Employee Teaches Manager A Lesson By Maliciously Complying To Her Rule About Clocking Out Only With Permission
Interview With Author
After a long day at work, many of us want to go home, make a hot cup of tea, and unwind from the daily stress. But imagine walking up to your manager, telling them you’re about to clock out, only to hear them say you need to wait for permission to leave. Even after you’re done with your shift.
While this scenario might sound absurd, this is precisely what happened to user Brooklynisqueerr who recently shared her story on Malicious Compliance. The author works at a kitchen appliances store and always gives her supervisor a heads up once her shift has ended. Yet, one day, the user felt seriously baffled after the manager seemed annoyed by her words.
It seems that the boss didn’t want the employee to leave, so she made a new rule on the spot: “Next time, you need to wait for a manager to let you go home.” If there’s one thing we know about senseless work rules, they can backfire in the most beautiful way. Read on for how the author maliciously complied and share your thoughts in the comments below.
Recently, a retail worker shared a post of how her manager said she needs to receive permission to clock out, even when her shift has ended
Image credits: Oxana Melis (not an actual photo)
Instead of arguing with her supervisor, the author maliciously complied
Image credits: Sharon McCutcheon (not an actual photo)
We managed to get in touch with Brooklynisqueerr, who was kind enough to have a little chat about this whole incident. The author told Bored Panda that she decided to create this post on Malicious Compliance because she enjoys reading and listening to stories on this subreddit. “I wanted to make my own contribution to add to the fun,” she said.
The user revealed that she did not expect her post to attract so much attention. In just a few days, the thread has amassed more than 23.3K upvotes and a few hundred comments. “I didn’t think people would find it as interesting as they did, to be honest,” Brooklynisqueerr mentioned.
But it looks like many enjoyed reading about this absurd situation that the user had to experience at work. While some commenters started sharing similar stories from their jobs, other Redditors mentioned that the manager should discuss new rules with the employees first. “It always pays off to treat your employees like people and with respect,” one user wrote.
“I spoke to my coworkers after my manager gave me that rule and they all seemed confused by it,” Brooklynisqueerr added. One of them even told the author, “Yeah, that manager enjoys making up her own rules sometimes.”
We were curious to learn whether there were any updates on the story. The user told us that nothing else really happened. “The rule was dropped and I pretty much went back to asking to go home when my shift was over. This was what we normally did and my manager has never made a comment about it since.”
Brooklynisqueerr guessed that the reason so many people found the thread relevant could be because it’s always interesting to see how rules set up by the management backfire. “It’s a moment that everyone hopes to have, a moment where they can turn a manager’s rules back on them,” she said.
The user wanted to add that bosses should not be snippy to people “with nothing but free time and expect them not to try and use it against you.”
Later on, the user added some more updates to the story
Rules should make your life simpler, not more complicated. Yet, according to CV-Library research, over 60 percent of Brits have worked for a company that carried out unnecessary and bizarre rules. Moreover, more than half of professionals were unhappy about having to abide by these rules.
The most ridiculous things that bosses in the UK were implementing were no food or drinks on the table, docked pay for being a few minutes late, and showing a doctor’s note for any kind of illness. As an employer, “you don’t want to make employees feel uncomfortable or untrusted by enforcing outrageous and unnecessary rules upon them,” Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, said.
“This could result in them leaving to find a more welcoming work culture elsewhere. So it’s important that you get the balance right.”
The survey also revealed that over 67 percent of employees believed that their bosses did not have the right to apply such rules at their workplace. Biggins mentioned that the results from the survey are concerning. “To avoid any conflicts, you need to ensure that your company rules aren’t discriminatory or disrespectful towards employees in any way.”
He continued: “You should think about running the rules by your HR department for a second opinion – this may flag up anything you missed.” And, most importantly, bosses and managers need to have a conversation with their employees first. Otherwise, the workers could start feeling resentful or believe they’re being left out on purpose.
Here’s how Redditors reacted to this whole situation
This can happen anywhere but its a very American thing to do. We're slow so I'll send you home early and avoid having to pay you benefits by keeping you under 32 hours. We're a little busy and we understaffed on purpose so I'll force you to work 2 hours you weren't scheduled for. Its the hourly retail/service employee working a lower wage who gets treated like this more than the person sitting in an office working the 9-5. Its hard to plan both your life and your finances when both are arbitrarily changed without your consent. Emergencies happen so schedules change but many company's labor plan is based on not worrying about the employee.
Emergencies happen outside work, too, Never ask to leave then - inform that you are about to!
Load More Replies...
Business School grad: "I'm the boss! I'm the manager! Everyone has to do what I say!" (Workers maliciously comply, and the BSg is toast...)
Worked at a store that had a carpet area for departments and a floor area for the walkways between them. In their wisdom, they decided that the best way to save money was to have one employee working for every 3 department areas. However, we were only trained in one. So if you worked cameras, you were not trained on DVDs or Small Appliances even though they were near and we're often just showing people where something was or looking something up about it. But then we weren't in our trained for area. So it was made a rule that no employee could leave their carpet without permission and you could get fired for it. Cue all part timers standing right the other side of the floor from a customer and refusing to help them. "I'm sorry, if I leave my carpet I'll get fired."
Look, a well managed store should mean that the manager has a list on her person, or even on her phone, so she knows who is coming and going at what times, and part of her job would be to check 5 minutes before leaving time that a member of staff's replacement has shown up. At that point, she might ask the person to stay on 10 more minutes (paid) so she can free up another member of staff or follow up with the absentee. But if she has no clue who is where or why, that's not a good manager.
Asking for going home? An adult? After shift, which is already my free time? Where do they have support in law for this? I i was a employee and If my shift is over, max i will notify my manager that i am leaving, bye…
Seriously, when your bosses pop off like that follow up in writing to see if they’ll go on record, always have a paper/email trail.
You don't owe them anymore time than what you are scheduled. Never ask to leave. You held up your end to be there during x-x time..I really wouldn't stay any longer even if they're slammed. It gives enployers the idea that they can do it all the time.
Hello everyone , I want to share a great Testimony on how I got blessed by this great Doctor called Dr wonder he helped me in different ways and I cannot thank him less I got a good relationship with his spells and now I have a good pay job I contacted him on Whatsapp +2349150333852 and told him my difficulty in life and he assured me everything will be fine and I believed him and did what he asked from me to my greatest surprise my ex called me and begged me for everything I was so happy. Words cannot express my gratitude to you Doctor wonder ,you can also contacted him for help today on his drwonder512@yahoo.com or +2349150333852
There is no doubt respect is a two way street, but I always try to put myself in other people's shoes. The manager may have been having a bad day or something personal at home may have been affecting the day. I would have waited until the next day and then had a talk with the manager asking if everything was okay. The whole think could have been avoided had either of then decided to take the high road. Unfortunately some people would rather stoop to lower levels of children than to act like an adult.
So, do you guys oversee have no contracts for your workplaces? Do not get me wrong, i try to understand the amount of "articles" like this. If my shift is over, i grab my stuff and leave (of course after i count my register correctly and put it in its place). But i go home after that and nobody would stop me doing that. And if my boss try to prevent that without my permission, i would sue the company. We have plans for the week and there are fix for everyone. Overtime has to be communicated first bevor they can happen. The only exception are a emergency like a power shortcut and the cooler doesn't work anymore. Bad planning are not a emergency. So, nobody cares if the boss are mad at you, if you go home when the shift is over. It get even worse for our so called mini jobs. They are not allowed per law to do overtime and if you caught as a employer to do so, you could end up in jail. (not likely, never heart it happens, but the fines are high).
If you just leave, you get fired. People can't afford to lose their jobs.
Load More Replies...
As soon as I read "go home, make a hot cup of tea" I knew this couldn't be taken seriously
I worked in a store that had a similar rule for a very different reason. We were located in a pretty dangerous area. There were stabbings regularly, shootings, someone was nabbed from our parking lot, we found out a homeless person was living in the back hall connecting our store to the once next store... So much crazy stuff. So we (I was an assistant at the time) made a rule that if you're done with the shift you have to notify a lead or above so they can write it on the schedule in case anything happened we knew when we last laid eyes on you. And we had a rule if you closed you had to wait for the manager to finish all their paperwork and stuff before clocking out and leaving so everyone would walk out together. The rule was set up for people's safety and you would not believe how many people would still complain that it wasn't fair.
Retail and fast food are the worst about this sort of thing, and the management acts like if you go home on time, you are a slacking failure that has screwed the company out of millions and will never be anything but a loser in life.
Just to point out because of that one comment near the end, it doesn't sound like overtime. She said the hours were scanty, so $15 is probably her normal wage. In the US, overtime is time and a half. It doesn't kick in until you've either worked 40 hours a week, or up to 12 hours a day in some states. (Some have 10, some have 8)
Ive turned down management positions in the past becuse I didn't want to manage people, only my work. But in most of the places I worked, I understood the established rules. You got docked after 10 to 15 mins late to encourage being there on time. A Drs note was needed to ensure you were actually sick. Everybody lies about that when they don"t want to work one day. In most major retail stores your bag is checked because some employees DO steal. In many major chains, they give you a clear, seethru bag to carry to work so they dont have to look through it. Of course all of the rules should be decided on by HR and put in writing. BTW: In the US our monetery denomination is written: "$00". The dollar sign goes in front. Always. The cents sign goes after - but nobody bothers writing that anymore.
People write the $ after the number all the time. It isn't correct, but people do it.
Load More Replies... A former job ... I and one other guy (he replaced another rented engineer from my company, but was from elsewhere) were to make old 2D into current 3D CAD. Ok, time was tight. We never wasted any. End of September, my Boss accidently set back all files I did to a state I hadn't worked on them yet, by some date in early August ... I find this disaster, the date of last change only matched her wfh habits, I called her ... "Oh, my bad ... do them again, ok? Not your fault by any means, ..." ... ok, so ... coming in early just to finish sleeping on the desk. Then wake up, have a smoke, go poop or make coffe or whatever, enjoy some snacks, get to work ... and still, they said us to be hard working, really weghing in and all that...
This is why I keep my own copy of all documents I work on on just the harddrive of my work computer. If someone screws it up royally I have a back up and dont have to redo my work.
Load More Replies...
i dunno about this one. I mean, sure, what the manager said was stupid, but it was one offhand remark, not being told off. I kinda feel like OP was being a bit of a jerk about it. A little extra malice in the malicious compliance.
I agree with you but for a different reason. Getting yourself marked by your manager as the "the problem" over $30 of "extra" pay is a stupid move, and whether or not the manager was in the right they weren't enough in the wrong to have anyone else risk anything to take this employee's side.
Load More Replies... 
This can happen anywhere but its a very American thing to do. We're slow so I'll send you home early and avoid having to pay you benefits by keeping you under 32 hours. We're a little busy and we understaffed on purpose so I'll force you to work 2 hours you weren't scheduled for. Its the hourly retail/service employee working a lower wage who gets treated like this more than the person sitting in an office working the 9-5. Its hard to plan both your life and your finances when both are arbitrarily changed without your consent. Emergencies happen so schedules change but many company's labor plan is based on not worrying about the employee.
Emergencies happen outside work, too, Never ask to leave then - inform that you are about to!
Load More Replies... Business School grad: "I'm the boss! I'm the manager! Everyone has to do what I say!" (Workers maliciously comply, and the BSg is toast...)
Worked at a store that had a carpet area for departments and a floor area for the walkways between them. In their wisdom, they decided that the best way to save money was to have one employee working for every 3 department areas. However, we were only trained in one. So if you worked cameras, you were not trained on DVDs or Small Appliances even though they were near and we're often just showing people where something was or looking something up about it. But then we weren't in our trained for area. So it was made a rule that no employee could leave their carpet without permission and you could get fired for it. Cue all part timers standing right the other side of the floor from a customer and refusing to help them. "I'm sorry, if I leave my carpet I'll get fired."
Look, a well managed store should mean that the manager has a list on her person, or even on her phone, so she knows who is coming and going at what times, and part of her job would be to check 5 minutes before leaving time that a member of staff's replacement has shown up. At that point, she might ask the person to stay on 10 more minutes (paid) so she can free up another member of staff or follow up with the absentee. But if she has no clue who is where or why, that's not a good manager.
Asking for going home? An adult? After shift, which is already my free time? Where do they have support in law for this? I i was a employee and If my shift is over, max i will notify my manager that i am leaving, bye…
Seriously, when your bosses pop off like that follow up in writing to see if they’ll go on record, always have a paper/email trail.
You don't owe them anymore time than what you are scheduled. Never ask to leave. You held up your end to be there during x-x time..I really wouldn't stay any longer even if they're slammed. It gives enployers the idea that they can do it all the time.
Hello everyone , I want to share a great Testimony on how I got blessed by this great Doctor called Dr wonder he helped me in different ways and I cannot thank him less I got a good relationship with his spells and now I have a good pay job I contacted him on Whatsapp +2349150333852 and told him my difficulty in life and he assured me everything will be fine and I believed him and did what he asked from me to my greatest surprise my ex called me and begged me for everything I was so happy. Words cannot express my gratitude to you Doctor wonder ,you can also contacted him for help today on his drwonder512@yahoo.com or +2349150333852
There is no doubt respect is a two way street, but I always try to put myself in other people's shoes. The manager may have been having a bad day or something personal at home may have been affecting the day. I would have waited until the next day and then had a talk with the manager asking if everything was okay. The whole think could have been avoided had either of then decided to take the high road. Unfortunately some people would rather stoop to lower levels of children than to act like an adult.
So, do you guys oversee have no contracts for your workplaces? Do not get me wrong, i try to understand the amount of "articles" like this. If my shift is over, i grab my stuff and leave (of course after i count my register correctly and put it in its place). But i go home after that and nobody would stop me doing that. And if my boss try to prevent that without my permission, i would sue the company. We have plans for the week and there are fix for everyone. Overtime has to be communicated first bevor they can happen. The only exception are a emergency like a power shortcut and the cooler doesn't work anymore. Bad planning are not a emergency. So, nobody cares if the boss are mad at you, if you go home when the shift is over. It get even worse for our so called mini jobs. They are not allowed per law to do overtime and if you caught as a employer to do so, you could end up in jail. (not likely, never heart it happens, but the fines are high).
If you just leave, you get fired. People can't afford to lose their jobs.
Load More Replies... As soon as I read "go home, make a hot cup of tea" I knew this couldn't be taken seriously
I worked in a store that had a similar rule for a very different reason. We were located in a pretty dangerous area. There were stabbings regularly, shootings, someone was nabbed from our parking lot, we found out a homeless person was living in the back hall connecting our store to the once next store... So much crazy stuff. So we (I was an assistant at the time) made a rule that if you're done with the shift you have to notify a lead or above so they can write it on the schedule in case anything happened we knew when we last laid eyes on you. And we had a rule if you closed you had to wait for the manager to finish all their paperwork and stuff before clocking out and leaving so everyone would walk out together. The rule was set up for people's safety and you would not believe how many people would still complain that it wasn't fair.
Retail and fast food are the worst about this sort of thing, and the management acts like if you go home on time, you are a slacking failure that has screwed the company out of millions and will never be anything but a loser in life.
Just to point out because of that one comment near the end, it doesn't sound like overtime. She said the hours were scanty, so $15 is probably her normal wage. In the US, overtime is time and a half. It doesn't kick in until you've either worked 40 hours a week, or up to 12 hours a day in some states. (Some have 10, some have 8)
Ive turned down management positions in the past becuse I didn't want to manage people, only my work. But in most of the places I worked, I understood the established rules. You got docked after 10 to 15 mins late to encourage being there on time. A Drs note was needed to ensure you were actually sick. Everybody lies about that when they don"t want to work one day. In most major retail stores your bag is checked because some employees DO steal. In many major chains, they give you a clear, seethru bag to carry to work so they dont have to look through it. Of course all of the rules should be decided on by HR and put in writing. BTW: In the US our monetery denomination is written: "$00". The dollar sign goes in front. Always. The cents sign goes after - but nobody bothers writing that anymore.
People write the $ after the number all the time. It isn't correct, but people do it.
Load More Replies... A former job ... I and one other guy (he replaced another rented engineer from my company, but was from elsewhere) were to make old 2D into current 3D CAD. Ok, time was tight. We never wasted any. End of September, my Boss accidently set back all files I did to a state I hadn't worked on them yet, by some date in early August ... I find this disaster, the date of last change only matched her wfh habits, I called her ... "Oh, my bad ... do them again, ok? Not your fault by any means, ..." ... ok, so ... coming in early just to finish sleeping on the desk. Then wake up, have a smoke, go poop or make coffe or whatever, enjoy some snacks, get to work ... and still, they said us to be hard working, really weghing in and all that...
This is why I keep my own copy of all documents I work on on just the harddrive of my work computer. If someone screws it up royally I have a back up and dont have to redo my work.
Load More Replies... i dunno about this one. I mean, sure, what the manager said was stupid, but it was one offhand remark, not being told off. I kinda feel like OP was being a bit of a jerk about it. A little extra malice in the malicious compliance.
I agree with you but for a different reason. Getting yourself marked by your manager as the "the problem" over $30 of "extra" pay is a stupid move, and whether or not the manager was in the right they weren't enough in the wrong to have anyone else risk anything to take this employee's side.
Load More Replies... 
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