Some people just never learn. Some companies don’t either.
The lesson here is if you don’t have an employee who is generating money for you (let alone multiple employees), then you’re screwed. So, pro tip, why not try to retain them to the best of your ability? Like, don’t promise them things that you can’t deliver? And perhaps don’t bluff at your employees and don’t dare them to get an attorney?
Unless you really want a series of trains leaving the station and ramming your head somewhere on route to Malicious Compliance Town.
More Info: Reddit
Mismanaging a part of a company happens, but when you get a golden goose employee, you'd think it would be impossible to mess that up
Image credits: gcmcphotos (not the actual image)
Reddit user u/Virtual_Meeting113 recently came out with a lengthy story of malicious compliance. In fact, there were two major bits of malice and compliance in that combination, so let’s dive in.
Long story short, OP’s company was bought up by a company that had been buying up companies left and right. In the end, all of these new purchases were smushed together to make a chaotic corporate cake.
Enter BigBoss and HRDirector, who were hired to manage all of this chaos. OP explained that BigBoss was quite fond of OP and their work—so much, in fact, that they pointed out how well of a job they were doing, in line for a promotion and “big things”.
Well, it's quite possible—through malicious compliance, and not just a single layer of it, as OP explains when asked not to tell the client about them quitting
Image Credits: u/Virtual_Meeting113
Unfortunately, the bad news was that it was about that time when everyone started demanding raises to stay. BigBoss wasn’t all too happy about it, and he satisfied some demands, but not all. HRDirector sent out a survey asking everyone’s feedback on how the company was doing. The problem was that there was only one choice—Hobson's choice (of sorts), i.e. you can answer honestly, but I’ll ‘snipe’ you if you tell me the truth and pin the blame on me.
You can probably already see where this is going. Not the best of working environments, to say the least.
OP didn’t get the promotion. After confronting BigBoss (in a seemingly non-threatening manner), he effectively explained that they were gonna get a raise, and then some, but at an undetermined time in the future. In other words, not now, but probably someday. Probably.
Long story short, it all happened when OP was promised a raise sometime in the future
Image Credits: u/Virtual_Meeting113
Image credits: 1Day review (not the actual image)
He never signed. Why? BigBoss landed them a project, OP determined that it was a dead end, and decided to quit. Why sign anything at this point, right?
It is also important to note that OP did give their two-week notice, and instead of getting it over with without the two weeks and letting the employee go ASAP, the BigBoss told them to stick around for the 2 weeks and not to, under any circumstances, tell the client that they were leaving. That would compromise the project.
Cue malicious compliance.
They were having none of it and decided to quit, but not without HR bluffing about no bonus payouts, daring them to get an attorney
Image Credits: u/Virtual_Meeting113
Well, the boss-man found out it was never signed—assuming he was hoping to legally trap the employee with this new project. Nice try. Anywho, that backfired, so the HRDirector was now trying to add fuel to the fire by telling OP during their exit interview that they wouldn’t get their bonuses because they were leaving. If they didn’t like it, they could“get an attorney.”
Cue malicious compliance (×2).
After being given several ways that one could maliciously comply, OP spent their remaining days doing practically nothing in the office
Image Credits: u/Virtual_Meeting113
OP stayed with the client for those 2 weeks. They told the contractors—people that were a part of the team the company glued together for the project—that they were leaving and asked if there was anything they needed to do beforehand. Funny enough, they wanted to promote themselves and hence asked if they could work with the client directly.
Cue malicious compliance (×3).
Image Credits: u/Virtual_Meeting113
OP spent the remainder of their time at the company just chilling. With one exception: the client asked OP for something to be done. One thing led to another, and the client immediately understood that OP was leaving. They didn’t say it per se, but the malicious compliance was obvious enough for the client to get the hint.
Meanwhile, their attorney friend helped them out in getting those bonuses all properly sorted. And it seemed like easy work because the legalese on the part of the company OP worked at was “some of the worst-worded [contracts] she’d ever seen.”
After OP had left the company, they found out that there was an attempt to keep the project afloat, but it collapsed in the end. So did the careers of HRDirector and BigBoss. Oh, and the whole bonus payout thing? OP got a small, but satisfying settlement. They only wish they’d seen BigBoss’ face when they were signing the check.
Needless to say, it did not end well for BigBoss and HRDirector as both were no longer employed soon after
Image Credits: u/Virtual_Meeting113
Image credits: Volkswagen Belgium (not the actual image)
Folks applauded OP for their actions. In the comments, people were bashing everything from how BigBoss managed the situation to how bad the corporate speech is to the idea of a “loyalty test” and how it’s best to steer clear from these if you value your job. Or many other things.
Others reiterated the point that “golden geese”, i.e. model employees, stay with the company if they get the right treatment. If not, this directly affects the bottom line. And a golden goose will survive the corporate purge—they’re good at their job no matter the workplace. The company, however, might not.
You can check out the post in context with all of the comments intact here. Or if this post did not scratch neither the malicious, nor the compliance part of your internet needs, why not check out other malicious compliance posts we’ve covered, like this one here, or this one here.
But before you go, we’d like you to use that scroll-wheel to its fullest potential and go to the comment section to share what you thought of this bit of compliance of the malicious kind!