'You talk too much': Chatty employee maliciously complies and stays silent at work, gets fired anyway

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Aug 2, 2023 2:00 PM EDT

This coworker was a bit too easy to talk to in the office. We've all had these coworkers among us. The ones who manage to be able to talk incessantly throughout the work day. Meanwhile, you're sitting there wondering how they're able to get all their work done every day. 

 

Personally, I am not one of these coworkers. Sometimes, it's been hours since I spoke last because I get a bit too laser-focused. Sometimes, I'm simply not in the mood to socialize. So you can imagine that I was at first a bit hesitant when it came to understanding this Redditor's perspective. The natural gregarious quality they seem to have at work is pretty foreign to me and my experiences. However, this coworker's desk was also located exactly where people would pass, so the chatter was inevitable. 

 

What's more unfortunate about this story is that we have a tale of malicious compliance that may have exposed OP's boss as a poor manager and communicator, yet OP didn't exactly win out in the end. In fact, they seem to believe that their sudden silence at work affected their visibility in the office and contributed to the manager's decision to fire OP when layoffs came around. 

 

Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions in the comments section below. For more stories like this, check out this post about a restaurant worker's revenge on their Karen boss.

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  • 01
    Font - You talk too much. Wait, why are you so quiet? м ос I originally posted this as a comment to another thread, and someone suggested this might fit here. I used to work as one of three assistants for the engineering / r&d department of a medical company. My desk was situated between the other two assistants, and we were all in the middle of a cube farm.
    via u/oylaura
  • 02
    Font - It was problematic because everyone who had to go anywhere had to come by my desk. They would stop, say hello, and no matter how hard I tried, they'd start chatting. This of course impacted my work.
    via u/oylaura
  • 03
    Font - After a certain point, my supervisor pulled me into an office and told me that I'm talking too much, that it's impacting my work, and to not talk so much with people. I asked her to give me a script for what to say to people, and she didn't have anything to offer.
    via u/oylaura
  • 04
    Font - I was in counseling at the time and I asked my counselor the same question. She said to use the phrase, " I won't talk to you right now" and return to my work. I'm a bit of a people pleaser, and that's too abrupt for me. So I stopped talking. To everyone.
    via u/oylaura
  • 05
    Font - After about a week, once again my supervisor calls me into the office. She asked me what's wrong. I told her nothing was wrong. She said people are complaining that I'm being antisocial. I said, "you told me to stop talking to people, that I was talking too much, and it was impacting my work. So I did."
    via u/oylaura
  • 06
    Font - She said, "I didn't mean it like that". Once again, I asked her to clarify exactly what I should and should not say, how much conversation was too much, and what to say when the conversation went on too long.
    via u/oylaura
  • 07
    Font - Again, she had no response. She said, "Just don't talk too long." I returned to work. One of our lab techs was one of the chattiest, and one of the worst offenders. She came by my desk one day, we exchanged greetings, and she started chatting. I quietly told her that I had gotten in trouble for talking too much, and I needed to get back to work. She respected that, and walked away.
    via u/oylaura
  • 08
    Font - I did that a few more times, and the point got made to the office. It didn't make my supervisor look particularly good because everyone knew when I said I was in trouble, what the source was, and when layoffs came sometime later, guess who was the first to go?
    via u/oylaura
  • 09
    Font - Don't get me wrong, it was a blessing in disguise. The severance was amazing, they paid for job placement training, gave us 9 months notice, and once our termination date came, they paid us out in regular paychecks, not in the lump sum. During that time, for me, almost 3 months, I accrued vacation and sick time the whole time. They cashed it all out at the end.
    via u/oylaura
  • 10
    Font - The week after my severance package ran out, I found a job at another division of the same company and continued for another 11 years.
    via u/oylaura
  • 11
    Font - untitledfolder4 1 day ago Da if you do, if you don't. It amazes me how people like that boss get a management position without at least being able to provide guidelines for what they want in the office. 1.6k Reply Share
    via u/oylaura
  • 12
    Font - mizinamo 1 day ago +3. Especially fun if you're neurodivergent and your boss is neurotypical and just expects you to magically know how much is "too long". 714 Reply Share
    via u/oylaura
  • 13
    Font - tisonlymoi 1 day ago I was getting in trouble for talking, even got a written warning for it. The thing is, at the time, I worked for Safeway collecting the trolleys/carts. My department manager asked me " why is it every time I look out the window you're talking".
    via u/oylaura
  • 14
    Font - It was in the rulebook that we HAD to be polite to customers at all times, we were frequently told that we (in the carpark/parking lot were the face of the store and that we are the first and last faces the customer sees. Often, my 'talking' was with customers whilst waiting for their trolley/cart, customers would ask a multitude of questions, regular customers were like friends.
    via u/oylaura
  • 15
    Font - If I ignored the customers, I would be rightly in trouble. Well, I did what I was told, I stopped talking to customers, soon the complaints built up, she (the department manager) soon backed down, removed my written warning. 400 Reply Share
    via u/oylaura
  • 16
    Font - Zoreb1 1 day ago Lost a promotion for not talking too much. My boss put me in for one but the dept. head rejected it because he didn't know me. I asked her, "it was because I don't stand in the hallway gabbing like a lot of people do?" She said yes. Several months later my boss became dept. head and I got my promotion.
    via u/oylaura
  • 17
    Font - ForceAccomplished890. 1 day ago Reminds me of back in high school. Next to each subject there was a space where teachers could put comments on how you could improve. Mine said that I was too quiet in class for a certain subject. I think there were one or two others that got that comment from that teacher as well. The rest of the class instead got a comment that they were too chatty in class. The entire class had a good laugh about that.
    via u/oylaura

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employee boss Reddit work work stories malicious compliance reddit thread toxic-workplace toxic-boss toxic-work-environment workplace-stories
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