dollars richer, and now
their colleagues again, proof that networks beat negotiations sometimes envy
inducing Wright one more brother than Story five Number five
(16:55):
a portal purge for the Ages. Want me to clean
up users on the portal? Done, You're deleted from LILBYA.
This week's top Dog with over eleven thousand up votes.
Strap in I work in information technology for a big
company and manage a portal that a small group of
people use daily. Manager wanted me to go through the
(17:17):
list of users and remove any one who didn't need access.
Simple request. I reduced the list from one hundred to
thirty people.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Every one's happy.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Couple weeks later, manager is complaining that thirty users is
too much and wanted me to create a list of
all their names, what team they are a part of,
who they report to, and how often they need access
to this portal. Annoying request, but sure, I got it done.
He goes through the list and gets mad when he
sees names he doesn't recognize, even though our company has
(17:49):
a couple thousand employees, so he tells me to delete
all users whose name he doesn't recognize. Stupid request, but
OK done.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
We are a globe company.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
So immediately overnight I'm getting bombarded with emails that systems
are down and no one has access to log into
the system and fix it. My phone's going off, but heckett,
I don't get paid to work. At three m next morning,
my manager somehow gets mad at me for deleting the
users he told me to delete and tells me to
add them back, No kidding, Sherlock. Couple weeks later, he
(18:24):
again brings up that he's not happy and the system
is not secure. Too many users have access, blah blah blah.
Like brother, how bored are you? He wanted me to
review the list of users with him again. Twenty seven
of the users use this system daily. There are only
three users himself and two other people that are high
(18:46):
up management that don't use the system at all, but
are there for political reasons. He starts yelling at me,
telling me to delete anyone who doesn't use the portal
daily as part of their core job, and anyone knew
who wants access must fill out a form and explain
why they need it.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Ok.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Fine, hecke done. Couple weeks pass by and he goes manager, Hey,
I think something's wrong with the system. I can't log
in any more. Me Nope, bit's working just fine. Manager,
Then why can't I log in? Me? I removed all
users who don't use it daily as part of their
core job, quoted my manager from weeks ago, word for word, Manager,
(19:27):
add me back, Me slides him the form he created,
Manager greater than Colan's zero face me smiley face, it's
been weeks and he still hasn't filled out the form,
and I still haven't added him back. We are somehow
on good terms now. The form slide chef's kiss of comeuppance.
Our poster's manager turned security hawk into paperwork pigeon, and
(19:51):
now he's locked out of his own obsession. Global chaos
to personal payback. Malicious compliance at its bureaucratic best, laugh
out loud levels of petty.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
All right.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Story six, a historical nugget that's too good to skip,
wrapping with a throwback twist historical malicious compliance. Can't fly
our red and white flag, Fine, we'll keep red and
white pigs instead, Short but sweet from an anonymous history
buff linking to the wickie here. It is so in
the late nineteenth slash early twentieth century, the Prussians occupied
(20:25):
the area around Flensburgh, which used to be Danish before.
Under the new rulers, the locals were forbidden from flying
red and white Danish flags, so they started keeping red
and white pigs instead. That's it, pure poor scene protest.
Those folks turned a flagban into farm yard flare, parading
(20:46):
porkers as patriotism. Fast forward, and it's a breed called
heusum Red Pied still around to day. If rules cramp
your style, just pig it out, Timeless troll few. Another
round of rule reversals on malicious compliance. From voicemail epics
to pig parades. These September stories show compliance can be
(21:10):
a compliance killer. Thanks for tuning in. If this fueled
your inner rule bender, imagine venting yours below. Until next time,
follow those orders with flair friends. This is your host
signing off, stay scheming.
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