New York compliance manager drives 6 hours round-trip during his vacation to do 1 minute of work: 'The owner... warned Dan that the next mistake would cost him his bonus'

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jan 2, 2026 3:00 PM EST

These coworkers both have strong feelings about their property management work, but neither have benefited from their on-going disagreement. 

You don't need to have identical beliefs to your colleagues; in fact, it's better when you don't. While it's fun to have workplace friends, having a diverse set of minds to tackle various problems is a winning solution. But sometimes these disagreements aren't productive. Sometimes they wind up in a wash cycle in your inbox — the same problems over and over, rinse and repeat. It seems like these 2 workers fall into that pattern, as one of them explained in their story below. They handle time-sensitive documents through their job at the NYC Department of Buildings, a job that does indeed sound very important and timely, considering how many buildings there are here, and how quickly many of them are built. Even a novice like myself could tell you that delays cost big $$$ for the entire crew involved, so suffice it to say that these guys know what they're talking about. When their office says that a document is time-sensitive, they mean it. There are fines involved! 

This worker was irritated that their colleague wanted to have his own computer login… which is honestly pretty standard. This person suggested that a solution was a computer login that anyone could use, which is just kind of unheard of in the modern age. You need to know who is doing what — you can't just let a ton of people all access one account, leaving no one accountable for mishaps. There are solutions for things like this — usually there are admin accounts and user accounts, and documents can be shared between people. There is definitely middle ground here that neither colleague is seeing. In this workspace, there's room for improvement — both workers need to collaborate so that they can actually construct a solution to their problems, rather than relying on petty instances of malicious compliance. 

Regardless of the actual solutions to this disagreement, this worker was clearly thrilled that their colleague, Dan, had to spend 6 hours of vacation time clearing up this issue. It was probably very satisfying! Sometimes it's the little wins that keep you motivated. 

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  • 01

    'Hope you enjoyed your drive!'

    Man in denim jacket and yellow shirt grins while holding phone up to ear, to the right a man in a white button down and black tie holds phone to ear while sitting in car
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 02
    I work for a property management company. My job includes time- sensitive sign-offs in the NYC Department of Buildings portal. Which we normally have adequate time to sign off , and most of the time it's just by logging in and clicking a box or two, but
    via u/35mmOfRegret
  • 03
    missing a sign off can mean big fines. Dan, an older manager brought out of retirement, handled compliance. He was not tech-savvy. After he missed a sign-off and the company was fined, we met with our boss to figure out how to stop it
    via u/35mmOfRegret
  • 04
    from happening again. I suggested one shared company login, with alerts going to our company's administrative assistant, she would see emails and hound us to get stuff signed.
    via u/35mmOfRegret
  • 05
    Dan refused. He blamed liability and "unauthorized sign-offs," but the real issue was that he waited until the last minute and did not want anyone seeing the reminder emails filling his inbox. The owner kept things the same but warned Dan that the next mistake
    via u/35mmOfRegret
  • 06
    would cost him his bonus. Soon after, staff told me Dan was trying to dig up dirt on me. I sent a company-wide email calling him out for that and stating I would no longer help him with sign- offs.
    via u/35mmOfRegret
  • 07
    Months later, while Dan was on vacation, an engineer called me asking if Dan still worked with us. He had been trying to reach him for over two weeks with no response. A sign-off was due the next day. I told the engineer Dan was on vacation but said I would
    via u/35mmOfRegret
  • 08
    Man in white button down and black tie holds phone to ear and has laptop on lap while sitting in backseat of a car
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 09
    text him. The next morning, Dan called me in a panic and asked if I could handle it for him. I told him I would not be in the office and reminded him that, because of his concerns about security, it would not be appropriate for me
    via u/35mmOfRegret
  • 10
    to sign in for him. I told him he could do it from his phone and hung up. Dan was not able to do that. Instead, he drove six hours round-trip during his vacation just to sit at his desk and check one box.
    via u/35mmOfRegret
  • 11
    Honest-Pepper8... I hope that you continue to never do anything for Dan in the company, ever again. Also encourage other employees to watch out for his greasy tactics and get them to turn on him and his attempt to bully you.
    via u/Honest-Pepper8229
  • 12
    Imaginary_War_7... Good thing he was a drivable distance away. Imagine if he had to fly back, on his own dime...
    via u/Imaginary_War_7739
  • 13
    TheFluffiestRedd... Shared logins are bad, and sharing them makes your IT guys sad, and your security guys, and your whole compliance team. shared mailboxes are your friend.
    via u/TheFluffiestRedditor
  • 14
    Just_Aioli_1233 One thing you could have done would be to have the emails going to a group in your domain. Many mail providers support this. We have one for accounting, then we add all of our accountants to it, for example. So then everyone gets notifications since they're all in the accounting@[companydoma
    via u/Just_Aioli_1233
  • 15
    in.com] group, but only the senior accountants have the login to make changes in critical systems. Would allow for visibility and hounding, while keeping things "secure" so that only the authorized person(s) have access to do sign-offs.
    via u/Just_Aioli_1233

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workplace-stories malicious compliance coworkers new york
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