Do you know why only insects with medium-sized wings survive on small islands in the ocean? Because during strong winds, those with short wings are carried out to sea, and wings that are too long simply break. By the way, roughly the same principle actually applies to many office dramas.
For example, for the user u/stemcella, the author of our story today, in a situation where the IT guys from the company where they work suddenly removed their admin access to crucial work software, there were also three possible options. They chose something in the middle between the nuclear option and simply rolling over - and, well, they were absolutely right!
More info: Reddit
The author of the post works in a company at a position where they need admin access to some critical software
Image credits: drobotdean / Freepik (not the actual photo)
In fact, the author's work massively affects the whole company workflow
Image credits: stemcella
Image credits: rawpixel.com / Freepik (not the actual photo)
So one day the author was literally gobsmacked by the fact that their admin access had been removed by the IT department
Image credits: stemcella
Image credits: prostooleh / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The author could rampage and get their access back - but they picked a more malicious and witty way
Image credits: stemcella
They just dropped the higher-ups the detailed report of their work duties and possible issues - and literally in a half an hour got the access back
So, the Original Poster (OP) tells us that they don’t actually work in IT at their company, but work in a role where they “own” a portion of the software. Accordingly, they’re responsible for the system configuration in the part that concerns their work. According to the author, this is quite convenient for organizing the workflow, and their work is actually quite critical for the whole company.
So now you can imagine their surprise when one day, having come to work, the author found that admin access was closed for them. Most likely, by the IT department of the company - in another desperate attempt to play it safe in terms of security. Only this time, this attempt led to a potentially even more serious problem.
The original poster could’ve simply flared up, written an angry report to the higher-ups and demanded that they immediately restore the access, and all the guilty be severely punished... but why? They chose a calmer, more balanced and, we must say, wittier path. The path of malicious compliance.
The OP devoted the next few hours to composing a report to the management listing their job responsibilities, which they could now not perform due to denied access to the software. They also calculated in detail the amount of work time that other employees would need to replace them in this process. Needless to say, literally half an hour after sending the report, the admin access was restored.
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Most likely, the OP really did choose the most effective approach to solving their issue - after all, escalating the conflict isn’t always a panacea for resolving any office injustice. For example, this dedicated article at Kingsly Szamet lawyer firm website claims that it’s always necessary to carefully document all the nuances of any case, and then present the collected materials to management - which the author, in fact, did.
Anton Gunn, a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama and the world’s leading authority on socially conscious leadership, also directly notes on his website that it’s not always necessary to inflate the problem. "Not every situation necessitates a full-blown confrontation. If it’s a minor issue, consider a direct but respectful conversation with the person involved,” Mr. Gunn says.
People in the comments to the original post also praised the author for their witty approach, although they suggested that just compiling a list of their job responsibilities and documenting all the possible consequences of the IT guys’ ill-considered decision took much more time than the admin access restoration. The author, by the way, agreed with this.
Also, many commenters couldn’t help but note that it would be reasonable for the company's management to give the author the opportunity to train a possible backup for them - just in case of various force majeure situations. But this will probably be a reason for another story. So what do you, our dear readers, think about this particular tale? Please feel free to drop your thoughts in the comments below.
Most commenters agreed that this was an illustrative example of malicious compliance, and also questioned the management's foresight
