An Army Soldier Was Ordered To Trim The Hedges, So He Found A Way To Make Sure He’d Never Have To Do It Again
Shutterstock
Imagine living in a neighborhood where the yard work duties rotate between households. What would you do if when it was your turn you were expected to do more work than everyone else?
That’s what happened to the Army soldier in this story. He didn’t think it was fair at all, but there was nothing he could do about the tasks he was assigned to do. After all, this is the military.
However, he knew a way to make sure he’d never have to do this annoying task again.
Keep reading to find out what he did and if it worked as expected.
Trim the hedges! Okay. If you insist.
When I was in the Army, I discovered that the best way at to get even with incompetent NCOs was to follow their orders exactly as stated.
This would follow with, “that’s not what I wanted you to do!”
That’s what you told me.
“But that’s not what I meant!”
It eventually worked out.
Eventually, they’d leave me alone.
Onward to the malicious compliance.
While assigned to Germany, we lived in an apartment provided by the post.
In the summer, mowing the lawn rotated among the apartments.
This doesn’t seem fair.
When it was my turn, they decided that the hedges needed to be trimmed.
They were VERY overgrown.
I pointed out that apparently no one else had been trimming them, as they were about 6’ tall and growing wild.
They said, “too bad. It’s your turn. You have to do it.”
He intentionally went overboard.
I did. I trimmed them to about 12 inches from the ground.
When I was questioned later, I said, “you told me to trim them. I did.”
I wasn’t required to trim them again.
Then again, after 2 summers, I don’t think they needed it.
Wow. I feel bad for the hedges.
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
One person shares a story from boot camp.
Another person is optimistic about the hedges.
This person shares a story about a coach.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a homeowner who doesn’t think their painters should use their water spigot on the job.
Another person rants about the military.
This revenge in the form of malicious compliance worked for two reasons. First, OP did such a good job that the hedges wouldn’t need to be trimmed again for a very long time. Second, OP did such a bad job trimming the hedges by trimming them way too much that if they did need to be trimmed again, they would definitely tell someone else to do it.
Enjoyed this story?
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
