'To save two dollars in OT, they let a few thousand dollars [...] go to waste': Employee lectured for working OT, double malicious compliance ensues

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Mar 1, 2024 8:00 AM EST

Why is it that so many bosses are too concerned with enforcing minor rules rather than focusing on what should be their priorities? The answers are almost related to money and ego. If it's money, you have a boss who can only think about budget, budget, budget, and nothing else. There's no concern for the wellbeing of your employees and, in some cases like this one, there isn't even much thought given to the overall wellbeing of the company (i.e. sometimes, overtime is necessary to keep things afloat, no matter how much you don't like properly paying your employees for their hard work). Now, as for the ego issue, it comes as no surprise that most people in charge feel the need to flex their muscles when literally no one is questioning their authority. 

With this story, it seems that we have a bit of both issues going on simultaneously. This thread was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit and follows the original poster's two-part malicious compliance following repeated lectures against working overtime. The first time, the employee noticed a major issue with one of their appliances but decided not to deal with it since he wasn't allowed to stay late. You can imagine how that went! The next part involved another instance in which the employee and his boss's roles were reversed.

Keep scrolling below for the full saga. When you're done, check out this post about an enraged boss who gave her employee an earful after they were upgraded to first class on a work trip and she was not.

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  • 01
    Absolutely no overtime without 48 hours advance approval. Got it?"
    via Corinne Kutz
  • 02
    The policy is, "Absolutely no overtime without 48 hours advance approval. Got it?" I do now. XL tl;dr at bottom. One story, then another related story (epilogue). This happened a long time ago. It was my first job after getting out of the military. The company I worked for was very, very cheap. They got all of their work by being the lowest bidder and they did everything they could to pinch pennies.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 03
    Most importantly, there was also a "no overtime" rule, which I quickly found out was strictly enforced. To be able to do any overtime, you had to get approval at least 48 hours in advance. If you got even 15 minutes of overtime (the smallest increment possible), they would make you take off 15 minutes early the very next day to make sure they didn't have to pay you and overtime. And, at the rates I was making in those days, 15 minutes equated to less than two dollars.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 04
    In those few times I didn't get clocked out in time, my boss would give me a lecture the next day (he left at 4:00, I worked until 7:00). Then, he'd make me take off 15 minutes early to "erase" the overtime. Each time, he would ask me why and I would explain, which was always something understandable and justifiable. I'd still get the lecture about OT requiring 48 hours of approval prior to the overtime and a warning that if I did it again, I just wouldn't get paid for it. Fine, I get it. You do
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 05
    One of my tasks was to take down the temperature of this one freezer they had. The thing was a huge walk-in freezer that contained a few thousand dollars' worth of inventory. The temperature was supposed to be under 32 degrees (or lower than that, I don't remember), but one day, I saw the temperature was over 40, so I wrote it down and called the supervisor up front. He told me not to worry about it, he'd get the night crew to take a look at it and that I should get out of there before I get ove
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 06
    The next day, I got a lecture from the boss about the 48-hour rule and was told not to do it again. So, that evening, when it was close to time for me to leave, I check that freezer again and its temperature is up in the 40s again. I write it down on the log and call up the maintenance team. No one answers. I look at the clock. It's time for me to start heading to the exit to clock out. I think about calling up that supervisor to tell him, but as far as I can tell, no one even looked at that fre
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 07
    So, I said " ." If I reported it, I was going to be late and my boss was going to lecture me again, so okay. Here's your malicious compliance: I knew the potential damage, but I also knew I was going to get a lecture if I tried to do anything about it, so, have it your way. Don't want me to report it? Fine. I'm leaving for the night.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 08
    The next morning, the boss calls me into his office. From there, I can see that freezer is open and they have a work crew emptying out the contents onto carts, which they're taking to the dumpster. Apparently, everything (or most everything) was ruined.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 09
    When I get in the boss's office, he looks He's not the only one there, though. There's also the safety inspector, which I thought was odd because ordinarily, if there was something like this, it would be the maintenance boss, but he was out that day. I would have preferred the maintenance boss. Talking to that guy was like talking to your grandpa. The safety inspector was a bit of a character, and as such, you never knew what he was going to say in an interview like this.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 10
    While my boss is trying to point fingers at me for failing to notify anyone, the safety inspector acting as maintenance boss points out that clearly, there's enough evidence of policy in place that the process is flawed and that he should take that as an "out" for him and me both.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 11
    They end up having this huge "investigation" (witch hunt), but in the end, they come down to the conclusion that I didn't do anything wrong and was just following orders, as I'd said. So, to save two dollars in OT, they let a few thousand dollars worth of inventory go to waste. As far as I could tell, after I reported the problem the first time, no one said or did anything more about it, and even less the second time.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 12
    Whatever was wrong with that freezer was going to take two months to fix (for whatever reason), so they had to rent a refrigerated tractor trailer, which I was told cost them $100 a day to lease. If that's true, the mishap ended up costing somewhere around $10,000. I don't know if the repairs and trailer rental could have been avoided, but the lost inventory definitely could have been avoided.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 13
    Second malicious compliance: With the first incident behind me, or so I thought, we had someone on the early shift who quit. They needed someone to move from the afternoon shift (11-7) to the morning shift (4-12). Guess who they picked. I was told it was because I was the most junior person, but that didn't make sense because they'd hired another person after me and she was still there. I felt like it was punishment, but at the same time, I kind of wanted to be on the morning shift, so I kept my
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 14
    My popularity with the boss didn't improve any. For one thing, any time I'd request a day off, he'd reject it. At first, it would be for reasons like, "Sorry, that's not enough notice," but I would sometimes tell him three or four months in advance and they would always be refused. This also applied to holidays. Since we needed both shifts to work every single day (including all major holidays), not everyone could take holidays off, so I got stuck being on duty when it was a holiday, but I could
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 15
    When I got on the morning shift, we were short a man on the afternoon shift because I had gone to that morning shift. This was okay for a while. In typical corporate fashion, they didn't even post a job opening for a few weeks, so after a while, the afternoon shift was getting pretty ragged from doing all their work with a man absent. Typically, what would always happen in the past was that the boss would ask someone from the early shift to "pull a double" and would work an extra seven hours. Th
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 16
    One day, the boss calls me into his office just before noon. He tells me, "I need you to pull a double today. The second shift could really use the extra help."
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 17
    "Okay," I said. As little as I made, I appreciated the overtime, but at the same time, this just made me feel used and abused, which kind of annoyed me. I couldn't take time off, not even on holidays, and as cheap as the company was, they were saving a ton of money by not hiring a third person for that shift, but would burn out the existing employees for a few extra bucks. Then, I thought about it a little bit more and said, "Wait, I've worked eight hours already. If I work till 7:00, that will
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 18
    "I'm authorizing the overtime," My boss said. "Okay," I said, then turned to leave and stopped again. "Wait, authorizing it as in, my paycheck will reflect seven additional hours at time-and-a-half, or authorizing it as in, when I get here tomorrow morning, I'll work an hour and you're going to send me home because I'm seven hours ahead on my time card?"
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 19
    "Seven extra hours on your paycheck," He said. "At time-and-a-half?" I asked. "Yes, 1" He said. "Okay," I said, then turned again, but then turned right back. "Hey, wait a minute! You almost had me there!" "What are you talking about?" My boss asked.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 20
    "That was pretty good!" I said, wagging a finger at him. "I almost fell for it, too!" "???" He looked at me like I was crazy, and maybe I was. "This is like some expert-level Simon Says," I said. "What are you on about?" He asked me.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 21
    "You almost got me!" I said. "It's a trap!" I looked at the wall where some of the notices were posted. "Here it is..." I pointed to a paper that had the "no overtime rule" on it. It even had my signature on it (along with the other employees). "Right here... blah blah blah... 'No overtime' and '48-hour prior approval' and, ah-ha! Here it is. 'Absolutely no exceptions!' Whew! You almost had me with that one. Could you imagine? If I worked overtime, I wouldn't get paid because right now, here, to
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 22
    I thought I was pretty slick. The next time it happened, my boss caught me in the hallway and said he needed me to work a double "today." I nodded, then responded with, "Hey, wait a minute. Do you mean today's today as in right now? You know I can't do that," I shrugged my shoulders. "You know, policy. No exceptions." He looked at me like I had two heads and walked off.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 23
    I pulled this a few times on him and I felt justified in doing so. I know I was pushing it, but you can't say "no exceptions," then claim an exception. I figure I could have been fired over not doing it, but at the same time, I figured I could also find another job without much difficulty. When I got moved to the morning shift, I had gotten a part- time job in the afternoons that paid enough to make it worth my time. Also, I'd already interviewed with a few places and with the responses I was ge
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 24
    So, because they were so about getting 15 minutes of OT and acting like it was all my fault ("no exceptions period!"), I threw their words back at them and refused to do the OT because "Has to be a 48-hour prior approval." In the long run, I like to think it hurt them more than it hurt me.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 25
    Long Epilogue: Not too long after this all started, I was in my boss's office at one point and there was another department head (DH) in there, which at first didn't seem at all suspicious, but this other DH says he has an opening and he wants me to apply for it (a possible "promotion"). My boss is singing my praises and says all the regular catch-phrases like, "great opportunity for you" and "sure would hate to lose you, but..." and all that. I get it. It's not lost on me that my boss thinks he
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 26
    So, I applied for that other position. This other DH even reviews my application with me and helps me update my resumé, so when the big boss does the interviews, I end up getting the job. The other helpful factor was that I had only a high-school diploma and they normally wanted someone with a degree, which would seem to be a liability, but because of how cheap this company was, they saw this as an opportunity. "He doesn't have a degree, so we'll low-ball him and he'll take it. Ha ha ha!" And, t
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 27
    I took the new job. It was a piece of cake. It was a M-F job. It was salaried. I no longer worked weekends. I no longer worked overtime. I no longer worked from 4:00 to noon. After I took the job, I would run into my boss from time to time and he had this attitude like he was happy for having gotten rid of me. I don't think he knew I got a raise, or if he did, that didn't seem to bother him. He was rid of me and he was happy about that.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 28
    In my new job, I was an "instructor." I was all of 23 years old and mostly unqualified (I had to apply to something called a "deficiency program” to meet the state's requirement to do it). I had two sessions per day, five days per week. The company got paid for each person I trained in each session. From what I understand, this was decent money. I would typically have 20 "students" in each session. If the company was paid $50 per student (I'm guessing it was around that amount), that would be $1
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 29
    Not long after I started, the DH who brought me on left and was replaced by another DH. This was a woman who everyone had already known about and she was known for being a real hardass who didn't take any and was (at least supposedly) hard to get along with and hard to work for.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 30
    I figured I wouldn't last too long with this new boss if the rumors were true and right off, she was butting heads with several of her employees because, like any new boss, she made the changes she thought needed to be made. I didn't have any problems with her and I tried not to give her any reason to have a problem with me.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 31
    One time, I get called into her office and I'm wondering what it's about. She tells me how she got a call from HR about me and we needed to do some things, and fast. Not long before this, there had been a kind of a big story in the news about a nearby city where the police and fire departments (not at all related to our work) had had to pay out retirees some huge amounts of money for vacation and holidays they'd been banking over the years. The punchline to the news story was how some fire chief
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 32
    The boss lady tells me how HR (the HR lady was the same lady who would control the office supplies) is concerned that this was what I was trying to do - save up vacation time and holiday time that I earn at a low rate and then cash it in years later at a much higher rate. The idea never crossed my mind. For one thing, I didn't plan to stick around that long. Then, I got to thinking about it. In my old position, they didn't like to let me take vacation and kept me from taking holidays. My request
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 33
    So, the boss lady tells me that she needs me to come up with a plan for how I intend to get rid of my vacation/holiday time in a "reasonable" manner. I came up with a plan where I would take every Friday off for the next however many weeks it took to get down to whatever was "acceptable" to her or HR or whomever. When I told her of my plan, she laughed and said something like, "I guess you just want to work part-time from now on, don't you?" When I smiled, she tells me, "Wow, I didn't know you h
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 34
    Before I ran out of vacation and holiday time, I decided I was going to quit that crappy job to go do something else. I still had something like three weeks worth of time off to use up, so I figured, based on company policy, that I would just put in my notice, continue to work, and then get a fat check at the end of it all, like a severance. My boss was always straight with me, so I told her my plan, even though I knew this might put me in jeopardy of being told my services were no longer needed
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 35
    When I put in my official notice, I got called down to HR again. The HR lady acted like she always did, like I was trying to get one over on everyone. She tells me there's no way in I'm working up until the last day of my employment because that would mean the company would have to pay my salary for that time AND pay me out for my vacation/holiday time. She tells me, instead, what they're going to do is have me work every day up until I hit the point that I have an equal number of vacation days
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 36
    I point out to her that this means I would be leaving three weeks early, and if they didn't replace me, that means the company would lose the revenues they would have generated by having me continue to work, and those revenues would more than offset the amount they were paying me, probably by a 10- to-one margin. She's not buying it. She tells me if I don't like it, I can go talk to the big boss. I give it some thought and realize I can either take it her way and get three weeks off and quit wor
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 37
    because he knew I had no bargaining power in his contract of adhesion. So, I said, " . Let's do it your way." She tells me I have to withdraw my form and submit a new one saying I'm requesting to take vacation during that time. I tell her "No." She asks me why not. I tell her it's because I've made my request and I'm not going to do her job for her. If she rejects my request, there's the form. She can write on there that she's rejecting it and put down what she wants her official response to be.
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 38
    I did the rough math on some of this. This was a company that refused to supply basic things like pens and paper and also didn't want me to get even two dollars in overtime. They didn't want me to get any vacation or holidays and made me bank them. Then, they decided, "Hey, wait a minute! I think this guy is trying to stiff us!" So, they were "forcing" me to take my built-up balance of holiday/vacation time, but at the same time, every day I took off meant a loss of revenues of at least $2,000,
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 39
    which was way, way far in excess of anything I could ever make in wages at this place. Then, when I said I would just continue to work and earn them money, but that they would have to pay me for my vacation time, they shot themselves in the foot by telling me I had to quit working earlier and take my vacation at the end of my employment rather than work till the end and cash out. Between lost inventory, additional wages, and lost revenues, their penny- pinching must have cost them $60k, just in
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 40
    tl;dr: company has a strict "no overtime without 48-hour notice" policy, boss gets mad that I break the rule out of necessity, ends up costing tons of money because I sart to follow the rules. Any time they ask me to work OT, I refuse because "not 48 hours!" (malicious compliance). To get rid of me, they move me to another department (with more pay), then "force" me to take the vacation I'd saved up (at a higher rate of pay than when I earned it). In the new position, every time I take a day off
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 41
    GermanBlackbot. Now THAT'S what I call malicious compliance! Not that "Thee hee loophole abuse" stuff: Doing EXACTLY what you have been told without any intentional misunderstanding!
    via u/Azzizzi
  • 42
    DANNY DEVITO dragonpersonn. Hooooly heck. What a bunch of idiots???? This was such a fun read. 235 Reply Share
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  • 43
    StarDustLuna3D. And this is one of the reasons why so many companies are failing. Too busy trying to punch pennies than just investing in good employees.
    via u/Azzizzi

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