Malicious Compliance: Karen Boss Demands Email Correspondence and That She Never Reads, Orchestrates Her Own Demise

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Mar 4, 2022 5:00 PM EST

When a new manager felt threatened by one of her subordinates, she demanded that they submit everything to her via email as a means of control. She then maliciously kept from reading those emails, leading to her downfall.

Redditor, u/TrainingOutcome5466, used to work on campus back when they were in university. They were what you might consider the "unofficial leader" of the team. When a new "Karen" boss joined the group, she immediately felt threatened by u/TrainingOutcome5466 and didn't like that they would always vocalize the team's disagreement with the poor decisions she was making.

This escalated to the point that Karen was making u/TrainingOutcome5466 work to restrictions that no one else did, including requiring that they conduct all matters via email. They were sure to comply with Karen's every demand and sent dozens of emails a day. When they learned that Karen was intentionally ignoring all of these emails, the chance for some malicious compliance presented itself.