'Your job is only to count. Count, count, count, and count!': Food packing employee reprimanded by manager for pointing out damaged fruit, malicious compliance ensues

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
May 1, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

Being condescending to your employees is never a good idea. Sure, employees need to try and get in the good graces of their bosses, but the same should be said in reverse. After all, if you're a manager, you don't want the people working for you to be plotting and scheming for your downfall. 

Thankfully, I have been lucky enough to be a part of jobs where anyone with a good idea on how to fix something was encouraged to speak up. However, I have also been in the polar opposite situation, where employees are made to feel small if they are at the bottom of the "food chain," so to speak. This kind of hierarchy is not only pointless but also wildly detrimental to the health and endurance of any company. Why would you shut down the possibility of someone identifying errors just for the sake of flexing your authority? Everyone already knows who's in charge!

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    Cheezburger Image 10500435200
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • In this instance, an employee responsible for counting and checking fruit packaging pointed out several instances of damaged fruit to their manager. This might not have been expressly written in their job descriptions, but it seemed like the natural thing a decent employee would do. Unfortunately, their manager seemed to think the opposite. Keep scrolling below to see how their condescending feedback to the employee led to some unwanted malicious compliance!

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    I work at a place where we pack fruit. There are about 20 robots that fill boxes with fruit, and
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    there's one position in charge of checking that each robot puts the correct amount of fruit in each box.
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    To explain it a bit more, we basically have to check all day that the robots are doing a good job, making sure each box has the right amount
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    of fruit and keeping track of which robot packed it. (Hope that makes sense.)
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    Obviously, since it's heavy machinery, sometimes the robots damage the fruit. So when I'm checking a box,
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    it's possible to find fruit that's been cut in half or otherwise damaged.
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    When I first started, I was assigned to that checking position. It's pretty simple, count the fruit in
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    each box and return it to the export line. But whenever I found damaged fruit, I used to write it down in a section
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    of the control log called "comments", noting how many damaged ones I found. I also started reporting it to a woman from the quality team.
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    Cheezburger Image 10500435712
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    She didn't like that. She kept telling me that it wasn't my job (which is technically true), but I thought it was important to say something when the damage was a lot.
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    One day, all the robots started sending out fruit that was cut into multiple pieces (no idea how). So I went to report it again.
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    And this woman confronted me and said: "Your job is only to count. Count, count, count, and count. That's it." She said it in a very ride tone and sent me back to the station.
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    Of course I thought: "She's totally right." So instead of getting upset, whenever I found damaged fruit, I just counted it like a normal
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    one, closed the box, and sent it down the export line. That's how I spent the whole day, just counting, nothing else.
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    Until the export inspection team noticed there was a lot of damaged fruit already packed and ready to go.
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    The quality managers came to talk to me and asked why I hadn't reported it. I just pointed to the woman and said:
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    "She told me my job was only to count, count, and count. So that's all I did." And I shrugged.
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    She started giving me hateful looks while the managers told her that this position does need to report damaged fruit and packaging issues.
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    At the end of the day, they moved me to another area (a much better one, where I now do quality too), and this woman can't help but glare at me every time she sees me.
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    Wasn't I just doing what I was told? Just counting? Thanks for reading. Sorry if some parts aren't super clear, I'm still learning English.
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    Wakeme... • 13h ago . Nice of you to point to the root cause of the problem. Threw her right under the bus which is where she belonged
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    FreshFilt... 13h ago Management will always prefer someone like you to that other person.
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    Arenalife 12h ago • I need to know if you counted a fruit cut in half as two fruits or one. I can't sleep now
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    DoubleD... 12h ago • The people who designed the robots must have been playing Fruit Ninja in their spare time.
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employee malicious compliance horrible-management food service overworked-employees Horrible Bosses food bad bosses fruit workplace malicious compliance
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