'I'll let it pile up': Senior employee instructs coworker to never touch her stuff, cue malicious compliance

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 2, 2023 3:00 PM EST

These coworkers are at an impasse, it would seem. 

In some workplaces, peoples' competitive nature can be a positive. When employees are competing to gain clients or meet a financial target, that can make the bonds between workers stronger. It helps to grow camaraderie, and a sense of purpose as you work those same 40 hours each week. 

Other offices have a different dynamic: employees start to work against each other. This can happen for numerous reasons---for example, having a toxic boss breathing down your neck, or having a coworker who won't stop emailing you at 7PM with tasks that need to be done ASAP. 

In the case of this employee, they were being treated poorly by a senior coworker. It seems like the senior wasn't keen to work with others (which is, you know, a big part of most jobs). This is common in places with high turnover, because the employees who remain at the company know the new hires will bounce to a new job in a flash. 

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  • It's a shame, because if the OP and their coworker could have actually worked together, they probably would have succeeded together. Instead, the senior employee assumed that the OP was touching the stuff in her cubicle. Maybe she assumed the OP was snooping or trying to make her look incompetent. She never gave the OP time to explain, so that's on her. 

    You can check out this great tale of malicious compliance below. Then, read these wild anecdotes from employees who got fired on the spot. 

  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 9845106176
    via Wesley Tingey on Unsplash
  • 02
    Don't touch your documents? Ok, I'll let it pile up for you. I've been working in a company for about 8 months now. My job starts with me walking in admin, picking up a few documents that I'll need to work on for most part of the day, go back to my cubicle and actually work on those documents. The chick on the cubicle
    via u/[deleted]
  • 03
    next to me is kind of a "senior" because she has been doing this job for the past 4 years. She was the one that trained me to do the job. Since Day 2 of my job, I've had the habit of picking her documents and neatly place it on her desk. I always show up before her (I need to be there from 8:30am, she gets in at 9am) so I didn't really realize (nor care) that she didn't know it was me every morning bringing her documents.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 04
    Fast forward to mid-April. We barely speak to each other, she was just nice during my first week of training and after that it was exclusively business. I am fine with that, I still brought her documents every morning except one day (about three weeks ago) I mixed up my own documents with hers. She asked
    via u/[deleted]
  • 05
    me how did this get in here to which I casually reply, "Oh must have mixed them when I brought them this morning" to which she blew up on me. She literally shouted at me to "never touch her again", I felt my body going completely cold due to how she kept going on for at least two minutes before she dumped my document on my desk. Never again, I told myself. I should have go to HR or something but I did nothing.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 06
    The next day, I picked my stuff and went to my cubicle. She showed up half hour later with nothing on her desk, I thought she was going to pick it but she did not. I'm guessing she assumed no document = no work. Around 1PM a clerk from admin came and gave him one document, saying "it's urgent". She worked on it for a few hours and it was time to go home. For the next few
    via u/[deleted]
  • 07
    weeks, almost every morning she'd just be sitting and browsing Facebook and till some clerk shows up with "important/urgent document". Little did she know that the ones not deem "urgent" were being piled in admin.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 08
    Today, everything blew up on her. It was around 11:30am and the manager of our department walked to her desk with a pile of documents, he was closely followed behind with a clerk who was carrying an equally large stack. "What the is this? What I'm I paying you for?", her face was completely blank. I listened to the brief exchange; the
    via u/[deleted]
  • 09
    manager was listing down all the lost revenue that happened because of her and asked her to follow him to his office. I was feeling sooooo good! At noon I went out to grab lunch. It's only about 1.30pm that she returned, grabbed her bag and left without saying anything.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 10
    Was she fired? Based on the type of work I do, I wouldn't be surprise if she was fired (if indeed she didn't take care of all those docs). When I got back home, I received a letter saying I landed a job that paid much better (its my dream job) than the current one. So, I don't mind sharing this story here that could possibly identify me because this situation is very specific. I did nothing wrong and tomorrow I'll be handing my two weeks notice anyway.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 11
    Edit 2: Quick edit before I head to bed because it's late here. I see a lot of inquiry about how the she worked there for four years and is so oblivious, my answer; I don't know. I don't know anything about her. Beside the initial on the job training, we barely ever speak. Both of our job are exactly the same except she deals with higher tier than me. Maybe a clerk was picking up her docs for her before I was hired, maybe the clerk stopped caring about the docs thinking she picks her stuff? I do
    via u/[deleted]
  • 12
    know, no clue what happened before I was there. Our pile are in boxes in admin, I stopped looking in her box three weeks ago and I just pick mine. I'm guessing no one paid attention to the pile or whoever was placing new docs in there purposefully allowed it to happen. Your guess is as good as mine. Goodnight!
    via u/[deleted]
  • 13
    grauenwolf Never again, I told myself. I should have go to HR or something but I did nothing. You did the right thing in my opinion. Bringing her the documents, while a nice gesture, was outside your scope of work and complaining about her could have back-fired. Besides, self-correcting problems are the best kind of problem.
    via u/grauenwolf
  • 14
    AlastarYaboy Whoever was placing docs in there allowed this to happen. You can't be the first she exploded on. Karma in action.
    via u/AlastarYaboy
  • 15
    Condensed Bemusement She trained you in the job, after having been there for four years, but wasn't aware that she needed to go and collect the documents from Admin? That's sort of confusing.
    via u/Condensed Bemusement
  • 16
    She's that oblivious that she never realised her documents were on her desk BECAUSE YOU PUT THEM THERE!?
    via r/MaliciousCompliance
  • 17
    I think you're right about someone noticing her pile building up and not telling her: she was probably to them too. Lesson is be nice to your colleagues. :p
    via r/MaliciousCompliance

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