Doesn’t it drive you crazy when bosses decide to shake things up when everything is going just fine at work and there’s no reason to mess with it?

It’s infuriating!

So, what are workers supposed to do in that situation?

Maybe they should take a note out of this person’s book!

Take a look at what went down…

Short staffed? No problem.

“I work for a visitor attraction in London.

Generally we are out on the floor answering questions etc. We had a dedicated team that worked in the control room, usually supervisors or those that wanted to become supervisors.

Normally one or two people in the control room. They were never ever on the floor if they could help it.

They watched the CCTV and controlled the breaks, lunches, etc. For instance if a visitor sets off an alarm they would call us and we would investigate the alarm.

There were some changes.

Management decided to pull the supervisors out onto the floor and train floor personnel to be in the control room. Good idea on paper but in practice?

Supervisors didn’t want to go on the floor and those on the floor didn’t want to go into the control room.

Some of us already worked in the control room as we relieved them for breaks, lunches etc. Basically if you were in the control room you stayed in there.

First training week went something like this. Someone that knew the control room training 3 or 4 of the floor people. Needless to say that put us short staffed on the floor and management had to go on the floor to cover. As “how hard could it be?”, it will only be a week then I can go back to my cushy desk job.

First day I was training 3 or 4 floor staff and management/supervisors were on the floor. Management told me treat them like normal floor staff. Ok no problem.

I asked everyone that I was training “normal floor staff” we all got big smiles on our faces.

Not even 10 minutes goes by and radio call. “Can one of you bring the keys for the front door so we can let the public in?”

It’s a 5 min walk from control to the front door. I radio one of the management on the floor. “Come to control and pick up the keys and take to front door.”

Hmmm…

I get a phone call ” just have so and so bring them over, there’s 4 of you in there” As per procedure nobody is allowed out of control room.

Management take 5 min to get to control and then take the keys over to front door. So we are late opening. Next radio call. “Which key is it?” It’s number xx .

They open the doors. Alarm goes off. “Control, why did alarm go off” You need to call control to let us know exactly when to take alarm off.

Uh oh…

All of this is written down. Procedures must be followed. Now that the public is in, alarms start going off for various reasons. The public loves going through doors that say ‘Door is Alarmed’.

Normal stuff.

I start radio calls to management on the floor. “Charlie 3 go to door x” , “Charlie 3 go to door x” etc etc. “Delta 4 relieve Charlie 3 for thier lunch”

Lunchtime, I get phone calls from people who haven’t been relieved for thier lunch on time. Management hasn’t figured out that travel time between your post and the break area is NOT included in your lunch/break.

If you have an hour lunch and it takes you 10 min walking time to get there then basically your lunch is 40 min. 10 min to go from your post to break room and 10 min to go back to post.

Normal control room staff knew this and would start lunches early to give everyone as much as possible a full lunch.

It went on and on…

More radio calls “Charlie 3 can you check the tiolet, report of water on the floor ” “Charlie 3 can you go to x Visitor wants to use a voucher”, “actually Charlie 3 go to door x” but “I’m with a visitor “, ” Doors take priority Charlie 3″

For the rest of the day we ran management crazy. Everything in the procedures was adhered to. Count the empty spaces in the car park. Check locks on the emergency gates.

Check toilets, mens and womens to see if they need to be refilled with tiolet paper. Look for lights out, Fill in your task book. etc.

They learned their lesson…

Next day needless to say I wasn’t in the control room. Didn’t matter. The tone was set. Didn’t matter who was in there. The rest of the week went by the same. Everyone that followed me ran management nuts.

Management to their credit changed some things after that. Black sneakers can now be worn. More break rooms closer to posts have been opened. Procedures have been loosened up.

Control people are back in control and floor people are on the floor. Everyone is now trained in the control room but they only have to work it if they want.

Still was a glorious week!”

Check out what folks said on Reddit.

This reader chimed in.

Another individual spoke up.

This reader had a story to tell.

This person thinks they know what’s going on here…

And this reader chimed in.

This is how it’s done, folks!

Malicious compliance at its finest!

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.