One of the best parts about Reddit’s “Malicious Compliance” is that a lot of folks can see themselves in the stories that appear on the website.

And we think a lot of people out there will relate to this story!

Check it out and see what you think.

Stop being nice and helpful. Do your job as directed!

“Work as an EHS person for a manufacturing and repair company. I deal with OSHA inspections, chemical management and spill reporting.

I do a lot of walk around and fix a lot of issues. Floor signs, door signs, blocked panels, trash and other safety issues. I put in service request for them to be fixed.

Due to being sick I got behind on my tasks. Not by much but enough I had to slow down to get them done, work a little over time.

They got their work review.

Had a doctor’s note for breathing issues and that I won’t be at 100% for a while.

Well, had my review for my position. “Being too nice, helping outside of my position, not finishing jobs as directed.”

I needed to “do my job as directed” my raise and bonus was not given this year for that.

Okay, so I requested a job description and tasks. When I had them in an email. I said I would only be doing them because of my contract and that’s it.

Confirmation email ten minutes later for it.

Three months down the line we have our big audit. My side of EHS of the department was given a 95 of 100. Very good score. I was docked 5 on the issue with chemical management. We had three drums get misplaced for about a month. This is a huge facility, 4 different buildings at 400 to 500 thousand square feet. So I took my issues and went about my day. (They have some points system for the audit.)

One week later we had a meeting about the audit. Rest of EHS ended up with a 79 to 82 for the audit. They had 19 floor and wall signs that had been damaged, 10 blocked panels, two mislabeled waste bins, 3 waste bins without labels and many more.

In my company you have two main groups. Green Badge full time and Yellow Badge Contractors. I am contracted and have been the past 6 years. The ones in charge of the inspections that had issues are full employees.

They noticed I stopped putting in the maintenance requests to have stuff fixed.

Just following the rules!

I ended up telling them that I had my review and was told “Being too nice, helpful and to do my job as directed.”

I gave the head of the department, his company manager and the other rep that had come in the emails. My direct boss tried to say he did not mean that but the emails showed what I was to do.

I was taken aside with my direct boss and the main EHS department bosses and my contracted company rep. Talked to about expanding my scope of work to back to reporting and maintenance requests.

They had the power now!

I said if my bonus and raise from last year are given and an adequate raise for my new responsibilities are given, then I would consider it.

They complied with my request and gave me more on my bonus because of getting the highest score on the audit.

The EHS team I work for at my facility is 9 people. We had 5 new ones by the end of the month.

I guess malicious compliance worked in my favor.”

Here’s what people said on Reddit.

This reader talked about OSHA policies…

Another individual talked about their factory job.

One individual said they did the right thing.

Another Reddit user shared their thoughts about this story.

And this individual nailed it!

What was that manager thinking writing that in a review?

Some people can’t get out of their own way…

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.