employees are fighting back with malicious compliance

by Alison Green on April 28, 2025

As long as we have employers, we’ll also have managers who issue nonsensical or inefficient edicts — even when their employees point out a smarter way to go. Sometimes that’s because they’re more focused on control or appearances than on actual results. Sometimes it’s because they’re out of touch with the day-to-day realities of the work. And sometimes they’re just bad managers.

Today at Slate, I wrote about how some irritated employees have learned to respond to these policies with “malicious compliance”: scrupulously doing exactly what they’re being told to do, but in a way that exposes the absurdity of the request. You can read it here.

{ 107 comments }

{ 107 comments… read them below }

        1. Jackie Daytona, Regular Human Bartender*

          Mine too. You may also enjoy f*ckhoa (but spell the word out).

  2. Annie C*

    We’re back online? Awesome! Hope you got the issue taken care of and it wasn’t too much trouble ^^

      1. ScruffyInternHerder*

        Hopefully soon as that has to be super frustrating on your end, probably moreso than on ours!

      4. Susie QQ*

        Thanks for the update. I haven’t received my daily update email in a few days… I assume that’s related.

      1. Anonychick*

        I’m not really sure if I’m a human, but I’m definitely not a bot, so I just shrug and click the button.

    3. bamcheeks*

      The other day I got an “checking you’re a human” message when I was looking at the AI-UK conference on Turing.ac.uk. Imagine how humiliating it would have been to fail.

  4. Richard Hershberger*

    A frequent thread with bad management is a manger who does not know which of his reports are functional adults and which are looking for a way to slack off. This leads to treating all of them like slackers, with wackiness following.

    1. AnotherOne*

      A friend of mine has a VP leaving who is apparently known for making an initial judgment of a person and that being his view of them.

      If it’s positive, that person is brilliant.

      If it’s meh, the person is meh.

      Even if in actual practice, the person that he’s convinced is brilliant is terrible at their job and the person who is meh is doing work 4 levels above what they’re getting paid for. (The company has a really strange promotion structure, only made worse by having people who can’t do the work filing positions.)

    2. Generic Name*

      I’ve also noticed that if a manager is the type of person to take advantage of a flexible work environment or who takes shortcuts tends to assume their direct reports are the same and manages them accordingly. I have so many stories about a former boss who was like this.

  5. A. Lab Rabbit*

    I still can’t believe that the company that short, hairy, fat, apple-shaped man worked for only did shirts up to a large. That’s just ridiculous!

    1. Elizabeth West*

      At ToxicExJob, they made us order button-down shirts, and I knew the women’s shirt would not fit me properly (I’m tall and the sleeves on women’s shirts are always way too short), but they wouldn’t let me order the men’s shirts. So that one was one of my favorites. Good for him.

      Btw, I will no longer take a job that requires me to wear branded clothing but does not provide it.

      1. Richard Hershberger*

        I would be extremely reluctant to take a job that requires me to wear branded clothing regardless of who pays for it.

      2. CeeDoo*

        We have to wear certain spirit shirts to be able to wear jeans. It’s a new shirt every year. So we have a Monday shirt that costs $20 and if you buy it, you can wear jeans on Mondays if you wear that shirt. If you don’t buy it, you can’t. (I do not follow this rule and have never been punished for noncompliance. I wear any spirit shirt to have jeans on Friday.)

        1. Jill Swinburne*

          WTF? But who gets the $20? Does it go to the company’s coffers or does it go to charity? And what’s the point? How did this batshit practice start? So many questions!

        2. Sashaa*

          Is wearing jeans to work really such an immense privilege that you’d pay money to do it though? What a strange company.

        3. kjenkers*

          this was how it worked at a grocery store i worked at in high school! cashiers could wear the holiday shirt (a comfy long sleeve tee) through the holiday season instead of the horribly uncomfortable button up and apron combo uniform, BUT you had to pay $25 for it (when there’s no way it cost even close to $25 to produce). unfortunately the scam was worth being comfortable for 2 months.

      3. Clumsy Ninja*

        Preach! I have jobs that allow us the option to by branded clothing and wear it at work (not required, though). I’m always amazed at the number of people who live paycheck to paycheck who drop $25+ per T-shirt every time new designs are available. I’m like, no. I’m not paying to advertise my job.

    2. RLC*

      One former workplace did the inverse of this: shirts for all, but only in sizes XL through XXXL. Smaller size people (mostly women) looked like children playing dress up in adult clothes. When the smaller size employees pointed this out we were told that we could wear the shirts as sleepwear. Admittedly the shirts were an all-staff award, but what’s the point of a branded shirt that is unwearable at work? (My XL shirt was oversized for my 6’1” 185 pound husband.)

      1. Resident Catholicville, U.S.A.*

        I’m a plus size woman, so clothing is notoriously hard for me to buy, even if I try it on at the store. One coworker decided to do a spiritwear event with shirts, but there was no guide as to how the shirts ran. Off the cuff, I ordered a 3x, because I figured that was the safest bet (one of our other shirts ran small). Um….the 3x had sleeves that were easily 6 inches too long on me and it looked like it was designed for a man who was 6′ 5″ and weighed 300+ lbs. It was so comically large, I just laughed and of course never wore it.

        1. Richard Hershberger*

          “One coworker decided to do a spiritwear event…”

          That disturbance in the force you felt was me, reading this.

          1. Resident Catholicville, U.S.A.*

            Please note- that coworker wasn’t a manager and had no power over anything, but apparently decided on her own to do a spiritwear event, then apparently the higher ups went along with it because arguing with her wasn’t something anyone did.

            I do not work there anymore.

            1. Richard Hershberger*

              Just as you have guys who peaked in high school playing football, there also are women who peaked as cheerleaders.

        2. Not Tom, Just Petty*

          No size guide. That’s ridiculous.
          I got a XXL Walmart Kool Aid shirt one time.
          I’m 5’2″ and chubby. Love that shirt. It covers the waist down on 20 lb weight swings either direction.
          It was my personal size guide.
          I’d grab up or down when I was in the store and be able to pick one right away. Sometimes I want baggy, sometimes a proper fit. Could always pick what I wanted.
          Not so much online. I have M,L,XL and XXL.
          Reader, If you’ve come this far….they are the same size.

          1. Resident Catholicville, U.S.A.*

            Yeah, I’ve been burned by how wildly the sizing on clothes is for women. At that same employer, we had branded jackets that were HELLA nice. (If I could have 5 more of them, I’d be happy.) But the largest size was 3x and that barely fit. So, it wasn’t completely off base of me to claim 3x. Currently, I wear anything from an XL to 3X comfortably, depending on the brand and cut.

            1. Charlotte Lucas*

              I am a short woman with a large chest. I often have to choose between whether I want to be able to zip up or not have trailing sleeves.

              1. Polaris*

                Same w/ large chest but tall. The amount of times I’ve explained that I really do NOT want a women’s cut anything because they don’t fit is “too many for the same person”. Because I don’t want a midriff baring polo or shirt, the buttons to gap on a button up, and I’d like my jacket to cover my backside because I’m wearing a jacket because its cold.

            2. Chirpy*

              Yeah, I have shirts in every size from small to 4XL…and the 4XL is the smallest! The sizing means *nothing* without a size chart.

              (I average L to XL, or M if I’m on the lower end of my weight range)

              1. Sally*

                And “unisex” sizing also means nothing. I always assume it’s men’s sizes. It would be helpful to have chest measurements at the very least.

                1. Chirpy*

                  Yeah, there is a true unisex, but almost nobody actually makes it, they just label men’s stuff as unisex.

                  True unisex shirts are slightly tapered in the waist and might have sleeves that are a medium length between women’s and men’s, but it’s been so long since I’ve actually seen one that I don’t remember anymore.

              2. Lenora Rose*

                Chinese clothing makers often have 4x and 5x sizes that correspond to a North American XL, IME. Unfortunately, while that’s often been a reliable guide for the extremely small 4XL, often is not the same as always, and not every cheap clothing location is in China.

                (I try not to order cheap crap from China as far as clothing goes, of course.)

                Just give me the measurements. Let me figure it out. Or better yet, allow some custom fit options, and I can give THEM my measurements)

                1. Chirpy*

                  Yeah, the 4XL I have was “babydoll” sizing from an American store…labeled as “women’s”.

        3. CeeDoo*

          One year, they offered for all the faculty members to get official football jerseys (high school math teacher) if we were willing to pay for them. I had to get a 4x to be loose enough around my hips. I’m 5 feet tall and wore a size 18 at the time.

          1. Resident Catholicville, U.S.A.*

            Were they “junior” sizes? That’s a relatively new thing that has come to haunt me- someone gifted me a hoodie that I love, but it’s a junior 2x and it does not fit in the slightest. I’m hoping that maybe I lose enough weight to zip it up, but that might be a fool’s errand (it might not be cut right for my particular shape, regardless of how much weight I lose).

      2. Phony Genius*

        Reminds me of shirts we once got. I am a man in-between M and L sizes, so I can usually wear either one. They gave me an L shirt, which looked kind of big. I put it on, and it immediately fell to the floor. My entire body passed quite easily through the neck hole. When they found an M shirt, it fit quite well. I can only imagine how large the XL and larger shirts were.

        1. froodle*

          I’m wheezing, how BIG was that neck hole! no matter if you’re a larger person, your NECK isn’t usually the same width as your shoulders. I’m actually irl laughing at this image, thank you AAM stranger

          1. Phony Genius*

            FYI, it was a polo-type shirt with 3 buttons at the neck, which were open when I put it on. Had I buttoned it first, it probably would have stayed on, but I’d still have looked ridiculous. I have a feeling it was a mislabeled XXXL or something like that.

      3. Georgia Carolyn Mason*

        Ha, we have a little more range but I swear they get 2 smalls, 2 mediums, and 200 each of the larger sizes. And they’re unisex, so if you’re under 5’10” you’d better be there when the box is opened or you’re getting a big, boxy, knee length nightgown. I don’t care a lot, as I put it on only when required — which would be true even if they fit! Probably because I’m Gen X and any kind of spirit or earnestness was a big nope. Never wear the concert t-shirt to the concert, never wear the school t-shirt at your own school, never wear your branded work t-shirt unless you have to!

  6. Zona the Great*

    I worked for a bank where the president insisted we only drink coffee or water from branded vessels with the bank’s logo. However, we had to pay for these and were not issued them for free. They were not cheap either. Then we’d have bank branded tumblers in our homes after we quit. So someone began crudely drawing the bank’s logo on the Styrofoam cups we supplied for the customers (no, we weren’t even allowed to use those) and we all followed suit. So every time the president walked by we’d smugly take a swig from our “branded” cups. We all had two company supplied vessels the next week.

  7. Throwaway Account*

    IDK if this is malicious compliance or not, but I now read books on my phone. All. Day. Long. Last Friday, I counted; I worked 6.5 minutes, tho I typically work closer to 1-2 hours a day.

    I work in an academic library (all librarians are now nodding knowingly about how toxic libraries can be). Our excellent boss left, and a coworker got promoted. They are — not excellent (side note: Alison is so right that bosses can leave, which can completely change the work environment).

    Anyway, about 4 months into New Boss’s tenure, our evals were due. These evals count for nothing. They are not linked to raises, etc. New boss literally does not understand what I do, does not understand what “works independently” means, and does not understand the purpose of employee evaluations. And despite previous glowing evals – a 4 out of 5, new boss scored me a 2 out of 5, and every point New Boss raised was a complete surprise. Everyone got scores like this, although mine was the lowest overall. We had some back and forth, and one coworker even took New Boss aside to say, evals are meant to be motivation tools, New Boss seemed genuinely surprised at that.

    New Boss did not like my work ethic (in my eval it said I work hard and get a lot done but it is too much) or that I collaborate with the other person with my job title (we plan the work together, then each complete our individual contributions) so now I don’t do anything above the bare minimum. I insisted on one-on-one meetings, and at each one, I say, “Here is the one thing I’m doing this week. Do you have any tasks for me?” The answer is always no. So I read books all day long.

    1. Academic Physics*

      Good on you for running your weekly tasks past them and then sticking to that! That’s some real chutzpah of your new boss to bring up surprises in the evaluation.

      Any fun books you’ve read?

      1. Throwaway Account*

        I’m quite proud of myself for sticking to it! I’m usually a much harder worker than this. But I’ve also found that now that I don’t get my creative joy from work, it has forced me to have a better work life balance. So that is good!

        Someday I’m going to thank my boss for that just to see the look on his face. I’m also keeping the phrase, “I’m working to the level of my evaluation” on hand in case anyone noticed that I have not actually worked in months.

        I’m reading smut! I’m enjoying it and enjoying talking about it to help normalize it. I’m on some reddits for it and found the romance.io website.

        I’ve never read this genre before but I’m enjoying romantacy and dark romances. It is my way of sticking my head in the sand over the current political and (in)human situation.

        I also like all the new terms I’m reading (Reverse Harem, MMF v MFM, open door, dark romance, etc) – it feels like a new skill set! lol

    2. Thin Mints didn't make me thin*

      Since you’ve got the time, you could also study something that interests you! Like, I dunno, effective people management.

      1. Throwaway Account*

        Honestly, younger me would do that! I’d focus on projects for my resume (I work really well with faculty!) or just things I want to learn. But I’m nearing retirement, and I’m honestly enjoying the shift in focus from career to just a job.

        Also, I do look up things and explore other interests in all my spare time. Just my focus is on reading.

    3. Insulindian Phasmid*

      When I was at a bad job and trying to escape, they didn’t have enough work for me to do. I worked at a call center and trained on incoming customer calls, but the stress of it all was destroying me. So they moved me laterally into project management, which was a much better fit. But they really had maybe 1-2 hours worth of work for me each day, on average. And when I asked management for more to do, they only put me back on the customer calls. Which I couldn’t handle without breaking down right there in the call center. So… I stopped asking. I did everything that came up for me quickly and well, I asked my coworkers what I could help them with.

      So I read a lot of Project Gutenberg, which just looks like a page of text and doesn’t at all flag that you’re not working.

  8. Watry*

    Not quite the same, but my division head lets us wear t-shirts and jeans on Fridays, but it was to be a specific branded t-shirt. I wear a 1X, but ordered a 3X just in case. My chest looks like it’s trying to Hulk tear the shirt open. One shirt, no exchanges.

    Eventually he loosened it to allow shirts from sports teams as well, and a coworker gave me a State College Football shirt she had hanging around.

  9. amy h.*

    Is not being reimbursed for tips that unusual? I don’t travel for work, so I don’t know what the norms are, but that doesn’t seem that odd to me.

    1. A. Lab Rabbit*

      Yes, because it’s considered a business related expense. You wouldn’t be making the tip if you weren’t on a business trip. In the little bit of work-related travel I’ve done, I’ve always been reimbursed.

    2. Angstrom*

      We are reimbursed for tips. Tipping is part of travel and eating out in the US, so it seems reasonable to consider it a normal business travel expense.

    3. Not Tom, Just Petty*

      It is included, because in the US, tipping is expected/required in multiple situations. aurants. If a server brings you food, if a bartender serves you drinks, you take a taxi or rideshare, you tip. It is a cultural norm that runs about 15%-22% of the bill (debates on amount, pretax total vs post and drinks included with meals or not: carry on).
      So for every $100 you spend for your work trip, you’d be paying $15-25$ of your own money each day, for work.
      I’ve traveled for work in the US. Submit the receipts for cab and meals with the tip added, got reimbursed.
      It’s like getting mileage for driving to the airport v mileage for driving to work. You are spending money you wouldn’t normally spend so the company pays for it.

      1. Analytical Tree Hugger*

        Adding to why tips are expected/required in the U.S.:

        We have two minimum wages: a regular minimum wage and a tipped minimum wage (the latter is much lower).

        Say the standard minimum wage is $10 and the tipped minimum wage is $2. The idea is that tips will make up the gap between the two; if it doesn’t, the employer is supposed to make up the gap.

    4. Strive to Excel*

      I don’t work there any more but at a prior workplace it was explicitly written into the reimbursement guidelines that tips up to 15% would be reimbursed. Anything over that was the employee’s responsibility.

    5. Funko Pops Day*

      Some orgs do have a cap on tips (e.g., you can be reimbursed for an 18% tip but anything above that isn’t reimbursable), but not allowing any would be extremely unusual in the US.

    6. CeeDoo*

      The last time I traveled for work, tips were not reimbursed. We fronted all costs except for registration to the event and the hotel room. Then we had to wait for reimbursement for everything else. It was terrible. If I had not been traveling, I would not have been eating at an expensive restaurant, so money got tight waiting on that reimbursement.

    7. econobiker*

      Tipping is usually reimbursed if included on the itemized bill but sometimes companies are cheap and won’t reimburse cash tipping for certain services.

      20 years ago I worked at a company that attended trade shows with its lightweight but large unwieldy products. It was always easier to tip a trade show forklift driver $5-$10 (at that time) to assist us putting up our displays. Unfortunately work wouldn’t reimburse those tips. However I could buy on site trade show high priced AA and AAA batteries like anything so every trade show I came back from the show with enough batteries to compensate my tipping amounts.

    8. Lisa B*

      Yes, it’s weird, if the thing being tipped on was itself reimbursable. The tip is part of the overall cost of the meal/ride/etc, not an optional thing and should be reimbursed the same as the rest of the bill. Same as sales tax or a delivery charge. It’s common to put limits on the amount/% of tips or on what types of items/services can include tips but refusing to reimburse them at all is just wrong.

    9. Lenora Rose*

      I’ve seen overly generous tippers be given a nudge that they should do a bit less on a company card, and I’ve seen “Tips up to X% of the bill” policies, but not “no tips at all” policies.

      1. Lenora Rose*

        (For the record; I have credit card processing including restaurant services on my desk Right Now.)

  10. BW*

    Ex-grand-boss wanted all the computer programmers to wear business suits during the Dress for Success 1980s. Around 1990 he relented and allowed us to have Business Casual Fridays. The problem was that none of us had business casual clothing, so people would show up in shorts and T-shirts. It’s Florida, and that’s what casual clothing is in the heat and humidity. Every week, someone would break some unwritten rule, and then there would be a new rule. No jeans. No shorts. Everyone must wear pantyhose. The men complained. No more Casual Fridays.

    1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

      I would have pushed back and had the men wear pantyhose.
      (which, my company STILL requires if women wear dresses/skirts (which they also required into this century.)

      1. Zona the Great*

        My former employer required pantyhose for women even if wearing slacks. No dress socks. Boss would make us show her.

        1. Lenora Rose*

          Which is ridiculous. Would they at least allow tights (the kind that are the same material as pantyhose but 3x thicker, are hard to tear, and even tears require severe provocation to actually run) to save on the constant cost of disposable junk?

          I liked tights fine as long as I had the right size. I *hate* pantyhose. I had tights last many many washes and wears where hose I was lucky if I got in 2 wears before I got a hole in it (which then ran).

          1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

            No. No tights. cute plaid wool skirt, complimentary tights…”omg, they are going to send her home.” Never saw tights again. Total power play.

        3. mreasy*

          WHAT
          IN
          THE
          WORLD
          So you had to lift your pant leg up far enough to prove that you were wearing pantyhose, not knee highs?
          I know nothing should surprise me after reading this site for years and yet, here we are.

  11. 2 Cents*

    The car rental guy is my fave — the company saving $10-$15 by not reimbursing tips is instead paying $150-$200 hahahahha

  12. Varthema*

    The one who took an insane flight just to literally miss the boat feels like it might fall on the wrong side of the “compliance” line in malicious compliance, especially since apparently other people get no blowback from booking reasonable flights and checking a box. Maybe they should have specified that they want you to book the cheapest flight *that gets you there when you need to be there* but it doesn’t feel crazy to assume that that goes without saying…

    1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

      Yeah, I didn’t get that one. He’s the guy who takes a whole pizza from the office lunch because…

    3. Wilbur*

      Three days travelling sounds awful to me. I’m surprised no one caught the itinerary before the trip also. Whenever I’ve travelled with people we share flight info so we know when we’re meeting up. I’d be annoyed if I was supposed to work with him on the project and he decided to leave me to finish the job by myself to own corporate. Seems like a great way to lose the chance to book your own travel. I wouldn’t be surprised if the guys manager ended up booking middle seats and redeye flights for the guy the next project.

  13. Not a Girl Boss*

    I am currently waiting for my malicious compliance to play out and gleefully rubbing my hands together.

    I had a task to do on Friday that, if not done, was going to cost a cool million bucks in lost revenue this month. It had to be done exactly on Friday to hit the revenue milestone. It could not be moved a single day.

    I am also on a “President’s Initiative” team, which is like an improvement rah-rah thing that mostly equals a lot of extra work in exchange for a t-shirt and a leadership dinner. We are falling behind, and the Director leading the initiative (who happens to be a misogynist-leaning jerk) scheduled a 4 hour catch-up meeting for Friday.

    I sent Jerky Director an email “I have a hard conflict that I absolutely cannot move to attend,” and oh boy howdy did he take that personally. He CALLED THE PRESIDENT OF THE COMPANY and told him that I was not adequately prioritizing the Initiative.
    The President messaged my boss’ boss, and told her to tell me to get my butt to the 4-hour meeting.
    No one ever asked me why I declined the meeting, and I didn’t feel it necessary to volunteer such information.

    So, in approximately 2 days, they are going to find out we missed a milestone, and they are going to come and ask me why, and I am sooo ready.

    7. I interned at Devlin McGregor*

      That sounds absurd, but did you actually tell them there was $1M at stake?

      1. Not a Girl Boss*

        I probably could/should have tried a wee bit harder, but I did start to say “Well, the reason is…” and got cut off with “this is coming straight from President,” so at that point I just shrugged.

        I’m sure it will not go well for me, but I am also preparing to quit in a few months and move across country soooo…

    8. Lenora Rose*

      I’m worried FOR you on this one. “Nobody asked me why” often comes back to bite you if you don’t attempt to volunteer the information.

      I hope it plays out the other way, because that will be delightful to watch…

      1. Phony Genius*

        Yes, especially in the age of e-mail where you can send a message after a conversation where you couldn’t get a word in edgewise.

  14. Notasecurityguard*

    worked as a security guard at a university on night shift. policy was any time we found an unsecured door after a building was supposed to be closed we had to write a report (a 5-10 minute process since they had to be done by hand and you needed a control number from the system). The main administration building was notorious for MULTIPLE office doors being left unlocked. I suggested that to save time and efficiency we simply do one report per building and list all of the unlocked doors (so like “admin office 101 103 106 etc left unlocked, all doors secured by 19:30”). when i suggested this change to the director he said “what are you lazy? Just do the reports” my direct supervisor thought this was stupid and so suggested a new policy that any incidents in the administration building had to get a director sign off due to the sensitive nature of the data. for about 2 weeks our director had to read and acknowledge about 20 reports per day (beforehand he only had to sign off on reports where police were notified, there was an injury, there was an allegation of guard misconduct, or “BFD incidents” so we’d average maybe 1 a month across 3 shifts)

    we started doing it my way after a few weeks

  15. Loose Socks*

    This isn’t necessarily malicious compliance, but we had an employee that was promised a promotion of a certain amount. I work in HR, but I’m low on the totem pole, so my job was simply to have him sign the offer letter, then submit it to payroll.

    Well, payroll said he didn’t qualify for the amount that he was promised. He was promised this amount by the payroll department head, verbally, but in from of several members of upper management. I learned early on to do all communication through email to document everything, so I CC’d all the management staff that was involved, they backed me up, and Payroll Department Head still refused to back down. Unfortunately, this means it fell to me to break it to the employee. I was very angry about this, so in the last email I sent about the situation,I CC’d the employee that this affected and I said, “After this email I will no longer push the matter. I want to make it clear that I disagree with how this has played out, and I strongly feel this is a reflection of your character, you are free to interpret that as you would like given your display of integrity. The next time I move forward based on your word as Payroll Department Head and you fail to follow through on your end, how would you like this to be handled? I would like to avoid further conflicts of this nature in the future.”

    I did not receive a response. I also burned a bridge, but this is a very large industry and I have no interest in promoting in my current position due to many other similar issues.

    1. Phony Genius*

      The fact that upper management was involved makes me wonder who’s in charge of managing the Payroll Department Head.

  16. Slow Gin Lizz*

    I feel like getting an email from your reports when they are leaving their desks for at least 15 min is still a ridiculous amount of emails. Why the heck would anyone care that much?? (I know, I know, because you are a controlling wacko.)

    1. Mostly Managing*

      That is my world.
      My manager wants us to email ALL the admins in the department (a list of about 10) every time we have a meeting.
      Someone is going to take a late lunch because of a meeting? Email.
      Someone has a training session and will be unavailable for an hour? Email.
      etc.

      I kind of get it for full days off; it helps to know that John won’t be answering emails at all on Thursday or Sally’s in Europe on vacation for the week.
      But every little meeting?

      Nothing we do is urgent. We’re a university department. There’s no life or death, just students figuring out what courses to take, instructors and profs submitting expenses and travel forms, and so forth.
      I really don’t need to know that someone is leaving 45 minutes early to go to the dentist!

  17. Suzie and Elaine Problem*

    I once was required to stay late to run around campus getting in-person signatures for a letter to mail to China. NOBODY requested that the letter even be hard-copy, a PDF should have sufficed, but one faculty member insisted it be hard copy and also insisted that it be sent out WITHOUT DELAY.

    This was decided late on a Friday, so rather than getting home at a decent time I was forced to stay late and rush to FedEx. When I saw the various price options I went with the most expensive service, because after all, wasn’t this letter SO URGENT that it couldn’t wait (and yet wasn’t so urgent that an email one would suffice).

    It was almost $200, which I charged to the faculty account.

  18. Art3mis*

    I keep meaning to post this on the Malicious Compliance subreddit. Many years ago I was in a role that had 3 levels plus a fourth that was the manager level. I was a 2. I wanted to be a 3 for the pay and the added responsibility and challenge. My manager told me I had the technical skills of a 3, but not the people skills. No suggestions on how to gain these skills or make improvements. OK fine. So after that every time a 3 or a manager needed technical assistance, I couldn’t help them. After all, they had the same technical skills as I did, didn’t they?

  19. Art3mis*

    One time I had a claim come across my desk as a “rush” because it was a hospital administrator. Nope, it was an Administrative Assistant. I still rushed it, since that’s what they wanted and I felt like the lowest paid person at that company should get taken care of at least once.

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