Often the fastest way to ruin a good workplace is to “fix” something that wasn’t even broken to begin with.

In this story, one new HR hire arrived and demanded everyone ditch the flexible work culture they had come to love.

But when the employees capitulated and their deliverables began falling to the wayside, the writing was on the wall for this new hire.

Keep reading for the full story.

New HR manager ticks off hardworking employees. Mass malicious compliance.

Years ago, I worked for an awesome company that understood workplace culture, and fun was a huge part of keeping employees happy and productive.

In our office, people would often cycle to work and therefore needed to shower and get ready at work.

That meant that sometimes they didn’t get to their desk until after 9 a.m.

Still, this employee notes that everyone still got their work done.

However, nearly everyone worked back without being asked to deliver on deadlines.

Management didn’t care because they knew the work was being done and everyone always went over and above.

But when a new HR rep entered the chat, things changed for the worst.

Enter the new HR manager.

We had never really had one before, but we were growing, so we needed one.

Within her first few weeks, she sent out an email saying that everyone needed to be seated and ready to go at 9 a.m.

She also made some other unpopular changes.

She also said that we needed to stop having social chats and getting ready at work—or if we did, do it earlier.

She never acknowledged the fact that everyone put in unpaid overtime.

Cue mass malicious compliance.

Everyone would start at 9 a.m. as per the email and then leave at 5 p.m.

But this had some pretty big implications for the work.

Projects started running behind, and clients started getting mad because their product was not being delivered on time.

The new HR manager was confused as to why work was not being delivered on time anymore.

After all, they had done exactly what she demanded.

People were starting on time!

She made sure of it!

Luckily, management wised up and made sure to put things back to normal.

Needless to say, upper management removed the rule, and she quit shortly after.

We all went back to our normal ways, and would you know it!

Projects were back on track.

Don’t walk into a new company and try to change something that isn’t broken.

The people will revolt.

Nothing ruins a good company culture faster than excessive micromanaging.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter identifies the biggest tell of a bad leader.

It’s not that complicated: Treat people well, get good work in return.

Being excessively late is an issue, but this reader doesn’t think that was the problem in this story.

Scorned employees will exploit just about any loophole they can find.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

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.