Manager Gets A Dose Of Malicious Compliance After Penalizing Team For Working From Home
Interview
Recently, an office worker turned to the Malicious Compliance subreddit to share an incident they had at work. “We have a hybrid policy, two days on site, three days WFH. We can’t pick the day we work from the office (this changes every month),” the Redditor explained.
The problem arose when one day, all three members of the author’s team decided to work from home due to a heavy workload. “Only time this has happened since the office opened a year ago,” they added.
Turns out, the manager was far from impressed with the team’s behavior so she sent a patronizing email telling them that she was counting this as not working that day. This is when the team had no choice but to maliciously comply.
A manager counts working from home as not a working day, team maliciously complies and takes their PTO, leaving all the work for her
Image credits: Vlada Karpovich (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Yan Krukau (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Normal_Plantain_123
Bored Panda reached out to Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, the CEO of the hybrid work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts and author of multiple best-selling books, to comment on this particular situation and find out what his advice for any employee in a similar position would be.
“That’s certainly problematic behavior by the manager. It’s clear the manager is exhibiting a passive-aggressive style of management, both in her initial patronizing email and in her subsequent efforts to punish her employees,” Dr. Tsipursky told us.
“What I would suggest to the employees is to document the situation,” the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts said. “Keep a record of the instances where your manager has displayed passive-aggressive behavior and any negative impacts it has had on your work or well-being. This documentation can be useful if you need to escalate the situation to HR or a higher-level manager.”
Moreover, the situation is clearly unsustainable, Dr. Tsipursky said. “After documenting the situation, it’s important to use this documentation as a basis for scheduling a meeting with your manager to discuss the situation and express your concerns about their behavior. Explain how it is impacting your work and well-being, and try to find a solution that benefits both parties.”
According to Dr. Tsipursky, if your manager’s behavior persists, consider involving HR and/or senior management. “They can mediate a conversation between you and your manager, provide guidance and support, and help resolve the issue. The senior management already clearly intervened to change the unreasonable and unfair policy on PTO.”
“Finally,” Dr. Tsipursky continued, “if the situation is untenable and continues to have a negative impact on your work or well-being, you may need to consider seeking alternative employment that better aligns with your needs, and where they adopt best practices in hybrid and remote work.”
And this is what people thought about this whole situation, sharing their own experiences. Leave us your thoughts in the comments below!
For these types of managers, it's less about having a productive workforce, and more about lording this type of control over people in order to justify their employment.
Yep. My company has insisted that people come in now 3 days a week. Even when shown that productivity was up with WFH. I have a short commute, but know people that it is now costing a substantial time to commute. I think I would just take it out of my 8h.
Load More Replies... Ohoh? So WFH is PTO? OK. Then I won't answer my phone or email AT ALL during PTO or weekends.
I've been working from home since the pandemic started. I am both happier and more productive.
I work from home most of the time. I wouldn’t trade it for the old way unless my salary was at least doubled. I love the flexibility and not being supervised.
Bcc a manager above her with the workload an expected deadline and delegations. Then anytime she gets aggressive forward that email in a bcc to boss with your nice reply. If no one catches her snotty actions she won't get tossed.
I work from home 3 days a week and in the office 2 days. The office is 7 miles away. On some days I have left the house over an hour and a half before my start time and still been late because of horrendous traffic. I could have been working during that time. There have also been times where it’s taken almost 2 hours to get home. I’d rather work those hours free than spend them sat in traffic.
I feel like, if wfh is just out more effective than office, they should be required to pay your travel time... Because all this nonsense it's just making traffic worse for us who can't do a job from home. 😮💨
Load More Replies...
I don't understand. PTO is paid time off? How did they lose this? WFH is working from home, and shouldn't be any more hours than usual. this sounds all weird.
I kinda hate the WFH culture right now. I work directly with kids (violence intervention services) and 80% of my day everyday is with the kids. 10% is supporting afterschool staff by being available to cover the infirmary and deal with injuries and the 10% I have left is far more than I need for paperwork and prep (we use a very set "curriculum" of games and discussions, nothing is graded and I rarely need to create new things for the school year program.) I already have my summer curriculim done and waiting on field trip approvals to get those and guest speakers scheduled. If we are closed then I have nothing to do. But because so many people have shown that you can WFH, we are now expected to do so, losing all our previously paid Snow Days. So Im stuck trying to find something to justify a day's "work" when all I have is my laptop, none of the things I actually need to do the little bit of prep I need for Monday (industrial papercutter and shared craft supplies). I hate WFH days.
Looks like someone completely missed the point by not actually reading the post...
Load More Replies...
Op plainly mentions they have 3 wfh days a week. 🤔
Load More Replies... 
For these types of managers, it's less about having a productive workforce, and more about lording this type of control over people in order to justify their employment.
Yep. My company has insisted that people come in now 3 days a week. Even when shown that productivity was up with WFH. I have a short commute, but know people that it is now costing a substantial time to commute. I think I would just take it out of my 8h.
Load More Replies... Ohoh? So WFH is PTO? OK. Then I won't answer my phone or email AT ALL during PTO or weekends.
I've been working from home since the pandemic started. I am both happier and more productive.
I work from home most of the time. I wouldn’t trade it for the old way unless my salary was at least doubled. I love the flexibility and not being supervised.
Bcc a manager above her with the workload an expected deadline and delegations. Then anytime she gets aggressive forward that email in a bcc to boss with your nice reply. If no one catches her snotty actions she won't get tossed.
I work from home 3 days a week and in the office 2 days. The office is 7 miles away. On some days I have left the house over an hour and a half before my start time and still been late because of horrendous traffic. I could have been working during that time. There have also been times where it’s taken almost 2 hours to get home. I’d rather work those hours free than spend them sat in traffic.
I feel like, if wfh is just out more effective than office, they should be required to pay your travel time... Because all this nonsense it's just making traffic worse for us who can't do a job from home. 😮💨
Load More Replies... I don't understand. PTO is paid time off? How did they lose this? WFH is working from home, and shouldn't be any more hours than usual. this sounds all weird.
I kinda hate the WFH culture right now. I work directly with kids (violence intervention services) and 80% of my day everyday is with the kids. 10% is supporting afterschool staff by being available to cover the infirmary and deal with injuries and the 10% I have left is far more than I need for paperwork and prep (we use a very set "curriculum" of games and discussions, nothing is graded and I rarely need to create new things for the school year program.) I already have my summer curriculim done and waiting on field trip approvals to get those and guest speakers scheduled. If we are closed then I have nothing to do. But because so many people have shown that you can WFH, we are now expected to do so, losing all our previously paid Snow Days. So Im stuck trying to find something to justify a day's "work" when all I have is my laptop, none of the things I actually need to do the little bit of prep I need for Monday (industrial papercutter and shared craft supplies). I hate WFH days.
Looks like someone completely missed the point by not actually reading the post...
Load More Replies... Op plainly mentions they have 3 wfh days a week. 🤔
Load More Replies... 
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