'Firing me for exposing the company's illegal activities was also illegal, so instead she raged at me' : Employee maliciously complies with terrible manager, calls IT after finding error in system, resulting in fines amounting to $30,000

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    Computer - +135) MUH getur P U Just call IT Cue the next day... my boss called me into her office and was livid! According to her, I just caused the company to have to pay 30k in licensing fees. It appeared the company had only bought 4 copies of the Contour program, but had installed it in way over four computers. My faxing the diagnostic page let the cat out of the bag. But since she told me to call IT, and the fact that firing me for exposing the company doing something illegal would also be
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    Font - r/r/MaliciousCompliance u/pandora1783 15 hours ago Just call IT Posted by M OC
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    Font - A little back story....I had a friend who worked as a processor for a small mortgage company....small in that they had around 15 offices scattered throughout NC. She found another job and put in her two week's notice. The person they hired to replace her quit 2 days before her two weeks were up. So her office was in a bind!
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    Font - In walks me. My friend told her boss she knew someone who could do the job, and that, since she was friends with this person, she would be willing to train her after hours and on weekends, plus, if possible, take calls during the week. That take calls during the week is important! So I was hired.
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    Font - The manager wasn't too happy about it as I had no actual experience in an office setting, just college knowledge, but as long as my friend would help me, she said OK. But because of this, whenever I would ask my boss a question, she would immediately get upset and tell me to call my friend. Even for simple things, like, where do we keep the stamps?
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    Font - Please keep in mind that this was the early 90s, and all our computer systems were DOS based and quite difficult to master. The number one mortgage software, at that time, was a system called Contour, which was pretty non-user friendly for
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    Font - such a costly program. I was trained that if an issue came up, I was to fix it myself and not to contact Contour. I was given a list of common errors and how to fix them.
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    Font - I'm on my 4th day, and an error pops up on the screen that I had never seen before and is not on my list. It states I am to call this 800 number and speak with a Contour Technician to help clear it. I immediately call my friend, but she is not available right then as she is going through her own training. So I go to my boss. She tells
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    Font - me to call my friend. I tell her I tried, but she can't talk right now. She gets mad and starts swearing that she knew hiring me was a bad idea. I asked if there was anyone else I could call, and she said, "Just call IT." I reiterated to her I was told not to call Contour. She says call IT! So I did.
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    Font - The Contour Technician was a sweetheart and walked me through how to fix the problem. To help in the future, the technician asked me to print a diagnostic page and fax it to him so he could see if there were any other problems being as I was new to the system. So I did. He thanked me and told me he didn't see any other issues but to call him if I had any more problems.
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    Font - Cue the next day... my boss called me into her office and was livid! According to her, I just caused the company to have to pay 30k in licensing fees. It appeared the company had only bought 4 copies of the Contour program, but had installed it in way over four computers. My faxing the diagnostic page let the cat out of the bag.
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    Font - But since she told me to call IT, and the fact that firing me for exposing the company doing something illegal would also be illegal, all she could do was rage at me. She then called my friend and raged at her. From then on out, I refused to call my friend if I had any questions and just bugged my boss.
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    Font - She never did fire me, and towards the end, we became, if not friends, not enemies, until the company closed under mysterious circumstances a few years later.
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    Font - Charlie Mouse · 14 hr. ago closed under mysterious circumstances You can't just leave that hanging without explaining! Vote Reply Share
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    Font - pandora1783 OP. 6 hr. ago This company was run by nepotism. My boss was married to the regional manager who was best buds with the owner. The owner hired all his children, whether qualified or not, to manage offices. The owner thought it would be a good idea to sell to one of the big
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    Font - banks, not realizing that meant a scrutinized review of company records. FBI came into the corporate office. From what I understand, as the FBI was coming in the front door, the owner was running out the back. All I know, is I walked into my office one sunny morning to a note on my desk
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    Font - stating they were closing our branch and a bunch of other ones, and would I please call all the utility companies and cancel services. I literally turned the lights off and dropped the keys in the mailbox as the last person out the door!
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    Font - english4portuguese · 5 hr. ago In my head, I read that as: married TO the regional manager Reply Share Vote
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    Font - IS PAIN Varnigma +1.7 hr. ago I've worked in IT for 30 years. As soon as you said they didn't want you to call the software company I KNEW they were using unlicensed software. Vote Reply Share
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    Font - neo1piv014 · 6 hr. ago I remember working for a company that did the same thing with their Office software. It was in a sealed vault, so the installs couldn't phone home to report they'd been used. One off the shelf copy of Office 2010 spread across a couple dozen standalone boxes.
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    Font - +3 · 14 hr. ago Not friends and not enemies is my favorite category for coworkers. Reply Share CoderJoe1 Vote
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    Font - +3 · 13 hr. ago Stabbmaster I screamed at your title. You don't call IT. Unless your PC is on fire or your server exploded, you make a damn ticket. But yes, the fact that they were abusing that is completely on them. They're lucky all they did was make them pay, you'd be surprised how easy it is to
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    Font - "seize your property" in those cases, which for a program is every hard drive/tower that has an illegal copy installed. Vote Reply Share
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    Font - Gainaxe 9 hr. ago keep in mind this was back in the early 90's. There weren't mature IT processes, and every job I heard of even through the early 2ks the answer was to call IT. It was only closer to 2005+ when jobs I worked at started having actual ticketing systems. Reply Share Vote
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    Font - dobdob2121 +1.5 hr. ago Where's the malicious compliance? You just did as you were told. Vote Reply Share
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    Font - the-truthseeker. 3 hr. ago The malicious compliance is they did it literally as they were told they didn't try to do anything flexibly but yeah it is pretty much compliance. Reply Share Vote
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    Font - +1 . 46 min. ago "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" Neo1971 Vote Reply Share

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