Have you ever had a job where you saw a problem that could be easily solved and went above and beyond to fix the problem on your own time just because you wanted to fix it? Many people don’t do this, but the ones that do aren’t always appreciated.

Imagine going above and beyond at work to fix a problem, but instead of being rewarded for this extra work, you’re reprimanded and told to put things back the way they used to be. Would you comply even if you thought that was a really bad idea, or would you try to explain why you did what you did and why it needs to stay this way?

In this story, one security guard was in this situation, and he decided to comply. He was really upset about the situation, but he knew complying would eventually backfire. He wanted it to backfire because that would be the best way to prove his point.

He had no idea how extreme the consequences for complying would be. Let’s read all about it.

Factory security supervisor gets destroyed.

When i first started working for security a decade ago i was a bright eyed and prim/proper employee who believed that the only way to be a proper man was to be a company man through and through.

My dad ignored his family to be a company man, and while i hated him, i figured i could emulate him till i had made it big and then tone it down when i wanted to start a family.

I am now 29 and have no family/ boyfriend/girlfriend and am still a company man, just for a few companies at the same time as a security operator and consultant.

Imagine a much less tough and non-criminal version of mike ehrmantraut from breaking bad, but with a beautiful head of definitely not graying hair. Ok it is graying and thinning shut up that is the one thing im sensitive about.

Here’s some context about where he works.

I signed onto a private corporations private security force at age 18. In hindsight we were a PMC who never left the property: firearms, hummers, and all the fun toys to play with you could imagine.

My boss was an jerk though. No matter how good you did your job he would complain about something you were doing and threaten to write you up. He almost never followed through unless it was about firearms discharge.

One night though i get called in after i had already worked my 12 hr shift.

After about a week a Dumb coworker who did AM lock box operations commented that I had organized the lock box by name and department to my boss. That is the first thing to tell me he wasnt very bright.

He was reprimanded for going above and beyond.

I had bought brass circular key tags that i personally punched with the initials of every employee and the first letter of their department in my off hours. for example A1, S would be alexander 1220, security or CL, H would be Cleaning Lady, Housekeeping or MC, R would be Malicious Compliance, Reddit.

I was written up and essentially had my hours cut in half for altering key sets and assigning sets to workers. which was not one of my assigned duties despite being the PM key box operator more often then not.

i was merely to open the key box for employees when i was radioed that someone was arriving onsite and then close it and patrol. It was my bosses job to alter keys or assign them to individuals. Something he never once did.

So i spent the better part of an hour taking these brass tags off the key rings and back into the giant key box for all departments and their 80 or so employees/spare rings tossing them on hooks in a random order so my boss would have to come by and organize them.

He was really upset about the situation.

My boss did not.

As i was leaving he snidely smirked and yelled from his office “you don’t get to assign keys to employees new guy, maybe after you have a year under your belt i might trust you to get my coffee.”

I go home for a good old fashion cry out of frustration, hatred, rage, and humiliation.

But eventually i decided that it was fine. I would get him fired or get fired trying. The worst that would happen is i get unemployment while looking for a new job.

He handled the keys differently from that point on.

Things changed though. Cause after that day when employees came up to the security offices to get their key rings i would open up the lock box and let them grab whichever set they wanted.

When asked why they had to grab their own instead of being handed one, i would proudly shout out “New orders sir/ma’am, we open it for registered workers not give them out.”

Other guards fallowed suit, because everyone is a gossip, especially security, and heard what happened to me getting written up/ hours cut for assigning key rings.

this goes on for about 2 weeks with minor inconveniences. housekeeping calling us to unlock the garages and closets, maintenance calling us to unlock roof access, lots of stupid busy work that didn’t happen when we were checking the keys before giving them out or during the 1 week we had my brass tags.

Choosing the wrong keys could have serious consequences.

Each ring has different types of keys based on what type of employee you were/ what you needed access to; Factory workers didn’t have office keys; office workers didn’t have factory keys, only maintenance had roof access, Housekeeping had keys to storage garages and cleaning closets, security had master keys.

A criminal in maintenance notices this fact and he does what criminals do. One day during my shift he choose a security key ring.

I am not paying any attention, after all “(I) don’t assign keys to employees.”

He stole a lot of stuff.

criminal ends up stealing a vehicle and a large amount of product worth over 100k usd before he is caught. He is on camera all over the site doing various petty crimes too.

until it turns out that stuff is missing about 2 or so weeks later when inventory is done.

criminal gets arrested for grand theft because he had stolen goods in his locker and that was enough to get a search warrant for his home, but we don’t recover the vehicle and over half of the stolen product.

Uh-oh!

Here comes the fun part. I get called back into work 2 or 3 hours after my 12 hr shift again. I arrive in uniform, giant therms of coffee in one hand and site phone in the other, and am escorted by 2 other guards to a board room in the main office just off of the factory.

Inside is a HR woman, the CEO, my boss, and a cardboard box filled with everything in my locker (flashlights, 18650 batteries, cartons of cigarettes, lighters, duty belt, side arm baton, cuffs, personal firearm, ammo, phone chargers, misc work things).

You can start to see where this is going and the wheel is spinning full speed in my head.

At this meeting i get chewed out 6 ways from sunday by my boss about my negligence. and how my negligence caused other guards to shirk their duties and act with negligence causing the theft to be possible. and while i am not criminally or civilly liable i am no longer going to be able to work in security ever again. He will make sure of that.

He waited patiently while the CEO asked a lot of questions.

this is all with HR frantically trying to correct him and placate me to cover them from a wrongful termination lawsuit.

I just sit there calmly and let this go on with a self satisfied smirk on my face waiting for my time to shine on this exit interview. I knew my time to shine had finally come and my moment of revenge would soon be upon me.

finally after what feels like forever, my boss stops spouting his fat lips and the ceo starts. “I have a few question, why did you stop caring? in your few months here you were constantly finding ways to improve security. There are email chains about concerns you had: blind spots in the cameras, redundant systems, and even piggybacking. your file showed that you took great pride in your work and the gps on the site phone issued to you shows you still have some of the best patrol coverage. Most people in other departments have good things to say about you. You were fitting in well here and could have potentially been promoted to site manager of security in a few years if you hadn’t given up. so why did you stop caring and allow this to happen? What changed in that office?”

my smirk drops into a predatory grin. This shark has smelt blood in the water.

He started his response with a request.

i ask HR “Do you have my employment file so we could take a look at what happened a few weeks ago?”

Hr leaves and comes back with my entire file, which is surprisingly large for only being there 6 months so far (certs, degrees, monthly corporate training modules, weekly range qualifications, ammo inventory/requests, DARs, incident reports, use of force reports).

I pull out my site phone and ask to connect to the ceo’s laptop, and he tentatively agrees. I transfer 4 photos over to the laptop before giving the site phone with the password disabled and laptop to him.

1 picture of the key box pre tags. 1 picture of the key box during my tags. 1 picture of the write up. 1 picture of the key box post tags.

He had all the proof he needed.

I then turn and look at my boss and say “Camera 7, 0923, febuary 5 2008. If we watch the footage we can hear you give me my new orders in the hallway outside your office. after all you did tell me not to assign keys and open the lock box for employees. I had no clue those orders would cause this debacle”

the HR rep goes through my file and finds the write up and shows it in full to the ceo, while the ceo punches in the date and time to the camera (i watched that recording every day in rage and knew it by heart, it was a hallway PTZ camera)

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After the video finishes i slowly reach into the box of my personal effects and show them the nearly 80 brass tags labeled with initials and divisions, the tags labeled spare, division as well as 200+ blank ones.

I was asked to leave the room by a furious ceo/frightened HR woman while my boss paled and this time instead of malicious compliance, i happily complied knowing my revenge was going with surgical precision.

It worked out well for everyone except the dumb boss.

Fact is, i knew someone would break/ steal/ enter an area off limits because they had access and that means they had to see what was hidden behind the different departments.

I never expected the size or scale of the theft though.

nearly 30 minutes later my boss was leaving the office with an empty box and his severance pay, the dummy who worked opposite of me was promoted (turns out he had mentioned it to the boss because of how much easier things had been since the new guy, aka me, organized the box) and the company gave me a bonus as well of buying the tags off off me.

I kept my job there and dummy got to spend an hour reorganizing the lock box with what was now the companies brass tags. ended up leaving on good terms 18 months later when someone else offered me safer work closer to home for slightly less pay.

He had to be vague.

Company names and products have been kept vague on purpose. I am under a Non Disclosure Agreement. No names, locations, countries, or hints will be given. I have carefully checked over my NDA while i type this making sure that i fallow it to the word. I still happily work in security and do not want to be black balled from my industry. Though im happy to report i no longer due anything resembling PMCs.

For those who may be curious my personal side arm that i kept at work in my locker was a Beretta px4 storm but the standard issue was a 1911 (not sure the maker but my uniform fee would be reduced if i provided my own side arm so i used my own, same with duty belt/gear) and the assigned rifle that i eventually purchased after i left was a FN PS90 (the civilian legal variant of the P90).

I refer to the oposite shift associate as dummy because he was an idiot. he commonly broke keys, damaged vehicles, forgot to charge toys/equipment, and ended up shooting himself in the foot a few years after i left when his rifle got caught on his key ring and misfired. freak accident but with everything else i doubt his intelligence. decent manager.

Put in a suggestion box (anonymous, and maintenance took care of most of the more pressing concerns while petitioning HR and corporate for the lass pressing issues. essentially all he did was install a box and notepad and have maintenance do all the work. they probably built and installed the box.)

All he had to do was comply, but it’s a good thing he had evidence, or he would’ve lost his job.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a carpenter who was shocked to find the police waiting for him after his last day of work.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person has a question.

Yes, indeed!

More praise.

This person thinks security companies aren’t appreciated.

I’m glad the CEO was in the room when they were telling him he was going to lose his job. The CEO asked the right questions and clearly saw that he was a great employee with a great future at the company. Honestly asking why he stopped doing such a good job at work was the opening he needed to let the evidence explain exactly where everything went wrong.

I’m glad he was able to keep his job. He did the right thing by complying and letting the situation work out the way it did. It’s too bad they hired a criminal though. Don’t they do background checks on their employees or monitor the security cameras to prevent crime? I guess not.

Going above and beyond at work is not always rewarded, but sometimes it is. One takeaway from this story is to keep evidence, especially if you know complying will backfire.