Employee Asks HR to do Their Job, Reprimand Magically Disappears

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Eric Lund
Mar 14, 2021 8:00 PM EDT

As much incentive as people have to do their own jobs, a certain proportion of us have the exact opposite going on. This HR person was trying to do the bare minimum in order to wrongfully reprimand an employee over their timesheets, and it just so happened when everyone had to compile a detailed report, things fell into place. For more work shenanigans, here's an employee who outsmarted HR by citing guidelines as well as an employee who had their wages docked illegally and crushed their boss's dreams.

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  • 01
    Font - O r/MaliciousCompliance · Posted by u/G8351427 20 hours ago 4 The HR Lady Doesn't Like Me Much oC L So this happened at the company that I currently work for, but it was many years ago. I did not plan the outcome; just a coincidence caused by insisting on malicious compliance. I work in IT and when I started, my job was rather entry- level but it was paid as a salary position. After some years, the company decided to make it an hourly position, which I did not like for a variety of reason
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  • 02
    Font - The company's main hourly worker pool was for manufacturing and assembly line, so the company structured its hourly policies around that position. Rigid start and end times, scheduled breaks, and sick time billed to your earned PTO. A lot of these policies were not really compatible with my availability and the type of work that I was doing, not to mention some of the benefits changed considerably. Hourly employees were supposed to use a time clock, but those were only in buildings that h
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  • 03
    Font - My manager at the time totally understood why I was disgruntled, and she came up with a few workarounds. One of which was to enter a generic 40 hour time card for me in the system every week, which was cool cause it meant that I did not have to use the punch clock. If there was any overtime, she would go in and fix it later. There was nothing that I could do about the change to hourly, but being me, I was pretty vocal about it and my attitude eventually caught the attention of the HR lady
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  • 04
    Font - At some point, my manager needed me to start the day in a different building which had no punch clock. I don't think she was aware that there was no punch clock, so she had to make an edit to my timecard for that day. Well, the HR lady saw the edit and assumed that I was still being obstinate. Out of the blue, my manager scheduled a formal-type meeting with me in one of the local conference rooms. She presents a document for me to read and sign, which is a formal reprimand for not followi
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  • 05
    Font - I read through the writeup and realized it was very poorly written; like a grade-schooler had prepared it. Lots of copy and pasted text, points that did not apply to the issue at hand, and no clearly-defined problem with a desired resolution and probationary period. So, I refused to sign. I pointed out the many mistakes, the points that did not apply, and lack of a resolution plan or time period. My manager agreed with me that the reprimand was bullshit, but the HR lady wanted to go down
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  • 06
    Font - I demanded a rewritten form with a clearly-stated problem, a desired resolution, and a timeframe for when the matter would be considered resolved. My manager said, "The HR lady is not gonna like that. She is gonna want to talk to you directly." I said, "Good. I will gladly tell her to her face." We scheduled a meeting. I explain to the HR lady that the reprimand process was an opportunity to not only point out mistakes, but also to correct them. The lack of an improvement plan in this wri
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  • 07
    Font - I had kinda forgot about the whole thing until they did some restructuring in IT, which made me realize I didn't want that hanging over my head unresolved. I decided to formally request a copy of my file from HR and to my surprise, the reprimand was not in it. I emailed the HR lady asking about this, and she explained that she rescinded it, so it's gone. I was a little confused that she hadn't mentioned this in the months that had passed, but was glad it was over.
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  • 08
    Font - Some time later, I was having lunch with my director and he brought up the reprimand. He was asking "whatever happened with that?", and I told him HR rescinded it. Apparently, HR cannot close a reprimand without the employee's leadership signing off on it, which was about four different people. Not a single one would agree to it. It turns out that my malicious compliance with the reprimand process forced her to write a detailed, intelligible reprimand including an improvement plan. All th
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wtf job work lol human resources ridiculous story win
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