'DO NOT attempt to login': Employee told to wait for green light due to tech issues, never receives confirmation, gets paid to do nothing

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Nov 25, 2023 8:00 AM EST

There is nothing like a technical problem at work that allows you to have the whole day to yourself until it's resolved. Whenever a situation like this arises, it's important to luxuriate in the moment. This means you can finally get your act together. You can vacuum the apartment, do laundry, and cook yourself a nice meal. Or you can lie down on the couch for hours on end and finally binge the new episodes of The Crown. Who cares? The world is your oyster, and it's not like you're shirking any responsibilities. You can't even get any work done if you wanted to. 

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  • 01
    "Acknowledged, boss..." a control I option A s Q S + W D 3 E F 4 R
    via Andras Vas

  • This thread was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by u/TerraKorruption, who was specifically told by their manager not to attempt a login into the tech system until they had the clear green light. The problem was that their supervisor never really gave that confirmation even though OP caught wind of the fact that the situation had actually been resolved. Well, that's on the supervisor for not doing their part. OP is just following orders, right? 

    Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions in the comments section. When you're done, check out this post about an entitled boss who mocked an employee for taking the day off.

  • 02
    DO NOT attempt to login until we confirm? Got it. M OC A small malicious compliance, but it entertains me and means I get an easy morning. TL;DR - vital system not accessible. Told to not try to login until we get confirmation. No confirmation is given.
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 03
    So, I'm due to start at 8am but it's comfy in bed, so I roll out at 8am when my alarm goes off. Ugh. Login to my laptop at 8:04am and start loading stuff up; teams, outlook, notepad, OneNote, Internet Explorer, etc.
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 04
    Notice that the ticket system we use is showing "service unavailable". I refresh. clear cache and try again. Same error. So I check with my team and confirm that another morning user is having the same issue. I then proceed to check with one of our first line team memebers who confirms they're having the issue and a ticket has been raised for it so it's just a waiting game. Fine by me. I can do some self study / reddit browsing and any general home chores.
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 05
    Ultimately a major incident kind of ticket is raised, turns out this is system wide and is affecting folk in multiple, various locations. At 10:20am we get the following message from our manager "from the Major Incident - "DO NOT attempt to login until we confirm. We need to restart servers due to the load of many uses attempting to acceess." - Acknowledged, boss....
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 06
    Of course, there's always one. One of my team mates comes into the chat at 10:56am "I've refreshed and it's taken me straight in. Can I start using it?". Bear in mind theres been no "confirmation". No email, no message, no chat update.
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 07
    Nothing. I point out this is what we were told specifically not to do, but colleague attempts to justify this with technicalities: "Technically I didn't login." & "To me 'refresh' means to bring up the login page"
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 08
    etc. The logic baffles me, but this is the type of person that always wants to be at the forefront and in the spot light. Taking the attention, displaying his prowess and leadership. Look at how proactive and amazing I am and who needs unions to negotiate a pay rise, if we just accept this then next year we might all get what we want. (Note that this last bit about the union and pay were his exact words.)
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 09
    Anyways, it's 11:42am right now. I've had nearly 4 hours of being paid for not working due to everything we do coming via our ticket system. On the one hand, technically it appears to be working? On the other hand, I have not as of yet recieved this "confirmation" that we can login, so I guess I'll just continue to sit here until I do! I wonder how long it will take to get this confirmation? I can't login till I do!
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 10
    As a note, I'm due to be performing queue management and incident assignment today, so my job is checking any assigned tasks and ensuring that relevant details are present and that it's actually something we support, before assigning this to a team member to work on.
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 11
    ETA - I've just had a 1-2-1 with my manager, which is something that was shceduled previous. Supposed to be once a month but doesn't always happen that frequently.
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 12
    Regardless, this was on the books for a couple weeks. Anywy, she mentioned that the ticket system "Appears to be working somewhat" but also stated that she didn't want to confirm that with all of us just yet, due to their being no official confirmation and not wanting to exacerbate issues. So she acknolwedges that we're still not working presently and she doesn't have an issue with it. She said she'll also continue to wait until it's officially confirmed as fixed and fully operational!
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 13
    SocialGrenades. 4 hr. ago Follow orders.
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 14
    derKestrel 3 hr. ago . Let me guess: That manager got promoted from working on the lines, not parachuted in.
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 15
    kaptainearnubs. 3 hr. ago I was waiting for the malicious, but this seems like ordinary compliance, no?
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 16
    TerraKorruption OP. 3 hr. ago I figure it classes as malicious due to the fact that the system is "technically" working - thus I could technically be doing my job. But I'm not as I was told to wait for confirmation.
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 17
    I'm being paid for doing nothing presently, when I could actually be doing something, if I listened to my colleague and just logged in. But that would be doing the opposite of what I've been told to do. I'm maliciously complying by following orders, at a cost to the business.
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 18
    Bitter Mongoose - 3 hr. ago Good Soldiers Follow Orders.
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 19
    StamInBlack 2 hr. ago . When even the manager agrees with your compliance!
    via u/TerraKorruption
  • 20
    TerraKorruption OP. 2 hr. ago Yea, I honestly expected a 'come on, use some initiative' kind of response.
    via u/TerraKorruption

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workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job malicious compliance technical difficulties work malicious-compliance-reddit technology Tech reddit thread Reddit company toxic-work-environment
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