Some people just can’t get it through their thick skulls that contract workers DO NOT have to abide by their directions…

Especially when they ask them to do shady stuff!

Check out what this contractor did when they were asked to do something they knew was unethical.

Want me to BS a review to get more business? Have fun losing money.

“I was working as a contractor for a big firm where clients go to for specific services and then we are assigned to that company on a sub-contractor basis.

The firm charges the clients an arm, a leg and a kidney or two while paying us a tiny tiny percentage of the sales. Business is business and I can’t complain about that.

When it’s time to renew the contract with the client (every 3 months), we are supposed to write a review about what’s going on and what should be done in the next term.

Now for the story.

I worked on that project for 2 months and I had a very good relationship with the employees and their CEO and everything was peachy until…..

Something changed…

My company wanted the client to pay double for “additional services” and wanted me to write a bogus review stating that their current situation was absolute **** and they should go for the “new and improved” plan.

Moreover, I was supposed to do it by 7 pm (1.5 hours away and it was my day off).

I was in the middle of a trip with friends and I said “No can do” and hang up.

It was Friday.

Here it comes…

I didn’t check my emails until Monday morning. Guess who woke up to 17 emails from the company and 2 from my client?

I checked the client’s email first and the CEO had personally emailed me asking what was going on and why was my company pressuring them to sign a new contract when the old one was still active. I didn’t say anything and told him that I’ll check it out and get back to him.

Not a minute passed before I got a call from my the team leader.

TL: Why didn’t you write the report on Friday?

Me: On my day off?

Ummm…

TL: You should be available whenever we want you to do something.

Me: What if I was sick or in the hospital? What would you have done then?

TL: But you were not, and we expect you to do as we say because you are bound by employee rulebook.

They put them in their place.

Me: As you may know, I’m NOT one of your employees, but a contractor. We have specific dates and times we work and you CAN’T just call me on a day off and ask me to work out of the blue. That would be against my contract with your company. By the way, since the client’s current contract is still active for a month, the review has to be written AFTER the contract ends. Not before. It’s even written in the contract you signed off on.

TL: I don’t care about semantics. Write a review by the end of the day.

Me: I’m not going to bull **** the review.

TL: You have to do as we say or else you’re fired.

Malicious compliance time.

He said I had to write the bull **** review, but didn’t mention anything about the real review….

This was gonna be good!

So, I wrote the real review and under that I wrote

“The review Mr. ____ asked me to write” and then wrote the bull **** review.

I sent it to the client and CC’d the TL, all the other contractors, the execs and anyone who had the faintest idea about the project.

I wish I was there to see their faces when they received the email.

Best part?

That wasn’t gonna work, either!

They tried to fire me, but couldn’t due to the terms of the contract. So I had no work, but full pay for 4 months. My computer was locked, so I went to the office every day, brushed up my resume and started sending emails all day while having free coffee/tea.

The client I was working for hired me the next week as a freelance consultant. So I was getting double the income (though for 4 months), and stopped going to the company all together.

The CEO was a powerful guy and he immediately sent an email to all the businesses he knew and no one renewed their contract, resulting a net loss of a couple million a year per company.

I heard one or two companies took them to court for falsifying reports, but not sure what happened to them.”

Here’s what readers had to say about this.

This person weighed in.

Another individual was impressed.

This Reddit user shared their thoughts.

Another person spoke up.

And this individual chimed in.

Well, that was certainly a satisfying malicious compliance story!

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.