'I sent him 119 emails': Expert malicious complier bombards boss with daily reports, then spends an entire day playing games

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 18, 2023 11:00 AM EDT

Only someone who was born yesterday would mess with their business's safety inspector/auditor. This boss absolutely paid the price!

This person wrote to the r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit with a great tale of workplace MC. As the OP explains it, they used to have lots of autonomy at their job as they conducted safety inspections, making sure everything was up to code. They were so good at their job that they reported right to the owner and his son. However, after getting a new boss, this job took a turn for the worse. 

It's an awkward situation to be in — your boss wants to be a leader, so they start micromanaging you. It doesn't help you get your job done any faster, and if anything, it slows you down and makes you way less productive. This guy took things to the extreme by documenting things down to the minute (and including breaks, too). The new boss really had no idea what he was getting into! 

After that, this restaurant is cutting their chef's salary by 8k — all because of their own incompetence. 

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    Cheezburger Image 9754269184
    via Wesley Tingey on Unsplash
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    Font - r/r/MaliciousCompliance Posted by u/13121 17 hours ago "Not Today" LOC Jump in and hang on, friendly redditor, this one's kinda long. My apologies. For your troubles, I'll give you two MCs for the price of one! Scroll on down for the tl;dr, if you wish.
    via u/I312I
  • 03
    Font - My (now ex-) boss was hired after me and relied heavily on me to run the department, which I did. Before his arrival, I ran the department by myself and had autonomy; I only answered to the owner and his son. near-complete
    via u/I312I
  • 04
    Font - Since I was expected to do everything on my own, I was well-versed in the contents of my job description and I followed them to the letter. Once the new boss came on, our department got more responsibility, to include other buildings on the property.
    via u/I312I
  • 05
    Font - Since I was previously not responsible for the other buildings, I decided to do an audit/inspection of the buildings to make sure they were compliant with codes, regulations, etc.
    via u/I312I
  • 06
    Font - One of the buildings was seriously noncompliant. They needed to either shut the building down and fix everything or tear it down completely and start over. Since my job description specifically stated that I was to "conduct audits and recommend building closures due to unsafe working conditions", that's exactly what I did - by email to my boss and senior management.
    via u/I312I
  • 07
    Font - Well, my boss had a fit. He said I never should have sent that email and how dare I tell the owner what to do with his company, etc. I told him it was part of my job description and showed him the exact sentence. He didn't care, which ped me off because it was employee safety we were talking about. I made a fairly big stink about how terrible it was that they cared more about production than they did about safety.
    via u/I312I
  • 08
    Font - I got marched into a conference room with my boss and the HR manager and they proceeded to berate me for 20 minutes about my "unprofessionalism" and my "insubordination". I asked them how it was possible that I was being insubordinate when I was following my job description. They had no answer for that and instead said they needed to see an increase in my performance OR ELSE.
    via u/I312I
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    Font - From that day forward, my boss required me to send him a daily report of every single thing I did so he could make sure I was doing my job to his expectation and that I didn't send "inappropriate" emails to the owner.
    via u/I312I
  • 10
    Font - MC #1: I sent him time-stamped emails for every. single. thing. I did. 0701 - read email from [person] 0702 - replied to [person]'s email 0704 - read email from [other person] You get the idea. The first day, I sent him 119 emails of things I did, including my use of the bathroom.
    via u/I312I
  • 11
    Font - Now on to the next. Remember when I said I knew my job description? One of the bullet points stated that I was expected to liaise with outside agencies to conduct inspections of the facilities to ensure compliance with local, state, and federal regulations. One such outside agency was the local fire inspector, who we knew was coming on a Friday.
    via u/I312I
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    Font - All the way up until Thursday evening, my boss was expecting me to accompany the fire inspector during the inspection. He even reassigned things on my calendar to make sure I was free on Friday morning.
    via u/I312I
  • 13
    Font - Friday morning arrived and I was getting ready for the fire inspector. My boss came in the office and said, "I need you to hang out in the office today. [Other person] is going to do the walk with the fire inspector."
    via u/I312I
  • 14
    Font - It caught me by surprise, I'll admit. I told him that it was specifically part of my job description to do the inspection and reminded him that he had recently told me to increase my performance. He said, "You're not doing it." Me: "Is it because you think I'll report all of the deficiencies and get this place shut down?" Boss: "It's not that at all."
    via u/I312I
  • 15
    Font - Me: "Just so I understand you completely; you're telling me you don't want me to do my job." Boss: "Not today." Here's the second MC, dear redditor. I sat in my office and played games on my computer the entire day. I also made sure to comply with his daily email requirement at the end of the day. It was the only email I sent.
    via u/I312I
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    Font - 0730 - computer work 1600-left tl;dr: MC 1 - boss required daily emails detailing my day. I sent him a separate email for every single thing I did. MC 2 - boss told me not to do my job, so I sat in the office and played games on my computer all day.
    via u/I312I
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    Font - Edit: The result of the fire inspection was a stack of paper - I remember 16 pages - full of violations. The inspector was about to retire at that time, so the laundry list of violations was a surprise to my boss. I left two working days after the inspection, so I don't have much of an update beyond that, other than what the mole told me last night which was "same s different day."
    via u/I312I
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    Human body - OleCuss 16 hr. ago Not the brightest boss. Sounds like a complete waste.
    via u/OleCuss
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    Font - CoderJoe1 +3 16 hr. ago Did he get fired, you quit or the business close? Vote Reply Share 13121 OP 16 hr. ago I quit 3 weeks ago .
    via u/CoderJoe1
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    Font - Zoreb1 If you reported to the owner and son I assume you've developed a relationship with them. I'd mention to them the legal liability your boss wants to expose them to. Reply Share +2 16 hr. ago Vote . 13121 OP 16 hr. ago . I tried that. The owner's son forbade me from entering that building ever again lol
    via u/Zoreb1
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    Font - Radiant-Art3448 - 16 hr. ago Wait! You can't leave us hanging! What happened with the inspection? Did they ever come up to code? Enquiring minds, ya now? Vote Reply Share 13121 OP 16 hr. ago I think I counted 16 pages of violations on the boss' desk. I reported them to OSHA after I quit.
    via u/Radiant-Art3448

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jobs work stories owner malicious compliance emails workplace Horrible Bosses
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