Many workplace policies are written broadly and enforced selectively.

So when this employee’s workplace decided to roll out an ill-advised 48-hour mandatory agenda policy, one mischievous employee decided to test out just how far he could push the envelope.

Instead of using his judgement to interpret what the rule actually meant, this employee obliged for every interaction he could find, from team stand-ups to even casual two-minute office visits.

So after the boss was overwhelmed with agendas in her inbox, she was soon forced to clarify a policy she probably should have put more thought into in the first place.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

New policy said every meeting needs a detailed agenda sent 48 hours in advance. So I sent one for everything.

I work in a mid-size marketing agency, maybe 60 people.

Our director decided after a particularly chaotic quarter that meetings were out of control and that going forward every meeting required a written agenda submitted to all attendees 48 hours before it started, no exceptions, or the meeting would be cancelled.

So instead of asking any follow-up questions, this employee decided to just roll with it.

Reasonable policy in principle.

I took it literally.

Weekly 15-minute team standup where we go around and say what we’re working on? Agenda sent.

“Catching up briefly” message from a colleague who wanted to chat about a project for ten minutes? I replied asking them to send me an agenda 48 hours ahead or we could schedule it for later in the week.

This rule also applied to any meetings with leadership, which immediately caught the attention of his boss.

My director asked me to “pop by her office for two minutes” and I sent her a calendar invite with a formal agenda that said “Agenda item 1: Director-initiated discussion, estimated 2 minutes, expected outcome TBD.”

She called me on the phone to ask what I was doing.

I said I was following the new meeting policy.

She sets him straight, and he fires back.

She said it wasn’t meant for things like that.

I asked her where in the policy it specified which types of meetings were exempt.

There was a pause.

She said she’d clarify the policy.

So the clarity soon came.

The clarification came three days later and included a list of meeting types that were exempt from the agenda requirement.

The standup was on the list. Informal check-ins under 10 minutes were on the list.

Essentially everything I had been sending agendas for was now officially exempt.

I have continued sending agendas for everything else though, which is now just good professional practice.

The rest of the company has this employee to thank for this clarification!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a job-hunter who was shocked when the recruiting company told them too turn down a job because the salary was too low.

What did Reddit have to say?

It’s great when the higher-ups at a company are more chill.

Following a rigid rule like this is bound to come with some perks.

Sometimes the company culture just doesn’t fit every employee.

Many grand ambitions are tested by the cold, hard force of reality.

Malicious compliance has a long and storied history in the workplace, and this entry deserves a spot in the hall of fame.

This employee didn’t complain, didn’t push back, and didn’t schedule a meeting to discuss his grievances — ironically, because that would have required a 48-hour agenda. He just did exactly what the policy said, to every interaction he could find, until the absurdity became impossible to ignore.

The director wanted accountability, so what she got instead was a formal calendar invite for a two-minute chat with an expected outcome marked TBD.

Ultimately, this employee’s malicious compliance only made the policy better.

And somewhere in his sent folder is the most passive-aggressive piece of professional documentation in company history.