Sometimes, workplace rules can be impractical.

Imagine having to complete as checklist for your work. Would you comply, or would you find a way to annoy your manager with the list until he finally stops requiring it?

This man, along with his coworkers at a beer factory, was instructed to fill out a task checklist.

A manager asked them to check off the list early and completely, even without finishing the tasks yet.

They knew this would be false information, so they found a clever way to follow the rules to the letter.

Read the full story below for all the details.

Former manager said to update the checklist as items are completed

About 10 years ago, I was working the overnight shift at a large beer factory.

The company decided it was going to do away with management on that shift.

To ensure menial tasks were completed, the company created a checklist for us to complete.

The manager from the previous shift was supposed to stay about 2 hours into our shift and then forward all the completed checklists to his manager.

This man and his coworkers would wait until the end of the shift to fill out the checklist.

Well, there was no way that everything on the list could be completed in those 2 hours, so we all just waited until the end of the shift to fill them out.

The manager responsible for forwarding the completed lists was already long gone before we filled them out, so he had nothing to send.

When their manager asked them to complete the list earlier, they refused.

After a few days of this, he ordered us to complete the checklist before he leaves at 1 a.m.

This was only 2 hours into our shift.

We refused, saying that it would be false information to complete the list before the work was done.

So, he decided that we would continuously update the list as we completed tasks. This way, he would have some portion of the list to send to his boss.

Eventually, the checklist had to be removed because of the unnecessary emails their manager was getting.

We found out that each time an item was checked off and the list was closed, he would get an email.

So, the 12 people on the shift all decided we would check off our lists 1 item at a time and close it.

There were about 30 items on the list. The manager started getting a separate email for each item from each person.

After a few days of receiving 360 meaningless emails, the checklist went away.

That was a clever way to eliminate the checklist.

Let’s find out what others have to say about this on Reddit.

This person shares their honest opinion.

Short but sweet.

This user likes the story’s ending.

Finally, people are loving the malicious compliance.

Some processes are truly unnecessary and inconvenient.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.