Imagine working remotely where your job is to talk to clients, not your coworkers, but then you have a new manager who insists you need to participate in the employee group chat.

Would you refuse, comply, or come up with a way to annoy the manager while complying?

The employee in this story takes the last option, and it gets even funnier when other employees join in.

Let’s read the whole story.

Manager Says I Must Chat in the Group Chat … So I Do. In Every Language but English.

So, I’ve been working remotely for almost six years now, but I recently joined a new company with a new team leader.

I could tell right away this guy was freshly promoted, you know that vibe when someone’s trying a little too hard to flex authority? Yeah, that.

My job is to talk with clients. That’s it.

My team leader isn’t even looped into those conversations, so honestly, I barely have any reason to chat with him day-to-day.

Naturally, I don’t really hop into the team group chat unless it’s work-related or someone tags me directly.

Apparently, the team leader thinks the group chat is pretty important.

Fast forward to my third monthly review: all my KPIs were perfect.

However, my team lead docked my score because I “wasn’t engaging enough in the team chat.”

Apparently, saying good morning and joining in on non-work chatter was “required” to show team spirit.

I pointed out it’s not in the metrics, never has been, and in six years of remote work I’ve never once been penalized for not spamming greetings into a chatbox.

His response? “As long as you’re on my team, you need to chat. Even just a hello or goodbye.”

This is funny!

Cue malicious compliance.

Every morning I started posting “Good morning” and every evening “Goodbye”… but in a different language every day. Monday Korean, Tuesday Spanish, Wednesday Greek… you get the idea.

At first, my lead thought it was funny.

Then the rest of the team joined in, but they were all using Google Translate, and, well… let’s just say a LOT got lost in translation.

Some sentences even got flagged by our system, and eventually the General Manager (his boss) had to ask what on earth was happening.

She is not about to comply this time.

Suddenly my team leader wasn’t laughing anymore.

He DMed me saying “Please just greet in English from now on.” Then he threatened that if I didn’t stop, he’d report me to the GM.

So far? I’m three weeks in. Still greeting the team in whatever language I feel like. Still waiting for that “GM call.”

What’s the point of the group chat? If the metrics are good, it seems pointless.

But she definitely found a funny way to comply.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Here’s another creative way to say “good morning” in English but still annoy the manager.

A good “Hey, y’all” seems in order.

Or, OP could write a lengthy explanation of “good morning.”

Define English.

The manager is going to regret making the group chat mandatory.

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.