‘You Gave the Wrong Employee Demerit Points…’ : New Supervisor Ultimately Gets Himself Fired When He Messes With Invaluable Machinist, Leading to Malicious Compliance and Chaos in Production

Eleonora Bader

May 18, 2023 1:00 AM EDT

It seems like a common theme for new supervisors to enter the workplace with a big bang, having the desire to prove themselves, leading to a quick and sudden change in the status quo. Oftentimes, this isn't necessarily a good thing. Some are as quick to go as they are to come, and this is exactly what happened in this particular case. A foreman joined a company and naively thought he could mess around with one of their oldest employees (a machinist) when giving him demerit points for being ten minutes late (during a snowstorm no less). The foreman had previously tried to get him to do other tasks, and had apparently taken offense when the machinist gave him a firm 'No'.

What the foreman failed to recognize, was that this employee was actually the top and only machinist, who worked a lot of overtime even though it wasn't specifically written in his contract — which he promptly stopped doing when given the points. Chaos ensued along with malicious compliance, as the company began losing big bucks in a short amount of time.

The foreman made his own bed, to say the least. Karma got him good. Scroll down to read what happened. For more petty malicious compliance, check out this neighbor who played the long game of revenge, leading to the foreclosure of the VP of the HOA's home.