Worker lands job at employer’s main competitor after being fired when CEO’s decision to use his personal notebook as an official work manual backfires because new unskilled workers can’t follow the handwritten notes

Author image for Etai Eshet
Etai Eshet • Editor
Aug 18, 2026 8:00 AM EDT

Malicious compliance works best when you give people exactly what they ask for, doesn't it?

In this case, it was a handwritten, coffee-stained, dog-eared notebook that became the official office manual because that is what they demanded. So it's only fit for the former employee to share the story with the people who love Malicious Compliance the most.

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  • Gray-bearded man with glasses holds a finger to his lips in front of colorful slot machines with overlaying quote: “Everything was fine until the CEO's brother took charge He ran the company into the ground”
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    Man making a shushing gesture

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  • I used to work for a small company that manufactured slot machines (a.k.a., "One-Armed Bandits") for the ga ling industry. The company was owned by two brothers: The CEO with an MBA who knew how to run a business, and a college drop-out with a Ferrari who could sell sand to the Bedouins.
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  • The first year was good. I learned every technical thing I could about the products, including how to set up the payouts and troubleshoot the problems. Because there was no 'official' service manual (just a collection
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  • of hand-drawn schematics and inter-office memos in a manila folder), I kept a pocket-sized notebook to record my observations and jog my memory when needed. I'd then add these
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  • notes to the bigger, hand-typed notebook I kept at home. This notebook became my personal "User & Service Manual", and I would cite its contents when discussing technical issues with co-workers.
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  • Then one day, the CEO and his brother swapped duties. The MBA-holding CEO went back to the main office in Vegas to handle sales, and left his brother in charge to handle us.
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  • One of the first tasks the brother set me to was the training of a new hire another former -- salesperson (somewhat tech- savvy), and a friend of his. I
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  • walked him through the assembly, testing, and servicing of the products, had him 'shadow' me for a day, and then I observed him as he did my job for the remainder of the week.
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  • The following Monday, the CEO's brother informs me that he is sending me along with a shipment of our products to supervise their installation. He promised OT pay plus per diem
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  • for the entire trip. Once I arrived on-site, I saw that the only work I had to do was to plug each unit in and run a hundred coins through each one to certify their operation. No problem. Done in a day.
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  • There was a message waiting for me at the field office to call the main office first thing in the morning. I made the call the next day, and the CEO's brother asked me where the manual was. I asked, "What manual?"
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  • "Don't give me that ****! The ******* manual for the ******* machines we've been ******* making! Where the **** is it?" (Or words to that effect.)
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  • I told him all I had was my personal notebook and asked if that was what he meant. (This was entirely true. I did not have my typed notes with me, only my hand-written ones.)
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  • He told me to ship it back overnight, because my new boss needed it.
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  • ("New Boss"? He had promoted the guy I has spent a week to train just before I left for Vegas to the position of shop supervisor, and only then saw fit to inform me.) Cue the Malicious Compliance
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  • No problem! A few more pleasantries were exchanged, and the call was completed. I overnight-shipped my hand- written, dog-eared, pencil- whipped, coffee-stained draft notebook, and it arrived sometime the next day.
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  • I essentially had nothing to do for the remainder of the week but stand by at the customer's site (a well-known casino), to change light bulbs and clear coin jams.
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  • On Friday, I went into the main office to get my return ticket and pick up my paycheck. The office manager informed me that I would be staying another week. She handed me my paycheck, and I cashed it at the bank next door.
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  • So I stayed another week, trained the locals on basic maintenance, enjoyed the free buffets, saw a couple of shows, and won some money at blackjack (in another casino, of course).
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  • At the end of the week, I again went into the main office for my paycheck and plane ticket, only to be informed again that I was to stay for another week. "No way." "Yes, way."
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  • (This was the first time I'd ever heard that response, and it's stuck with me ever since.)
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  • I told her I had enough cash to pay for my own ticket back home, and that I was prepared to do just that whether or not I still had a job when I get there.
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  • She told me to wait, left the room, and came back with the CEO. I explained the situation. He went back into his office, closed the door, and called his brother.
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  • There was some shouting, but the CEO came back saying that everything had been worked out, and promised me that my job was "as safe as anyone else's". ("Dun-dun-DUNNN!")
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  • The Fallout So, the following Monday, I rolled into work at the branch site. The new boss had received my notebook, and had tried to adapt what I'd hand-written so as to make every line-worker into a QA/QC specialist. But because
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  • most of the line-workers barely graduated high school (hired to cut costs?), many of the more technical concepts were beyond their understanding. To top it off, about a third of the original line workers had been replaced by people who could barely
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  • understand English (again, hired to cut costs?), much less anything technical. It should go without saying that what had once passed for quality work had become a twisted and broken parody of itself.
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  • As I was surveying the damage, the CEO's brother arrived, took one look at me, and said "You're fired. Get the h..I out." I smiled, shrugged, and complied.
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  • Back home, I called a friend, got an interview with my (now former) company's main competitor, and they offered me a similar position at better pay, starting a week later. The typed manual went with me.
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  • Epilogue: Sweet Revenge About a year later, the brother of the CEO of my former employer was on a tour of my new employer's facility. When HR later asked my opinion of him, I said he would make a great salesperson, especially if he stayed out of rehab and did not violate any restraining orders.
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  • (True! I didn't say he had ever gone to rehab or received any restraining orders, only that he'd be okay without them.) He did not get hired.
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  • I stayed with that company for another year, and then left for yet another another company for even more money and better benefits.
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  • If he wasn’t the type of person he is, he could probably see how handwritten notes becoming company policy is going to turn out for him, but he didn’t because ego refused to admit the manual was never written. 

    Watching a company’s workflow implode in slow motion is probably entertaining even if you know the blame is about to be thrown your way.

    Even if you are the person who built the system, and you get sent away while the person who broke it gets to explain to investors why the machine stopped working.

    And the three cherries on top of this is that the brother who messed this up eventually needs a job. And the man he tried to blame gets to sit and watch - luck or karma, you decide. 


    The house always wins because the house owns the knowledge. But in this story, the person who documents everything, keeps the notes, and refuses to give away expertise for free had the upper hand.

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management workplace discussion employment issues boss workplace-stories hr coworkers colleague Horrible Bosses
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