Manager demands to proofread every email that employee sends, and he maliciously complies, causing problematic delays for the company: ‘We suddenly got loads of follow up requests, responding to which of course needs approval from the manager’

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Olivia Arocena • Writer and Editor
Jun 15, 2026 12:00 PM EDT

When one mistake catapults extreme measures.

Oftentimes, after we make a mistake, it's very difficult to prove to somebody who's in charge of us that we won't make that same mistake again. That's where malicious compliance comes in handy. I struggle with the use of the word 'malicious' for it, even though, of course, I understand what that word is trying to evoke, but I think that maliciousness is not malicious at all; in fact, I think it's civil, graceful, and assertive.

The employee who made a mistake this time used it to prove to his manager that he didn't need that much supervision at that workplace, and we're here for it.  

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  • person using notebook
    via Glenn Carstens-Peters

    An illustrative picture of the employee writing the malicious e-mails and then waiting for confirmation to send them

  • Need to proofread all my outgoing mail? Sure thing!

    This happened some time ago but lets work chronologically.
    via BasKabelas
  • I'm the main contact for most customers in our region for trialing new products. I only work on products I think can save customers financially/environmentally, or increase safety, so nothing is pushed solely
    via BasKabelas
  • for our profits and I'll happily tell management I'm fully scheduled if I don't see how a product could benefit our customers. I respond to all mails within 24 hours and when I need to ask coworkers to do some
    via BasKabelas
  • extra work on a request, I'll give a timeline. Clearly it works because customers keep coming back to me and it makes my job a lot easier because I hardly ever have to push products through that the company wants to get
    via BasKabelas
  • sold, but rather get asked for them by customers. Anyway, I sent a customer an email to clear up what everyone was already hinting at: there is no budget this fiscal year for a product my employer tries
    via BasKabelas
  • to push. I just mentioned if we want to target implementing the product this year, we should move forward with a meeting on the short term to do the final alignment on how we want to implement it & KPI's deciding whether the
    via BasKabelas
  • implementation is succesful. Customer said that this won't happen this year so we can keep to our regular alignment meetings (this is all completely acceptable communication in our culture, we are quite
    via BasKabelas
  • direct). The manager then decided the project failed because of this mail. Next, he decided he has to proof read every email I send within this industry which can be 10s per day, and
    via BasKabelas
  • since I'm not that bothered about privacy for anything. work/internal, I happily complied and delayed communication to whenever his green light was given. Within a week we suddenly got loads of follow up requests,
    via BasKabelas
  • responding to which of course needs approval from the manager as well. I honestly thought this would be a long con but before the week was over we got back to me just doing it how I see fit and no one mentioned the
    via BasKabelas
  • closeup of a mail app icon on phone
    via Brett Jordan

    A depiction of the mail notifications before they started to dramatically build up

  • Obeying a rule to the letter sometimes exposes when an authority figure is relying on unwritten assumptions rather than the actual rule. It’s always interesting to watch how someone might say they want something while all the while wanting something else. In this case, it was, of course, wanting every e-mail to be correct before sending it, not actually wanting to proofread every single one. This is fascinating to me because it privileges intelligence over force. While aggression is present, it is concealed, and people then have to own up to the consequences of what they said they wanted and then reevaluate it.

  • project being pushed to next year since. We still easily exceeded our targets and I even got a nice personal bonus that year. Manager hasn't bothered me since lol.
    via BasKabelas
  • a group of people putting their hands together
    via Creatory

    A photo representing everyone doing better

  • This story ended up well, but it could’ve caused the company to go south. The manager doesn’t seem as evil; he tried to rectify the situation when he very well could have played dumb and forced everybody to go back to normal without saying a word. I’m kinda wishing something like this happens to me now so I can comply, sit back, relax, and watch everything unfold while I wait for my bonus at the end of the year. This is my version of pleasure now that I’m an adult. What happened to me?. Anyway, I’m not going to go and look for the opportunity, but I’ll sure be so ready when it comes. Bliss.

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