Sometimes, breaking the rules at work can really lean in your favor – if you find a way to make yourself look good, so much the better.
But when your boss finds out your secret and insists his rules are law, you might be able to get your point across by being a rule follower.
That’s what this employee did, and I have to say, it seems like fun either way.
Let’s see why he changed his work ethic…
Supervisor gave me a verbal warning for being their best employee, and then complain that I’m following the rules as a result? Fine, let me talk to YOUR supervisor.
Setup:
Back in 2018 I started working at a delivery company.
When I started working they gave me a rule book that stated that all drivers cannot exceed 5mph over the designated speed limit.
All drivers were required to take their lunch breaks (30 minutes unpaid) on the way back to our facility at the end of their first run (most drivers had 2 runs in a day).
And we were also required to load our vans ourselves in the morning and unload any undelivered items when we got back.
Our delivery vans were equipped with trackers that monitored our speed and would beep loudly if you went over 74mph.
He was considered a great employee at work.
Malicious Compliance:
I had been working at this company for over a year without any issue, and I had quickly became one of the more valuable drivers by taking on extra runs and staying late to help out other drivers.
Most of the time my delivery routes took me on highways that were listed at 65mph, but if I was covering another driver’s route, there was a chance that the highways were listed at 55mph.
He technically broke the rules to finish deliveries quickly.
I was the driver that finished their runs in record time by not taking my lunch break and driving just under the van trackers’ max speed trigger even if it meant going 20 mph above the speed limit.
I did this because our company prided itself on having fast response time on same day deliveries, and my supervisors turned a blind eye to my speeding.
That is, until they gave me a verbal warning about speeding.
I’m not sure what happened to make them change, all I know is that as soon as I got the warning, I initiated malicious compliance mode.
He started following the rules.
I started doing everything by the book.
I drove at exactly the speed limit, and started taking my lunch breaks.
My efficiency tanked and the company was falling behind on deliveries because I wasn’t there to take on any last minute orders so they had to hire more drivers.
He even went out of the way to go slower.
I would just sit in a parking lot somewhere listening to reddit stories on YouTube during the entirety of my lunch breaks.
And to make things even better, if there were slower vehicles on the highway I would make sure to stay behind them and drive at their speed, even if it meant driving at 10-20mph under the speed limit.
There’s nothing his supervisors can do about the new work ethic.
Fallout:
My supervisors were extremely mad of at me for causing them so many issues, but they couldn’t really do anything about it.
And oh boy did they try.
They tried changing my routes, giving me only one run for the day, and telling me that I was required to take my lunch break after I returned from my run.
I ended up getting them off my back by going to my supervisors’ supervisor and explaining everything to them, which in turn basically made me untouchable to my supervisors.
I simply continued following the rules and if I ended up with overtime because of it, oh well. That’s on the supervisors head not mine.
This is a great story of how following the rules can actually work for you.
Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story…
This reader is glad OP stopped speeding.
Another reader thinks he should’ve followed the rules from the beginning.
This person points out you can’t get fired for following the rules.
Another person thinks speeding was unreasonable.
This person points out the problems that can happen as a result of speeding.
I’m glad the delivery driver is no longer speeding.
It’s too bad the supervisors turned a blind eye to it for so long.
If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.