‘Don’t go through them too fast’: Supervisor tells employee to slow down productivity, cue malicious compliance

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Dec 11, 2023 8:00 AM EST

Supervisors should always be careful what they wish for when providing instructions to employees. This is especially true when it applies to college students with minimal work experience, who absolutely will follow everything their supervisors tell them word-for-word. 

I remember in my first internship I was getting coffee for my boss and had gotten so used to his very specific order that I literally froze at Starbucks when one time, they did not have his order. I simply could not function or think of a suitable replacement, so I came back empty-handed. Again, if you give an intern specific instructions that they are expected to follow to the syllable, they will have no idea what to do when unexpected circumstances arise, as they are wont to do in life. 

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  • 01
    Canned Abalone MAGH Canned Abalone "I need to work slower and look busy for the Boss? You got it!" MAUN Canned At Canned Al HAU MANNEKEDA
    via Galen Crout

  • This thread was posted to Reddit’s r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by u/aniea39, who was told by his manager that he was working too fast. So, as one might imagine, when the next task was assigned, OP took his sweet time. So what could have taken him one week, he decided to stretch for the remaining two and a half months of his time at the company. It’s not like the supervisor could get upset; after all, he was just following their simple instructions.

    Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions in the comments. For more, check out this post about an employee who was specifically told to give bad customer service.

  • 02
    I need to work slower and look busy for the Boss? You got it! LOC For background I have always been an incredibly hard and efficient worker. Always getting things done faster than expected and going above and beyond. My program for college required us to go to class for 6 months of the year and work full time in our field for the remaining 6 months. As a freshman in college I got my first job at an automotive supplier. My first semester was fairly slow, mainly due to the fact that the person who
    via u/aniea39
  • 03
    2 key things happened at the start of my next semester. 1) I was moved to a new department 2) The company began merging with one of their competitors.
    via u/aniea39
  • 04
    Now when the company began the merger they decided they were going to move everything at my site to the other company's HQ in another nearby city. The first thing that moved was vast majority of the equipment my new department used. The upper management made the brilliant decision to leave the 4 members of my department (1 Supervisor, 1 tech, and 2 students) at the old site until the move was complete. This meant we had essentially nothing we could work on.
    via u/aniea39
  • 05
    Here's where we get into the MC. After about 2 weeks of sitting around, my Supervisor (60F) finally came up with a small task for me. I completed this in about 4 hours which I thought was pretty good for something I had never done and had little training on, so I went to let her know...
    via u/aniea39
  • 06
    Me: "Hey Super, I'm done!" Super (Angry and in a panic): "Done? This was supposed to take you all week! I don't have anything else for you to do now! I need you to look busy in case Boss walks by. Next time I give you something to do you need to drag it out longer so that you look busy!"
    via u/aniea39
  • 07
    Now young naive me was initially confused by getting reprimanded for working too fast but what the boss says goes! A week or so later I was given another task. I was to take thousands of these tiny explosive devices we use and dispose of them by detonating them in a concrete box. (They were too volatile to just through out so they had to be discharged first.)
    via u/aniea39
  • 08
    Super: "And remember take your time and don't go through them too fast!" Now this was obviously just busy work to get me out of the way but the great thing with this task was that it had to take place in a back garage that nobody ever went in to avoid the obvious danger of people walking in while I was setting off controlled explosives. I could have easily hooked up 20 of these bad boys at a time and set them off every 5-10 minutes,
    via u/aniea39
  • 09
    finishing the whole batch in about a week but I had to "look busy". So instead I set off about 5-10 of these once an hour and spent the rest of the time on my phone playing games, watching Netflix, listening to music, etc. while getting paid over double minimum wage at the time.
    via u/aniea39
  • 10
    I managed to stretch that project for the remaining 2.5 months I was there finishing just in time for the end of the semester. Any time someone asked me for help on something else I politely told them i would when I was done but it might be awhile because Super told me not to go through these too fast. They usually ended up finding some other bored student to help them. I think Super genuinely forgot I worked there by the end because when I stopped into her office in my last week to let her know
    via u/aniea39
  • 11
    The company ended up paying me over $10,000 (a lot of money for student at the time) just to sit on my phone all day for 3 months. I sent an email to Supervisor, Boss, and HR at the end of the semester letting them know that I would not be returning the next semester. In my best corporate language I let them know I was leaving to "pursue opportunities that would better utilize my time and skills." I
    via u/aniea39
  • 12
    found out later when several of us ran into each other at a job fair that all but 2 of the other students had also quit at the end of the semester out of boredom and/or uncertainty that we would even have jobs to come back to. (The company did not handle the transition well and could never give us straight answers about where/when/if we would be brought back).
    via u/aniea39
  • 13
    tl;dr: Supervisor tells me to stretch out a small task so that I look busy for the boss and they don't have to find stuff for me to do. Company ends up paying me to sit on my phone for 3 months. Me and most of the other interns end up quitting due to a mismanaged merger.
    via u/aniea39
  • 14
    aniea39 OP 50 min. ago Unfortunately this whole situation basically ruined my work ethic and I stopped going above and beyond in most situations at work. I decided it just wasn't worth it. I also got really good at "looking busy" without actually doing any work.
    via u/aniea39
  • 15
    luminphoenix 41 min. ago Ruined? Sounds like "fixed" to me. (Then again, i don't like dealing with people, so i don't want to be a manager, and so i have zero interest in being promoted)
    via u/aniea39
  • 16
    aniea39 OP. 39 min. ago The funny thing is I still get praised and promoted for doing what I consider to be the bare minimum!
    via u/aniea39
  • 17
    grauenwolf 27 min. ago Your job is to make your boss look good. If you happen to help the company in the process, that's okay I guess. I just wish I understood this when I was much younger.
    via u/aniea39
  • 18
    really4got 45 min. ago It didn't ruin it, it clarified it in the right direction. People are gaslighted into that they should do more... no, no you shouldn't
    via u/aniea39
  • 19
    labdsknechtpiraten. 16 min. ago Biggest skills I learned as a lower enlisted in the army: how to get done super quick. And how to keep looking busy after that so I didn't take on more BS. Also, you gotta quote buffer time in any task
    via u/aniea39
  • 20
    Red_Cathy 51 min. ago Nice one, I hope you looked super busy all the time you were "busy doing nothing"!!
    via u/aniea39
  • 21
    aniea39 OP 48 min. ago Yep! Every time someone walked in (about once a week) I would just get up and hook up the next batch.
    via u/aniea39

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toxic-workplace manager job malicious compliance work malicious-compliance-reddit toxic-boss supervisor reddit thread Reddit malicious compliance reddit toxic-work-environment
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