“You Want Me To Be Quiet? Okay”: Forced Silence Leads To Chaos In Malicious Compliance

Being given nonsensical and petty commands at work would make most of us pretty annoyed. But a few people just have that spark that causes them to turn a “hostile” situation onto its head and into something funny. After all, humor is a pretty effective solution for a lot of tense situations.

A man shared his bit of malicious compliance when he was told to be more quiet during his warehouse job. He did exactly as told and ended up giving a number of his coworkers and customers jump scares.

Generally, the term “jumpscare” is used for the horror genre, whether it be a film or even a video game. If you are not familiar, the principle is quite simple. There you are, watching or playing some piece of media that you enjoy when suddenly something spooky flashes across the screen, normally accompanied by an intense sound or swell in the music. This is considered the bread and butter of many horror movies.

Interestingly, one of the first jumpscares was perhaps not entirely intentional. Orson Welles put a transition in Citizen Kane which was accompanied by a shrieking cockatoo. His intention, reportedly, was to “wake up” cinema viewers who may have fallen asleep towards the end of the film.

Some folks love it, others hate it. The general consensus is that it’s ok when the “viewer” consents. If you go to a horror film and are upset by the jumpscares, that's sort of your own fault. YouTube, for example, bans jumpscares from the now-many ads they autoplay in the middle of whatever you are viewing. Even horror fans don’t want to be watching a recipe tutorial, only to have their blood pressure shoot into the sky from a blaring intro to an advertisement.

If you’ve spent some time on the internet, you’ve probably encountered a “screamer,” that is, an innocuous looking game or video that has a jumpscare inserted. A famous example is the Maze, sometimes called the Scary Maze Game. The player must navigate a cube through a maze without touching the walls. This requires a lot of concentration, which makes the “screamer,” in this case the sudden appearance of a scary face and noise, that much more effective. If you were curious, the face in question is the possessed girl from the Exorcist.

This is all possible because of our bodies' startle response or startle reflex. This is not a conscious move, as it evolved from our need to assume a defensive stance in the wild a lot faster than our conscious brain could process information. Basically, the brain reacts to an aural or visual “scare” and immediately has the head, neck and shoulders react. This was a “system” that emerged through evolution to prevent us from falling prey to tigers and other ambush predators.

Now this system is, instead, causing warehouse workers and customers to jump when an employee approaches them. This is perhaps why this tale seems so humorous to some readers. It is a classic example of “getting exactly what you asked for” without being too dark or depressing.

This is also the “fun” in most malicious compliance stories. Disobeying or breaking rules can be interesting, but following them in such a way as to point out their absurdities simply tickles our brains in a specific way. It’s passive aggressive, but, importantly, the power dynamic tends to favor the “weaker” party. After all, it’s normally a manager or boss who is giving poorly thought out orders. The maliciously complying worker just follows them and lets whatever is going to happen unfold. In this case, it was a customer, who often complain enough that many employees feel like they should just do what they are told.

As it so often happens, orders are given and rules are made by people who do not exactly explore the consequences properly. In a perfect world, you could tell your manager that this is a terrible idea, but the truth is that people in charge tend to not want to hear this sort of thing. Following the new rules to the letter is at least a chance to “learn from your mistakes” while also protecting yourself from repercussions.