'He did not budge and bow down to my boss's demands': Employee refuses to sell out, rejects truckloads of material against boss's wishes

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 24, 2023 3:00 PM EST

One employee found themself working at a company that kept pushing them to bend the rules. Some industries are just like this. Stories about issues in the concrete industry crop up often, which is concerning when basically every building is made out of the stuff. Concrete makes up our sidewalks and roads, houses and stores, and even huge things like bridges and overpasses. 

This dude shared their malicious compliance story about what happened when they decided to reject the status quo. I give this person props for standing up to a boss who was asking them to do something shady. It's a fine line. The boss's request probably wasn't illegal, but was it ethical? Not at all. Even so, telling your boss that their request is in bad form will not go over well. The employee would probably get told off. In an industry full of corruption, a person with strong ethics may find it uncomfortable to build a long-term career path there. 

You can check out the whole story from u/ExcelCrazy below. And after that, read these hilarious tales from restaurant chefs, like one chef who would call his grill mates "hamburger helpless" when they were swamped with orders. 

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    via Scott Blake on Unsplash
  • 02
    Corrupt manager wants me to reject crucial supplies - I do as instructed
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  • 03
    About a couple of decades ago, I used to work at a concrete production plant for a reputable construction company. Our company, like several other construction companies, were awarded a portion of a larger project. A large portion of land was earmarked for setting up temporary office buildings and concrete plants for the different construction companies. The "sites" were separated by temporary barriers and had separate entrances.
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    As many of you may (or not) know, concrete is produced my mixing cement, water, sand and stone grits (size 20mm + 10mm) along with special admixtures in a specific ratio. Our recipe also contained a special ingredient - stone dust. Turns out, only our company used stone dust in our concrete and the neighbors did not. So a special truckload full of stone dust was specially shipped for us. This is important later.
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  • 05
    My job entailed orchestrating concrete delivery to our project sites apart from regular quality control tasks like checking incoming materials for quality etc. Only after I had signed the delivery receipts, our stores personnel would unload the trucks at designated areas. A log of all trucks entering and leaving the concrete batching plant would be kept by security at gate (Relevant later.)
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    Since my job entailed checking incoming material before accepting, the suppliers would usually try to offer some petty bribes, from cash to booze to flesh - if you know what I mean I always declined such offers as once accepted, you became their dog and lose all respect in their eyes. Moreover, bad
    via u/ExcelCrazy
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    material also impacted the quality of concrete produced: strength, consistency and setting time, to name a few. Since concrete delivery was also part of my job, it was in my best interest to only accept good material, otherwise the client would chew me up during casting.
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  • 08
    One night, a supplier truck entered the premises with 20mm stone chips. Upon testing, I found them to be undersized for 20mm and oversized for 10mm. I went ahead and rejected the load. The driver and supplier started pestering me, offering bribes and what not. When I didn't budge, they called my boss who asked me what was going on. I
    via u/ExcelCrazy
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    explained that the quality of material was unacceptable and I have rejected this. When I mentioned it is too small for 20mm, he ordered me to dump it in 10mm bin anyway. I knew what that meant. My boss was on the supplier's payroll.
    via u/ExcelCrazy
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    A couple of weeks pass by and my boss asked me to reject "a truckload" of material from a very reliable supplier. He knew that the supplier was only delivering stone dust that day and should we reject material, the entire load would be a waste and a loss to the supplier. Once the stone chips or stone dust has left the quarry, they, for some reason, can't bring it back. Hence my boss wanted to hit the supplier where it hurt most. Especially stone dust as there was no other company that would take
    via u/ExcelCrazy
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    Cue - malicious compliance. I called the supplier, who had become a friend by now and told him that I was under orders to reject "a truck". He panicked and told me that my boss was putting pressure on him for bribes. This particular supplier believed in providing quality material and always visited my lab to understand how I tested the material and what my requirements
    via u/ExcelCrazy
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    were. He would then go back to his quarry and adjust the equipment to deliver the best quality materials. Because he put so much effort in improving the quality of his product, he did not budge and bow down to my boss's demands.
    via u/ExcelCrazy
  • 13
    I asked the supplier friend to route a truckload of 20mm stone chips meant of some other company to my plant first. I would let the gate security log the trucks' entry and then promptly reject the material. He was then supposed to send the stone dust which I would accept and be done with my "task."
    via u/ExcelCrazy
  • 14
    Everything happened as planned, I completed my remaining activities for the night and went home. When I came back to work in the evening, my boss was waiting for me at the door. As expected, he had checked the entry/exit log as well as material receipt history. He had noticed that I had accepted the stone dust and was chewing his anger, waiting for me to explain.
    via u/ExcelCrazy
  • 15
    He very casually asked me if I had rejected a truckload. I acted dumb and answered in affirmation. I told him that the very first truck, a 20mm was rejected. Now usually 20mm is never rejected, especially from this supplier, so he asked me what reason did I give while rejecting the truckload. I said flakiness index - a test we never do as a field test, but is mandated by the client. to be done once a quarter.
    via u/ExcelCrazy
  • 16
    He knew that I was playing him but he couldn't do anything. I had done exactly what he had asked meto do, reject "a truckload." I had covered my bases with the security log as well as material receipt so he just muttered something under his breath and never mentioned this to me again or asked me to do anything similar. 2 months later he was transferred to a different site and I became the overall incharge - same designation and pay, just more responsibilities.
    via u/ExcelCrazy

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boss workplace-stories jobs job malicious compliance bosses work coworkers malicious-compliance-reddit concrete rejected workplace cement malicious compliance reddit trucks
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