Not all work policies are thought through very well, and today’s story is a great example of that.

When one employee is told to follow every policy, the employee complies, and the boss ends up really upset.

Let’s see why following the policies didn’t pan out the way the boss expected…

Want it done by the book? Fine, I’ll follow every rule.

So, I work at a company that prides itself on having a detailed, overly complicated policy manual for everything.

We’ve got rules for rules, basically.

My manager, let’s call him Dave, is the kind of guy who loves micromanaging.

He’d constantly hover over our shoulders, pointing out every tiny mistake we made, saying, “If it’s in the manual, you must follow it.”

Dave basically asked for malicious compliance.

One day, Dave sent me an urgent email asking me to finish a big project before the end of the day.

Normally, I’d do it my usual way—efficiently and with a bit of common sense.

But Dave insisted that I “strictly adhere to the manual” since it was a “high-visibility project” and he didn’t want “any mistakes.”

Oh, Dave. You shouldn’t have said that.

OP logged everything.

I pulled out the manual and went full compliance mode.

1. Every procedure, no matter how small, was followed to the letter.

Normally, I’d skip pointless steps, like writing a detailed log for every 10-minute task.

Not this time.

I logged everything.

Starting a document? Log it.

Saving the file? Log it again.

Changing font size? Yep, logged.

Dave probably didn’t expect so many emails.

2. Requests for approvals? Oh, absolutely.

The manual says certain steps need “managerial sign-off,” so I emailed Dave at least five times throughout the day for approvals.

“Hey, Dave, just confirming font size 12 is acceptable? Please reply so I can continue.”

“Hi, Dave, should I use blue headers or red headers as per policy section 14.3.2?”

Those breaks are important!

3. Breaks were strictly enforced.

Policy states we get two 15-minute breaks and a 1-hour lunch.

Normally, I’d work through a bit of lunch to get things done, but not today. At 12:00 sharp, I dropped everything and left my desk.

I also spent 15 minutes at exactly 10:00 and 3:00 “resting.”

Even if it seemed ridiculous, he notified everyone he was supposed to notify.

4. Every department had to be involved.

The manual said I needed sign-offs from IT, HR, and marketing for certain sections, even though they had nothing to do with the project.

I looped them in with formal requests, dragging out the timeline.

It sounds like Dave learned his lesson.

By the end of the day, the project wasn’t finished. I spent so much time “complying” with the manual that I didn’t even get halfway through.

Dave was furious and asked why it wasn’t done.

I calmly explained that I followed every single policy and procedure in the manual, just like he instructed. I even showed him the email chain proving he’d approved my steps.

After that, Dave stopped breathing down my neck and started letting me work how I wanted.

Lesson learned: Sometimes, the best way to fix a broken system is to show exactly how broken it is.

It’s great that this act of malicious compliance actually got through to Dave and caused him to back off a bit.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

This reader points out the importance of breaks.

Here’s a similar story about an airline…

This reader points out why the malicious compliance in this story was effective…

There’s actually a name for this type of malicious compliance.

Sometimes the only way to get the rules to change is to follow them!

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.