July 2, 2024 at 11:39 am

His Supervisor Brushed Off His Anxiety, So He Showed How Bad It Can Get And Got The Supervisor Fired

by Sarrah Murtaza

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance/pexels/Andrea Piacquadio

Some people can be the most evil souls to exist.

And more often than not, they come disguised as managers and supervisors.

This man had to deal with a mean supervisor who seized his spot at work.

Let’s check out how he got the supervisor fired.

I said I can’t work there.

So I’m not sure if this counts as Malicious Compliance but I’ll post here for now.

At my previous job I worked as a Peer Trainer (essentially, I was required to do my assigned job to its full capacity while also teaching everything to the newbies straight off the street.

Not only did I agree to do this I had volunteered for it. So this isn’t a story about overwork. 👍)

I worked in a large room where there were 5 stations of machines all lined up in a row from one wall to the other.

All stations do the exact same thing just with their own bugs and hiccups.

One wall wasn’t even a wall but a giant window that looked into the breakroom. I have major anxiety about being snuck up on or watched without my knowing.

He couldn’t work there!

Enough to cause sudden anxiety attacks that can last for hours or until I can remove myself from the room/building and sleep it off. (I hate it, it’s super inconvenient.)

Thankfully this isn’t an issue for the most part because since I know the triggers I can avoid them or set up precautions (like sitting with my back to a wall) and my coworkers are usually understanding and don’t sneak up on me.

Things were smooth and he was doing his job.

This window also proves to be a distraction for the trainees because they will try to look for and interact with their friends who are in the breakroom.

I get that the job I was training them for was boring as heck, 12 hours long, and on the night shift but we were working on large machines that needed to be watched at all times in case they jammed or broke. (Which was often)

Thankfully my station was the 3rd one away from the window so I could easily keep everything maintained.

And then the new entry..

The Problem was (as it always seems to be in these stories) when a new supervisor moved to our area of the building. He was put in charge of station 1 and station 2. (I’m assigned to station 3) And technically speaking station 1 was supposed to be the “training station”.

I had previously made a verbal agreement with his predecessor and the Training team that I could stay on #3 because of the previous points.

They made it worse for him..

Without asking or even giving me a heads up I came back to work from a vacation day to find that I had already been reassigned to section 1, despite the protests of my coworkers in my absence.

(Not to be that person but there was a reason the Training team was so willing to bend the rules for me. I was REALLY good at my job. I was the go-to person to ask when something broke and even Maintannence couldn’t fix it. I’ve been told by my own leads that they refuse to let me transfer off their team without my insistence.)

So a sudden and unprompted transfer like this was commonly considered extremely rude and was usually used as a punishment.

He thought a conversation would fix things but little did he know.

I figured that, as I had never met this new Super before, I would just go talk to him and strike up the same deal as I had with all his predecessors for 4 years.

I even had the lead for station 1 come with me to confirm my case and act as witness. (she knew me well as an operator because I’d come over to help her fix her machines ALL THE TIME.)

I quickly realized that he was not going to budge on the transfer, so I told him calmly that I was ready to quit being a trainer that day and to have the extra pay cut off immediately.

It’s not like I was gonna lose my job and the trainer pay was less than a dollar more an hour. I was doing this because I wanted to, not because I needed it.

He was not expecting it.

He was shocked.

We eventually agreed that I’d finish training my current trainee in my area while he looked for someone else and until my request to quit training made its way to payroll. Cool.

Apparently NOT cool.

He came back 3 days later saying (with no proof or paper) claiming that HR said I had no choice. This bothered me for a few reasons.

He has his reasons..

First, he did not call me into a meeting for this, he, despite my many warnings to him about my anxiety triggers, snuck up behind me with a group of supervisors to deliver the order.

Second, none of the supervisors with him were actually ones in charge of me in any capacity. My lead, direct supervisor, or ANY of the Training team that I was under were not there.

(I want to make this clear; this man was not my boss in any way. He was assigned to the training section, yes, but had no authority over the trainers as Trainers. So if a trainer was operating on a different section, he had no authority.)

The third thing that bothered me was that instead of looking for a new person like he promised, he took the time to find a way to force me to do what he wanted.

He wanted out of training..

As soon as he and his group appeared out of nowhere to quite literally surround me and block me in, I could already feel that stupid fight or flight kick in. I could barely keep my brain together enough to actually register what they were telling me.

I could only agree in hopes that it would get them to leave sooner hoping that I might be able to calm myself down and get in control again. (I really hate causing a scene.) When they left, I went to break, before I moved to section one.

Until the big plan..

Finally, this is where the malicious compliance comes in.

Despite my best efforts I could not calm myself over break. So when I went back and moved to sit beside the giant window, the added anxiety of THAT hit me pretty hard. Just like I had warned.

So I decided that since this came with a full and repeated warning from my end, I wasn’t going to do anything to mask the anxiety attack this time.

(I don’t have them often and usually do my best to minimize the burden they cause to the people around me. This results in a few silent tears and lots of fidgeting and a bit of pacing.)

It got distressing for him..

This time however I just let it happen, we’re talking rapid frantic pacing, red faced and tears streaming down my cheeks, strained breathing and digging my nails into my arms and hands.

My poor trainee had no idea what was going on and I was unable to teach her anything because I will go Non-Verbal when my anxiety acts up. (Which means I’m completely useless as a trainer!)

When my coworker got back from his break (a prior trainee of mine and an old sweetheart) he covered me so I could go home.

They took action.

After a few calls and texts to my leads and coworkers, I used up some PTO and didn’t come back in until I was no longer officially a trainer and could transfer back to my area.

That supervisor was fired a few weeks later due to multiple complaints on top of being caught in the act of f**king a coworker INSIDE the building.

Cherry on top?

(She got fired too, much to the joy of everyone else. She was a Karen and a suck up, and yelled at two of my very young and nervous trainees for following orders she didn’t understand. Honestly, they’re a match made in hell, and I hope they ended up happily together so no one else would have to suffer their attention.)

Ouch! That must have been painful to deal with.

But we’re glad its over and OP got his way around his spot in the office.

Let’s check out what folks on Reddit think about this story.

This person knows that companies don’t respect their assets.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

This person has a say on the relationship between the new couple.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

This person has something to say to the managers.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

This person has an experience to share.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

This person has technical advice.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

Commentators saw it coming when they read “NEW SUPERVISOR!”

It’s a tale as old as time.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.