November 14, 2023 at 2:39 pm

‘Why haven’t you gone home?’ They Followed Directions And Made Extra Money By Waiting To Be Told They Could Leave

by Matthew Gilligan

Source: Reddit/AITA/Pexels

Rules, rules, rules!

I once had a job where the boss wouldn’t stop talking about “rules and regulations” but little did she know that all she did was slow things down and make things more complicated with all her nonsense.

And every single employee knew it!

But all we could do was go along with the program because there was no reasoning with this lady.

And this story from Reddit’s “Malicious Compliance” page reminded me of that old job I had.

It started when the person who wrote this story was working a seemingly regular job.

“You need to wait for a manager to let you go home”……….ok.

“So I work at a store that sells kitchen appliances and other kitchen related stuff.

Normally when we’re supposed to leave or go on break we’re supposed to tell our manager, I was helping a long line at cash and had already been there for 8 hours and assumed they had someone to cover me, I wasn’t allowed to use the walkies to ask to be covered to go home, so I quickly found my manager and told her my shift was done.

Sounds pretty simple, right?

But this manager was a little peeved about what was going on and they told the worker how they had to proceed in the future.

She got really annoyed at me and said “could you really not stay a few more minutes” I tried to tell her “I thought you had someone to cover me, but I can stay if you want” she then replied “no no just go, but next time you need to wait for a manager to let you go home”

Record scratch!

This was never a rule, I asked other people who’ve worked there for years and they agreed that it wasn’t a rule.

I worked again a few days later and the store was empty, my shift was over and was about to ask to go home then I remember what my manager told me.

Whatever you say, boss…

Cue malicious compliance.

I continued to wander the store and slightly fix shelves, making sure I was near my manager.

After about 2 and a half hours she said “you’re still here, why haven’t you gone home?”

And then it was time for the big reveal!

Bam!

I replied “you said I need to wait to be told to go home.”

My manager looked at me as though she was mentally kicking herself “just go” she said.

I clocked out and that’s how I got paid an extra $30 for doing literally nothing.”

Check out how folks reacted on Reddit.

One person made a good point…

Source: Reddit/AITA

This reader said it’s up to all of us to make changes.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Another Reddit user shared how it works at their job.

Source: Reddit/AITA

This individual was impressed!

Source: Reddit/AITA

And one reader talked about how had to change their behavior at work.

Source: Reddit/AITA

This is malicious compliance at its best!

You gotta love it!