'Their faces were priceless': Boss makes sick employee come in, employee maliciously complies, gets company sick policy revised

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Oct 23, 2023 2:00 PM EDT

All employers should know by now not to mess with the company sick day policy. Here, we have a horrible boss who decided that every employee who called in sick needed to physically show up to the office first to hand in a note from their physician. A phone call wouldn't even suffice. Clearly, this boss didn't have any trust in his employees and also didn't fully comprehend the risk of having infected folks show up and potentially getting more employees sick. Essentially, this dude was either asking for trouble or he's just a complete buffoon. 

This thread was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit, and let's just say that the Redditor made sure his boss got what he was asking for. OP got a stomach bug and was explicitly told by his doctor not to show up to work, and yet of course, his boss made him come into the office. To make matters worse, the boss attempted to intimidate OP by making him shake hands with other important people at the company upon his arrival. Well, when OP revealed that he came in just to hand in his doctor's note, the other senior members of the company were upset, having just shaken OP's hand. I guess you can say that the boss began to rethink this ludicrous sick policy.

Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions in the comments section. For more, check out this post about a boss who fired their employee for being late.

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  • 01
    Hand - "Cue my malicious compliance..."
    via Chris Liverani
  • 02
    Font - I really have to shake everyone's hand? Okay! LOC English isn't my first language, so sorry in advance for all the stuff I will mispronounce in your heads. This happened like 15 years ago in Germany, I was in my apprenticeship in a big coal-mine, once the pride of Germany industry. We were 50 apprentice every year (here you have to do 3 years apprenticeship before you become an electrician for example) and my company employed around 4000 people at that time.
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 03
    Font - The coal sector in Germany was in decline and it was cheaper to import coal from China, Poland or Australia, so the company got big subsidies by the state and it showed. Stuff wasn't replaced, people had to do more shifts, all in all there was an atmosphere (especially in management) of ,having to prove you are still useful' in a sense. While most people were pretty chill, retirement plans for the older workers were solid and us younger people knew we weren't going to work there long term
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 04
    Font - So one day all apprentices called into a big meeting with the top manager of our section and he told us, that we had too much sick days. In Germany you can have as many sick days as you need and you get paid for them in full (there are some other things about pay and sick days in Germany not important to this story, but if you want to nitpick or learn more, just read up on German labor laws, it's fun, I promise).
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 05
    Font - He even had a full power point presentation with how many days we had, what was the reason, there were charts and figures and such stuff. The whole management spiel. In the end his idea was that from now on we all had to give our sick notice to him personally in his office at the first day of absence.
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 06
    Font - This is kinda not 100% legal I guess (I am no lawyer) but we were all young people and hat little to no knowledge about this. Why he wanted to do it this way was clear, he thought many of us were faking their sickness to get a long weekend or whatever. Up to then you only had to phone in when you were sick and could either send your doctors notice by mail or bring it in and leave it at the office receptionist. Wasn't good enough anymore I guess.
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 07
    Font - Directly the week after the meeting I got a bad stomach bug. Don't ask me what it was, maybe I ate something bad or it was just the season, no idea. After I spray- painted my parents bathroom all night I got to my doctor first thing in the morning and I got a doctors notice and was instructed to not go under people for the next couple of days in case I was contagious. So I went home and phoned the receptionist at the office to tell them I was sick and I couldn't come in. He transferred me
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 08
    Font - knew he thought I was lying and that didn't sit right with me, in all the time there I only missed work for one week and that was because I had a broken foot (yes, I worked in a coal mine with a broken foot, I am not nearly as tough as this makes me sound) and I didn't like to be accused like that, even though it was only implied. By law you are not forced to tell your employer why you are sick, only that you are sick...
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 09
    Font - Cue my malicious compliance. I said sure, I will be right there. I got into my car, drove to my workplace and got to the office. My manager was in a meeting with some higher-ups in the company and I was instructed to wait, but as he heard I was there, I was invited into the room full of people in expensive suites who looked like they had serious business to do (or whatever, maybe the cookies were good there, I don't know). So he made me stand in front of all these important people in the
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 10
    Font - everyone who was there and I introduced myself. I am sure it was meant to scare me into not having any false sick days anymore. Then with a triumphant smile he asked me why I was there and I pulled out my doctors notice, gave it to him and said. ,,As you instructed me I have to give you my doctors notice in person. I got a bad case of stomach flu this night and just wanted to let you know I will be sick for the rest oft he week."
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 11
    Font - Their faces were priceless and he pushed me out way too fast for me to really cherish the situation. My stomach was better by next week and the rule about our sick days was lifted.
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 12
    Font - Sharp Coat3797 - 5 hr. ago Any idea if the suits had to personally hand him sick notes after about 2 days of flu incubation period? Hee Hee
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 13
    Font - Muted Problem 7700 OP 4 hr. ago I wish I would know, but that information was not given to a lowly aprentice like me But it must have had a lasting impact as there was no more talk of sick days and the rule was silently fazed out the next week
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 14
    Font - RedditAdminAreMorons 5 hr. ago So how many people ended up catching this highly infectious disease that he willingly exposed them all to?
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 15
    Font - dbear848 4 hr. ago I was kind of hoping that you spray painted the conference table also. My mother thought I was faking being sick from school so she would make me go anyway. After spray painting my teacher's desk and the hallway at school, she got a call from the principal.
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 16
    Font - Davidson Decterral. 3 hr. ago That's a clever way to comply with your manager's request! It must have been satisfying to see their reactions.
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 17
    Gesture - Gentlemen-BEHOLD. 4 hr. ago You got the rule rescinded? Very, very nice work
    via u/Muted_Problem7700
  • 18
    Font - mgerics 23 min. ago nicely done, with better english than some who are born to it
    via u/Muted_Problem7700

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workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job malicious compliance work malicious-compliance-reddit Horrible Bosses reddit thread Reddit company toxic-work-environment
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