**WELCOME!** Hello, and thanks for joining us during this exciting time in the fediverse! It's been less than one month since I created this community, and somehow it's grown into a thriving community with >17k subscribers (~15.1k on lemmy.world, ~1.9k on the next few largest instances combined). When I left that other site and created this community, I did it because I liked the sub and thought it would be fun to replicate (plus I was procrastinating, and I wanted to have something better to procrastinate with in future). I didn't realise it would grow so big so fast. Which brings me to my main point today... **NEW MODS!** We have a mod team now - please welcome (I hope I'm doing this correctly) [@Kaiser@lemmy.world](https://lemmy.world/u/Kaiser), [@Imotali@lemmy.world](https://lemmy.world/u/Imotali), and [@archonet@lemmy.world](https://lemmy.world/u/archonet) ! Together, the four of us will ~~control the narrative by deleting posts/comments that don't fit our worldview~~ ~~abuse our power by banning whoever we don't like~~ hopefully do absolutely nothing cos y'all have been pretty nice so far. *(Also I was going to send out a group message to all the mods first but I realised lemmy doesn't have the ability to do group messages. So for some of the mods this may be the first time they're seeing their fellow mods. Maybe we need some sort of way to communicate? idk I'm pretty new to this lemmy thing and you can tell I'm a real professional here)* Anyway, keep doing what y'all are doing for now. ============================================== ***[EVERYTHING BELOW WAS IN MY PREVIOUS PINNED POST, SO IF YOU READ THAT, FEEL FREE TO SKIP THE REST OF THE POST AND GO SPEND YOUR TIME (UN)PRODUCTIVELY ELSEWHERE]*** **NAVIGATING THE FEDIVERSE** If you’re new - no need to have a detailed understanding of the fediverse. Just dive right in, and you’ll learn the rest along the way. Step 1: Join an instance. Don’t overthink this, any one is fine. You're going to hear people talking about server uptime, defederating, and a whole bunch of stuff. If you're interested, that's fine, but if not, just politely nod and smile, then blindly point to a random server and join it. Think of it as an email provider - there are slight differences, but you can send/receive emails to (almost) anyone with any provider. I recommend lemmy.world and lemm.ee Step 2: Find communities. Click on “Communities” and change it from “Local” to “All”. Subscribe as you see fit. Step 3 (Most Important): Post! Contribute wherever you feel like. **“WHAT CAN I POST?”** As the sidebar says, anything that involves “conforming to the letter, but not the spirit, of a request”. This is usually to the detriment of the requester, but I recognize that may be hard to judge all the time. For now, this includes text posts, images, videos and links. All I ask is that the “malicious compliance” aspect should be apparent - if you’re making a text post, be sure to explain this part; if it’s an image/video/link, use the “Body” field to elaborate. For now, posts/images about events that did not happen to you or anyone you know is fair game, as long as it happened. Fiction writing is a good skill, but not encouraged here. You’ll notice that I said “for now” a lot. That’s because I wouldn’t be surprised if the rules changed over time. If we do change the rules, it will be done in consultation with you guys, and with advance notice. Which brings me to… **FEEDBACK** I (and the mod team) would love to hear your thoughts on how we can make this a better place. If there’s anything you’re unhappy with, or if you just have suggestions, please post them in this thread. If you prefer, you can also message any one of us. **OTHER COMMUNITIES** Remember how I said we wouldn't abuse our power? I'm adding a shoutout here to two other communities that are totally awesome because I created them: - !fakehistoryporn@lemmy.world - !unethicallifeprotips@lemmy.world Feel free to join and participate if it’s of interest to you!

[REPOST] This one is from decades ago, otherwise it would get me in deep doo-doo. I worked as a truck driver in the mid-90s. The company I worked for (can't name them here, but their favorite color is orange), decided to try out a new pay package. The details were complex, but it basically replaced the standard pay-per-mile with a set weekly salary, and not a good one. The new package was instituted on a small scale trial. The company quickly realized that they could make a lot of money if they didn't have to pay their drivers, and the package became the company standard. Because of the complexity of the package (please don't ask), it took the drivers a few weeks to figure out we were getting screwed. Then we started fighting back. A couple of things you need to understand about a truck driver's work week. There are 4 lines on a DOT (Dept of Transportation) logbook. Lines 3 and 4 constitute the hours we can work daily, and weekly. 10 hours (Now 11) driving/day, 70 hours driving and other duties (line 4) / seven day week. In order to maximize our income, we put as little time as possible on line 4 (for which we normally did not get paid), and logged the maximum legal speed on line 3 (driving), even if we couldn't actually drive that speed (due to weather, traffic, terrain, etc). While this was of course, illegal (and impossible with current electronic logs), It wasn't a secret. As long as your logbook was neat, and showed you driving at or under the speed limit, the DOT inspectors wouldn't give you a hard time about it. They had more than enough work with the drivers who were wildly abusing the rules. Once we were put on salary (weekly earnings drop of about 33%), We had no incentive to "cheat". Examples: A run from Portland OR to San Francisco CA is 635 miles. You could log this as one day at 550 miles (55mph x 10 hours), leaving you 85 miles (85/55= 1.75 hours logged) the next day. That would leave you 8.25 hour to drive on day two, after your delivery. Of course the reality was quite different. There are some 300 miles of mountains along the route. With 45,000 pound load, you only averaged about 35 mph through them. And anyone who has lived in the San Francisco bay area can tell you how likely you are to be able to drive 55mph at 8 AM. Under the new pay package, we logged it as it actually happened. The result being that I would arrive in San Francisco in time to make my morning delivery, and be out of hours to run for the rest of the day, for which I had to be paid. Not only did the company have to pay me to sit for the day, They had usually booked a load for me for that day (it took awhile for the load planners to catch on) that either had to be covered by another driver, or lost entirely. Now all those things we had glossed over in order to keep moving got tossed into the company gears. You lost three hours throwing chains and driving across mountain pass at 25MPH, and now you can't make a Friday delivery (so sorry, no more hours to drive) and the receiver isn't open on weekends? Not my problem. Cargo receivers didn't care much for it either. A lot of them would use the threat of not being unloaded in a timely manner to force drivers into abusive situations. I can remember with great fondness, telling a number of them I didn't care if they EVER unloaded me. I got paid the same either way. THAT got back to the company, but as long as I was complying with DOT rules, there was nothing anyone could do about it. Also removed one of the big hammers the company would use to threaten the drivers, that is a reduction in miles dispatched. Fleet managers sure didn't like that aspect of the pay package. All this occurred six months before my three year anniversary with the company. At the three year point my 401K vested, and I got my last two weeks of vacation pay. I figure during that six months I just about broke even on what I lost in wages. The salary pay package lasted about a year, before all the problems it caused forced the company to return to pay-per-mile. Writing this story out has reminded me of all the other things this company did while I worked there. I will save those for future posts.

[REPOST] Many years ago, I worked at a company that did phone tech support for a particular piece of well known business software. After outgrowing the building we'd been in, the company moved to an enormous warehouse building they'd renovated into offices and cube space. The new building had separate parking areas for visitors (of which we basically had none) and employees (who had to park in the rear). As part of the move, they got a new security crew, who had very specific ideas about access security. First, the entrances were keyed so that you had to badge in (use your ID to unlock the door). This included the visitors' entrance -- reception had to unlock the door for visitors). Second, all doors except the front guest entrance and the rear employee's entrance were switched to exits only, and didn't have a badge reader to unlock the door from the outside. Third, they forbade anyone from permitting "drafting", aka allowing someone else to enter behind you, so that you had to badge in to enter. Several people got write-ups for allowing people to come in after them, just to make that point. Fourth, and the reason for the story, you had to badge out to prime your badge so that you could badge in. For fire safety, you could exit by any door without badging out, but if you did, you couldn't unlock a door to re-enter, and had to walk around to the visitor's entrance to have reception let you in. Because the front and rear entrances were around 500m (1/4mi) from each other, it was easy to have to waste 10 minutes getting back in the building if you forgot to badge out, and in 40C (100F) weather for much of the summer. The explanation we were given was that they needed to know how many people were in the building in case it had to be evacuated. Of course, that information was on computers that were only accessible inside the building, so.... After the first couple days, during which I, and nearly everyone I knew, had locked themselves out at least once. I realized what I had to do. Starting on day 3, I'd enter the building, and, immediately after getting through the doors, smack my badge against the exit reader to prime it to let me re-enter. Every time a coworker saw me entering the building, they'd ask me what I was doing, which I'd happily explain. Within a couple of weeks, I didn't see a single person coming though the doors who didn't swing around and smack their badge against the exit reader. And at the beginning of the next month, security sent out an email that they were no longer requiring exit badging. I like to believe that it was my doing, although it's also possible that reception was sick and tired of dealing with having to deal with the lunch return rush, and constantly let the smokers back into the building. (never mess with reception). TL;DR they required us to badge out if we wanted to badge back in, so I badged out immediately on entering, and started a trend.

**WELCOME!** Hi everyone! Thanks for joining us during this exciting time in the fediverse. Like many of you, I too am a refugee of that other site. I started this community because I really liked reading its equivalent on the other site, and thought it was a good community to replicate. **<updated> In one week, we’ve grown to >7k subscribers (~5.3k on lemmy.world and ~1.2k from the next 5 largest instances)**~~In just 3 days, we've grown to >2,800 subscribers (~2.5k on lemmy.world and ~300 from the next 5 largest instances)~~, so I thought it's time I addressed some issues. **NAVIGATING THE FEDIVERSE** If you're new - no need to have a detailed understanding of the fediverse. Just dive right in, and you'll learn the rest along the way. **Step 1: Join an instance.** Don't overthink this, any one is fine. Think of it as an email provider - there are slight differences, but you can send/receive emails to (almost) anyone with any provider. I recommend lemmy.world and lemm.ee **Step 2: Find communities.** Click on "Communities" and change it from "Local" to "All". Subscribe as you see fit. **Step 3 (Most Important): Post!** Contribute wherever you feel like. **"WHAT CAN I POST?"** As the sidebar says, anything that involves "conforming to the letter, but not the spirit, of a request". This is usually to the detriment of the requester, but I recognize that may be hard to judge all the time. For now, this includes text posts, images, videos and links. All I ask is that the "malicious compliance" aspect should be apparent - if you're making a text post, be sure to explain this part; if it's an image/video/link, use the "Body" field to elaborate. For now, posts/images about events that did not happen to you or anyone you know is fair game, as long as it happened. Fiction writing is a good skill, but not encouraged here. You'll notice that I said "for now" a lot. That's because I wouldn't be surprised if the rules changed over time. If we do change the rules, it will be done in consultation with you guys, and with advance notice. Which brings me to... **FEEDBACK** I'd love to hear your thoughts on how we can make this a better place. If there's anything you're unhappy with, or if you just have suggestions, please post them in this thread. If you prefer, you can also message me. **OTHER COMMUNITIES** I'm also adding a shoutout here to two other communities I created: - [!fakehistoryporn@lemmy.world](/c/fakehistoryporn@lemmy.world) - [!unethicallifeprotips@lemmy.world](/c/unethicallifeprotips@lemmy.world) Feel free to join and participate if it's of interest to you!

[REPOST] This is a little long. Sorry. When I was in college, I worked for a mobile carrier in a mall. For a young person, it was great money. I was the assistant manager, which was a fancy way of saying I was in charge of most of the store paperwork. [A few months before] One morning, I opened by myself and a guy approached me asking for a specific phone and kept balking at the price, asking if I could "cut him a deal though". I was confident we were BY FAR the cheapest in the area, so I told him "If you bring me a better deal, I'll be it!". The guy does another lap, talks to other stores, and comes back. "Come on, there is nothing you can do? Can I just get a case?". I smile and say, "Sorry that's the best I can do today, but can I get your number in case we get a sale that brings the price down? (This sometimes actually did work). His entire demeanor changed and he handed me paperwork out of his bag and showed me his Id. He was from corporate LP (loss preventions). Apparently my store ranked top in the state for "excessive discounts" and "excessive waste". He then hands me a document showing all of my "friends and family" discounts. So I flip open my phone (YES IT STILL FLIPPED) and showed him all the names on the list are in my phone, thus ARE friends and family. He thanks me and says he'll stick around to talk to my boss and one other team member. Since smartphones aren't really a big thing at the time, the LP guy starts talking to me about my job, and I ask him a little more about what exactly flagged our store. Turns out the other two people he wanted to talk to had more than 30% of their transactions marked with that discount code and our store seemed to "lose" lots of inventory. Store practice was that if you open an accessory and it was damaged in shipping, you just throw it away and grab another one. Turns out there is a process you need to follow. He showed me the form and said "you really should be between x and x a month to be considered average. He then interviews my boss and co-worker who couldn't prove that their discounts were accurate and they were let off with a stern warning. From then on, I took on the responsibility of tracking inventory and warning the team when we were getting close to the monthly limit. Like a miracle, cases stopped breaking for the rest of the month with these announcements. [Fast forward] I open by myself again one morning. I older gentleman approaches me and starts screaming at me about being a "heartless bastard" and asking "how the hell can you do this to people?!". I look at him puzzled. "Sir, I have no idea who you are, so you can't possibly be mad at me specifically. Lets go sit over there and have a quick chat". As soon as we sit down I look at him and he starts crying and shaking. "I don't know what to do. I'm gonna lose my house". He goes on to tell me his son had gotten 10 "free" phones from my store and the monthly bill was roughly $800 plus tax. "sir, if your son started an account with us, there is nothing I can do without him coming to the store." The dad shows me a photo in his wallet and explains that his son lives in a home because he's too old to take care of him. He's visibly disabled. He was already barely getting by paying for his house plus his son to be taken care of. My heart dropped as I figured out what had happened. My co-worker had sold the phones to his son while they were on a "mall outing" with his group home. Furious, I go back to the store and void the entire order. I instruct the dad to bring me every phone he can find. Anything not in the store that day would be marked as stolen. I write up the inventory report and mark all of those phones stolen for the time being. Co-worker comes in and I say, "don't bother clocking in. I saw your order from last night. Just know that it's voided. If you pull ANYTHING like that again i'll make sure you're fired. Take the rest of the weekend off". He argues for a moment, but leaves. 25 minutes later (and early for his shift) my boss shows up saying he heard what happened. I show him all of the paperwork and explain what I did to solve it. Irritated, he looks at me and says something like "you know you can't do that right?". He then argues with me that I had no right to void the order and "the contract was the contract". Confused and angry, I say "look, I will not sit by and allow people to be taken advantage of like that". To which he replies, "If you don't like the way we do things here, you can leave." Shocked, I walk back into the store where he tells me HE is taking care of all of the paperwork to "fix" my mess. Quietly I rip up my inventory report with a smile and tell him i'm leaving for the day. I call a friend who said, "why don't you just get an IT job (what I was going to school for). He then calls a recruiter and sets up an interview for the next morning. Boss's little push gave me the drive to just go for it. I nailed the interview and get the job. My now ex-boss texted me shortly after and said "Hey OP, you're late." to which I replied, "no, I don't like the way you do things there". Silence. [Fast forward a few months] Both the boss and the co-worker were fired for theft. You see, with the unexplained "missing" phones and with no one watching inventory, LP quickly took interest in the store again. Turns out the "broken" cases were actually team members GIVING AWAY inventory to close sales. So when I was there "balancing" inventory and giving warnings, it was letting them know just how much they could steal and get away with it. Without me there they just did whatever the heck they wanted. From what I hear, they were escorted out by security and all. So in the end, I was pushed to start the career of my dreams. They have a record. Thanks for sticking with me, sorry it was so long.

[REPOST] As part of the plan to return to office post covid, my company has done a lot of re-designating of who can permanently work from home, who can hybrid, etc. I really wanted to work from home full time. I hate the office with a burning passion - it's distracting, it's a long commute, there's no benefit to being there, so on and so forth. I'd just rather be at home. Well when we thought May was going to be go back to office time they started giving out the new designations. I got designated as in office full time. It made no sense to me. I work on a team of 8 people and each of us is in a different office somewhere in the country. I've literally never been to an in person meeting or needed to do in person work in 3 years at this company. Every single other person on my team got designated to work from home. So I brought it up with my boss and asked to work from home. When I started at this company and lived elsewhere I got to work from home for 4 months before I moved and the past 14 months during covid have been at home, so 18/36 months at the company have been WFH. What I was told is that I go idle too often in chat to trust to work from home. Basically we have a company wide IM system that shows you as available, idle, or in a meeting. If you don't touch your keyboard for 5 minutes you show as idle. So they've decided to use this as a measure for who is working and who isn't. The thing is, like many people in many types of jobs, I don't have shit to do for a full 8 hours every single day. The amount of work I have to do on a typical day takes 3-5 hours of actual attention. There simply isn't something to do ALL the time. My performance numbers actually went up working from home, by all objective KPI numbers I'm a better worker at home. In fact, in the KPIs that I don't flat out lead the team in, I come in second. There isn't work to do that I'm neglecting or procrastinating, when something comes up I simply do it until it's done or until I can't do anymore due to waiting on someone else then stop. And I've done that method long enough that my work queue stays empty because I worked to get my queue down to the point where when something comes up I can immediately address it and be done with it. But because I have other ways to spend my time in down time instead of messing around online at my cube pretending to be working meaning I show idle more often, I'm a worse worker apparently. I was told if it weren't for that they would let me work at home. So I wrote a 6 line powershell script that virtually inputs the period key every 4 minutes that starts running every day at 8am and stops at 5pm. So now I literally never go idle. I do the same amount of work and still read books, watch tv, and play video games on the side. But I have a shiny green check next to my name all day. Because of covid complications they eventually said no going back until after labor day. I just had a meeting with my boss and he said over this time they've noticed I go idle a lot less than I used to so they're changing my designation to work from home, all because of a little icon in some software. This concludes my TED talk on why low to middle level managers are the dumbest, most useless do-nothing positions in all of corporate America EDIT: I do not need to be told to buy a mouse jiggler for the 30th time. I'm aware of what they are. This cost me no money and achieves the same thing. Why would I pay to achieve an effect I've already achieved for free? EDIT 2: A lot of people are understandably asking for the script: ``` $dummyshell = New-Object -com "Wscript.shell" $dummyshell.sendkeys(".") ``` That's the backbone of the whole thing. There's different ways to implement it with for loops or scheduled tasks or whatever, that parts up to you, but that's all the powershell needs at it's core to accomplish this. A lot of people have pointed out that sending Insert or F13 instead of period would be better so change that up if you want. To all the people commenting that I'm a shitty employee and obviously trying to insult me over it: I wish I could make you feel just how little I care. To all the people implying a work day isn't valid if you aren't at 100% capacity from 8 - 5, keep it up, you truly are an ideal employee...to them. Enjoy the taste of leather, bootlickers Edit 3: Some of y’all would be pissed as fuck if I explained the concept of firefighters to you

[REPOST] The car accident was of the side impact variety and it was brutal. This was in the days before airbags and seatbelt laws. One second I'm driving and the next I'm halfway out the passenger window watching blood run off my head to pool in the glass of a previously closed window. Another second ticks by and I'm in the ER receiving thirteen crude stitches for eleven inches of wide open scalp. I lost more than two pints of blood and a large patch of hair. I also lost my favorite white fishnet t-shirt, but that's a separate tragedy. That Friday of a Labor Day weekend was how my name shows up in the newspaper list of "Labor Day Weekend Accidents." Tuesday comes and I go to class at the local college. Being a teenager gave me the gift of immortality. There I was, fully ambulatory, just four days after a serious car accident. For the sake of propriety, I'm wearing a hat to cover the fresh injury. It was a whitePanama hat with a bright 80s style hatband. As this was 1983, everything was 80s style, but that's a separate tragedy. Hobbling along, I make it to Sociology just as class was beginning. I take a seat at the back of class and settle in. The conversation went something like this: "Excuse me? Could you remove your hat please?" The teacher had her own sense of propriety. My hat didn't fit with proper classroom attire. "I was in a car accident," I replied. Did she hear my words or was one of her rude students muttering another in a career-long list of excuses? Likely the latter was the case. "Take the hat off. You cannot wear that in my class," indicated she was not happy with my hat. Not at all. Well, okay then. Off comes my hat. Roughly a third of my hair had been shaved off. The wound was pink and puckered. The seam had a line of dried blood in it. The wound began an inch beyond my missing hairline and continued back, branching into a 'Y' shape. The surgeon's instructions were to keep the wound clean, dry, and unbandaged. Lucky for all in attendance, my mother had washed my scalp the previous day. She used the word "gore" at some point to describe what was washing off. Imagine you're one of my classmates. Whatever you would say at that point would be something I heard from my classmates and friends. "Ahhh, you can put your hat back on," said the teacher. Not before a little malicious compliance, I won't. "But I can't wear hats in class," I replied. "I mean, I can do it, but not if I'm breaking the rules." "Please put your hat on." "Okay. If you insist," and the hat went back on my head. My advice is not to engage in malicious compliance on the first day of class. Not in a course where the teacher gives essay questions. That was the only 'C' I received that semester, but that's a separate tragedy.

[REPOST] I worked at a company that gave out exorbitant amounts of vacation. Anyone who worked there for 25+ years received 8 weeks of vacation and 2 weeks of personal time. This was a family owned company, but rather large. We ran 3 shifts totaling 250+ people. Enter Jimmy. Jimmy was a grissled old man, he started at the company when he was just 20, now he was 63 and gave absolutely zero shits. Jimmy also knew how to make a specific part for our product, him and one other higher up in the office. One day the plant owner comes out and announces he's selling to a corporation. He's older and ready to retire, he promises that there will be very little change and wishes us all well. The new company comes in and immediately goes after many of the great benefits we had. The first thing they do is cut everyone's max vacation down to 4 weeks, and do completely away with personal time. Anyone who's maxed out had until December 31st of that year to use it up, and they wouldn't pay it out. They then go into the office and clean house, firing anyone who's close to retirement. Including Jimmy's back up. But they also do away with one very important rule. You no longer have to get vacation approved, you can just call in and take it. Jimmy is pissed, and they know it. They realize he's the only one in the building that can do his job now. So they hire a new kid for him to train, most likely to permanently replace Jimmy. So Jimmy does what anyone would do. He calls in the first training day for the new hire, and lets us know he's going to use all of his PTO at once, and promptly takes 10 weeks off. We had a back stock of parts he had made, so it wasn't too unnerving. But for 10 weeks, Jimmy went and applied to other jobs, found one, and started. Fast forward 10 weeks, Its the day Jimmy is supposed to return. He doesn't. For two days they try calling him, and even go to his house. He's nowhere to be found. Finally on day three he calls and resigns, and they lose their shit. The parts he makes are specialized and patented by the original founder, you can't just hire someone off the street to make them. What eventually happened was they had to contract the original owner to come in a teach some new hires how to make them, and when he found out what all they had done it pissed him off. The last I heard he charged them a 7 figure contract to teach them how to produce the parts, and they had to pony up, or close down. Moral of the story, don't fuck with people's vacation time. Edit: Jimmy made and electronic control module that was sealed and stayed fixed in a poured unit made of a two part epoxy. Edit #2: Jimmy didn't exactly "Miss out" on a seven figure contract and had zero chance to take one. He left, said fuck em and moved on. When they contacted the previous owner and explained the situation it was basically a "you need my help? It'll cost 1mil." Type of conversation.

*I apologize if this is too long for this community or if there isn't enough maliciousness to it. This is a true story that happened to me and I have never really talked about it in detail since it happened. Feel free to skip to the TL;DR at the end.* It was nearly 25 years ago now when I joined this new company, it marked my third position since graduating from university. Prior to this role, I had gained experience as a software developer and had even taken on the responsibility of managing a small team comprising six developers and graphic designers. Some of these team members worked remotely part of the time, adding a layer of complexity to our operations. My previous employer had been a much larger corporation, making this transition to a smaller, more agile company feel akin to stepping into a startup environment. This company's strategy was deceptively simple yet incredibly effective - the acquisition of smaller firms within the same industry, followed by their integration into the larger entity, harnessing the combined assets for remarkable success. It was an exciting and dynamic period for the company, and I eagerly embraced the opportunity to contribute to its growth and evolution. Not to mention it doubled my salary. The company's strategy was working like a charm. Through meticulous consolidation, it rapidly transformed into an industry giant. In what felt like the blink of an eye, they would spread their services like wildfire, establishing a presence in over 30 states. It was an impressive feat, and I was excited to be part of this remarkable journey. In the early days of this ambitious endeavor, I, along with two other contractors, was among the chosen few brought in to help lay the foundation of what would become a corporate behemoth. At that time, the company was still a fledgling entity, operating in just two states with only a handful of branches. However, they had grand aspirations and the financial backing to turn those dreams into reality. We were like pioneers, setting out to explore uncharted territory. Our team of three was a diverse and dynamic force within the company. I had worked with each of the other team members before. We were a jack-of-all-trades, responsible for a wide array of tasks that were crucial to the company's growth. We setup and maintained new servers and managed the network infrastructure for the software services we would develop, we developed a website, an e-commerce platform along with an employee extranet and a wide variety of employee focused applications. We also advised in the purchase and setup of off the shelf solutions, we wore many hats. This multifaceted approach allowed us to adapt swiftly to the evolving needs of the expanding business. We became an integral part of the technological infrastructure, diligently working to ensure that key aspects of the company's operations ran smoothly. We reported directly to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) himself. He was a visionary, with big dreams for the company's technological future, but the constraints he faced were significant. The CIO had a limited amount of time on his hands, a shortage of office space, and a tight budget. The lion's share of the company's finances was being poured into the relentless acquisition of new branches, each acquisition followed by an intricate process of consolidation. It was a challenging environment to navigate. Our CIO was juggling numerous responsibilities, but he recognized the pivotal role that technology played in achieving the company's goals. Our work arrangement was fairly conventional by today's standards and reflected the fast-paced nature and future thinking attitude of the company at that time. We were under what could be described as an "18-month contract," though the term "contract" was somewhat loosely defined. In our line of work, such agreements were standard practice. It wasn't a traditional binding contract with a set end date. Instead, it was an ongoing commitment that either party could terminate at any time without incurring any penalties. Many would contend that this flexibility was imperative, given the dynamic nature of our industry. Projects often concluded ahead of schedule, priorities could swiftly shift, and unforeseen challenges were a constant presence. Our work arrangement was purposefully designed to be adaptable, affording us the latitude to continue our contributions until either party found it prudent to revisit the terms or choose a different path. In practice, the company's motivation was rooted in their reluctance to be bound by an 18-month contract that mandated full payment, even if circumstances necessitated a change. Within the fluid framework of our "18-month contract," there were some specific provisions that helped define the parameters of our engagement. Notably, the contract outlined the billing structure for our services, specifying that our work would be billed on an hourly basis, accompanied by a minimum commitment of 37 hours per week. This minimum guarantee was primarily designed to ensure that the company had a consistent and dedicated resource available, especially when they needed our expertise for crucial tasks and projects. It allowed them to maintain a degree of control over our availability, ensuring that their projects received the attention they required, even during times of high demand or unexpected challenges. While it offered us some financial stability, its primary purpose was to serve the company's best interests in terms of resource availability and project management. Given that desks in the hallway were a common work arrangement within the company, our contract specified we were hired to operate remotely full-time, with the sole exception being our occasional in-person attendance at essential meetings, particularly those involving stakeholders or the CIO himself. When we made our occasional appearances at the office, we were expected to don a jacket and tie, a stark contrast to our usual remote work attire. It was as if we were stepping into a different world when we entered those hallowed halls, where formality reigned supreme, even amidst the chaos of desks in the corridors. The beauty of our contractor status was the flexibility it afforded us in managing our work schedules. We had the autonomy to choose when, during the week, we would dedicate our time to the company's projects. Whether it was the early hours of the morning, the calm of the evening, or even the depths of the night, the choice was ours to make. The only non-negotiable requirement was our availability for scheduled meetings with stakeholders, which were infrequent and occurred during regular business hours. Our primary point of contact within the company was the CIO, who held the reins of authority and decision-making. Most of the time, we found ourselves in direct communication with this visionary leader. Occasionally, at their discretion, we would delve into meetings with other stakeholders, seeking to understand the nuances of their roles and explore opportunities for task automation. However, these encounters were relatively rare compared to our interactions with the CIO. Our meetings with the CIO were monthly, and early on bi-monthly. In these sessions, the CIO would lay out their vision, presenting their ideas and concepts. They valued our input, creating a collaborative atmosphere where ideas flowed freely. Once the objectives were clear, we would embark on our mission to bring their vision to life. Remarkably, the CIO proved to be a fantastic leader, appreciative of our efforts, and mostly satisfied with the results we delivered. We maintained a fluid line of communication, keeping them updated via email as needed, ensuring that their directives were executed to the best of our abilities. As the 11th month of our contract unfolded, a significant shift occurred within the company's hierarchy. In a meeting attended by both the CIO and the newly hired Chief Technology Officer (CTO), the announcement was made that our team would now report directly to the CTO. What made this transition all the more noteworthy was the unique context that surrounded it. The CTO was none other than the son of the CIO, a relatively young and inexperienced individual in the world of corporate technology. It was a scenario that raised eyebrows and prompted curiosity within the company. Any one of my team's members would have been a good choice for the position as we all had more overall experience than the newly hired CTO and more knowledge of the company itself. As the weeks passed, our team diligently continued to tackle the tasks outlined in our previous meetings with the CIO. The to-do list was long but not endless, we quickly whittled away at the backlog of work that kept us occupied and head down for several weeks. However, during this time, there was a noticeable absence of communication from the newly appointed CTO. No new requests came in, no questions, no feedback, nothing. Growing concerned about the lack of interaction, we decided to compile a detailed report summarizing our accomplishments over the past month or so. In an effort to maintain transparency and keep the lines of communication open, we sent this report to the CTO, with the CIO copied on the correspondence. The response we received, though, was unexpected. The CTO promptly replied, directing us to channel all future communications exclusively through them and explicitly instructing us not to copy the CIO on any further correspondence. This shift in communication protocol raised questions and heightened our curiosity but is was written off to the CIO being overwhelmed and the CTO wanting to take charge and be responsible. Soon after, we were summoned to a meeting with the CTO, a meeting that promised to shed light on this abrupt change in dynamics. As we walked into the meeting with the CTO, we anticipated a familiar atmosphere where brainstorming sessions and collaborative problem-solving were the norm. In the past, under the guidance of the CIO, these meetings had been dynamic exchanges of ideas. The CIO would present their needs, and we would engage in spirited discussions, pitching various solutions until a well-defined plan emerged. It was an approach that had served us well. However, this meeting with the CTO took an entirely different turn. Instead of the expected brainstorming session, we were met with a stern and unexpected reprimand. The CTO expressed their dissatisfaction with our actions, specifically, our work on projects that had not received their explicit authorization (projects we had been assigned by the CIO). They emphasized that from that point forward, we were to cease all independent work unless directly instructed by them. What struck us as particularly noteworthy was the CTO's intention to scrutinize our ongoing projects and decide for themselves what work should be undertaken. It was a stark departure from the previous collaborative approach, leaving us with a sense of unease and uncertainty about the direction in which our work was heading. We left the meeting with nothing to work on which was a first for us. In the wake of the abrupt change in our work dynamics, we found ourselves in a state of limbo. While we continued to dutifully perform our regular maintenance tasks, these were few and far between, there was no new development or enhancements to the existing infrastructure. A month passed in this manner, and we remained in a state of uncertainty. We anticipated that the CTO would soon reach out to us, either to initiate a productive dialogue or possibly even to inform us that our services were no longer required. However, as the days turned into weeks, we received no communication from the CTO. Our attempts to reach out via email and voice messages went unanswered, leaving us in a puzzling state of silence. During this period of radio silence, a suspicion began to take root within our team. We wondered if the CTO was aware that we were under contract and being paid regardless of the volume of work we were assigned. It was a revelation that hinted at a potential miscommunication or misunderstanding on their part, and it added yet another layer of complexity to our evolving professional relationship. As the weeks passed, and with no response from the CTO in sight, the situation grew increasingly uncertain. During this period, changes were afoot within our team. One of our fellow contractors made the decision to embark on a new full-time job opportunity, while the other contractor juggled multiple contracts alongside ours. A month of uncertainty stretched into two months, our emails to the CTO asking about what we should be working on going mostly unanswered until the CTO finally summoned us for a meeting. The atmosphere was tense as we gathered, unsure of what awaited us. In that meeting, the CTO confronted us with a question that took us by surprise: why had we been billing the company when we hadn't been instructed to work on anything? To clarify, it is essential to note that the billing process was not within our control; it was handled by a third-party company, mostly automated based on the terms of our contract. The only thing we needed to report was any time over 37 hours. With transparency and professionalism, we explained that our contract stipulated a minimum number of billable hours that the company was obligated to pay, regardless of the volume of work assigned. We emphasized that we had diligently reached out, repeatedly asked for tasks, and attempted to maintain communication with the CTO, all while keeping the CIO informed until instructed otherwise. Our impression was that the CTO's inquiry was grounded in a lack of understanding of the contract and a desire to cut costs and make a favorable impression by appearing to save money. It was a situation fraught with tension, as the CTO was forced to grapple with the implications of their actions, on their own reputation, as well as the company's perception of their competence. Honestly there wasn't much the CTO could do but move forward, either end the contract or give us work and keep us engaged. Or at least that is what we thought. Exiting that meeting with the CTO, we carried with us a new set of instructions. We were tasked with tackling minor projects, small-scale endeavors that were either already in progress, initially suggested by the CIO, or recommended by us to the CTO as potential areas of focus. These tasks were relatively modest in scope and could be completed within a week or two. While these assignments did provide some temporary work, they were far from the substantial and engaging assignments we had grown accustomed to before the CIO/CTO transition. The atmosphere was rife with uncertainty as we wondered about the long-term prospects of our contract and, honestly, how much longer it would last. For me, the time had come to contemplate my own professional future. The job market was showing early signs of turbulence, and it seemed like a prudent moment to explore the possibility of securing a permanent position with greater stability. The uncertain nature of our role within the company, coupled with the desire for more predictability in my career, pushed me towards the idea of seeking full-time employment. As I embarked on a new full-time job I was eager to embrace the new challenges it brought. I should point out that my new full-time employer knew that I had a side contract job that would probably be coming to a conclusion in a few months. So, despite the new full time position, the commitment to my contract with the company remained unwavering... for all of us... even if the company wasn't requiring anything of us. Even as we diversified our professional pursuits, we continued to honor our contract and diligently performed the duties outlined by the CTO (i.e. don't work on ANYTHING unless instructed to). Our sense of professionalism and commitment to our obligations remained steadfast, ensuring that we upheld our end of the agreement. This period was characterized by a delicate balancing act as we navigated the demands of multiple roles, but it was a testament to our dedication to both our contractual obligations and our individual career aspirations. Another month elapsed, and within our team, a growing sense of bewilderment prevailed. We found ourselves pondering a simple yet perplexing question: why did the CTO not either assign us meaningful work or conclude the contract altogether? We no longer depended on the contract for our livelihoods, and yet, we were not inclined to voluntarily relinquish a well-paying job that, curiously, required very little of our active involvement. The unexpected moment of truth arrived as each of us received an individual summons to a meeting, accompanied by both the HR department and the CTO. In those intimate meetings, the message was finally revealed – our contract with the company was slated to conclude in just a few weeks at the end of the month. However, the twist in the tale came in the form of an unexpected offer. To our surprise, the company extended an invitation for each of us to join their ranks as full-time employees. While the prospect of job security with the company held undeniable allure, the terms of this offer were not without their caveats. The compensation package on the table was a stark contrast to what we had been earning under our contract – a significant reduction in pay. Moreover, it came with the requirement of daily attendance at the office, a change that would not only add considerable commute time but also entail a longer journey than my current full-time job. The dress code was another notable shift – from business casual to the more formal attire of a jacket and tie. As I weighed the offer, it became evident that the convenience and lifestyle afforded by my existing job, combined with the substantial reduction in income and the shift towards a more rigid dress code, tilted the scales in favor of my current full-time employer. My immediate but polite decline of the offer left the CTO somewhat surprised and was not what they expected. They reiterated that the contract would be ending and it was a good offer. I countered and said I would consider the offer if they could match my current salary. They could not and we parted ways. A few days after their full-time employment offer, I received an unexpected phone call that carried a different proposition. The company expressed a desire to extend our contract for another three months, albeit at roughly half the hours of the original contract but at the same pay rate. This revised arrangement came with the assurance that we would continue to receive payment based on the new minimum agreed-upon amount. While all three of us accepted this offer, the subsequent months unfolded in a peculiar manner. We never received a request to return to the office, nor were any meetings scheduled. Crucially, no significant new work was assigned to us, and the need to train replacements was never raised. It was a period marked by inertia, a stark contrast to the dynamic and productive months we had experienced in the first year of the contract. As the three-month extension reached its conclusion, the company communicated that our contract had come to an end. They conveyed their decision not to renew it, along with a request for us to return any company equipment we had in our possession. The culmination of this journey left me with mixed feelings – a sense of closure, tempered by the lingering question of what might have been, had circumstances played out differently. The enigma surrounding the CTO's decisions remained a perplexing puzzle, one that left us with more questions than answers. Initially, it seemed that their reluctance to utilize our services might have been driven by a desire to cut costs. However, when it became evident that the savings they anticipated were not materializing, nothing changed. One possibility that crossed our minds was the notion that the CTO might have brought in their own team to replace us. Yet, this theory was never substantiated by any requests for us to train others, or mysterious admin accounts being set up in systems we maintained. Also the fact that the company extended full-time employment offers to each of us seemed contradictory to the idea of replacing us. Another hypothesis was that the CTO might not have been actively engaged in their role, potentially explaining the dearth of work assignments. The true motivations behind the CTO's actions remained shrouded in uncertainty, leaving us to speculate about the enigmatic circumstances that defined our tenure with the company. Indeed, the twists and turns of this job presented valuable lessons that extended far beyond the realm of technical expertise. It was an education in the intricacies of human interaction and effective leadership. First and foremost, it underscored the importance of treating people with respect and consideration. The dynamics between team members and leadership can profoundly impact morale and productivity. The experience taught me the significance of fostering a positive work environment, where individuals feel valued and supported. Furthermore, it emphasized the necessity of active engagement and communication with one's team while still giving them the space they need to blossom. Staying attuned to the needs and concerns of team members is instrumental in ensuring their happiness and in optimizing their performance. It's a delicate balancing act that requires both empathy and effective management skills. I would even go on to offer one of the contractors I hired a full time position just to have them turn it down due to a salary expectation mismatch which I could empathize with. **TL;DR: As contractors we set our own hours and worked remotely. After a year of successfully working for the CIO my teams new CTO took over and told us not to work on anything without their approval. We got paid regardless of the amount of work assigned to us. We neglected to point this out to the CTO. We went months without being assigned any real work and eventually each team member was working a second job while still honoring the contract and being paid.**

[REPOST] Several years ago I worked front desk at a privately owned hotel (non-chain) that had been a Days Inn five years prior. The only way to book a reservation was to talk to the front desk staff. No online reservations, no third party reservations. About 50% of our rooms were sold to walk ins. One holiday weekend we are booked full. Our elderly elevator is having some trouble with all the traffic and spooking guests so I close it and call for a repair man but it's 10 o'clock at night so I'm not expecting anybody until the next morning. All of our guests are checked in, our accessibility rooms are on the same floor as the lobby, so I'll just help out anyone with their luggage if they have more and put up a sign saying so. In walks a woman I don't recognize from check-in. She plops a piece of paper in front of me and then goes and gets lots of luggage. The paper shows her with a reservation at Days Inn at this address for tonight for a tenth the price we were selling before being fully booked. She comes back to the desk likely thinking that I have been checking her in all this time. "I regret to inform you that we do not accept third party reservations; we are unfortunately are already booked for the night" "I have a reservation! It's right there! I paid good money for it!" "Ma'am, I believe you, unfortunately you are not in our system because we don't take third party reservations. They sold it to you fraudulently." "You are just trying to steal my money! I have a confirmation number right there! I handed it you." "Yes ma'am you handed me a reservation to a Days Inn. We are [hotel name], gesturing to a sign" All of the signage inside and outside the building is correct. "Also, this is for a fourth floor room, we only have three floors." "I stayed at this DAYS INN last year on the fourth floor!" This argument continues for a while with me keeping my cool, informing her that we are booked, all of our rooms are full, me insisting that we don't have a fourth floor, not Days Inn, don't take third party reservations, etc. Eventually she screams at me that I am going to take her to her room on the fourth floor, that she paid for, right now! I don't respond, just stare at her with a blank face until she slaps the desk and screams "Now!" again. I don't mime making a room key, but I do grab my huge key ring and we both load ourselves up with her excessive luggage and climb the stairs. Once we get to the third floor I gesture to the third floor sign and tell her it is the third floor. I then use my maintenance key to unlock the door to the maintenance stairs which are not lit and she trudges up behind me not saying anything. I open the floor to the tarred roof and walk outside. "and here is the fourth floor, I hope it is as nice as the last time you stayed here" I drop her luggage and go down the stairs back to the front desk. Honestly, had she been nicer to me I would have tried to help her get a room at a different hotel and submit documentation to try and get her a refund (or charge back) from the third party but since she screamed at me I left her and her luggage on the roof. Plus, she insisted she had stayed on the fourth floor, so that's what she got. EDIT: There was an option at the bottom of the stairs to go straight outside inside of coming by the front desk. I didn't see her again and she wasn't there when I went to lock the roof back up on my midnight rounds.

[NOT OC - REPOST] I had a job years ago at a contractor that I HATED. It was 2 years of my life I will never get back. They kept promising me raises and bonus but they never really materialized. I actually did quit once because my wife was going to do a short term program across the country. We were looking to start over and we were just going to move there. They begged me to stay and said they would pay for flights and expenses. I eventually agreed, however later found out that they took those expenses out of my bonus. My boss, who made 5 times more than me, would always complain about how expensive I was (I made $45k a year). They kept pressuring me to do bigger jobs that I wasn't trained for and some ended badly. Finally, I had enough and I was done with those jerks. I was able to find another job (my current one now) and I put in my notice. My new boss wanted me to start on the 1st of the month which was about 1.5 weeks notice. I had not problem with this but my old boss wasn't having it. He insisted on 2 weeks which, which with the weekends as closer to 2.5 weeks. I ended up starting on the 7th of the month. The only problem was that by the 1st, I had already handed over ALL of my existing work and literally had no active projects. Other than answering the phone and sending out people for quick service calls, I had nothing to do. I spend those few days taking extra long lunches, playing video games and even going to a local park and taking a nap. On my final day, my boss wasn't even in the office so I never even said "good bye" to him. I said bye to a few friends, had a 10 minute meeting with HR for an exit interview and never looked back.

[REPOST] This happened a little while ago, but I still think about it sometimes. I was a supervisor of a small team (who were great at what they did) and one payday had three worried staff members thinking payroll had cocked up and given them too much money - they hadn’t. One of my guys came in 5 minutes late and got “caught” by one of the other managers. Who told my boss and it got round to me. “I want you to check their clock ins and clock outs and let me know so we can dock them any time they weren’t in on time” Now - I don’t care, they were a great employee, got a tonne of work done and always stayed late if they needed to finish things off. Also - I don’t want to even think about if that was legal or not. It didn’t sit right with me. Two things weren’t in his favour right now - one - he was being a tool and two - I’d already got another job lined up which he didn’t know about. So I didn’t care. What next? I did as I was told and I checked. Couple of minutes here or there, nothing major. I then checked all of the extra time they worked since they’d started and added it all up. Made sure to take out anything they’d already claimed as overtime. Logged it in the system and approved and sent it over to finance myself. Then I checked my other guys times as well and did the same thing. Turns out - my guys were damn helpful, and helped out other areas when they could. The Overtime went over certain time limits and tipped over from 1.5 times pay to 2 times pay. It added up to a lot. I delayed it a couple of days to make sure it all went through and double checked with finance to make sure all was good. Then I called a meeting with my boss to let him know everything and hand him a letter. He was not pleased. Worth it.

[NOT OC - REPOST] I promise I am the least petty person you’ll meet, but this “ask” just took me over the edge. I work for a very large company, make very good money and work long hours often, which up until this point I’ve been totally fine doing. Night meetings until 10pm? Fine. Drive 2 hours to major plant multiple times a week? Alrighty. But this past week we had a global supplier team fly in from Japan. FaceTime at the plant is incredibly important. This means I need to be at the plant every single day for the next 2.5 weeks. I have two bosses, a direct boss man, and the big boss lady. We’ll call them Joe and Jill. When discussing this trip from our global counterparts (25k each person), Joe and I talked to Jill about spending a couple nights in a local hotel so we could cut back on driving. She said “that’s not necessary, you guys can just drive. I’ll approve 1 night at a hotel so you can do relationship building with the Japan team.” I might have lost y’all already with the crazy hours and long driving, but I could MAYBE get on board with this, if it wasn’t for Tuesday mornings. Tuesday mornings we have a couple critical global calls at the plant, and with the Japan team in town, we should really be there in person for collaboration. Myself, Joe, and Jill all agree on this. I pushed back on Jill and mentioned the Tuesday morning early calls. No dice. Y’all, the meetings are at SIX AM. On top of this, we have Monday night meetings till 9:30pm. So I’d have to try to quickly fall asleep after the night meeting, then wake up at 3/3:30 and leave before 4 to be there on time. Driving 2 hours in the dead of night. In January. In Wisconsin. After maybe 5 hours of sleep, if I’m lucky. There are 3 Tuesday mornings with the Japan team in town. So what did I do? I booked hotels Monday night anyway. Nice ones. Then proceeded to tell EVERYONE that I’d be local on Monday nights for relationship building. “That’s cool the company is helping you cut back on driving!” “Nah, they wouldn’t pay, but that’s fine. I’m just paying out of pocket.” I was honest, professional, but not shy that the company was not paying for this. I knew this would not look good. The first Monday night my poor Joe was getting ready for the trek home and said “Hey don’t stay to late, it’s a long drive.” And I comfortably said, “Actually I got a local hotel, so I’m 10 mins down the road. But drive safe!” The longest, pregnantest, pause. “But, but Jill said we can’t stay local while the Japan team is in town…?” “Nah she said she wouldn’t pay for it, which is fine, I’m just going to pay for it out of my own pocket.” YALL THE PAUSE GOT LONGER 404 DOES NOT COMPUTE “Are you visiting a local friend or something?” “Nope, just for work. I just found it to be a SAFETY CONCERN to drive at night after just a few hours of sleep, so I paid for it out of pocket. Oh and I told the Japan team we can get dinner a few nights on Monday since I’ll be local.” WTF IS HAPPENING, BUT BUT BUT JILL SAID NO “Well… I can talk to Jill and see if we can cover it under company expenses since it work related. Have you booked yet?” “Whatever you think is right. And yep, it’s booked and non-refundable.” The next day I got an email from Jill informing me that if I felt so strongly that it was a safety concern to stay local on Mondays, to expense the 3 hotel days through the system retroactively. The same way I would if I forgot to pay with my company card. I 100% knew they wouldn’t make me pay (what should be) a company expense or punish me for making a good safety choice. Joe gets to stay local for the next 2 Mondays too! The sugar on top? Every time I drive to and from the plant, they pay me about $120 in miles. They could’ve literally booked me a cheap hotel for the same price. Instead they’ll be paying for my $220 a night in hotels of my choice which I specifically picked in a fun area and upgraded to get a shitton of rewards points. Don’t cheap out on your invaluable employees.

[REPOST] Back in the 1980's I worked for a sporting goods company as a catalog designer. Small company, privately owned. I was the entire advertising department. I created four catalogs a year - these were responsible for most of our mail-order sales (pre-internet) to the tune of around $700K a year. We sent the catalogs via bulk mail using a mailing service - this let us send them for a much discounted rate. To do this required the use of a bulk mail permit, and placing the permit info on the mailing area of the catalog. Technically it's called a "fiche." Enter a new boss, call him Ron. I was #1 - the only one - in my department. For some reason the company owner hired Ron as a favor to a friend. From day one he was micromanaging, questioning everything, and screwing up my very tight schedule. This was BEFORE computers were common. EVERYTHING was by hand. Literally typing out copy and reducing it on a photocopier to fit. Developing the photo film myself, making prints, etc. The actual printer had to add screens to the photos so they'd print, burn metal plates, and so on. All time consuming and expensive. Deadlines could not be missed. So I was stuck with several 16 hour days come crunch-time. I was complaining to the owner, but he really couldn't care less. I really wanted to stick it to Ron and the opportunity presented itself. Constant threats of "my way or you're fired" were getting to me. The latest pre-summer catalog was done (summer was our BIG season.) I had to give him my mock-up (photocopied sheets stapled together) of the final catalog for his approval - a new step added after he demanded it. He looked at it and sent it back with several pointless revisions. And a note to remove that "ugly permit box" because it was not needed. Where he worked previously stuffed their mailers in envelopes - the envelopes had the fiche, but their mailer did this last step. I simply asked him to initial the changes as this was the final approved version and was going to the printer the next day. There was no time to check it again. So he did. I knew it would be a total mess and it's something I would NEVER would have done in the past. 50,000 catalogs printed and shipped directly to the mailer. The day they arrive at the mailer the boss gets a call from the sales rep. "We can't mail your catalogs." Boss storms into my area of the building and is literally screaming. Ron is now pissed and yelling at me, joined by the boss. I swear - spittle and froth, vein bulging screaming. Minimum two week delay, wasted money, lost sales. I explain what happened, the threat to fire me, and showed the owner the changes to the final copy. Initialed by Ron. He was going to give Ron a 2nd chance until the bill came in from the printer. They had to stamp 50,000 catalogs by hand. We had to rent their permit, since that's what was on their stamp. Rental and labor was almost $8,000. Adjusted for inflation that's $20,000. Plus our early summer sales boost was off by almost $50K from previous years. Or $200K adjusted for inflation. Ron WAS fired. I was left alone after that.

[NOT OC - REPOST] This happened a few years ago, I was a data and reporting analyst and did all the ad hoc reports for the company. My boss, we'll call her Kerry, was a useless, she was one of these people that was always late, left early and took days off at short notice. The only thing of value she did was all the regular reports - sales, revenue etc. We suspected she got away with it because she was having an affair with her boss, we'll call him Stewart. Our CEO was a fairly decent bloke, he'd look for ways to cut costs and would pay regular bonuses for the best cost saving initiatives. Kerry was very keen to submit ideas and encouraged us all to automate our tasks so she could try and take the credit for the savings. On one of her skive days, which coincidently Stewart was "sick" as well the CEO was desperate for the sales report my boss does. I said I'd give it a look and see if I could get it done. Normally she'd spend 2-3 days doing it each week but the CEO wanted it that afternoon. A quick inspection of the data showed it would quite easily be automated so I knocked up the necessary script and got it over to the CEO who was super impressed that not only had I got it done in a couple of hours but also that it could be updated whenever he needed it. He asked if I could also look at the revenue, churn and a couple of other reports. Over that afternoon I automated everything my boss did. Both Kerry and Stewart were back in the next day but were immediately summoned to the CEO's office before being suspended and sent home. Turns out the CEO knew they were having an affair and all the times they were sick or late or had to leave early was so they could sneak off and have sex. He'd not done anything about it because how important these reports were. Now they were automated he was able to get them suspended and later fired for gross misconduct for all the time they'd taken off. I also got a nice bonus out of it. TL;DR: My useless boss encouraged us to automated our work so I automated all her tasks and the CEO fired her for.

[NOT OC - REPOST] I used to work for a big local fastfood chain in the Philippines. I worked as a dinning crew there and my job was to serve the costumers. I was just fresh out of high school back then around 2016. Our store operated from 6am to 12 midnight and one day, right when we were about to close down for the day, a woman, in her mid 20s came in with another girl. This woman was a bit tomboyish and just looking at the way she moves, I can tell she was a hotshot. After she got her order, she and the girl she was with sat at the seat at the most isolated corner of the dinning area. After a few minutes, her order came out and I served it to them. It was one spicy chicken and one classic chicken both with rice and drinks. Just a bit of context, our spicy chicken is actually just your regular chicken sprinkled with very hot chili powder. The tomboy, who clearly is the one who ordered the spicy chicken for herself took a look at the chicken and at the most alpha male energy she could muster to impress the girl she was in asked me to return the chicken to the kitchen and make it spicier. I just wanted things to be done so I can get back to cleaning so I just took the chicken back to the kitchen and asked the fryman to add more spicy sprinkle to it. The PC (the one in control of the whole kitchen) interrupted and offered to make the chicken spicier instead. Apparently when the tomboy made their order earlier, they were very rude to the cashier which pissed off the PC because the tomboy acted really arrogantly. I guess this is where you cue malicious compliance. The PC got a plate, put on some plastic hand gloves, placed the chicken on the new plate and poured all the content of the shake can on the chicken. The chili sprinkle on the shake can was going to be disposed off after the shift ended anyways so the manager who was watching everything didn't really said anything. The PC then proceeded to roll the chicken around on the bed of spicy sprinkle and by the time he was finished, the chicken which entered the kitchen with a golden brown color was now reddish. It just looks like a lump of chili sprinkles. I brought the order back to the tomby and her girl and left them be and went out to clean the glass panels. It was near closing time so I was in a hurry to do my cleaning. After about almost half an hour, I. Saw the tomboy left. She was beat red, as if she just had a fight with someone. There was no commotion so I doubted that was actually the case. I went back inside th collect the dishes. When I got to their seat, I ended up laughing when I saw the tomboy's plate. On it was the breading of the chicken, some chewd up chicken that was spat back into the plate and a ton of chili sprinkles around the table. She clearly tried to shake off the excess chili powder but wasn't too successful in doing so. The chicken was also only half eaten.

[REPOST] I used to be an assistant golf course superintendent. One day my boss had me spraying chemicals on the fairways. As I was spraying, some of our employees were having an issue with their machine. I stopped to help them and my boss pulls up and starts flipping out on me saying if I'm spraying fairways, that's all I need to be doing is spraying fairways. Not anything else. Okay, no problem. A couple weeks later, the exact same scenario happened. I was spraying and some employees needed help. I ignored them and just kept on spraying. Their machine was broken down for nearly half an hour in the middle of the fairway during play before my boss rode around again and saw. He came up to me livid and was saying that if I'm spraying fairways and I see someone needs help, I need to be able to break off and help them, that's part of being a manger. I told him I didn't understand, because two weeks ago he explicitly told me to ONLY spray and reminded him of how he got mad when I did exactly that. He just stared at me for a second and then drove away in his golf cart. He came back a few holes later to apologize and says he did remember telling me that, and from now on I should just use my best judgement. uh-duh!!!

[REPOST] Way back in the early 2000's I found myself working freelance as a result of the dot com implosion. I found a gig sub-contracting for a contract a large company in San Diego had acquired from another company. They wanted to build a reliable delivery platform for the cell network. In those days cell data was 2G & 2.5G at best, so this wasn't as easy as you might think. The division of the large company ran a satellite message platform, and the CTO of that division had no interest in this project, which is how I ended up with it. Interestingly enough in the dot com implosion I had been let go by a company building a VAN overlay on the internet, a very similar problem. Since the second version of a product is always better I just took the lessons I learned and applied them to this project. That included heavily relying on this "new thing" called open source software. It took my small team about six months to build and deliver the platform and both the customer and the sales people were very happy with the result. But the CTO of this division was not. He had turned down the project based on his assumption that it would be a long and arduous task. So he demanded a code review with me and my team. He was very explicit, he wanted to see every line of code in this project, and we were not to leave anything out. He was sure we were somehow faking our results and was going to "get to the bottom" of this, as there was no way we could have delivered in six months. So we assembled our source into a zip for him. First the code we wrote. Then all the source for the open source libraries we used. Then the source for the libraries those libraries used, an so on recursively until we everything. We ran all that through a formatter (to make it easier to read) and ended up with about 800MB of source files. Which we sent off to the CTO. The initial code review date got moved back, and rescheduled for a month later. We sat in the meeting waiting for him, and he arrived about 15 minutes late. He stood in the doorway and looked at us and finally asked his only question - what did we use to pretty print the source. I started to say we used a script we wrote but he cut me off, said fine and left the room. We ended up doing work for that large company for 10 years and never again were we asked to a code review.

[NOT OC - REPOST] So I've been at my place of work (very large corporation) for five years now and before I started I have them the lowdown on my disabilities and yes, I will have more sick days than most, but I made clear from before the start and throughout that some days I won't be well enough to travel to the office but will be well enough to work from home. Due to the business ops, all staff are provided a laptop which you can plug in at any desk or work remotely on visits or even home! My managers didn't trust people to do work from home* and when it inevitably happened a few months in I let them know I am up for doing my work as usual, no problem, but I won't be able to physically commute to the office today. just a note that my work was all business admin on a computer so I could perform my duties to the full same standard wherever I was. My managers told me if I was not well enough to attend site, then I'm clearly not well enough to work so I had to take or sick day or else admit I am well enough to work and therefore well enough to attend site and get in the car now! They were adamant, despite my explanations proving otherwise, that it was all or nothing. I didn't want to take a sick day as even though the first x amount were paid (scheme subsidised by the government), you only got so many per year before you didn't get any pay. But they told me not to work again by phoning me when I logged in anyway just to set my Out Of Office auto-reply on and reschedule a couple meetings (which were happening virtually anyway). So I took the day off, enjoying my rest and feeling much better as the day went on. So this happens a few times and I keep complaining and even bring it to HR and senior managers but apparently it was my managers' discretion so wouldn't help me. My days added up and sure enough the first 2 years of my employment I lost a few hundred due to too many sick days when I was not actually sick, just unable to physically get to work. Then COVID happened. No-one was allowed to attend site. Everyone HAD TO work from home. But due to all my complaining over the last two years I had heaps of evidence in writing from my managers (and essentially backed up my seniors and HR) that I was not allowed to ever work from home. So I didn't. They were not happy but I held my ground. My partner was in her third trimester so I was looking forward to having all the extra time to help her and be with the baby. They logged it as 'sick leave' despite me stating and even getting a fit note from the doctor confirming I was fully fit and well enough to work. Pay ran out within a number of weeks. I was pissed but semi-expecting it - didn't think lockdown would be so ongoing! But without pay it was going to be untenable for me going forward so I had to fight it and what I wanted fixing was my absence not being 'paid leave'. I gave them the alternative option though that I could work from home and, as my personal health and job circumstances had not changed, they would have to admit they intentially forced me to take sick leave unnecessarily over 2 years - meaning they would have to pay that back instead. They did not budge so I sued. They did their best to ignore the suit so I started building up my case formally including a Subject Access Request where they have to give me any documents, or even notes, held on the system that are about me in any way.** This included emails between my managers asking HR how they could fire me and HR apologising that they couldn't find legal grounds too unless I changed my story at any point - i.e. if I gave up the suit and continued working for them then they would view my lawsuit as fraudulent and terminate my employment. Anyway, this backfired on them as seeing this showed me that I could NEVER drop the case. I won't go into the full logistics but when it went in front of a judge their lawyers were embarrassed and before the case was over they offered me a settlement to more than cover my lost wages. Even though I was never doing any of this to make money, but to just be treated fairly and respectfully as an employee, I decided to let the case finish and at the end, without me saying anything they doubled their first settlement offer with the condition that we agreed that we would all move on from the entire ordeal, I was allowed to work from home and after COVID continue to do so at my own, unchallenged, discretion. So I accepted. TL;DR managers told me I couldn't work from home ever, tried to change that policy when COVID happened, and because of their own hubris and contradiction, ended up paying me large amount of money so they could amend their policy to what I wanted in the first place. *Okay, I actually believe it wasn't trust issues in general but me personally, BECAUSE I am disabled. **There's actually an exemption that you don't have to follow SARs if there is an ongoing legal challenge but luckily for me they didn't bother checking that!

[REPOST] When I went traveling this year and cancelled my home internet, the company said if I don't have a paper proving I'm leaving to go abroad at least a few month I would have to pay substantial cancellation fees. Said proof could be either a rental agreement, a work contract or a university enrollment. Since I'm just traveling in different places without settling, I had neither of those. Cue malicious compliance: I figured they probably don't really cared so I took the Wikipedia page for the internet (so it's a least one page long) in Greek (so it's a different alphabet), removed all the latin characters (DNS, IP, HTTP, ...), put "Rental agreement" in Greek on top, my name randomly in the first paragraph and signed at the bottom. A few days later, I got an email saying the cancellation fees were waived

[NOT OC - REPOST] Good morning, all! As much as I'd like to start this off by saying things like "Let me tell you a little bit about me", or "I'm so petty I performed at the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2008" and then go into a diatribe about just how petty I could be, this is far from the truth. Perhaps in some alternate petti-verse where over a dozen college students were playing the part of (and absolutely nailing) whiny middle school students complaining about course requirements... or if they happened to begin to repeatedly harass me by way of being on ingrate-demo-mode, or spinning the wheel-of-you-suck-at-teaching to come up with yet another complainsult wrapped in a thinly veiled "question" about me and how I run my course....perhaps then I'd let nature take it's "course" and let my pettiness bloom, like a flower transplanted from an artificial habitat to a campus-bordering field, in the form of Malicious Compliance. And wouldn't you know it? Somehow. Some way. Petty finds a way. That being said, I really try to be a positive, supportive, caring, empathetic, far-from-sardonic college instructor. My clientele, as referenced above, are mostly college-age students who enrolling in what is basically a Pre-Algebra course my community college likes to call "College Math". I have the occasional young whiz kid who enrolls in my course to be super advanced. But for the most part, young adults in their 20s and 30s are who I teach, and Solving Systems of Equations by Substitution is currently what I teach them. I have many students who struggle and require additional tutoring, and I'm always happy to oblige. There is this one student who I wish would show up to our makeshift tutoring group but never does.... let's call her "Mara". Mara acts like she's the zhit. She seriously acts like we're back in high school, interrupt my demonstrations (miraculously, because I literally direct instruct for 3-5 minutes before I popcorn around the room and treat it like a very large standard tutoring session). "Mr. OP, my Dad says this isn't the way to solve it...", "Mr. OP, why don't you teach at ASU? (our partnering major university we transfer students to) What did you do wrong that youre teaching at this place?", the list goes on and on. For brevity's sake (ha) I'll make sure this story doesn't. We have an exam that about half the class got a 90 or better on, followed by most of the rest getting B's, C's etc. I know that this community college, despite it's cheap cost, still has many students on full scholarship for one thing or another, whether it be sports, personal hardships, activities, etc. That being said, if I notice a student tanked the test I may just grade the thing on a curve to allow them to get the most points possible. This is what I chose to do for Mara, and she wound up with an 18/25 on her exam. I typed in the score, took a glance at her paper afterward and realized she actually missed yet another question, a major one, that would have brought her grade super super low. I decided to look the other way. Part laziness, part... being nice. Let's not say how much each part's worth, but they ain't equal. So it's time to return the tests that I already had graded in the system when Mara starts up with her questions again. They are literally too tiresome to include. I will say her final piece, however: "Mr. OP, I noticed that you gave me an 18/25 on my last test, could I take a look at the test and see what I got wrong? I definitely didn't miss that much." I tried to use inflection to let her know that she should probably just be happy with the 18, by saying "Yeahhhhh I thiiiiink I'd be happy with the 18 there kiddo" Then she suddenly dropped a petty pebble at the top of a snowy hill... She continues.... this time standing, walking toward me, and pointing her Cruella DeVille finger at me, saying "NO! You can't just put WHATEVER you want for my grade, 18 out of 25 is not even possible!! I need to keep my GPA high because of all my scholarships!! You need to grade my test ACCURATELY!" Enter PettyLicious Compliance. I knew good and well that she did NOT deserve, by any stretch of the imagination, anywhere NEAR the 72% that 18/25 is. She didn't master 72% of the content. She didn't get 72% of the questions correct. I'll be honest and say that when I grade dozens of exams I tend to look at the most important questions on each test and ensure these are 100 percent accurate. I always pepper in some spiraling thinky-type questions, you know, stuff with rigor, but I don't grade against it. If I ever make an error in grading, it 150% of the time favors the student. I took her particular course's papers out of my Blah-tache case, file through the exams and find her particular one, and look at it... quizzically... then I look back at here while my head is still positioned toward the paper. I'm trying so hard to give her an out...she wouldn't budge... So I say "You know what? You're right... I did make an error... oh, crud, more than one.... " I then behind my desk where the students couldn't see what I was lookng at I graded her paper right then and there. By this time I had memorized the answers to the exam without even needing to pull out the key, but I did so I made sure she knew I was grading it thoroughly... you know, ACCURATELY. She wound up with a 14/25. I handed it back to her right then and there, and let her know that I had changed the grade accordingly in her gradebook. That 14 she got (one of the solutions to the system she just managed to solve for Y but not for X) turned her High C to a solid D. She looked through the exam, scouring it, looking like the toy man from Toy Story, using an infinitely increasing series of overlapping lenses to look for one miniscule error on my part. I also made sure I took a picture of the test before handing it back, so she couldn't pull the "See, I made it negative... it's right" sort of thing. She's done that in the past. She quickly whipped out her phone to see how much this grade impacted her overall. She was livid without a direction to hurtle it toward. I could see that this act of Petty MC on my part was a little too far.... I actually feel bad for "Mara". As she looked up at me I could see her eyes well up a little bit... it was that "too quiet" right before something bad was about to happen... My spidey senses were tingling (side note, this is why I hate Avengers End Game... Spider-man looked surprised at his death... he should have sensed it, right? But I digress). Before she started to take her clenched arms (that she looked like she was trying to remove the top of the desk from it's connected chair) and turn them on me, I offered a solution. "Look. Mara. Remember you can do corrections on the exam for a fourth of the credit back, right? That will get you almost all of the points that you were gifted in the first place. Whaddya say?" She sheepishly agreed, wound up with a 17.5 out of 25, and has yet to give me a hard time since... but I'm pretty sure my semester survey will suffer greatly. TLDR. Adult student requested a grade change. I complied.

[REPOST] About 5 years ago, I found myself as a 2nd shift supervisor at a small manufacturing plant. We had a line of 8 machines with 4 others that could be added to the end of the line with a series of pipes and blowers. It all started when my boss (Plant Manager) said "I don't really read the report that you send to me at the end of the day." He was trying to get a 2nd, much larger, plant running to make our small plant redundant and increase our capacity by around 8 fold so he decided not to even be involved with the small plant. Okay cool! Well, the company wasn't doing too hot. We had a ton of demand, but the orders were so large that we just didn't have to capacity to fill them. I, along with about 5 other people worked 8 weeks straight from the beginning of July to the end of August with only 2 days off during that 8 weeks and as salaried employee at $30,000 a year and not eligible for OT. I was not a happy camper. With the plant running around the clock, a lot of preventative maintenance was being neglected. I went to the Plant Manager and said "hey, if we don't shut down for a day or two and replace the bearings in the rollers in the 6th machine in the line, they are going to freeze up and the motor that turns those rollers is going to burn up." He said "just fix it, but don't spend any money." So at the end of the night, I put in my daily report that if the motor burned up, I would ask Maintenance to pull an identical motor from one of the machines that were not connected to the current line configuration, and that way we could finish this order and to please respond if he wanted to do something different and CC'd the head of maintenance on the email. I never heard back from him so after about a week, the bearings froze up and the motor quit working. I put my request in to Maintenance and they pulled the motor of the machine not being used and replaced it to finish a major order. The day we were finishing the major order that we had been working on for months, the plant manager walks up to me and the head of maintenance and says "you all need to hook those 4 extra machines up and start on the next order as soon as we get this one out the door." Maintenance head and I look at eachother, then back at him and I said "sorry, we can't do that. We don't have a motor to run the last machine. I sent you an email about it a few weeks ago and you never replied that you wanted to do something different. It is probably around $10,000 for another motor and we can hook it up tomorrow if you overnight it." Well, Plant Manager blew a major gasket because we all knew the company was on its last legs. 4 days later, the CEO called a mandatory meeting at 4 o'clock on the last day of the pay period and let the entire staff go. I got unemployment and took it easy for a few months before starting my MBA and getting into data analytics.

[Not OC - reposted] When my son was in middle school, I was notified he had to be picked up because he was in violation of the school dress code. I asked what the issue was and on the phone was told “He’s wearing a shirt that shows nudity”. I freak out and rush to the school, my mind whirring as to what he possibly could have worn…none of his clothes that I knew of had nudity on it. As he gets in the car, I see “violation”. He wore a t-shirt with Bruce Lee on it from “Enter the Dragon”. When I got home, I called to confirm this was why they sent him home. Sure enough, a “topless” Bruce Lee’s bare chest sent someone clutching their pearls, apparently. A quick stop to the craft store followed. Using puffy paint, I superimposed a lovely bikini top to cover Bruce’s man-nipples. He wore the shirt to school again and nobody dared say a thing, lol.

The choice is between *"John Oliver, Chiijohn, and their lookalikes bein adorable"* and returning to normal.

[REPOST] I work in a helpdesk hotline for an international company of around 50.000 employees. To understand why I felt such glee when our head of IT called about needing her password reset, I'll have to explain a bit of backstory. We've been handling the 1st level servicedesk for all sites around the globe, mainly Europe, North America and Singapore for the better part of a decade now. As you can probably imagine, working in a contractor-based helpdesk (meaning we're not part of the actual company but instead are employees of the call center) will involve a lot of sucking up. New tools are introduced for the users to utilise but they're complete shit, borderline useless and lack features the old software had? Suck it up. Process is unclear, nonsensical or just plain dumb? Suck it up, you can give feedback, but we're sure as hell gonna ignore the heck out of it. So after around 10 years of sucking up and working with what we got, our service department got outsourced to the cheapest competitor available. A real slap in the face against us. No helpdesk is ever perfect (especially since we’re all underpaid unmotivated IT grunts), but we always thrived to meet our targets and get work done. Subsequently, everyone hated the change of IT service providers, except for company treasury. Service quality plummeted, most of our guys lost their jobs and only half a dozen of us still work in our original jobs since the new IT Service is so ludicrously bad, our rampdown has been delayed for close to a year now so at least SOMEONE knows what they're doing and gets shit done in 1st lvl servicedesk. You can imagine the jaws dropping when the architect for the whole IT restructuring got an award for her work in saving the company money (which they probably lost again due to every OTHER department having significantly more IT related issues that are just not being solved). It was no fancy, well-known award, but it involved red carpet and a gala. For basically ruining IT service. So this award winning architect of IT-doom calls me this one night, because she's forgotten something basic: changing her password before it had been expired for too long. She is now on an important business trip to oversee the last regions we're servicing being converted to the new service provider. And now she couldn't get any work done, because she couldn't access her laptop. As I mentioned earlier, the tools and processes we have to use are bonkers. Sometimes you could work around them. But in my case, I was too happy to tell her: "nope, I can not generate a new password for you since you haven't accessed the password self service tool before." Dumbfounded, she replied "What? You can not reset my password, because I have not accessed the password tool previously, which I now can not do because I don't have a valid password to access the tool with?" I smiled to myself as I continued: "Exactly that. Since we've lost our tools to reset passwords manually, the only other alternative is sending an automatically generated email to your manager, who will have to bother resetting the password for you." A realisation struck her then. These managers of hers...are all just one step below the CEO. They're in the executive committee, busy people. And I would need to send them an email, asking them to kindly run after the password reset for her to do her job. All because she ignored her frequent password change prompts. It was glorious. Sure, I still knew a way of resetting the password manually. But I sure as hell wasn't gonna put my ass on the line for that to happen. Wasn't allowed by the process, too. "Isn't there any other person you could send this mail to?", she asked. And I confirmed, sure, I could, to the manager one step above that. Which would mean the CEO himself. She was not amused. She refrained from threats, but when customers ask for your name with clenched teeth, it's usually not because they're smiling so hard. In a frantic tone, she declared all of this process to be nonsense (nonsense we had to work with over the last 7 months, so yeah, no shit) and all but ordered me to send her the password manually to her private phone number. To which I calmly replied, miss, as head of IT and processes, of course you know I'm not allowed to do that. In addition to not having the technical means." The rest of the call was fairly straightforward. She'd promise to send me a mail with an exception authorisation so I could reset the password for her in particular. to which I told her if that's what she intends for us to do: set passwords for anyone claiming to be head of IT and almost threatening me. I mean, I know it was her since I knew her voice as our head of IT's and the phone number matched, but still. After a bit more skirmishing she brought up the "YOU'RE REFUSING TO HELP ME" argument to which I countered the only possible thing left for me to do is open a ticket for the 2nd level and have them figure out a way to get her a simple password. She ended the call angrily soon after. The ticket about getting her a password is still not resolved by the way. Guess we're not the only department with a grudge against her.

[REPOST] Years ago, I was the CTO of a software company that was perhaps the worst run company I've ever seen. It was run by a "chairman" who used to be a flight engineer, and who had no experience at all in the software industry. One day, in his expansive wisdom, Mr. Chairman decided that we were going to give his friend (a local pastor) an office. I was ordered by Mr. Chairman to make it impossible for anybody ("Even you!!!") to access any of Mr. Pastor's files (because, y'know, privacy and stuff). I attempted to point out a couple of problems with that scenario, but was immediately shut down and ordered to do what I was told. Now, this particular person had... well, let's call it a quirk. When anything went wrong with his computer, his solution was to format his C: drive. (Yeah, I know...) The inevitable happened, and Mr. Chairman ordered me to restore all of Mr. Pastor's files from the backup (which we normally did... ahem... religiously). I looked at him innocently and said "What backup?" It took possibly five seconds for steam to begin pouring from his ears, and for him to start screaming, "YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T DO A BACKUP??? WHY YOU....!!!!" and so on. I waited for him to finish, and then asked him politely how he proposed that I do a backup of files that I'm not allowed to have any access to? The silence that followed was glorious.

[REPOST] Happened this morning. Even though I made a complete and full stop at a 4 way stop, I get pulled over by a police vehicle, lights flashing, the works. I turn my dash cam around to face me and whomever goes in front of the driver side window. I roll it down and ask "what seems to be the problem officer?" Officer looks at me the way one would look at a sticky piece of gum stuck to the bottom of one's shoe. "You didn't make a complete stop." he says. I adjust one of my hearing aids (lost part of my hearing due to being a touring session musician previously) and before I could speak, he firmly orders "Sir, take off your earphones when I'm talking to you!" I take both hearing aids off and look at him. I can read lips a little but we're both masked so I can't understand what he's saying. I communicate in sign language simultaneously while speaking verbally "I'm deaf and I didn't understand what you just said. Can you communicate to me in ASL (American Sign Language) please. He points at my hearing aids that look like Apple Air Pods, motioning me to put them on. I respond "Yes officer, without those I can only communicate in ASL. Please instruct me in ASL and I will be compliant in every possible way". He looks at the dashcam that's neatly pointed squarely at us and mumbles "For fuck's sake". He then motions for me to to go, giving me 2 thumbs up. Needless to say, I rolled up the window and drove away as fast as legally allowed. Couldn't wipe the smile off my face all day, Lol.

[NOT OC - repost] This one is based on an experience my wife had at a previous job (around 12 years ago). My wife (GF at the time) worked for a small IT recruitment company as a recruiter. The offices were quite small, situated on the first floor of an office block with no balcony or kitchen, or any place to really take a proper lunch break. So, my wife just sat at her desk during her allocated tea and lunch breaks and browsed her phone (her PC was locked from accessing any websites such as FB and such). She found out that she was reported several times for being on her phone at her desk (something that was not allowed while working), but argued that she was on her lunch break and that she was not working and could be on her phone. She was then told that she cannot be on her phone at her desk as her colleagues can't know that she's on a break. She argued that there is nowhere to go for breaks, except for downstairs, and outside, a place where the smokers take regular breaks. But, nope, she was not allowed on her phone at her desk. So, from that day on, whenever the group of smokers took a break, she would go downstairs and stand with them, browse her phone, and come up with them. This meant that she took breaks as frequently as the smokers did, and she was away from her desk far more than she was taking her previous breaks for. It's small, but she felt a little victory inside. Luckily she didn't stay in that job long.

[NOT OC - REPOST] I've posted in the past about a horrible non profit I volunteered with then managed the fundraiser for until 2021. After leaving, many of my staff reached out to me for help in various ways. I helped them because they're great people, and the board of the nonprofit were acting terribly, like Elon Musk wannabes with actual illegal treatment. The nonprofit sent a lawyer cease and desist to me about interfering with their operation. This was after I supplied old employees signed letters stating things like their promotion wasn't temporary, their raise wasn't just during pandemic lockdown, the bursary for the student didn't have an expiry, etc. I replied very harshly to the nonprofit and they back pedaled quickly and left me alone, which was annoying but still a win in my book. A year later, I started getting notifications from their business Facebook pages that I created decades ago but was obviously removed from when we parted ways. I ignored it since I'm not on Facebook much anyways, and it didn't affect my life at all. It seems they ignored multiple notices from Facebook stating they had to have an actual human claim the business accounts, and eventually Facebook linked my account with the business account. Again, I didn't care and I figured their social media people would figure it out. Now, I have their new social media person sending me (the business account) multiple messages a week begging for admin access to the platform. The old person didn't add them properly I guess, and then removed herself prematurely. I'm the only admin now, but I don't want to interfere with their operations and do anything about it. 😂

I used to work the evening/night shift at a coffee shop chain. That time of night in inherently slow, so we would get saddled with the general upkeep of the equipment. Nothing too high tech, just simple disassemble, clean, re-assemble (coffee grounds get into EVERYTHING). I took a shining to the task because I'm fairly handy and it would get me way from customers for decent chunks of time. So, I became the unofficial guy to do it, which was fine by me. I took a shift and read through all the corporate approved maintenance manuals, which had step by step guides on how to do anything and everything that would be required of a barista to do. I would also work with them out in front of me to reference. One night, my manager told me to deep clean and do the general maintenance of the walk in fridge one night. So I pulled the manual and did all the things in it for that model of fridge. Took me most of the shift, but the fridge was good. Nothing was wrong, and it wasn't going to get any cleaner than I got it last night. The next day I come in and they tell me that I "clearly didn't work on the fridge" and to do it again. Cue first malicious compliance: Not caring if I waste another shift in the back room went into the fridge with the manual and checked each step to make sure I didn't miss anything, then once I confirmed each step was done, sat in there with a cup of coffee with a piece half apart so if anyone checked on me it would look like I was working, and got paid to drink a cup of coffee all night with my hoodie on in the fridge. The very next day they scolded me for not doing it again. So I asked what they were talking about. Apparently there was some crud in the groove of the door seal and it was still there, so I "must not have been doing my job." I pulled the manual and showed them the official cleaning procedure does not require scraping out the crud in the seals. I explained that's most likely to keep from damaging them. They said, "No, you're supposed to remove the seal and put it in the dishwasher and run it on sanitize." I again, showed them this was not an approved step, and cautioned them, letting them know that I didn't think the seal should be removed, as it may damage the refrigerator. I was basically told to shut up and to it. I asked them to write it in the daily task log and initial it, so I wouldn't forget to do it that night. They rolled their eyes and wrote "remove and clean refrigerator seal" and initialed it. So, that night I complied. I pried out what was very obviously a seal that wasn't supposed to be removed, ran it through the dishwasher, and did my best to get it seat back in. My boss called me the next day to say, "It looks so good, that wasn't so hard, now was it?" I was off the next 2 days but decided on day 2 to pop in for a free cup of joe and say hi to my friend who was working that night. I arrived to see firetrucks outside. Apparently the refrigerator motor malfunctioned and caught on fire. It was discovered it never stopped running after the seal was removed, and something in it shorted, causing a fire. Luckily no one was hurt, but the store was going to need a new walk in refrigerator and was closed for 2 more days until the fire marshal cleared it. The manager tried to pin it on me, but I had the manuals to back up me up, along with their explicit instruction in the daily task book. So in the end, I walked away scott free. I'm not sure what kind of trouble, if any, my manager got in.

Some exceptions seems to be accepted as long as it involves Wales and France (Wales being Pays de Galles in French).

[REPOST] My father died on Father’s Day 2012. He was divorced and living alone, and I am an only child. So that means that I had to wrap up all of his affairs. This story centers around us trying to get his utilities canceled. I called in to see what we had to do to get them to cancel. The lady I spoke with on the phone said to send in his certified death certificate. I sent in the certified copy of his death certificate the next day. The next month got another bill. I called again and a new woman answered. She said that because I wasn’t on the account that she had to speak with the account holder. I informed her that the account holder was dead but she wouldn’t budge. I had to make an appointment with a supervisor so she could speak to him herself in person. I showed up at the board of public utilities with another death certificate and HIS ASHES IN THE CLEAR BAG that they returned his remains in. I plopped them down on the center of her desk and said when she talked to him to tell him that I loved him for me. The woman went pale, flew out her chair, and called the cops. When they showed up she claimed that I had assaulted her. And yes my dads remains were still sitting in the middle of her desk with the death certificate. The cops questioned me as to why I would do that. I told them the story. The supervisor’s boss was called in and they all stepped away from the desk for a private talk. While they were talking the cops came over to talk to me. They said that I shouldn’t take human remains out in public, but there was no laws that were broken. I said that I agreed with them that it was extreme, but she insisted to speak with him in person. By then they were done talking between themselves. The supervisor’s boss kissed up to me and got it taken care of. But the story isn’t over yet! I had to call back a few days later to get utilities back to the house in my name. When the person on the phone saw the address and my name, I was immediately put on hold. The supervisors boss that finally helped me got on the phone. She sucked up to me and waived all of the fees that come with setting up utilities. Just as the call was ending, she informed me that she was again so sorry for the employees lack of compassion. She said that the employee was terminated and again she is so very sorry. TLDR: Ignorant employee asked to speak to dead dad. Had a meeting in person, brought his ashes, got her fired.

*(full disclosure - I posted this on reddit about 6 years ago, just saw it while I was deleting my reddit posts and thought I would port it over)* So I'm at this grocery store that I've just started going to. They have one of those free rewards card programs which I'd just signed up for the day before. Checkout cashier is a grumpy woman. She doesn't make eye contact with the customer she's checking out, and she's constantly talking to another coworker. As it gets to my turn, she tells her coworker: "last one!" So after scanning my items, she asks me for my rewards card (which would give me about $8-12 off for that purchase). I don't have it, so I give her my phone number (which I'd seen other people do). She tells me my phone number isn't in the system. Me: "Oh, but I definitely signed up for the rewards card before." Her ("C" for cashier): "When?" Me: "Uh... 2 or 3 days ago?" C: "It's not in the system yet." Me: "Oh. In that case... can I still get the rewards discounts?" C: "No, I need your rewards card for that." At this point, the lady behind me offers to let me use her rewards card, so I take it, thank her, and give the card to the cashier. C: "That's not yours." Me (getting annoyed): "I know. I have my own, but it's not in the system and I don't have it now. It's a free rewards card. What's wrong with using her card?" C: "You can't do that." This was the point where all the cashiers were changing shifts, so her coworkers were leaving and new ones were taking over. C gives a long, audible sigh and says: "My shift is over. If you don't have a rewards card you have to pay the full price. That'll be $X." I suddenly have a stroke of brilliance as I remember how painfully slow the registration process was for my rewards card. Me (smiling now): "You know what? I lied. I don't have a rewards card. But I'd like to sign up for one!" This supermarket had a weird system for keying in the rewards card number - customers filled out a form on the spot and the cashiers filled in everything on their terminals. It took forever. I got a form and filled it up. I gave a fake name, email, and phone number. I made my name and email as long as the maximum number of characters, and even gave an optional (fake) address. I stood there smiling as the cashier (who looked like she was about to blow) typed in everything. By the time I was done paying, she looked like she was going to murder me regardless of the fact that we were in a large supermarket. As she hands me my new rewards card, i tell her as I walk away: "Nah, you keep it. All the information I gave you was fake anyway." I had to rush back to my apartment with my groceries to make my next appointment after that, but man i felt so good for the rest of the day.

That applies to newcomers too. For example, if you want to lock a thread, simply comment "!lock".