Update: 'I have every lead and manager begging me to... continue to help': Employee agrees to only do work that's in their job description

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jan 5, 2024 3:00 PM EST

This person found themself living every worker's dream: being instructed to work less. 

It's hard to find that perfect balance between having too much work and not enough. It's easy to think you'd be thrilled to have a job where you barely have anything to do. After a few days of that, though, you get pretty bored. And you might feel like you aren't contributing to society during all those hours of goofing off and talking to your coworkers. On the other side of the coin are jobs that overwork their employees. That is way more common, with many jobs insisting their employees rack up unpaid overtime or rush through their entire shift to get all their tasks finished. 

At many workplaces, you're expected to do all of your own work, and if you have time left over, you should help your teammates. The OOP, u/JojiTheKitty4, was working long hours to do exactly that. They didn't even mind pulling all this overtime. But their bosses felt differently. At least the OOP got to have a nice break from the daily grind, even as the company started to flounder. 

Speaking of following your boss's directions to a T… this person cost their company millions by allowing frozen food to turn to "boiled mush." 

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  • 01
    'The facility owner had come in for a unexpected visit and was flustered by the lack of productivity' CHIA
    via Pickawood on Unsplash
  • 02
    Malicious Compliance: The title must fit the job
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 03
    Original Post: August 15, 2023 Ok, to start this I want to say I won't give out real names nor the name of the company as I have been treated very well and kept care of both in a wage sense and the ability to take care of my mental well being. So I started here at the company I'm at about two years or a little less. I was just a lackey pulling decent hours doing manual labor and helping keep the pace on our receiving end with the boys over there and got quite close and friendly with that bunch o
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 04
    About 3 months in, I'm dragged into a meeting with my boss, his boss, and his boss. They ask if I'd like to learn more and get the opportunity to grow inside the company. I know that corporate jargon for growth and more money so obviously I said yes. Withing the next 2 months I was trained on every lift and operable machine we use. Another month after that and I was asked to take a promotion to the next pay grade and given a massive raise on top of it. Now another month passes and I'm finally ta
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 05
    for the opportunity. We get caught up and stay caught up while I'm at the helm of this department and all of my bosses are grinding ear to ear looking at my work. I feel like I'm doing well and they eventually withing weeks ask me to take another promotion and pay grade bump for a different more demanding title. Now we are where I am currently in the job I have now. At first getting a hang of the the timing and pace was very difficult. I was behind constantly and never able to clear my work comp
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 06
    So being caught up to present day, everyone that has come before me for this job has left or been let go. Nobody in my building let alone department knows anything about my job. I have asked over and over to train someone so when I take a vacation they can help but it all falls on deaf ears. My head boss left for another facility and probably better pay. And was replaced by someone new to the industry and completely unaware of the situation of things and how much or little work is needed where a
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 07
    family or my girlfriend because of the 5 hours minimum we work that next day. I show up, knowing my duties are already complete, I start working on the receiving center immediately to help them get caught up more and about 2-3 hours in I get called into the bosses office alone. He sits me down and tells me how much he loves my work and appreciates my time I spend to make sure we stay ahead. But now he starts in with "I would like to see you in your own department on Fridays rather than with your
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 08
    and I quote "I don't want you doing work outside of your designated title. You're friends have their job and you have yours." Before leaving I asked for that in writing or an email knowing that leads and other employees were going to harp on me for sitting around all day and getting paid with my feet up. He obliged and I was sent back to my desk. Friday came around and I sat at my desk and texted my family and girlfriend the entire shift. Nothing to do but catch up with people. Little needs to b
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 09
    its description and my boss wanted me to stay at my department with no exceptions. Now the following Tuesday I have every lead and manager begging me to ignore the new hotshot and continue to help as they are missing 2 guys, 1 quit and 1 went to help his wife with their new baby. Leaving a sole guy up there at receiving by himself. I again just forward the email he sent me being as he is everyone's boss and continue to do my titles duties and nothing but my titles duties. I should also state tha
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 10
    Better boss, better time management and better overall situation. But I will for the next two weeks only do my titles job and that alone. Sorry for the wall of text. But I had to share because I'm giddy that it actually happened to me. Relevant Comments: Clarification: Commenter: In a way, it sounds like the boss was looking out for you. Here you are doing all this OT (unpaid?) to cover for the others who can't or won't do their jobs in the time allotted. Perhaps the new boss is looking to ratio
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 11
    for more employees. You doing other people's work just perpetuates a bad staffing system by artificially making it seem like everything is OK. OOP: "No I was doing this during regular paid hours. And it was a norm under the last boss before him for others to help when it was needed. I think he has his wires crossed somewhere." One more interaction: Commenter: Honestly boss is looking out for you. Now they can say "we're behind by X and need Y more headcount". And you'll get more help and less bu
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 12
    OOP: "No I won't. I have been here for long enough to know that it'll go overlooked simply because I finish the job every week. If he wanted to look out for us, he could have gotten to know his workforce and our goals this year. He could have brought up a meeting and discussed the needs of the facility. Instead he came in day one and laid down the law with only my department and put us even deeper in the hole. I wish this guy thought that way tho."
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 13
    Update Post: October 24, 2023 (2 months later) So, it's been a long time and I am astounded it took this long for everything to pile up end the way it did. Just like my first post I'm not sharing names of people nor the business as I get treated very well and respected as an individual so I will do my part and keep from name calling. After I stopped helping other departments because my direct manager had written me an email telling me to only work on orders and transactions within my department,
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 14
    couldn't keep the work from piling up and drowning in parts and orders. To be clear I'm one of about 4 people who has complete access to every part of our inventory and OP softwares. Making the other departments work easier for me to do and keep organized. Without the software each order takes up much more time. Eventually the FACILITY OWNER had come in for a unexpected visit and was flustered by the lack of productivity in both other departments in the warehouse. I had just escaped to my new po
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 15
    I declined politely stating, "as long as (old manager) is still in that role, I choose to not return." Another month or so of work goes by and reviews are had and all sunshine and rainbows for me. I even got to the support role with my new manager being his exclusive intelligence into the inventory software. As no one before me knew how to use it or how to complete OP stages or transfers. I got better pay than I already had, I was respected and made a ton of friends in the department that had my
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 16
    They asked several times and I declined all of them as the manager had not changed. It got to the point where I worked 2 of my 10 hours a day and sat around talking the other 8 waiting for parts or tools to be brought by forklift. Which would either never show up or show up at the end of the day. Then last Monday happened. I was called into a meeting along with all other people who had access to the inventory system and had been at this company for a while and they told everyone they were hiring
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 17
    someone that was intimate with the information. They hired a guy I thought should have been the manager from the start and he made leaps and bounds in the warehouse and caught up within the week of being in the new position. Things were looking up finally. He then called me into a meeting, and asked me to return to warehouse at double my current pay and I would be doing the same thing, but for the whole building. I would have a lot more on my plate but I would always be busy and work would feed
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 18
    allotted amount of work for the day and helped the whole building whenever the order came through. It's been amazing. I hope this wasn't too late to share the ending of what was a crazy couple months here. Relevant Comments: On the replacement manager: "He was the guy right behind him in the pecking order. He knew how everything worked because he has been with the company for 15+ years and EARNED the title and salary."
    via u/LucyAriaRose
  • 19
    Zammy Green I'm turning into an unskippable cut... So as far as I can tell the only issue OOP had with their manager was that they didn't want him to do more then they contractually had to do. So what was OOP's problem? Now I admit I could be missing something but it sems like OOP was mad that they weren't allowed to work more (with no added benefit to them). If that really is all there was then OOP is a corpo at heart is is trying to play
    via u/Zammy Green
  • 20
    themselves. Yes it worked out in the end but that's only after hit the fan... thanks to the manager that OOP didn't like.
    via u/Zammy Green
  • 21
    devon_336 reads profound dumbness I'm in a management type position at my job and some times my conversations with people boil down to "I need you to follow procedures, even if you think they're asinine, because corporate needs the hard data that this procedure doesn't work."
    via u/devon_336
  • 22
    The other thing that sticks out to me, despite oop's side of things, is that his boss might have been trying to get him to focus and learn his new department. Which is especially critical when you move up from an individual contributor to the starting rung on the management ladder. It's a whole different skill set and you also have to shift your viewpoint to a broader one. This whole "saga" reads like someone who only heard. their parents talk about their corporate jobs.
    via u/devon_336
  • 23
    snarfblattinconcert when both sides be posting, the ka... If someone asks you to consider a new perspective and your answer is that they are wrong and you have more details that could prove why, but you don't offer those details, I'm suspicious of how reliable the narrator is. The boss telling him to focus on his job is a good boss move. It is what someone who does. has had to manage It is not what all high- performing individual contributors do, though it is what some do.
    via u/snarfblattinconcert
  • 24
    But truly bless the OOP so they don't burn out and/or have a heart attack in their twenties trying to be the all time worker bee champ.
    via u/snarfblattinconcert
  • 25
    Rogue7559 This is pure grandiose self puff nonsense.
    via u/Rogue7559

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boss workplace-stories jobs job owner malicious compliance bosses work coworkers malicious-compliance-reddit workplace malicious compliance reddit overtime
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