'Sounds like he hired the right people': Crafty supervisor encourages team to maliciously comply with overbearing company timekeeping

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Ally Perry • Writer and Editor
Jan 6, 2024 6:00 PM EST

Is there anything more annoying in the workplace than a micromanager? At least when a coworker gets on your nerves or decides to steal your food from the breakroom fridge, you can complain and get revenge. When it's a boss breathing down your neck, though, you can only grit your teeth while getting angered by the knowledge that they don't think you're responsible enough to do your job properly.

When your higher-ups act like this, getting your own back is not easy. The exception to this is when you have somebody clever on your side. This is exactly what one Redditor was pleased to find in their supervisor when the boss of their company introduced ridiculous rules related to timekeeping. Let's just say that the whole team established a work-life balance that made things a lot more difficult for the big man. Being a classic case of malicious compliance, Reddit couldn't help but applaud.

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  • 01
    r/ r/MaliciousCompliance u/Shellyfish04 • 16h Boss introduces new timetracking tool to "avoid time manipulation", backfires on him M
    via Shellyfish04
  • 02
    I work in a small startup company of around 12 people. It's a very good atmosphere in the office and everyone pulls their weight and is super motivated. However, our boss likes to micromanage us, even though he has no expertise in any of our fields (Marketing/Design/Accounting/...). Especially us in Marketing and Design suffer a lot from that, since he will make changes to our strategies/posts/website, sometimes without telling us, and then gets upset at US when the customer feedback is bad and
    via Shellyfish04
  • 03
    So recently, he told us that the reason he thinks we aren't seeing enough results is because we are manipulating our hours and not actually putting in the work we should. Until then we each wrote down our hours manually in an excel sheet, but with the new time tracking tool, he would see how long we were working down to the minute. We also could only log in on our desk PCs (and previously approved homeoffice devices), but not mobile because "if you are not at your desk, it is not work".
    via Shellyfish04
  • 04
    After our initial shock passed and our boss left for the day, our manager called for a meeting and we came up with a plan. We would do as he says, in the most "just following the rules way" possible.
    via Shellyfish04
  • 05
    1. We would not engage in work related conversations with him unless we are sitting at our desks and are clocked in. 2. Any questions by him which are asked after we are clocked out will only be answered once we clock in again the following day. 3. Every phonecall, textmessage or otherwise work related things outside of the office would only be answered once there was an option for us to clock in, either next day in office, or for some of us on our homeoffice device. 4. Since we no longer have t
    via Shellyfish04
  • 06
    After about a week, our boss was so fed up with this, he gave us the option to clock in from our mobile devices, so he could get a more immediate response to his questions. However, this of course led to us clocking in ways more frequently (since, as I said, he likes to micromanage, and is therefor asking a LOT of questions).
    via Shellyfish04
  • 07
    I'm happy to report that as of 2024, we have abolished the system again and regained most of our independence, and even though our boss is still about how we exploited the system, it brought the team closer together and homepully taught him a lesson.
    via Shellyfish04
  • 08
    OneLetter 16h Mutinies have a way of bringing the team together. lol.
    via 0neletter
  • 09
    arnott 16h our boss is still system LOL. It was a team building exercise. about how we exploited the
    via arnott
  • 10
    BentGadget 15h You guys aren't supposed to exploit my system. It's supposed to exploit you!
    via BentGadget
  • 11
    Roar Intention 16h Sounds like he hired the right people, and needs to learn to trust in his choice of hire.
    via Roar_Intention
  • 12
    ChiTownBob 16h I wonder how many times bad things have to happen before the boss learns that micromanaging is bad. thing?
    via ChiTownBob
  • 13
    TommyGunQuartet 15h You didn't exploit the system. Continue logging weekend hours on the weekend. Get paid per your contract.
    via TommyGunQuartet
  • 14
    SheiB123 15h You DID NOT exploit the system. You FOLLOWED his directions. He just didn't like the outcome of his micromanaging...FAFO
    via SheiB123
  • 15
    Mead_Man Detroit 15h They rarely ever learn, trust me. Once a micromanager, always a micromanager.
    via Mead_Man_Detroit
  • 16
    Olthar6 15h I'm almost disappointed at you for going back to the old way. Following his system makes a beautiful work/life balance
    via Olthar6
  • 17
    deanominecraft 15h People work harder when they enjoy their job, micromanaging is an easy way to make people hate their job When will managers understand this
    via deanominecraft
  • 18
    FrankAdamGabe 10h I worked in a hostile work environment where a new OCIO started and two weeks later he announced on a Friday that starting Monday we could no longer work from home 3 days a week. This had been a policy for years and people had moved away from the city just to drive in for two days and get a hotel room or something overnight. Anyways, he found out really quickly that if we weren't allowed to work from home then no one was going to work from home for him. For an IT organization,
    via FrankAdamGabe
  • 19
    There had been a pretty big deal about the WFH policy and HR got involved. So when he tried getting people to work from home "really quick to fix this" and they refused HR surprisingly couldn't do anything since they'd plowed into everyone "absolutely no WFH." Not suprisingly the last I heard they've ahd 75% turn over the last 4 years.
    via FrankAdamGabe
  • 20
    wsen 12h It doesn't sound like you were exploiting the system, it sounds like you were using the system to hold your boss accountable for the time you work. I hope your team is still tracking time spent answering questions and logging time on weekends so you are getting your fair pay.
    via wsen

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pro revenge boss time manager malicious compliance revenge work coworkers timekeeping working teamwork supervisor reddit thread Reddit business
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