At times, what your boss wants can be completely unreasonable. Unfortunately, not all leaders are willing to listen to logic about what your workflow looks like. Sometimes, you have to show them what kind of havoc their new rules cause for them to realize that they’ve messed up. But we all enjoy a dash of malicious compliance, don’t we?
Redditor u/Vizslaman went viral after sharing a story from their old job, at a call center. Everything was going great until their busybody manager started chastising them for not taking their breaks as scheduled. Well, wanting to impress on them that their job didn’t allow for breaks like that, the OP decided to follow their boss’ order to the letter. Scroll down for the full story.
We got in touch with the author of the post, redditor u/Vizslaman, and they were kind enough to answer Bored Panda's questions about the story, how bosses ought to behave, and what it was like working at a call center. Read on for our full interview!
Micromanagers can cause a lot of unneeded tension in the workplace
Image credits: MART PRODUCTION (not the actual photo)
A former call center employee shared how they got their 'busybody boss' to realize their new rule about taking scheduled breaks was bogus
Image credits: Arlington Research (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Petr Macháček (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Vizslaman
Good bosses will treat their employees with proper respect
Redditor u/Vizslaman told us that they never expected their story to go viral. "I think we all have had bosses or someone in their lives who follows things a bit too much to the letter. They cannot see past what is written and when those people obtain positions of power, this problem only gets worse because there is no one around to tell them otherwise," they mused about why their post got so much attention on Reddit in the first place.
Bored Panda was curious as to why the OP's former boss was so intent on them adhering to a certain schedule. "I believe they were so intent on us taking breaks for coverage reasons and since they could only see the numbers, they were blind to what those numbers were. The nature of the call center was to answer the customer as quickly as possible, and the easiest way to do this is to have more people answering the phones, but if you don't know what section is pulling which numbers, those reports mean nothing," they pointed out that context is everything.
Many of you Pandas will probably agree that good bosses are quite rare. We wanted to get u/Vizslaman's opinion on what quality leaders are like. According to them, great bosses understand that their employees are people, too.
"I have had plenty of bosses over the years that run the full spectrum of good to bad bosses, and those that ended up being good always treated their team with respect. I always did my best work for bosses who I knew I could ask them any questions freely and they would never judge. This respect also brings trust, trust that I am going on breaks when I can, not because I want to throw off the schedule."
Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)
Meanwhile, the OP shared some advice on working at call centers, a line of work that they told us can be taxing but rewarding. "Some of the worst people I have ever interacted with were from some of those calls, but also some of the best people as well. When the person on the other line says, 'Thank you' and really means it, you can feel that and it is a great boost to your day. Unfortunately, those callers are few and far between," they explained to Bored Panda.
"For people calling call centers, just remember, that is a person on the other side, they really (hopefully) want to do the best they can for you, yelling and screaming will only make things last longer and neither side wants that."
The OP urged anyone considering working at a call center to keep regular tabs on their mental health! "More and more, I saw people getting completely burnt out only to just keep running on empty. Burnout can create so many mistakes which just compounds the burnout even more. Take that sick day, have a 'treat yourself' day off from work, if you have a good boss, they will understand that 100%. Do not be afraid to call out or use a vacation day. You have them for a reason," the OP said, adding that they now have a much better job and boss.
Image credits: Burst (not the actual photo)
The manager realized their mistake almost immediately
The OP explained to the r/MaliciousCompliance online community that they had to deal with higher-issue calls. As such, they needed to stay on the line for longer periods of time than their colleagues. So taking breaks exactly as scheduled didn’t make much sense.
And that’s something that redditor u/Vizslaman’s then-boss soon learned. The OP followed their manager’s order as specified. They ended up asking a customer if they could call back so they could take their break. The boss quickly realized what was happening and backtracked on the new rule. All of this could have been avoided if they didn’t criticize u/Vizslaman break ‘attendance.’
Try to get through to your boss as best as you can
Like in all aspects of life, there’s no substitute for clear and open communication in the workplace. If your manager is even semi-reasonable, they’ll be likely to hear out your side of things. Schedule a face-to-face meeting with them and explain your position in a friendly but firm way.
Essentially, you want to be as diplomatic as you can while. In short, you want to steer away from accusing your boss of being incompetent or dumb. If you find that there’s too much tension building up, try to cut it by being more lighthearted.
Meanwhile, if you consider your boss’ side of things and suggest some potential solutions, you might just be able to find a compromise that works for both of you. And if not, you can always reach out to their boss, or human resources, or cue up a spot of malicious compliance to show you’re in the right. Words are wind, but action is worth its weight in gold.
Like many other workers, call center employees also suffer from burnout
Image credits: Karolina Grabowska (not the actual photo)
Unfortunately, call center employees often deal with chronic stress. According to Zendesk Blog, unclear expectations and a lack of work-life balance are common causes of burnout in the workplace.
Some of the signs of burnout include fatigue, insomnia, irritability, anxiety, a loss of appetite, and even depression. Meanwhile, overworked employees obviously don’t enjoy their day-to-day roles anymore and have a more pessimistic outlook on the future. Some of them might isolate themselves from the rest of the team while others skip work entirely.
Exhausted people naturally work less efficiently and make more errors. The way forward is to address their workload and workflow. Start off by improving communication between management and everyone else. Clarify people’s roles as much as possible. Reduce workloads where they’re clearly forcing people to either work overtime or to live in constant, unmanageable stress.
Try to avoid micromanaging your team as well because it can breed frustration and make them lose focus of what they’re doing at the moment—instead, ask them how you can support them better. And who knows, your workers might not have to maliciously comply with your own rules to show you better alternatives.
The author of the viral post shared some more background info with their readers
Here's how other people reacted to the story. Some of them had similar work tales to share
