Work is more enjoyable when you get along with your coworkers, but in today’s story, one restaurant employee’s boss, seems out to get him.

In the end, the employee decides that malicious compliance is the way to get even.

Let’s see how the story unfolds…

Boss tried to make me work after hours without clocking in. Regretted it the next day!

This story is a bit of a long one and goes back to when I worked at a casino.

For anyone out there that thinks it would be a great job, well, I can tell you right now its not as glamorous as it seems. Especially when you are working in the kitchen.

Now, a little backstory so you all can get the whole picture. When I started working at this location I was young, still in college, and working two part-time jobs.

At first, it was just ok.

I had been hired on as a steward which is just a fancy term for dishwasher which wasn’t too bad as it had been the same job I had at the last restaurant I had worked at.

However, there were a few differences. I won’t go into too much detail and name all of them, just the ones that are important to this story.

He shares the 2 big differences.

The first one, and the one I liked the best, was that since there were so many restaurants and the stewards were all in one department we were shuffled around every day.

One day you would be working in the steak house, the next the buffet, then the Italian, the sandwich shop in the bingo hall, and so on.

This meant that you were always working with other people, interacting with them, and giving a change of scenery.

I was told I was odd for liking this, but my counter was that if you did end up working with someone you didn’t get along with then it would only be a while till you worked with them again.

The second was that this place hated unions. Twice a year there would be a meeting that everyone had to attend where they would make these long presentations on how evil and manipulative unions were.

Also, there would be signs all along the employee hallways with anti-union propaganda.

He started working full-time.

After working for the casino for some time, my boss approached me asking if I wanted to be bumped from part-time to full-time.

I said yes as the benefits were really good. Not only did I get medical and dental insurance, but I would also be getting access to their lawyers as well as a few other things.

I guess it was a good thing that I did because, a few months later there were some major shake-ups. I didn’t know what caused it, but most everyone there hated the new changes.

There were some VERY big changes.

For one thing, the sick note policy was canceled. Meaning, if you were sick it wouldn’t matter if you had a note from your doctor saying that you couldn’t work.

If you didn’t show up they docked you a point.

This resulted in cooks and stewards coming in, vomiting on the floor and in the trash cans because they couldn’t afford to lose a point as it would count against them when it came time for raises.

Another thing they changed was that they were cutting the number of full-time employees.

I was safe, along with everyone else who had that status, but if any of us left that slot would not be filled.

There would only be two full-time employees per department.

Speaking of departments, that leads me to the next big change. Technically, the stewarding department would be disbanded.

This meant that, while our supervisors would still be there, it would be the chefs and managers of the restaurants that would be in charge of us.

This also meant that we would no longer be moving around!

He wanted to get promoted.

I was sent to the steakhouse and, thankfully, I had two great female coworkers. In fact, we were so good that we were called AAA as all of our names began with the letter A.

As we worked there, I began to plan moving up within the casino.

I knew it would be difficult, but I had a dream of buying my family’s cabin from my parents and living up in the country while I finished college.

Sadly, on my first attempt to becoming a supervisor failed and I ended up training the person who did get the job.

I didn’t complain, I just took it as a sign that I needed to up my game.

There’s a new coworker – Kevin.

Now, here our story really begins. See, our head chef was being transferred to the Italian restaurant and the assistant chef was taking his place.

Meaning we were going to hire a new guy to take his place. Let’s call the new guy Kevin.

When Kevin first came in, he seemed ok. Not great or awful. He was just there and we had no real reason to talk most days as we were usually pretty busy.

Then, maybe a month after Kevin started working there, I had my first real interaction with him and it, well, was something.

He just wanted to fill his water bottle.

It was at night with the dinner rush just starting to pick up and I told my coworkers that I was going to fill up my water bottle before it happened.

They said ok and that they would begin doing the same once I got back.

But before I could leave the steakhouse to go to the breakroom Kevin called out to me.

Kevin: OP. Where are you going?

Kevin asked him where he was going.

Me: Just getting a drink before we get busy. I told the girls.

Kevin: Then why aren’t you using the waitstaff drink fountain?

Me (blinking and confused): We were told when we started that staff are only supposed to get drinks from the breakroom.

Kevin: Don’t give me that! I see the waitstaff getting drinks there all the time! You are just going there to waste time. I’m going to have to write you up for this!

Turns out Kevin was wrong.

Me: Wasting time? The break room is just down the hall. In the time we’ve spent having this conversation, I could have gone down there, filled my bottle with ice, gotten my drink, and gotten back here!

Kevin then opened his mouth, but before he could say anything the head chef caught sight of us standing there and came over to see what was going on.

Before I could open my mouth, Kevin spoke up explaining the whole thing with a superior look on his face. That however faded when the chef spoke.

Chef: Kevin, OP is right. Employees are only supposed to use the drink fountains in the break room. *Sigh* I’m going to have to talk to the waitress supervisor about this. OP, go get your drink. I need to talk to Kevin in private.

So I did. After that, I was pretty much confused by what just happened.

It turns out he wasn’t the only one Kevin called out for supposedly breaking rules.

At first, I was willing to give Kevin the benefit of the doubt believing that he honestly didn’t know about that rule.

That maybe chefs and supervisors were allowed to use the waitstaff station, assuming that it applied to everyone.

However, when I brought this up to my coworkers they said similar things happened with them.

That he had pulled them over for a minor infraction of the rules and when they just said they were sorry he let them off with a warning.

So they suggested that he was just ‘marking his territory’ and would have gone easier on me if I hadn’t questioned his authority.

It was after that, however, that I began to notice things.

He pointed out several observations.

Firstly, the waitstaff was no longer talking with Kevin as they were mad at him for getting the crackdowns at their station.

It was during this time that I began to realize just how often he hung out with them.

He was also always calling over my coworkers, asking them to help him with a job like peeling potatoes for hours leaving me alone.

What’s more, whenever I stopped to speak with one of my supervisors (who happened to be a young woman) he would yell at me to get back to work. Slowly I began to suspect that he had other intentions.

These suspicions were later confirmed during that summer.

Kevin asked him to come to his office.

For those of you who have never been in a professional kitchen, it can get hot. And in the summer, it can get really hot and the odors can sometimes overpower you.

On this day, I was working at one of our massive sinks scrapping off the remains of perch and giving the pans a deep clean when Kevin called me to the office.

Now this was odd as I had only ever been called to the office to get my ten-cent raises while getting a performance evaluation and neither of those were to happen until January.

Curious I followed him to the small room where he gestured me to enter first. I did, finding a woman I had never met before sitting at one of the desks there.

When I entered, she looked up from her work to give me a curious look that said ‘Hello? Can I help you?’

You know the look.

Then Kevin spoke as he shut the door, walking in backwards as he did.

Kevin didn’t know the woman was there.

Kevin: Op, you stink!

Woman: Excuse me?!

At this, Kevin jumped before turning around. The woman was looking at him with rage while Kevin looked lost. It didn’t take me long to realize that he didn’t know she was in there.

Kevin: Sorry, I misspoke. I meant he smelled bad. We’re getting complaints about his BO.

The woman sniffed him.

Now, like I said, the room was small. So small that I felt cramped being in there with two other people. With the way we were positioned, I was pretty close to the woman who was growing more annoyed.

Woman: I don’t smell anything. Sir, would you mind if I get a little closer?

I said it wouldn’t be a problem and allowed her to get close enough to sniff me. She did it maybe two or three times before pulling away.

Woman: I don’t smell anything.

He defended himself.

That’s when I spoke up.

OP: Look, if someone said I smell then I’m sorry. But I’m working over greasy sinks full of chemicals to clean off pans with fried perch on them in a room that feels like a hundred degrees. And on top of that, the aprons we are given are not the best.

To emphasize my point, I gestured to my shift which was wet and full of bits and pieces of fish.

Woman: I see. I’m going to have to take a look at those and see if any need replacing. OP, how about you cool down for a bit in the breakroom. Kevin, you stay. We need to have a talk.

A few things changed.

After that, three things happened. The first was that the stewards got new aprons which made all of us happy as they hadn’t been replaced in years.

Second, from then on if Kevin wanted to talk to me about an issue another staff member had to be there as a witness. And if there wasn’t one I was to find that woman who I learned was the steakhouse manager.

Third, all bets were off between me and Kevin. While he couldn’t pull me to the side like that, he did start yelling at me whenever he could in public.

If he caught me standing around, like when I was waiting for the dishwasher to fill up, he would yell at me to get back to work from across the room before going back to talk to one of the girls.

He couldn’t seem to stop Kevin.

He would just berate me for any little thing me could, just to make me miserable.

Soon, I came to realize that he saw me as an obstacle between himself and all the female staff members as I was on good terms with all of them.

I even wondered if he thought I was like a harem protagonist based on how many I worked with.

For over the next year, I tried everything in my power to stop him while still trying to get that supervisor position.

I went to HR, writing up complaints only for them to ask ‘what do you want us to do about this’.

And when I went to my head supervisor, he just said that I needed thicker skin. It seemed like every day it just got worse.

It got even worse…

On top of that, my identity was stolen twice: the first targeting my bank account while the second one was my tax return.

With the bank refusing to help and the legal department of the casino dragging their feet to help me, I was in the red for a long time making my situation all the worse.

There would be days when I would have to collect cans in the break room for gas and had to give away one of my cats.

And with Kevin adding to my stress, there were days when I honestly thought about ending my life.

Thankfully, there were good people still around. A bunch of my coworkers banded together to give me small packs of food and some of the line cooks helped sneak out some meats that they were about to throw away.

He was reading a book when Kevin walked in.

Then, came the big night.

It had been a concert night on one of the coldest nights of the year. So cold that several keys had snapped in the door locks because they had frozen shut.

I had managed to get to my car and turn it on, leaving it running for a couple of minutes as I headed back to the locker room in order to enjoy my only comfort left: a book.

The plan was to just read a couple of pages and then I would be out of there.

But before I could get past my first paragraph, the doors to the locker room opened and there strode in Kevin. He looked around for a moment before his eyes fell on me and a wicked smile appeared on his face.

Kevin threatened him.

Kevin: Who told you you could punch out OP? Not me, that’s for sure. I just got a complaint from the night crew saying that your dishwasher is a mess! Clearly you didn’t clean it at all. Now you go back there and clean it right now. And I’d better not see you punching in or else you’ll be fired.

With that he strode out of the room, laughing.

For a moment, I just sat there in utter confusion wondering if he could do that. I felt scared because, if I lost my job then I wouldn’t know what to do.

I was behind on my student loans (I had to drop out of college by this point due to various reasons), behind on paying my parent’s rent, and could barely afford to keep the one cat I kept who had been abandoned.

For the first time in years, I felt so overwhelmed with fear that I felt like I could begin crying at any moment.

He thought about moving in with his parents.

Then, the moment passed and I was furious!

This guy had been doing this to me for too long. It didn’t matter if he could or couldn’t, I was done with this! I had to get out of there.

As I stood up, I found myself making a plan fueled on by my rage. I had kept the fact that my identity had been stolen from my parents, partly out of shame and partly out of pride as I wanted to get myself out of this mess.

Well, no more! I was going to tell them about it and ask if I could move back in with them. I would even ask for help looking for a new job down there.

Sure, it would mean losing my dream home in the country, but at this point being stable was more important.

He had a new plan.

But before I could do anything, another thought crossed my mind, making me smile.

He wanted me to wash the dishwasher right now without punching back in? Ok, I’ll do just that!

So I left the locker room, barely hearing the security guard stationed nearby as he called out to me. No, I ignored him and everyone else as I mentally prepared myself to do this.

When I got to the kitchen, there were piles of dishes, pots, pans, and a slew of other items that needed to be cleaned in quantities that are only ever seen on concert nights.

But I ignored that as well as the three stewards who were working hard, shutting down the machine and emptying it.

He explained what Kevin said.

Night Steward: What are you doing?

OP: Sorry, but Kevin told me that you told him that no one had cleaned the dishwasher and that it was a mess. So much so that I had to come back and clean it without punching in or else I would be fired.

The color on everyone’s faces drained.

When the first person managed to compose himself, he told me that none of them had seen Kevin and that the machine was perfectly cleaned when they arrived.

The stewards wondered if they really could be fired for refusing to stay late.

Now, hearing this did make me feel bad as what I was doing would put them behind. But, Kevin told me to do this so I was following it to the letter…while also making sure everyone there knew who sent me!

Seeing that I wasn’t going to stop, not that it mattered at this point as the machine had been drained, one of them went to get the night supervisor.

While he was gone the other two began to argue with each other over whether or not Kevin could order us to stay past our shifts and fire us if we refused.

It didn’t help that the casino had this nasty habit of offering employees a room to stay in when the roads were snowed over only to them make them work all night as they were on call.

He talked to the Night Supervisor.

When the Night Supervisor came, she asked me what was going on.

I repeated my story while cleaning the machine.

She said that Kevin had not spoken to her and was gone before stating that he doesn’t have the power to fire me.

I just told her that I really couldn’t take the chance. Then I asked her how to put in my two-week notice.

That confused her even more, asking why I was doing this if I was just planning on leaving anyways.

I told her that I would need time to make arrangements for my future and that getting one last paycheck was important.

He woke up to the phone ringing.

So, I wrote up my two-week notice, even mentioning why I was leaving, before hitting the road.

When I got home, it was 3 AM and with all the rage now out of my system I just crashed onto my bed with my uniform still on.

The next morning, I was awoken to the sound of my phone ringing. It was the casino!

The head stewarding supervisor was asking if I could come in and talk about last night.

At first, I told him no that I couldn’t come in early just to come back home.

However, he said it was important.

He went to the steakhouse office.

Curious, I told him I would be there in an hour or two.

When I arrived, I was taken back to the steakhouse office to find it crammed with people.

The Night Supervisor was still there, the night security officer was there, my supervisors were there, several head chefs were there, and the steakhouse manager was there looking like her face would erupt into flames at any moment as she stared at the one figure who was sitting.

It was Kevin, hunched over in his seat looking like a child who was in time out.

I was then told that they knew what happened.

Security footage doesn’t lie.

After I had my talk with the Night Supervisor, she went to security and found footage of Kevin looking out the door before heading towards the locker room and finishing off with him leaving with a grin minutes before I left the room.

After that, she called in Kevin to show up the next morning.

He tried to lie his way out of this, stating that it never happened and I was just lying to get him into trouble.

The supervisors then said that it was a simple matter to check as they have the security guard that was by the room and that they can check the footage.

Instantly, he remembered that he had spoken to me, only I had misheard him and that he would never tell me to work without punching in.

Several managers asked him not to quit.

The Night Supervisor and the others in the room then asked: why would OP lie? Who told you that the machine needed cleaning? Why would he be the only one who needs permission to leave? And so on.

Over and over Kevin tried to lie only to change his story again and again until finally, he realized he had been caught.

The Steakhouse manager then turned to me before apologizing, asking me if I would consider staying.

The head manager also apologized asking the same.

He decided not to quit.

For a moment, I was going to say no. But then, I had a stupid idea. That, if I did this then I might have a shot at becoming a supervisor myself and not have to leave.

So I said sure, but only if Kevin never talks to me again. If he has a problem with what I’m doing, he’ll have to run it by the head chief unless its an emergency.

They agreed.

He heard a few stories…

Later, I heard a few stories on why they finally acted.

The first, and least likely in my opinion, was that this incident finally caused someone higher in the food chain to notice all the written complaints I had on Kevin and was demanding answers.

The second was that they didn’t want to lose me just yet.

He ended up working there longer than Kevin.

Remember how I said that we used to move around from area to area? Well turns out, there were now only two employees who knew how to work in every restaurant!

Meaning I could go into any area and know instantly where everything goes and how that area operates without wasting anyone’s time.

But the most likely reason was due to the union.

News about what had happened the night before had spread throughout the casino faster than I ever could have imagined and if they didn’t take care of this there was a greater chance that the union reps would seize on it.

In the end, I stayed in the Steakhouse longer than Kevin did as he left two years later. But before he did, I offered to throw a pizza party for everyone the day after he left.

But did he become a supervisor? That’s what I would like to know. And, I wish Kevin had gotten fired.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story…

This reader thinks Kevin should’ve been fired.

Another reader doesn’t understand why Kevin wasn’t fired.

Here’s another idea for malicious compliance…

This person found the story very unsatisfying.

He really should’ve said that he’d only stay if he could be promoted to supervisor.

Time to start looking for a new job.

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.