When some people get put in charge, they go on a power trip and try to control everything about everyone.

What would you do if the CEO of the company you worked for was extremely mean to everyone?

That is the situation the IT professional in this story is in, so when she was ready to quit, she made sure to follow the precise policy, leaving the CEO locked out of all the systems.

Check it out.

Malicious compliance at work (three for one special!)

Back at the beginning of 2021, I worked at a small community health non profit with an insane CEO.

She would constantly call team meetings to put down and belittle employees in front of the entire staff.

Often, she would throw around some variation of “do I have to do everything around here?!” and call everyone on staff incompetent.

When we did do something right, she never gave us credit and always took the credit for herself.

She threatened firing everyone constantly and would randomly call us to gossip and make petty remarks about each other, pitting staff against each other.

What is this CEO thinking?

One day, the CEO called a team meeting. In a group text chat between some of the more chill employees, we immediately begin sending snake and eye roll emojis.

Sure enough, we get on the call and she begins by bringing to our attention how “Louise” does not dress appropriately for work.

Louise, who is also upper management (the COO), looks about ready to smack the CEO.

The CEO viciously tears into Louise, commenting on everything from her hair style to her lipstick shade to how it’s inappropriate for Louise to wear off the shoulder blouses that show her collar bone.

She then tells everyone that we all had better start dressing more formally or there would be consequences.

The next day, the CEO calls another meeting.

We all join and Louise turns on her camera. I immediately had to turn off mine because I did not want to be caught laughing my ass off.

Louise was dressed from head to toe in what looked like something someone would wear to prom.

LOL – I wish I were in that meeting.

Her hair was immaculately styled into an elaborate updo, her makeup was professionally done with lash extensions and everything.

She was dripping with (what I assume were) fake diamonds… tiara, earrings, necklace, bracelets, and rings.

And she wore the most ridiculous navy blue satin and tulle formal gown with a faux fur shoulder shrug to cover her collar bone.

My best guess is that it was an old bridesmaid dress, but she never did say where she got it.

The CEO was immediately fuming. “Why are you dressed like that?!” she screeched.

“You told us to dress more formally. This is formal wear. Is something wrong?”

“That’s not professional for work!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I must have been confused! You said we needed us to dress formally, but I think what you meant to say was professionally.”

The CEO was livid, but Louise continued to rock the prom outfit all day, meeting with patients and clients and everything.

Later that week, “Tina” texts our group chat and says the CEO is requiring her to submit and detailed time sheet with what she was doing and working on down to the minute for her entire day.

She was going to bcc us on the email. Sure enough, it pops into our inboxes a few minutes later.

This is too funny.

Tina had literally detailed her entire past 24 hour day down to the minute. 6:45 AM, awoken by husband’s flatulence.

7:00 AM, peed and changed menstrual pad.

7:02 AM, began bowel movement.

7:10 AM, completed bowel movement.

7:12 AM, turned on shower.

7:13 AM, tested water temperature with hand.

You get the idea.

Apparently the CEO called her on her cell phone and berated her for sending such a detailed timesheet.

Tina reminded her that she had requested her entire day down to the minute, and didn’t specify she meant her work day only.

Finally, my turn.

My job was in IT and most of my work was as a database administrator, but I often helped with other tech problems.

One morning, the CEO called me repeatedly at 2 AM.

My phone settings have it so that if I miss five calls in a row from the same person, the do not disturb mode is turned off and the phone rings.

I see who it is, silence my phone, and refuse to answer.

This CEO is persistent.

At 6 AM, she calls again.

Again, I refuse to answer.

7 AM, refuse to answer.

8 AM, refuse to answer.

Finally, at 9 AM, I call her back.

She asks to hop on a video call.

“I’ve been trying to get ahold of you all morning! Where have you been?!”

“Loud sigh Can I help with you something?” I asked, not even trying to hide my irritation.

I literally rubbed my temples and slurped on my coffee loudly.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“And I’m not going to. I was off the clock at the time you called.”

Salary doesn’t mean slave.

“You’re salaried, right? That means it doesn’t matter if you work 100 hours or 1 hour, you get paid the same. So, I expect you to be available when I need you”

“What do you need?”

“I need you to reset all of our company usernames and passwords. We’re letting someone go today and it’s company policy to change all of that.”

At the same time, Louise texts me that she is being let go.

So, I read the company handbook and make a copy of the page that says the IT person must update the usernames and passwords and give the information to the COO.

I changed all of the usernames and passwords to everything, from social media accounts to bank accounts to QuickBooks and emails.

I send the usernames and passwords in an encrypted email to Louise and then send the CEO my two week notice.

Two weeks go by.

It’s the last hour of my last day.

So what do I do?

Change all those usernames and passwords again and send them to Louise, who was also celebrating her last day.

I log out of my email, put my company phone and laptop in the mail, and spend the evening cackling at my malicious compliance.

The CEO has a lot of nerve calling anyone unprofessional.

The very next day, on Saturday, the CEO calls me repeatedly.

Finally, she leaves me a long and howling voicemail to say what I did was unprofessional and she would make sure my reputation suffered and I would never work in that industry again.

I wait until Monday to call her back.

“Hey, CEO, I saw you called?”

“I need the usernames and passwords to everything!”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t work there anymore. You will have to contact your IT person to help with that.”

“You are the IT person!”

This is a very important distinction.

“No, I was the IT person. Now I’m a private consultant and I would be happy to provide my services at a rate of $100 an hour.”

“You changed all the usernames and passwords and didn’t provide them to me!”

“Correct. Per company policy, when an employee leaves the organization, the IT person is supposed to update everything and send the new info to the COO. I was leaving, so I updated everything. I provided all the usernames and passwords to Louise.”

“You knew she was quitting too! Why would you give them to her?”

Just following the policy.

“Because the company policy says to transfer the new username and passwords to the COO, not the CEO. Louise was the COO when I left.”

Caught in her own bureaucracy, she then had to spend weeks trying to gain access to all of the company accounts.

On Louise’s and my last day, Tina and another employee quit.

Another person announced her retirement.

Once the five of us were gone, we were followed by several other employees.

In total, 11 people on the 14 person staff quit within a few weeks.

The best part?

I got a new job making the same amount I did at the non profit, but part time in a government position and with full time benefits.

So much for my reputation suffering!

No surprise that nobody wants to stay around.

I stayed in touch with one of the employees who stayed behind (she’s only three years away from retirement and is basically Stan from the office).

She said they’ve hired at least a dozen people, all of them quit as soon as they could find another job.

Anyway, I’m bored in the hospital and started going through old texts.

Stumbled on our old group chat and had a good chuckle.

Thought you all might find it humorous too.

Names obviously changed.

This CEO treats everyone poorly and then I’m sure is surprised when everyone quits.

Let’s see what the people in the comments say about it.

Sometimes you have to stand up for yourself.

Here’s a good idea.

She should be charging more.

This person might have applied there.

This might have solved the problem.

She may be a terrible CEO, but at least she makes for good stories.

Sadly, she doesn’t seem to be learning her lesson.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.