Employee Maliciously Complies With Boss’s Request To Do Other People’s Job, “Costing A Company Millions”
This story comes from a quality assurance employee who goes by the nickname Strikeronima on Reddit. In a recent post shared on the Malicious Compliance community, the Redditor wrote how they ended up writing all the company’s reports although they had their own time-consuming job to do. “I had been fighting to not do others’ reports for months and my boss told me to remind other leads when a report was needed,” the author noted.
On one occasion, a flawed product occurred in the refrigeration department. The author called refrigeration and told them “you need to do a report on this, I’ll send out an email counting how many pallets of product we lost,” but didn’t write a report as they were told not to.
The boss was dumbstruck as to why this employee didn’t write a report, saying that “if you have time to send an email, you have to write a report.” But she clearly forgot that she told to remind other leads to write a report.
An identical incident happened two months later, but this time, it cost way more than writing up for failure. Almost a couple of millions more.
A quality assurance employee shared how the company almost lost millions after they did what they were told by the boss
Image credits: Arno Senoner (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Ivan Samkov (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Grégory Costa (not the actual photo)
We all know that feeling: the stomach-dropping, heart-sinking sensation when we realize we’ve made a mistake at work. Whether it’s a small oversight or a major faux pas, we’ve all been there.
On the other hand, not all mistakes are equal. Some critical mistakes at work can certainly have serious consequences, as we’ve seen in this story, and can even be career-ending. For a company, critical human error can bring lawsuits, costs millions and customers, as well as ruin their reputation.
Meanwhile, a study of 2,000 workers found one in five have made what they consider to be a critical mistake at work, and 12 per cent have taken a risk that cost their company money. The study also found a third of working adults (33 per cent) are willing to take a risk at work as long as they don’t get caught.
Hans Schumann, an international Executive Career & Life Coach with a background in law and financial services going back 20 years, told Bored Panda that human errors cannot be avoided as they happen all the time.
“Human errors become a problem when there is much at stake. For example, if I make an error mistaking one coaching client for another, he or she may feel offended but no real harm is done,” he said.
“But if I was a doctor and got my patients mixed up, I might endanger their lives by giving them the wrong treatment,” Schumann added.
When asked about ways to deal with a critical mistake you made at work, Schumann reminded us that each mistake has the potential for growth and learning. “I advise my clients to feel compassion towards themselves when they have made a mistake. Judging us just adds to the stress and the more stressed we are, the more errors we will make,” he said. Schumann’s advice is to be curious about what happened and what you can learn from the mistake.
When it comes to a company losing money because an employee made a mistake, Schumann argues that this is a normal business risk that companies need to manage. “Cost is usually to be absorbed by the company. You can mitigate this risk through training, oversight and by seeking insurance cover.”
“Support your employees to learn from their mistakes. If they don’t show willingness to learn and mistakes keep happening, you will need to performance manage them and ultimately you may need to let them go,” Schumann concluded.
People expressed their support for the author in the comments
Am I the only one who thinks OPs comment about boss being a “diversity hire” was a little uncomfortable?
No, it's a reality faced on a daily basis in business. A company would rather get rid of the person 'causing issues' than been tagged as racist (or sexist etc).
Load More Replies...I don't understand why OP didn't challenge the first write-up. Irrespective of how their boss handled each situation, OP comes off to me as being more petty than professional
Everything tells me this person is a jerk. I agree. The “diversity hire” comment sealed it 😒
Load More Replies...This is an interesting little social experiment going on down here in the comments. OP's story is no different than any other "boss told me to do this" malicious compliance story which would get nothing but praise from the BP audience. This time around OP made a statement, in a separate environment, which people don't like and the BP audience is now calling out his malicious compliance as petty.
Yep, how dare he tell the truth. Affirmative Action was not the all-encompassing savior people thought it would be.
Load More Replies...Well these articles have been a fun way to pass the time but of course, like all things unfortunately, there's gotta be some bigotry sprinkled in to ruin it. No matter how hard we work we're always seen as a diversity hire by some chud who isn't very good at their job.
Seems you running to that chud for reports other's aren't doing.
Load More Replies...The "diversity hire" comment struck me as a bit unneeded. But lets go down the rabbit hole. I knew someone who's a person of colour. They were going for a management position against another POC. Bill, the first POC, was qualified for the position, been with the company for years and was very much well liked. Terry the second POC was not a qualified but was an extremely quick learner but hadn't been with the company for now more then 3 years. They hired Terry. I heard the company was a afraid Bill was going for their jobs because he understood and knew the company inside and out. So they hired Terry. Moral of the story: someone can be a diversity hire who has potential to do the job. But the higher ups don't want someone threatening their jobs so they'll go with the one less experienced and possibly easier to manipulate.
The employee with shorter tenure was probably cheaper to hire.
Load More Replies...What’s diversity hire? I tried googling it but couldn’t really find anything
When some kind of affirmative action law requires a company to hire people from more diverse backgrounds (race, gender, etc) and so they hire certain people because of their demographic and not because they are qualified for the job. It's an ugly comment to many, because it's implying that the person is bad at their job *because* they are a certain race and/or female.
Load More Replies...Some basic source criticism: Tendence is a term that refers to whether a source would tend to lie about information for personal gain. Example: Hitler would lie to newsreporters in order to make Nazis look good. My point is, when OP commented "diversity hire" the credibility of his story was demolished. The source, in other words OP, has a tendency to lie in order to make diversity hires look real and bad at their job. No matter your opinion on the matter, his text isn't trustworthy. Just some basic source criticism that I learned in High School.
That's stupid...waiting for your boss to ding you so you can screw an entire company is a waste of resources and hard on the environment. They should Fall the chain of command and what above her to her boss and said what was going on. They could've ended up with the other person's job.
They also could have been fired for going over their boss or *causing conflict* instead of just doing someone else's job, sometimes the only way people learn is the hard way
Load More Replies...and so, just for being a smart guy, millions worth of produce get's wasted. Meanwhile there are so many people starving in the world. Wastefull and petty
You should make a template and just use the words xxx is broken, report filed.
I just feel bad for the laborers indirectly affected by all this beauracratic BS. You people that sit at a desk all day, and "cant complete your office duties". Why is your incompetent bum sitting in that chair? Go sweat for a living, you'll feel better about yourself, instead of having to constantly lie to earn a paycheque, and lie to yourself that you deserve more than the labourers in your company, that suffer under your poor decision making. You are clearly NO MORE competent than them.
"Writing people up" does not belong in grown up work environments, documentation should occur if termination of of employment will occur and the employee understands what needs to be done to to preserve their job, people with poor managerial skills make due with the ignorance the have..and excuses "if you had time to do this.... negative reinforcement of someone who's unaware of how poorly they manage people... it makes their job more difficult and less successful as well
The poster should never sign a write up they get that was falsely accused. Always dispute and converse to speak to your supervisors boss if you dispute a write up and it was unjust most likely it will be dropped off you can prove innocents to the bosses superior. I would also suggest from now on keep a record of every thing your supervisor asks you to do. Request it in writing if your supervisor refuses then you write it up and get them to sign it. If they refuse to sign it then make sure you have another employee present and get them to endorse the written instructions as a witness. This supervisor is obviously trying to pass the buck to others. You should always document everything to protect yourself. Yes this won't please your supervisor but who cares it's obvious this person isn't a trust worthy boss in the first place and job security for yourself is more important then your supervisor liking you.
And than in a plot twist, the op gets fired for costing company millions and is now left with cr*p cause they think they are the sh*t. If that is so the op can go and make there own company and sh*t their own money and time. But more likely I will take things that didn't happen for a million Bob.
What a plot twist she left after seeing nobody learned their lessons multiple times over and can continue to waste millions without her around.
Load More Replies...Most of the times you have to sign a write up, to avoid soft retaliation and also the security of your job. A company I worked for does management rotations throughout their stores. A new manager came in a promoted a young female with two great personalities and zero management exp. She one day to me to do something that was not in policy. And when I questioned her and told her I have over 20 years experience, way before she was born. 3 months later everyone thinks she is useless and a joke.
OP should of just went to their bosses boss and nipped it before it escalated. But oh well. 🤷🏼♀️
Am I the only one who thinks OPs comment about boss being a “diversity hire” was a little uncomfortable?
No, it's a reality faced on a daily basis in business. A company would rather get rid of the person 'causing issues' than been tagged as racist (or sexist etc).
Load More Replies...I don't understand why OP didn't challenge the first write-up. Irrespective of how their boss handled each situation, OP comes off to me as being more petty than professional
Everything tells me this person is a jerk. I agree. The “diversity hire” comment sealed it 😒
Load More Replies...This is an interesting little social experiment going on down here in the comments. OP's story is no different than any other "boss told me to do this" malicious compliance story which would get nothing but praise from the BP audience. This time around OP made a statement, in a separate environment, which people don't like and the BP audience is now calling out his malicious compliance as petty.
Yep, how dare he tell the truth. Affirmative Action was not the all-encompassing savior people thought it would be.
Load More Replies...Well these articles have been a fun way to pass the time but of course, like all things unfortunately, there's gotta be some bigotry sprinkled in to ruin it. No matter how hard we work we're always seen as a diversity hire by some chud who isn't very good at their job.
Seems you running to that chud for reports other's aren't doing.
Load More Replies...The "diversity hire" comment struck me as a bit unneeded. But lets go down the rabbit hole. I knew someone who's a person of colour. They were going for a management position against another POC. Bill, the first POC, was qualified for the position, been with the company for years and was very much well liked. Terry the second POC was not a qualified but was an extremely quick learner but hadn't been with the company for now more then 3 years. They hired Terry. I heard the company was a afraid Bill was going for their jobs because he understood and knew the company inside and out. So they hired Terry. Moral of the story: someone can be a diversity hire who has potential to do the job. But the higher ups don't want someone threatening their jobs so they'll go with the one less experienced and possibly easier to manipulate.
The employee with shorter tenure was probably cheaper to hire.
Load More Replies...What’s diversity hire? I tried googling it but couldn’t really find anything
When some kind of affirmative action law requires a company to hire people from more diverse backgrounds (race, gender, etc) and so they hire certain people because of their demographic and not because they are qualified for the job. It's an ugly comment to many, because it's implying that the person is bad at their job *because* they are a certain race and/or female.
Load More Replies...Some basic source criticism: Tendence is a term that refers to whether a source would tend to lie about information for personal gain. Example: Hitler would lie to newsreporters in order to make Nazis look good. My point is, when OP commented "diversity hire" the credibility of his story was demolished. The source, in other words OP, has a tendency to lie in order to make diversity hires look real and bad at their job. No matter your opinion on the matter, his text isn't trustworthy. Just some basic source criticism that I learned in High School.
That's stupid...waiting for your boss to ding you so you can screw an entire company is a waste of resources and hard on the environment. They should Fall the chain of command and what above her to her boss and said what was going on. They could've ended up with the other person's job.
They also could have been fired for going over their boss or *causing conflict* instead of just doing someone else's job, sometimes the only way people learn is the hard way
Load More Replies...and so, just for being a smart guy, millions worth of produce get's wasted. Meanwhile there are so many people starving in the world. Wastefull and petty
You should make a template and just use the words xxx is broken, report filed.
I just feel bad for the laborers indirectly affected by all this beauracratic BS. You people that sit at a desk all day, and "cant complete your office duties". Why is your incompetent bum sitting in that chair? Go sweat for a living, you'll feel better about yourself, instead of having to constantly lie to earn a paycheque, and lie to yourself that you deserve more than the labourers in your company, that suffer under your poor decision making. You are clearly NO MORE competent than them.
"Writing people up" does not belong in grown up work environments, documentation should occur if termination of of employment will occur and the employee understands what needs to be done to to preserve their job, people with poor managerial skills make due with the ignorance the have..and excuses "if you had time to do this.... negative reinforcement of someone who's unaware of how poorly they manage people... it makes their job more difficult and less successful as well
The poster should never sign a write up they get that was falsely accused. Always dispute and converse to speak to your supervisors boss if you dispute a write up and it was unjust most likely it will be dropped off you can prove innocents to the bosses superior. I would also suggest from now on keep a record of every thing your supervisor asks you to do. Request it in writing if your supervisor refuses then you write it up and get them to sign it. If they refuse to sign it then make sure you have another employee present and get them to endorse the written instructions as a witness. This supervisor is obviously trying to pass the buck to others. You should always document everything to protect yourself. Yes this won't please your supervisor but who cares it's obvious this person isn't a trust worthy boss in the first place and job security for yourself is more important then your supervisor liking you.
And than in a plot twist, the op gets fired for costing company millions and is now left with cr*p cause they think they are the sh*t. If that is so the op can go and make there own company and sh*t their own money and time. But more likely I will take things that didn't happen for a million Bob.
What a plot twist she left after seeing nobody learned their lessons multiple times over and can continue to waste millions without her around.
Load More Replies...Most of the times you have to sign a write up, to avoid soft retaliation and also the security of your job. A company I worked for does management rotations throughout their stores. A new manager came in a promoted a young female with two great personalities and zero management exp. She one day to me to do something that was not in policy. And when I questioned her and told her I have over 20 years experience, way before she was born. 3 months later everyone thinks she is useless and a joke.
OP should of just went to their bosses boss and nipped it before it escalated. But oh well. 🤷🏼♀️
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