'500 reasons to never mess with a programmer's dedication to pettiness': Employees overwhelms toxic management with paperwork in a valiant act of malicious compliance

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Apr 15, 2023 9:00 PM EDT

You know, sometimes efficiency is underrated and/or misunderstood by a toxic boss and you just have to do something to remind them how helpful it is for everyone. Why does toxic management underrate efficiency? Who knows?! It's most likely just a power move because they're toxic and narcissistic and think that there has to be a pecking order everywhere they work and they have to tell you what to do even if it's a dumb thing to do… 

That seems to happen often in the workplace, unfortunately. Thank god for malicious compliance. One programmer shared a story of when he used to work for a large company and he and his coworkers had developed a very efficient way of doing their paperwork. However, the toxic manager came in and screamed at them all, like they do, and told them they had to write individual forms for each product. Well, they had a product that included 1149 CDs, so the employees did what they were told, and individually wrote a form out for each CD. 

The boss never asked them to do this again… 

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement
  • 01
    Hood - Posted by u/CGremlin 1 day ago What the quartermaster wants, he gets... S OC IN BOX OUT BOX
    via u/wallpaperflare

    Reddit post by u/CGremlin

  • 02
    Font - Many years ago, I worked for a company that produced a diagnostics software package for the U.S. Navy, which was used in their repair depots to automatically troubleshoot circuit boards. The software was issued on individually numbered CDs, and we usually delivered them in packages of 500, along with an 1149 transmittal form for the quartermaster to sign.
    via u/CGremlin
  • 03
    Font - One time we had a quartermaster that got all uppity because there were 500 items in the package, but only a single 1149 for the lot. So, the next time we delivered to that particular facility, we wrote out an individual 1149 for each CD in the box, and presented him with an impressive stack of paperwork when we showed up. It took him a couple of hours to verify the serial number on each CD, sign each and every one of the forms, tear off his copy, and put it in the pile. He never asked for
    via u/CGremlin
  • 04
    Font - cabird78 +3. 1 day ago 500 reasons to never mess with a programmer's dedication to pettiness. CDs and excessive paperwork... the '90s called, they want their "efficiency" back.
    via u/cabird78
  • 05
    Font - cabird78 +3. 1 day ago 500 reasons to never mess with a programmer's dedication to pettiness. CDs and excessive paperwork... the '90s called, they want their "efficiency" back.
    via u/alady12
  • 06
    Font - alady12 1 day ago ...the '90s called, they want their "efficiency" back". Can confirm. I worked in engineering during this time. It was a madhouse of some stuff on CDs, some sent by email (jpg, pdf, dwg, you could never get the format correct), and always still paper blueprints.
    via u/alady12
  • 07
    Font - We had one situation where two departments were running different programs and needed the same drawings. They were literally throwing disks over the wall.
    via u/alady12
  • 08
    Font - jrdiver. 1 day ago We were basically the last with a couple floppy cameras at work. in a way there was the benefit that nobody else had a floppy drive so never had to deal with people stealing the ol floppy camera or disks we had. then we upgraded the computers in those machines and that was the end of that. had to get new cameras
    via u/jrdiver
  • 09
    Font - Lord_Space_Lizard +1 - 20 hr. ago I used to work at a place where our repair tech would use a floppy disk camera to take pictures of items he was repairing to show the damaged parts to customers. That camera had to be at least 10 years old at that point. I worked at a place that sold cameras and lighting equipment...
    via u/Lord_Space_Lizard
  • 10
    Font - MedicinalPorpoises +1 19 hr. ago One of those Sony floppy disk cameras was the first digital camera I ever used. I was working in a petrochemical plant in 2000 and we used it to take pics during equipment inspections which would be saved with the inspection reports. It all felt very flash and modern. Not long before they used to use a Polaroid camera and tape the pics into printouts of the reports. By todays standards the pics were very low res and grainy but at the time it felt so futuri
    via u/MedicinalPorpoises
  • 11
    Font - joppedi_72 +2 23 hr. ago I had a situation some time around 2010 when the CFO came to me with a padded envelope and a worried look on her face. My country's eqvivalent to IRS had decided to go digital and (snail)mailed a 3.5" floppy with the tax and revenue registration form on it. They required the finance department to open the form on file on the floppy, fill it out and save it back to the floppy and then put the floppy back in the padded envelope and snailmail it back to the IRS.
    via u/joppedi_72
  • 12
    Font - There was only one teensy weensy little problem, everyone att the company had laptops and none of them came with 3.5" floppydrives. In the end I had to take the floppy to the serverroom, put it in the 3.5 drive of our oldest server, copy the file to the finance share. Then wait for them to fill out the form and save the changes so that I could copy the file back onto the floppy and bring the floppy back to finance so that they could mail the envelope back to IRS.
    via u/joppedi_72
  • 13
    Font - nagerjaeger +2 - 1 day ago Worked in IT for Club Fed for 30 years. In the early 90's one of our analysts started having a 3 1/2 inch floppy disk sent to him every year with a massive 900K file on it. It came in a "blue" envelope with an official memo. He was a great guy, a Vietnam Vet Marine, and did not understand IT. Our help desk didn't like him but I did so even though I was a system admin I'd go perform the update for him. As the decades went by we had to procure a 3 1/2 inch floppy
    via u/nagerjaeger
  • 14
    Font - Side note. This guy was great. A smoker. One week I had to visit some of our satellite offices so I got a car from the motor pool, loaded my geek stuff, and drove out on Monday morning. This guy was standing by the gate smoking and used his card to open it. Ha! I waved, thanked him and drove out. Friday afternoon when I got back he was standing by the gate smoking and carded me in. My coworker and I ended up naming him "The Greeter" from then on.
    via u/nagerjaeger

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

satisfying-revenge malicious compliance employees workplace Reddit
Scroll Down For The Next Article