Sometimes bosses give unclear instructions and expect perfect results.

So when a group of ESL teachers received a confusing directive from their boss about using their “home language” for reports, they maliciously complied and left the boss scrambling to translate dozens of different languages.

Keep reading for the full story!

Write our reports using the language we speak at home? You got it boss

I teach English as a second language.

At the end of each semester, we’re required to write class reports.

Previously, we had to write our reports in English or Chinese so that they could be read easily by management (we’re in China).

But then the boss wanted to needlessly switch things up.

Management decided that we shouldn’t do this and instead write them “using the language you would speak at home.”

Staff was eager to show her just what a bad idea this really was.

Cue malicious compliance: several of my colleagues are now writing reports in French, Russian, German, and Spanish.

English is my first language, so I still write in English.

So this teacher decided to get especially creative.

However, to meet my boss’ request, I’m now writing in British slang.

Instead of writing “Class A is very good,” I now write, “Class A are the dog’s bollocks.”

For bad classes, I no longer write, “Class B is struggling with writing.”

I would write, “Class B couldn’t write their way out of a wet paper bag.”

The boss is feeling the heat, but of course, won’t own up to it.

My boss is now struggling but refuses to admit defeat.

She’s instead spending a lot of time using translation software to understand what we’re writing.

Play silly games, win silly prizes!

What did Reddit think?

This commenter would get straight up poetic with it.

What about including some really difficult languages?

This user has a suggestion to make things even more difficult for the boss.

This directive was pretty nonsensical from the start.

Turns out when you play word games with language teachers, you’re going to lose.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.