'Mass malicious compliance': New HR manager stops employees from their morning routines, entire office stops working extra hours

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 29, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

The new HR person at this company had a funny idea for getting people into the office on time. 

This worker, u/KiKi_BTW, shared that when they worked at an otherwise "awesome company," a new HR person interrupted the flow of things. A lot of the workers would bike to the job each day. It can be a great way to commute: you get your daily exercise in, save money on gas, and it's good for the environment, too. But adults get pretty sweaty when they work out, and a lot of offices accommodate this by providing showers. 

That's why this HR person's plan was so confusing. She wanted everyone to be seated at their desks by 9 AM on the dot. Did she not want the employees to shower after arriving at the office? Did she think a bunch of sweaty, stinky employees feeling awkward about their BO would boost morale? Chalk it up to trial and error! At least this HR person didn't stay at the company for long, and the employees could get back to their normal routines. 

After that, read about the teenager who got back at their dad by stacking a pile of wood in the funniest possible way, meaning that their dad had to "re-stack half the woodpile." 

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    Cheezburger Image 10410299392
    via Getty Images for Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    New HR manager pes off hardworking employees. Mass malicious compliance. S OC Years ago I worked for an awesome company that understood workplace culture and fun was a huge part in keeping employees happy and productive.
    via u/KiKi_BTW
  • 03
    In our office, people would often cycle to work and therefore needed to shower and get ready at work. That meant that sometimes they didn't get to their desk until after 9am, however nearly everyone worked back without being asked to deliver on deadlines.
    via u/KiKi_BTW
  • 04
    Management didn't care because they knew the work was being done and everyone always went over and above.
    via u/KiKi_BTW
  • 05
    Enter new HR manager, we had never really had one before but were growing so needed one. Within her first few weeks she sent out an email saying that everyone needed to be seated and ready to go at 9am and that we needed to stop having social chats and getting ready at work, or if we did, do it earlier. She never acknowledged the fact that everyone put in unpaid overtime.
    via u/KiKi_BTW
  • 06
    Cue mass malicious compliance. Everyone would start at 9am as per email and then leave at 5pm. Projects started running behind and clients started getting ped off because their product was not being delivered on time.
    via u/KiKi_BTW
  • 07
    New HR manager was confused as to why work was not being delivered on time anymore, people were starting on time! She made sure of it!
    via u/KiKi_BTW
  • 08
    Needless to say, upper management removed the rule and she quit shortly after.
    via u/KiKi_BTW
  • 09
    We all went back to our normal ways and would you know it! Projects were back on track.
    via u/KiKi_BTW
  • 10
    Don't walk into a new company and try to change something that isn't broken. The people will revolt.
    via u/KiKi_BTW
  • 11
    Edit: this was my first post and I didn't think anyone would see it! I want to clarify that OT was never expected or forced upon us but due to awesome management, cool projects and great perks we didn't mind when we did do it.
    via u/KiKi_BTW
  • 12
    Edit: I see a lot of people confused about why HR would be involved with such matters. In smaller companies in Australia, HR oversees a lot more than the usual. It depends on the company really, and this company was approx 50 people.
    via u/KiKi_BTW
  • 13
    alady12 +1 Best department manager I ever had came in and when asked what he was going to change he replied "I'm going to spend a month seeing how things run. Then we'll expand upon the good and fix the bad."
    via u/alady12
  • 14
    jettaboy04 I have been in the military 23+ years now, and have grown accustomed to frequent changes in leadership. The good leaders always come in and observe for a time, only changing things that are blatantly wrong, against policy, or negatively impacting performance. After observation time they will.make adjustments where needed. The bad leaders come in like a drunk uncle, flipping tables and making unnecessary changes just to make the point that they are in charge and everyone needs a wake-u
    via u/jettaboy04
  • 15
    lpenap IMO, HR department must keep people motivated, with good health and happy, unless you want high rotation or run a sweatshop... 426 Reply Share KiKi_BTW OP Agreed. She did not understand our culture at all! We had an incredibly low turnover BECAUSE of our culture.
    via u/lpenap
  • 16
    ggapsfface Amazing how treating workers as if they are actual human beings gets better results. Hope she's out there somewhere being condescended to by Karens on a daily basis now.
    via u/ggapsfface
  • 17
    icedragon71 Best description I've ever heard of these type of managers are "Seagull Managers" They swoop in. Do a lot of squawking. Leave sh all over everything. And usually fly out just as quick.
    via u/icedragon71
  • 18
    thylocene06 It's amazing how well a company can run when it's employees are actually happy
    via u/thylocene06
  • 19
    TheDunadan29 I guess I always thought of HR as the people who do hiring, pay you, take care of benefits, and when necessary firing. Why HR would be the people micromanaging the day to day makes zero sense to me. That's the manager's job, and that stuff should be dealt with in a team by team basis, especially since some teams may upstate differently than others.
    via u/TheDunadan29

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