Some people feel like they have to always be in control and if things don’t ALWAYS go their way, they don’t know how to deal with it.

And it sounds like that’s exactly the kind of person a Master’s student was dealing with while they worked as a teaching assistant in a lab.

So they had to find a clever way for how to deal with this person.

Oh I’m not allowed to clean up early? Have it your way.

“I am a Master’s student who works as a TA for a class of 60 students.

It is a lab course so there is a ton of set up and cleanup. I usually end up working an extra hour or two past the end of lab (which I get paid for but it does mean I go home really late). So I started tidying up once most of the students were gone. There is another TA and the professor to answer questions.

The professor called them out in front of everyone.

I did this for a few weeks until I missed a student’s question. The prof yelled at me and embarrassed me in front of the student for “not doing my job”. The other TA was on his phone and the professor was standing at the front not doing anything. He told me to ABSOLUTELY not clean up until ALL the students were gone.

So they decided that malicious compliance was the way to go.

We had one student that always stayed over an hour later than everyone else. The next week this student was the only one in the lab for over an hour past the end of lab. The other TA was helping them. I stood there, not lifting a finger, until she left.

I took my time tidying up. The other TA is useless and was barely helping. Two hours passed (now 9:00pm) and the lab was barely cleaned up. The professor started panicking saying he still had to write lectures, do his own experiments and then have an hour drive home. He had to help clean up.

And the professor finally learned his lesson.

I did the same thing the next week and the professor went into a full on panic attack. He told me that I could clean up early next week. I told him that unfortunately the extra hours I put into cleaning for the last two weeks used up all my hours for the semester so I wouldn’t be in.

I heard that the next week was an absolute **** show and the other TA complained that they were there almost until midnight.”

Check out what Reddit users had to say.

This reader was really excited about one part of the story.

Another individual said this professor’s behavior was ridiculous.

This individual said this was simple and efficient.

One person talked about how bad academia can be for some folks.

And this Reddit user LOVES when stuff like this happens!

Some rules are just meant to be broken.

And this was definitely one of those times!