The only thing worse than a bad boss is a colleague who thinks they’re the boss.

When one Australian reserve employee is constantly harassed by a colleague who let a little power go to his head, the employee found a way to turn his commands into his own downfall.

Read on for the full story!

“Just go home”… Ok!

I was doing a type of program where I was doing gardening and cleaning at a type of reserve.

It had a decent size bilby enclosure (I live in Australia), but it also did programs for special needs kids, hosted a small farmers market once in a while, and had night walks for the Bilbies.

When I was there, the managers were pretty chill people, a married couple if I recall correctly. They’re not the main point of this… “Tony” is.

You could say that Tony had a bit of a chip on his shoulder.

Tony was pretty much a glorified accountant but would roam the property like he owned the place.

He would bully, micro-manage, and would never be satisfied with anything we did, as it was ‘not to his standards.’ Yeah, he was a prick.

Regardless, the actual managers seemed to give him quite a bit of power.

We did ask the managers what we should do with Tony, and they just replied, “Just nod and do what he says.” I took that to heart.

Well, one day, Tony was being a major jerk and, for whatever reason, targeted me, like what he would normally do, but overcharged. My level of ****s to give was running low.

I was cleaning in the hall area when Tony came in, his eyes fixed on me.

Then Tony went off on the employee.

He went off the deep end, telling me how I was doing everything wrong and proceeded to list all the ways I was messing up.

It’s a broom… how many steps are there?

I just let him go, as he was sounding more and more like the stuck-up prick that he was.

Then Tony said something he would soon regret.

Tony: “Christ, if you can’t do this right, you should just go home!”

Remember when I said my level of ****s to give was low? Well, here it was, all bottomed out. Malicious compliance time.

Me: “I am sorry, Tony, I’ll get right on that.”

Tony: “Yeah, you better!”

So the employee did exactly what Tony said!

I left the hall, put the broom in storage, grabbed my stuff, and walked out. One hour before we go home, it takes me half an hour to get home. (I walk). Do you see the brilliance in this?

When I got to my front door, I got a call. Surprise, surprise, it was the manager.

The manager is as confused as ever.

Manager: “Hey OP, where are you?”

Me: “I’m home.”

Manager: “What, why?”

Me: “Tony told me to go home, so I did!”

Manager: “But he has no authority over you.”

Me: “Oh, I know, but you told me to do what he said, so I am.”

Now the manager is starting to understand the error of their words.

There’s a pause.

Manager: “Can you get back here?”

Me: “It takes me half an hour to get back up there, and considering what time it is, there’s no point.”

Another pause.

Manager: “Ah, I see.”

Me: “See you next week, Manager.”

I hang up.

While there were some consequences for the employee, Tony beared the bigger brunt.

I did get told off for leaving early without telling them, but they also told me that I will no longer have to take orders from Tony anymore.

I did get the worst jobs on that day, but when I saw Tony and he saw me, he quickly looked away and booked it. Totally worth it.

We never had a problem with him after that!

Looks like Tony got a lesson in humility and the manager got a lesson in choosing their words more carefully.

What did Reddit think?

Seems like this malicious compliance plot had a happy ending for this employee!

There’s nothing better than watching a negligent manager eat their words.

Taking Tony down was an admirable thing to do — not just for the employee, but for the rest of their colleagues too!

Of course Tony wouldn’t have thought to be considerate of the actual boss.

At the end of the day, Tony got a valuable lesson in malicious compliance he won’t soon forget.

After all, micromanagement doesn’t always go according to plan.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.