Bad bosses often confuse authority with expertise.

So when a know-it-all manager tried to override a skilled technician’s repair plan, the tech decided to follow orders to the letter — and let the consequences speak for themselves.

Keep reading for the full story!

how i set up my boss by following his own orders

Recently, my friend told me a story from his life that’s a perfect fit for malicious compliance, and I decided to share it from his perspective.

This happened about five years ago, when I was working at a small tech repair shop.

The boss of this particular shop was a real piece of work.

Our boss was this guy named Sergey — a classic control freak who thought being the boss made him smarter than everyone else.

He didn’t know squat about tech, but loved sticking his nose in and telling us how to do our jobs.

Usually, us guys in the shop would just nod and do it our way, but this time I decided to play by his rules — and here’s what came of it.

We got an order to fix an old industrial printer.

This skilled technician knew exactly how to handle it.

Rare beast, bulky, barely any manuals, but I’d worked on a couple before, so I knew right away what was wrong — a clog in one of the feed gears and a worn-out belt.

Disassemble, clean, swap a few parts — five hours tops.

But still, the boss thought he knew better.

I laid out the plan for Sergey. He listened, then launched into his usual rant.

“No, you don’t get it. It’s an electrical issue. You need to check the board, test everything with a multimeter. I’m the boss here — do it my way.”

No matter how hard the tech tried to explain, the boss wouldn’t hear it.

I tried explaining it was mechanical, but he started yelling that I was “young, brash, and clueless,” and if I didn’t follow his orders, I could go home without pay.

Fine, I thought. You’re the boss. You know best.

So the tech just did as he was told.

I grabbed the multimeter, took the printer apart down to the last screw, and started testing every circuit on the board — exactly like he told me.

It was slow, tedious, and totally pointless, because I knew from the start the board wasn’t the issue.

And he wanted to make sure he left a paper trail.

But I didn’t just test it — I documented everything for a report.

I wrote down readings, snapped pictures of every step, and even sketched diagrams so Sergey could see how “obedient” I was.

It took me two full days when I could’ve fixed the thing in half a day.

Finally, I strolled up to him with a stack of papers and said, “Sergey, checked it all. Board’s fine. What now?”

The boss was now in a bit of a bind with the client.

He turned red as a beet — the client had already called, furious about the delay.

At that point, he figured I’d sabotaged him on purpose, even though he dug his own grave.

He barked at me to “deal with the mechanics since you’re so smart.”

So now it was time to do everything he could have just done days ago.

I shrugged, went back, cleaned the gears, swapped the belt — the stuff I’d planned to do all along.

A day later, the printer was done and the client was happy, but Sergey looked like he’d been through a week-long spin cycle.

This seemed to make a long lasting impression on the boss.

After that, he tried bossing me around a couple more times, but I’d just ask, “Like with that printer — your way?”

He’d shut up real quick.

Moral of the story: sometimes it’s better to let someone dig their own hole than argue.

Good bosses stay out of good employees’ way!

What did Reddit think?

Maybe this bad boss had an ulterior motive.

Many bad bosses forget what it was like to just be an employee.

This commenter thinks sometimes you just have to make your boss feel the heat.

The issue got fixed, but the boss got humbled big time.

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.