Entitled boss forces overworked employee to pause payroll and prioritize new report, maliciously complies, delaying payroll for the entire company: 'You could almost see the steam coming out of his ears'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
May 14, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

When a micromanager tells an employee to stop everything they're doing and to prioritize something else, they better be careful about unforeseen consequences. In this instance, an entitled boss thought it was a good idea to delegate a project that would take days to complete to the person who also does payroll at the company… right when payroll is typically prioritized and processed. 

Now if there is one thing all bosses should know to avoid, it's messing with other people's pay. That could manifest itself in a variety of ways in the workplace, but among the most common scenarios are delaying payment, denying overtime pay, and rejecting well-deserved promotions. Any time a boss has directly or inadvertently done any of the above, it's an immediate red flag. Keep scrolling below to see how some workplace malicious compliance was the proof this boss needed to see for him to know he was prioritizing the wrong project!

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  • Priorities are often hard to stick to during the work week. Of course, unexpected projects come up and, in some work environments, there can be an “all hands on. deck” crisis that requires everyone's assistance. However, this boss made the egregious error of having this author delay processing payroll for three full days after it was supposed to be done. One can imagine what that boss's email looked like after employees did not get compensated when they were supposed to be…

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    "When do you need this done? Ok, right away it is."

    Here's a two-fer: My boss was the kind that wanted people to jump when he said jump. He was also totally clueless on how to do my job. He
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    really wanted the billing to go out as fast as possible every month, because you know cash flow. This was the kind of boss that often would say, "what do you mean X", and I would, calmly list the definition of X. I don't think he ever knew what to do with that.
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    So, one time at the beginning of the month I'm working on billing (usually takes 3 days) when he comes in my office and says. need needs this report done. I tell
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    him it's gonna take a few days and ask him what sort of priority, "top priority". Ok, you got it. 3 days later, I turn the report in, and he asks me about billing.
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    "Well, I had to put it aside to get this report done, but I'm back on it now". You could almost see the steam coming out of his ears. To his credit, he didn't blame me, but you could tell he wanted to.
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    Another time, at the end of the year, he makes a special order from one of our suppliers for six times our usual order. A month later when it's time to pay the bill,
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    I told him I haven't seen it. He tells me, "he gives me all the bills and that it's my fault for losing it". I call the supplier. Turns out, the supplier never even put the order in their system - they shipped the product, but because it was such
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    an unusual order, the sales person forgot about it. Now, although unethical my boss. would love to have never paid this bill especially how much bigger it was since we ordered so much. I
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    let him know, the supplier was grateful for us pointing out the discrepancy. My boss was speechless - a welcome occurance.
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    Power Supply (AC/DC-UPS Function) Radio Terminal Station (Ta-)
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    night-otter ⚫ I used to juggle various projects. I had a whiteboard listing the current week. Project Task Due Date Priority (per my manager)
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    You want a task done that is not in a project plan. YOU negotiate with my boss and other project managers to slide it into my schedule.
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    It wasn't malicious or petty; it kept me from going insane.
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    Contrantier. "What was my fault again, bossman? Losing a bill that never came here in the first place? I bet you'll remember this embarrassment for one hour and then be right back to your usual stupid self."
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    Emmyisme 4d ago • My boss is this same way, and we literally just went through it again - told me something was REALLY URGENT and she didn't want to hear any reasons.
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    why it might be better to let me put that off, so I just pushed off billing for 3 days to get this SUPER URGENT thing done, and then she was mad that I didn't have billing ready for her to look over the day I turned that project in.
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    sp... I was once working on a high profile software project. I had a long list of features to write. I asked my manager what the top three priorities were and he highlighted them.
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    When I asked what the top priority was, he said all of them. I asked which one should I work on first as clearly I couldn't do three things at once, and he just stared at me and realised I wasn't going to be bl into overcommitting.
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    AugustaBrewer ⚫ I had a manager once that kept giving me things to do "first thing" when I get into work. After four or five I told him he needed to choose a first, then second, and so on. He asked why and I told
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    him I can only do one first thing in the morning. The confused look on his face told me he had no idea what I was talking about. I left a few months later.
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workplace-stories employee work stories toxic-workplace malicious compliance work overworked-employees Horrible Bosses bad bosses toxic-work-environment
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