Now, this one’s a two-fer, so strap yourself in, lads and lasses, we’re going for a bit of an anti-work ride.
Imagine having a boss so nasty, they would go as far as to demand—not even suggest—that you work at their company forever. That alone demands a trial by the anti-work community on Reddit, but, wait, there’s more.
This also more or less demanded personal satisfaction by means of malicious compliance. Which was delivered. Sure, it was just a handful of days of malicious compliance, but it was compliance to the letter at its finest.
Nobody likes to be yelled at at work. Provoked or not, yelling is unprofessional and should stay locked away in a filing cabinet. Or several
Image credits: Marc Muller (not the actual photo)
One Redditor found a way to respond to yelling that doesn't involve a constructive talk, but it still gets the job done in a very professional way
Image credits: u/aryawitner
Long story made shorter, the author of the post wanted a raise, but all they got was an earful
Image credits: Vlada Karpovich (not the actual photo)
The story goes that Reddit user u/aryawitner was having some trouble at work. Since, originally, the post was submitted to the r/antiwork subreddit, you can guess where this is going.
Back in March, OP broached the issue of money with her boss and co-owner over email. It was a diplomatic approach, not putting any pressure on anyone, but one that she felt she needed to take on because that would otherwise mean that she’d need to be looking for another job.
Much to OP’s dismay, a minute after sending the letter, the boss calls her, screaming his lungs out, how dare she ask for a raise. That in and of itself was an answer that prompted OP to draw appropriate conclusions.
Two months later, OP found another job, but it seemed that she still wanted to give the boss another try. She told him she got an offer, but would take a week to decide. The boss never brought it up, again signaling the answer. So, OP eventually told the boss when she was leaving.
Well, that in turn sparked a “massive hissy fit” on the matter, and they started punishing OP. At this point, you wouldn’t be all that far off from thinking this is a kindergarten because the co-owners were acting beyond childish.
“Part of my punishment for leaving for more money is that he has since given me more money. Then to top it off, he tells me that when they hired me a year ago, they expected me to work there until either retirement or the company went out of business. I just kinda stared at him when he said that,” explained OP in her original post.
After not getting more money, the Redditor pointed out that she would be looking for a job, which became chaotic because the expectation was she'd work there forever
Image credits: Anete Lusina (not the actual photo)
This was besides the guy owner giving OP the silent-ish treatment by calling her less (less than the usual 25 times a day). So, all in all, another manager flat-out refused to have an employee leave. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, among all of this action, OP did eventually leave, but not without some malicious compliance. She did go through the proper channels and had several weeks’ notice before quitting. The boss, however, decided to punish her even more by making her work Thursdays. Again, the gap in logic is insurmountable because she wanted more money and he… gave her more money that way… well… wait, what?
You see, OP usually didn't have to work Thursdays as she would do whatever little work Thursdays threw at her on Wednesdays, and that would solve a lot of problems. Well, since now she was forced to come over on Thursday anyway, she would still have everything done on Wednesday, and would just maliciously comply by showing up to work to read a book. A book that had been waiting for attention for a long time. And good for OP!
Forever is, however, not an option, and the Redditor soon found herself in a very maliciously compliant situation after she finally got a leave date
Image credits: MART PRODUCTION (not the actual photo)
Folks in the comments felt the same way, praising her for a good job with the compliance, and good luck with the job she landed afterwards. Even more so, others said she’s too nice with the 3 weeks’ notice, when, in most cases, none is required, and 2 is standard.
Others devilishly suggested maybe knocking it up a notch and getting some real hardcore work done doing nothing. You know how it can be, doing nothing can take hours to do, so she could just put in the extra effort and be absolutely sure she has done everything she can before she leaves. You know, no loose ends and whatnot.
It doesn’t end there. OP was also indirectly advised to take her time making copies of absolutely everything and misfiling them all, stapling them haphazardly, and maybe using glue. Liberally. That should teach the shriekers.
Originally, the post garnered over 23,500 upvotes (95% positivity rate) on r/antiwork, following another 4,800 (98% positive) upvotes in r/maliciouscompliance. You can check out both articles here and here respectively.
Contrary to what the owner first said, she got more work, hence more money, but she would do nothing on the extra day as... she had done it all the day before
Image credits: Yan Krukau (not the actual photo)
Merchandising Supervisor Abdallah Salim discussed the negative effects of yelling at employees in a LinkedIn article of his. He explains that the whole idea of yelling is supposed to boost productivity. Because violence gets stuff done, ya know (spoiler: no, it doesn’t).
Besides humiliation and abuse, yelling at employees is nothing but counter-productive. They lose focus, their morale sinks, and overall, they just don’t want to be there anymore. In other words, this is not high school anymore, and peer pressure bullying tactics only send a message to everyone to run away as far as possible from there.
But this is also a snake eating itself without realizing it situation. If a manager does this on the regular, this not only alienates employees from the company, costing it more than it’s worth (quitters are expensive), but someone from the higher ranks is bound to notice the manager’s impeccable performance sooner or later. Nobody wins.
So, what should be done differently? Well, talking works, it's just that it has to be in a tone that’s the opposite of yelling. Not whispering, though, but, you know, calm and collected, in a constructive manner?
If need be, employees can plan a time to sit down with the supers and talk like civilized human beings. Explain how being on the receiving end of the yelling makes you as an employee feel and how yelling is not cool. Everyone deserves a workplace without a hostile environment.
Be sure to use things like I language and proper corporate phrasing because everyone has to stay professional when things get heated. The Muse suggests defusing a coworker's yelling situation as follows: “I understand that sometimes we all lose our cool. But the way you reacted made me feel very uncomfortable. Can we talk about some ways that we can better communicate with each other when we disagree?”
Lastly, if there is a risk of emotions going wild, involve HR. They can work wonders as mediators—that’s part of their job, i.e., to stand as an intermediary between the employer and the employees.
But enough about that and more about maybe you leave some comments on what you thought about anything here in the comment section below. How about it, hmm? Perhaps you could even share your favorite Thursday meme to lighten the mood!
Netizens had a good kick out of this, suggesting the employee do more, like copying, stapling, and misclassifying documents
