'I stopped offering to help': Management criticizes optical store receptionist for helping patients, receptionist refuses to do any work outside of the front desk

Oh man, this office manager is going to regret her words after speaking down to an employee in front of patients. 

One piece of really excellent advice is to criticize privately and compliment publically. It's a really life-changing strategy. You never have to worry about people hearing what you're saying behind their backs, and any issues you have can be dealt with one-on-one. That's because giving out criticisms in public can be super embarrassing, even for little mistakes. 

In the workplace, it's bad form for any boss to yell at their employee or scold them publicly, and if the scolding happens in front of patients, that's even more unprofessional. It's a bad look! It makes the bosses look incompetent and uncaring, which is certainly not how you'd want to feel as a patient waiting to get glasses or contact lenses at an optical store. 

You can check out u/HowAmIStillAlive25's story below: it's a long read, but it's a great story of malicious compliance. Commenters loved the story and shared their own advice and anecdotes. 

Up next, read about the lawyers who had to fight over the pettiest, silliest items in divorce court, like one lawyer who said, "I had a couple fight over a Settlers of Catan scorecard."