‘You can have as much overtime as you want, just do your job’: Factory worker turns off production machines after being instructed to ‘wash windows’, leading to a holdup in entire factory's production

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
Aug 28, 2023 7:00 AM EDT

People often ponder what 'being cheap' looks like in a company, and it is strongly apparent that those particular people do not work in cheap companies.

In too many places, bosses love to assign their employees extra work, giving them multiple jobs to do that don't necessarily fit their job description, and cheap out on hiring somebody else to do what needs to be done. Most of the time, they get away with it. But every so often, an employee shows them who is boss, by maliciously complying to a T. In this case, OP was working at a factory as an operator of one of the production machines.

It wasn't too hard of a job, and didn't require a higher education or anything. For the most part, OP was pretty happy with this gig. That is, until he got a message from one of his coworkers who informed him that his boss wanted him to clean all the windows in the factory. The factory itself wasn't huge, but it wasn't tiny, and if you have ever cleaned a large area of glass, you will know that it requires special equipment, isn't easy, and most of all, is very time-consuming.

OP was young, but he wasn't dumb. So, instead of refusing to do something that wasn't technically his job, he did it, and with such vigor, that it imposed on his other duties. This led to a huge hold-up in production, and higher-ups got involved. One thing led to another, and his malicious compliance had done the job.

After this, here is a head mechanic who 'punished' his employees by taking away all kinds of privileges that they had, according to him, taken for granted. Personally, I think he went too far, but you be the judge. Why did he do this? The employees finished 400 bags of chips in 3 weeks.

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  • 02
    Font - Posted by u/KGrahnn 1 day ago Excuse me? You want me to wash the windows? M OC This happened more than three decades ago, when I was at the begining of my
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 03
    Font - working career. As a youth I didnt really know upwards from downwards, and I was just happy that I had a steady job and a salary. The job itself didnt matter, as long as I had a job, I was happy.
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 04
    Font - I was an operator of the production machine, which didnt really need higher education to operate, but it required a person to watch over it in case of some production hickup or another err happened. Mostly the machine run just
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 05
    Font - fine, and the operators job was to put in material or parts into it every now and then and to watch over it. And that was what I did. All in all very simple entry level job. This one day one of my co-
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 06
    Font - workers came to me and and told me that our manager required me to wash the windows of the factory today. I was kind of dumbfounded for a moment, and then I laughed and told him "sure". At first I thought it was a joke. I told him that I have to watch over my own
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 07
    Font - work here, so is he sure about this? He told me that yes, thats what he was told to tell me. Well, I didnt quite believe what I had heard, and next lunch break I went to look for the manager and asked if it was so. The manager told
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 08
    Font - me that the windows are dirty and havent been washed for years, so its time to clean them. And that I should start right away. I was just "oh, ok”. He was naturally being cheap since he didnt want to
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 09
    Font - hire someone outsider to do it. And wanted to use me as a youngster to do the extra work. I went back to my workspot, thought a little what to do and where to start. Where to get the equipment etc. Then I turned the machine I was
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 10
    Font - operating off and begun to work with windows. The factory, while it wasnt too large, it wasnt small either. And some of the windows were pretty high up so it wasnt quick work either at cases. But I was told what
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 11
    Font - to do and so I complied. My estimate was that it would take least several days if not whole week to finish the job. After second day someone noticed that the parts were begining to pile up at my spot, which was of course because there was no one
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 12
    Font - there doing the process and the machine was offline. On third day someone found me washing the windows at one corner of the factory and asked what the hell I was doing? Everyone were worried where I was and why the production line had
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 13
    Font - stalled up since no one was operating the machine where I was supposed to be. They practically pulled me back to the manager and told what had happened. I explained that I had been doing what I was told earlier, and I was about half way
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 14
    Font - done. And that I cant be in two places at once. There were other managers present as well, and they all turned to look at the one which had instructed me at first place. We workers were told to leave, and I was told to go to my original job and
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 15
    Font - start up the machine asap. And that if I want, I can do as much overtime as I want until the production quota has been reached back. I believe they had some discussion among the managers behind the closed doors after we left.
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 16
    Font - It took for a while, but I netted nice overtime bonus from that in the end. They also hired someone to wash rest of the windows as well.
    via u/KGrahnn
  • 17
    Font - Any - 1 day ago Significance_729 +1 As soon as I read "turned the machine off", I thought, "GOOD lad"... Exactly as expected. Good on you 1.1k Reply Share
    via u/Any_Significance_729
  • 18
    Font - B Sweet_Permission_700 +2 • 19 hr. ago That was my favorite part. Safe malicious compliance is the best. It wasn't the coworkers being stupid with demands.
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    Font - yParticle +3 - 1 day ago Well done, kid! I've seen this sort of thing happen a fair bit: managers think they're pulling one over by having someone they already pay for skilled
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  • 20
    Font - labor doing unskilled jobs "on the side", when what they're actually doing is paying triple or more for the unskilled jobs while pulling them away from where they're really needed.
    via u/yParticle
  • 21
    Font - This only works if the employee spends significant time "on standby" anyway, and can drop their makework task on a moment's notice when they need to do their actual job. 4 479 Reply Share
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  • 22
    Font - +1 · 1 day ago I thought you were just gonna leave it running and it would break down on its own with noone to fix it. But turning it off outright was just juicy. cero1399 151 Reply Share
    via u/cero1399
  • 23
    Font - sherryAPTX4869 1 day ago Wow a similar situation just happened to me at work this Tuesday. I'm a working student and my boss told me to wash the windows as well. My job has nothing to do with
    via u/sherryAPTX4869
  • 24
    Font - physical work or anything like that, it is a desk job. I was pretty mad that they made me do it since it's literally not in my job description. So I just said "Ok" and did it half a d. I'm still thinking about how I can pay them back for this. Fit
    via sherryAPTX4869
  • 25
    Font - Jezbod +2 22 hr. ago Yup, that's the way to do it! Well done. It should be "any other tasks RELATED TO YOUR ROLE", as it is where I work.
    via u/Jezbod
  • 26
    Font - I'm in tech support, being asked to wash windows would be a "HELL NO!" Plus we have a contract company as it is a 3 story building. Vote Reply Share
    via u/Jezbod

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salary boss machine-operator window washing manager coworkers extra-work factory-worker factory overtime-bonus employees production-quota overtime production-holdup cheap
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