'Look busy!': Student worker gets paid $10,000 to sit on his phone, maliciously complying with boss's orders to take his time on new project

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Dec 17, 2024 4:00 PM EST

Who knew that efficiency and productivity would not always be applauded in the workplace? It's the kind of awakening most young folks get when they land their first jobs. Not everything is actually about the work you do, although it should be. In fact, it should be that employees should be able to go in, get the job done, and leave on their own time, but I suppose it's not worth dreaming too big. 

Unfortunately, most work environments run on optics, as this student worker would quickly discover. He finished a task in less than one full work day when it was supposed to take him the full week. The employee's supervisor ended up reprimanding him for this and told him to stretch out the next task he receives and to always "look busy" for his boss. Well, when that next task came around, let's just say that the student worker took the feedback into account and perhaps even took things too far. However, as some folks in the comments section pointed out, perhaps this is how all employees should respond to that kind of unnecessary criticism.

Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions from folks in the comments section. For more, check out this post about another employee's workplace malicious compliance.

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    Cheezburger Image 10441978112
    via Tim van der Kuip

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

  • 02
    I need to work slower and look busy for the Boss? You got it!
    via aniea39
  • 03
    For background I have always been an incredibly hard and efficient worker. Always getting things done faster than expected and going above and beyond. My
    via aniea39
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    program for college required us to go to class for 6 months of the year and work full time in our field for the remaining 6 months. As a freshman in college I got my first job at an automotive supplier. My first semester was fairly slow,
    via aniea39
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    mainly due to the fact that the person who was supposed to train me went on medical leave my first week there and didn't come back for almost a year (and wasn't replaced). However, in my second semester things really took a turn for the worse.
    via aniea39
  • 06
    2 key things happened at the start of my next semester. 1) I was moved to a new department 2) The company began merging with one of their competitors.
    via aniea39
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    Now when the company began the merger they decided they were going to move everything at my site to the other company's HQ in another nearby city. The first thing
    via aniea39
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    that moved was vast majority of the equipment my new department used. The upper management made the brilliant decision to leave the 4 members of my department (1 Supervisor, 1 tech, and 2 students) at the old site until the move was complete. This meant we had essentially nothing we could work on.
    via aniea39
  • 09
    Here's where we get into the MC. After about 2 weeks of sitting around, my Supervisor (60F) finally came up with a small task for me. I completed this in about 4 hours which I thought was pretty good for something I had never done and had little training on, so I went to let her know...
    via aniea39
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    Me: "Hey Super, I'm done!" Super (Angry and in a panic): "Done? This was supposed to take you all week! I don't have anything else for you to do now! I need you to look busy in case Boss walks by. Next time I give you something to do you need to drag it out longer so that you look busy!"
    via aniea39
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    Now young naive me was initially confused by getting reprimanded for working too fast but what the boss says goes! A week or so later I was given another task. I was to
    via aniea39
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    take thousands of these tiny explosive devices we use and dispose of them by detonating them in a concrete box. (They were too volatile to just through out so they had to be discharged first.)
    via aniea39
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    Super: "And remember take your time and don't go through them too fast!" Now this was obviously just busy work to get me out of the way but the great thing with this task was that it had to take place in a back garage
    via aniea39
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    that nobody ever went in to avoid the obvious danger of people walking in while I was setting off controlled explosives. I could have easily hooked up 20 of these bad boys at a time and set them off every 5-10 minutes,
    via aniea39
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    finishing the whole batch in about a week but I had to "look busy". So instead I set off about 5-10 of these once an hour and spent the rest of the time on my phone playing games, watching Netflix, listening to music, etc. while getting paid over double minimum wage at the time.
    via aniea39
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    I managed to stretch that project for the remaining 2.5 months I was there finishing just in time for the end of the semester. Any time someone asked me for help on something else I politely told them i would when I was done but it might be awhile
    via aniea39
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    because Super told me not to go through these too fast. They usually ended up finding some other bored student to help them. I think Super genuinely forgot I worked there by the end because when I stopped into her office in my last week to let her know I had finished the task she seemed very surprised/confused to see me!
    via aniea39
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    The company ended up paying me over $10,000 (a lot of money for a student at the time) just to sit on my phone all day for 3 months. I sent an email to Supervisor, Boss, and HR at the end of the semester
    via aniea39
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    letting them know that I would not be returning the next semester. In my best corporate language I let them know I was leaving to "pursue opportunities that would better utilize my time and skills." I
    via aniea39
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    found out later when several of us ran into each other at a job fair that all but 2 of the other students had also quit at the end of the semester out of boredom and/or uncertainty that we would even have jobs to come back to. (The
    via aniea39
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    company did not handle the transition well and could never give us straight answers about where/when/if we would be brought back).
    via aniea39
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    tl;dr: Supervisor tells me to stretch out a small task so that I look busy for the boss and they don't have to find stuff for me to do. Company ends up paying me to sit on my phone for 3 months. Me and most of the other interns end up quitting due to a mismanaged merger.
    via aniea39
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    aniea39 OP 50 min. ago Unfortunately this whole situation basically ruined my work ethic and I stopped going above and beyond in most situations at work. I decided it just wasn't worth it. I also got really good at "looking busy" without actually doing any work.
    via aniea39
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    luminphoenix. 41 min. ago Ruined? Sounds like "fixed" to me. (Then again, i don't like dealing with people, so i don't want to be a manager, and so i have zero interest in being promoted)
    via aniea39
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    aniea39 OP. 39 min. ago The funny thing is I still get praised and promoted for doing what I consider to be the bare minimum!
    via aniea39

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workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job students malicious compliance work Horrible Bosses reddit thread Reddit company toxic-work-environment
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