Hands down, malicious compliance must be the perfect solution to nearly any problem.
Got an annoyingly arrogant coworker who rudely pushes the boundaries of their duties to meet their lazy agenda? Hit them with some malicious compliance straight in the kisser and watch their world burn down.
Incidentally, we have a story in that vein. A Redditor recently shared their predicament and subsequent malicious compliance to shut down a coworker who kept leaving work early and pushing the responsibility on her.
More Info: Reddit
You gotta admit—malicious compliance must be the perfect solution to nearly any problem, including annoying coworkers
Image Credits: U.S. Army Cadet Command (Army ROTC) (not the actual photo)
Redditor u/WitchyWolf94, a 28-year-old phlebotomist with whom Bored Panda had the pleasure of an interview, recalled a story from 2015 through 2016. She used to work at her local hospital in the States, covering the first shift, i.e. 3AM to 3PM, with a morning rush at around 3AM as well as 6AM through 7AM. Stressful stuff, but OP seemed to enjoy it thoroughly.
For context, a phlebotomist in a nutshell is a medical professional who pokes folks with needles to draw blood for clinical or medical testing, transfusions, donations, or research. There is much more to it, but that's the tl;dr version, so you're welcome.
Got an arrogant coworker who pushes the boundaries to meet their lazy agenda? Hit them with malicious compliance, like this phlebotomist did
Image Credits: u/WitchyWolf94
Part of OP’s routine was to arrive at work 10 to 15 minutes early to set up her cart. The cart, as she explained, is nothing special as medical equipment goes—a metal shelving unit with trays for professional equipment and the like. She didn’t always restock it after the day, so she’d do that before work the next day. And also get her morning coffee along the way. Coffee is life.
So, all was fine and dandy until a particular new coworker got hired several months after OP started. You see, she was said to be lazy and rude, and OP listed a number of specific examples of it: snapping at people, reading books while on duty, hanging out with other staff for hours, and the like. But OP didn’t have to suffer her for too long as she simply switched shifts.
Well, not for long. Part of this relay race the phlebotomists in this hospital have is the handing over of the pager. For anyone younger than a millennial, a pager is a gadget that tells you to call someone. It used to be a big thing back in the day, but is otherwise outdated for personal use nowadays. But medical personnel still use it because its convenience cannot be overstated.
OP's routine included her coming to work a bit early so she'd get ready for her 12-hour shift, but a new coworker started ruining it for her
Image Credits: u/WitchyWolf94
Image Credits: Gurmit Singh (not the actual photo)
Anywho, handing over the pager that is exclusively used for stroke or trauma emergencies unofficially signifies the end of one person’s shift and the start of another’s. Formally, though, the person that’s getting the pager has to be clocked in and by the looks of things, it’s a pretty serious procedure with key requirements.
But, screw requirements! because OP’s coworker liked to leave work early and was known to leave the very important stroke and trauma pager on OP’s phlebotomy cart—whether OP was clocked in or not, she had to most definitely be clocked in now that she had the pager, and even more so if the pager was beeping because stroke or trauma.
After being confronted about such reckless behavior, OP’s coworker got so upset that she involved the superior, who wasn’t all that helpful either. The super took the coworker’s side, saying “just take it and if it goes off, you clock in and then I will adjust the clock in on the computer.” All illegalities aside, not something people would approve of in general.
Among many other things, the coworker would play hot potato with a pager as soon as she'd see OP, thus ending her shift minutes early
Image Credits: u/WitchyWolf94
During our interview with OP, she did stress the fact that her coworker was not a terrible person—just that she had a lot on her plate.
“I learned not long after she came to the job that she’d been through a lot in her personal life, and she wasn’t always terrible to be around,” elaborated OP. “It was just specific things she did that aggravated people. I don’t think she hated her job at all. I think she was just going through a rough patch in life and might have been taking her frustrations out.”
And OP also empathized with the supervisor, saying she was quite likely as frustrated with the coworker’s attitude as everyone else was. But being a supervisor means having a lot on her plate and making sure the lab runs properly—not an easy feat, so OP could cut her some slack.
Well, the supervisor's solution to the problem was to just deal with it, or come to work "on time". OP opted for the latter
Image Credits: u/WitchyWolf94
This in turn meant that the coworker could no longer leave as soon as OP came to work because OP came on time
Image Credits: Presidencia de la República Mexicana (not the actual photo)
But back then, this did not stop OP from cuing malicious compliance. If the coworker couldn't respect OP’s early bird schedule and prepping before work, then OP would have to do something about it, and do about it she did.
OP started setting her alarm for later in the mornings. This meant she’d come in later to work. But like last minute later, so she could clock in a minute before the actual shift. Sure, it was a bit of an inconvenience for her, the cart had to be dealt with during the busier part of the shift, but it was all worth it.
“The look on my coworker's face when she saw me later (right before she was to clock out), as she was trying to hand me a pager I wasn’t scheduled to have and I already had the one I was supposed to, was priceless,” OP pointed out in her post.
The maliciously compliant story engaged a lot of folks online, including OP herself, who ended up providing quite a bit of context
“Looking back, I should have never started going in early,” elaborated OP, reflecting on the whole situation. “I was always worried I was going to be late, so I’d set my alarm much earlier than I needed to, so I’d get to work earlier. Plus, we had specific parking areas and it was almost 3 am when I got to work. I was very tempted to start coming in even later, since the time clock had about 7 minutes of leeway time to clock in, just to avoid the coworker.”
The coworker did not like this maneuver one bit. Needless to say, the supervisor was again involved, but she could do absolutely nothing about it. OP wasn’t supposed to be there until 3 and she wasn’t. This in turn did lead to some tantrums on the part of her coworker.
And you bet this story engaged a lot of folks online. 19,600 upvotes worth of folks, to be precise. Many pointed out the illegality of her supervisor’s time-shaving and how she placated the coworker just because she was difficult.
Others shared their experiences of unprofessionalism in the medical field, with this commenter explaining how their coworker one day started meeting them in the break room, passing on information after the shift and just leaving afterwards. They even clocked out as soon as they saw the commenter walk in the door.
OP responded to many of the comments, providing ample context for the situation, the nuances of the job and the like. You can check out the post in full here.
We asked OP to elaborate on the aftermath of this story, and she had this to say:
“The aftermath was that she kept doing what she was doing. Kept trying to put the pager in someone else’s hands so she wouldn’t have to worry about it and she could technically clock out early. I left that job not too long after that, mostly due to personal life and health.”
So, what did you think of this? Share your thoughts and opinions, or share stories of how you deal with coworkers who just can’t even any more in the comment section below!