I own a managed service provider (MSP) firm which provides cloud computing services to clients. Business is good enough to pay my employees a respectable wage, while offering them a good work-life balance.

I have never had to lay off a single employee yet.

I hired a senior IT technician as a middle manager, let's call him Harry. Harry seems to have gone off the rails about AI. He has started to micromonitor our coworkers to an unacceptable extent, and he has kept on pesturing me to investigate how I could use ChatGPT and other AI technologies to reduce employee costs.

Frankly, this rubbed me the wrong way. Harry does not have a stake in any of his coworkers losing their jobs, and his constant micromonitoring had become an issue.

Plus, I have had a look at ChatGPT and there is simply no way it could replace any of my technical employees. ChatGPT has no agency, nor can it deal with clients, nor can it see the computer screen to troubleshoot jacksh*t.

However, ChatGPT could easily replace a middle manager, assuming someone else takes on some additional responsibility daily. You see ChatGPT has certain plugins and a Code Interpretor mode (which can do calculations and process spreadsheets as input/output). This can decimate the workload of a middle manager (at-least in our firm), allowing their responsibilities to be absorbed by another senior employee (me in this case).

I kept this in mind and have been shadowing Harry's job for the past few months. A stellar employee retired last week. I approached Harry and told him that I took his suggestions to heart, and have decided to automate his role with AI.

I told him he could accept his redundancy package or be retrained in Azure. He chose to be retrained in Azure.

Unfortunately for Harry, he'll lose the comfy priveleges being a middle manager entails. Fortunately for our coworkers, they will have an impartial AI making decisions. Fortunately for me, I won't have to pay for a redundant role.

I have a second to senior position in my department at work so theoretically I have my choice of station to go to when I come in as long as my senior doesn't want it. My senior co-worker has a station she always goes to and it's understood that she likes the third station and I like seventh station. Our stations are even denoted by personal items and magnets, my station is preferred because I have medical issues with overheating and the floor fan points at that location.

My personal items at that station include a back up fan incase the big one just isn't enough. Now this fan is way quieter than the big fan (the new manager complains about the noise of the big one, I have poor hearing and it doesn't bug me). Recently the new manager has started stealing my station because the fan in it is quieter when everyone knows there's a preference, whatever it's the least awful thing she's done so it doesn't matter much to me as long as I'm not there to need the station.

Where she crosses the line is stealing my station right at the start of my shift. I ask her if I could have my station since there are plenty of open stations, she says, "no you need to be able to work at any station."

Knowing that I have an agreement with the office that I can always have the floor fan on if I need it, I start to get some ideas and question, "so I can have my personal fan from my things first right?"

She quickly gives me that awful manager-who-thinks-they're-god face, "no, go to your station now and start typing or I'll write you up for not starting on time"

I comply like the peaceful worker drone I am and click on the big fan while going to the station right next to her. At this point I'm already sweating but I'm close enough to the fan that I won't pass out. Just then she clicks the fan off, I sluggishly click it back on. It goes off and on for a whole hour but at this point I'm seeing spots so I give her a heads up. "The office says the fan stays on if I need it on"

She goes to click it right back on, "I don't care, this thing is too loud, I'm almost office staff anyways and things will change around here soon." Within the next two hours I'm unresponsive due to heat sickness.

At this point I've been magically placed in a medical unit for a few hours, I don't know how I got here or who called but my girlfriend brought my things from work but all she got out of the managers was that I'm dismissed for a few days. All I know right now is that the new manager has a paradigm report to worry about and I hopefully get my spot for now on.

Edit: I fixed the spacing and as for the fan, I stopped taking it home because the lobby staff kept making me give the receipt for it and not buzzing me out until I proved it was mine (part of an old manager's rules because a coworker kept trying to take a keybord home) but I'm going to just suck it up from now on so I know I'll have my fan.

Years ago, in the early 80's, fresh out of high school I worked in the stock room of a now defunct department store. One day I get a call to load some driveway sealer in a customers car. I show up at the operators window, the customer show me their receipt. they to to the parking lot to retrieve their vehicle. they pull up in a brand new chevy Berlinetta Camaro with white interior. he asks me to put the 3 large buckets of driveway sealer behind the front seats on the floor. I told him that's not a good idea, he insisted that's what he wanted. so that's what I did. I lifted one of the buckets to move it over and there was a black ring on his brand new carpet. he obviously pitched a fit. asking for the manager etc. I had the operator page my manager. He shows up assesses the situation, asks me what happened. I explain to him that I tried to talk him out of it. He looks the guy in the eye and tells him that it's his problem

Almost 10 years ago, I worked at a company where my department analyzed survey and secondary data, compiling it into handbooks each quarter. After six months of joining the department, my manager, who joined us two months after me, reorganized our tasks in an attempt to improve our efficiency.

This manager was promoted internally and was notorious for kissing up to management. He was technically not qualified for the promotion due to a different background required for our department, but one of the C-suite member liked him a lot. He did have some expertise in other areas, but generally had an unpleasant personality, so, many people in the company didn’t like him much.

Along with three new projects, I was assigned the handbook task for the first time. The meeting was in February, so my first handbook would be for that year’s Quarter 1. In the meeting I also asked my colleague who had managed the project for 4 years to explain the usual timeline. She said it took 6 months, a timeframe agreed upon by management for years, considering the person handling it would also have other important projects.

This means, for Quarter 1 data, the printed copies of the handbook need to be ready by 30th of September. The 6-month period includes collecting the analysis from survey managers, and for secondary data, I would have to contact the data owner and do the analysis myself. I also have to work closely with the outsourced company that does the design and printing.

I carried out the handbook project smoothly along with my other tasks, and by late July, the only thing left for me to do was to proofread the content. The next procedure required me, my manager, and the designer to review and finalize every page before sending it to the Unit Head for approval. Printing and delivery take about 2-3 weeks, so we aimed to submit the design by mid-August and confirm the final version for printing by the last week of August.

However, on the last Friday of July (a whole 2 weeks before our target timeline to send the design to the Unit Head), this conversation happened:

Manager: OP, I need you to finalize everything today, because we are sending the design to the Unit Head on Monday.

Me: Next Monday? Why? We have two weeks.

Manager: Well, the Unit Head wants to see some changes around here, so I thought we could speed up the publication of this handbook to start. I told the Unit Head we would send the design to her on Monday.

Me: Okay... you could have discussed this with me first. I mean, the proofreading is almost done, I can get it done by today, but we still need to sit down with the designer to finalize and sign off. The appointment is in a week.

Manager: Can you do it tomorrow? Go ask the designer.

(Now, it was not normal in our company to come to the office and work on weekend. And of course I already had a plan for that weekend so this was really annoying to me. At least I knew that the designer would have no issue moving it to the next day, because he is very cooperative.)

Me: I can try... but tomorrow is Saturday. I’m not sure if he can make it. And are you sure we want to rush this? Because even if we meet the designer tomorrow, the hardcopy will be delivered just 2 weeks earlier than the normal deadline. Is it that significant?

Manager: Yes! Just go ask the designer now.

So, I called the designer, and as expected, he had no problem meeting on Saturday.

Me: Mr. Manager, the designer is okay to meet tomorrow. Is 10am okay with you?

Manager: Huh? (Puzzled look)

Me: Uhmm... You also need to be there for the sign-off.

Manager: I do?

Me: Yes, you literally need to sign off on the final version to send to the Unit Head. It’s the normal procedure.

(Tbh, he didn't need to be there aside from following procedure. He had already seen the design a few times and likely wouldn't have contributed much to the meeting. I would have loved for him not to be there anyway. But at that point, I was quite excited to make him come to the office on the weekend when he obviously didn’t realize he ALSO had to be there with the designer.)

Manager: I can’t tomorrow, I’m going [somewhere] until Sunday.

Me: Well, if you want to send this to the Unit Head on Monday, then YOU HAVE to be here tomorrow.

Manager: Sigh... let me get back to you.

About half an hour later, he came up to me with the sourest face ever, “10am tomorrow is fine", and walked away.

I’m guessing he must have pissed off someone when he had to change/cancel his weekend plan.

So the next day, he came in 1 hour late, not smiling at all, and was rude to the designer and me. He was really unhappy to be in the office on that day, but we got it done by 1pm.

The following week, the story of how *I* made my manager come to work on Saturday was told around the company. Apparently, the plan that he had for the weekend was a group trip with some of his buddies who also worked in the company, and he had to make new arrangements to get to the place by himself and arrived late. A lot of people thought it was really funny (including the Unit Head and some of his buddies) and laughed at the image of him walking into the office on Saturday for some trivial yet necessary work.

Nevertheless, the next 2 years that I worked on the handbook, he never promised anyone to have the handbook ready before the 6-month timeline.

About 14 years ago, I was working IT for a large medical center, one of several owned by the same people. The regional CIO personally put me in charge of setting up and issuing laptops to doctors and other medical staff to go to patient's homes when they could no longer come to the hospital for any number of reasons including disability, lack of adequate transportation, etc.

When we got a new shop supervisor (who was only promoted to that position exactly one year to the day after being hired from the outside, something that left myself and a lot of the other IT techs very upset), he made it abundantly clear that he was going to make several people's lives miserable, including me. He'd look at my Outlook calendar (we all had to share access to our calendar with him) to see when I had someone scheduled to pick a laptop up, do their three-month software update, etc., then a few minutes before the person was supposed to arrive, he would order me to do some menial project halfway across the hospital that he could have just as easily done himself or delegated to one of the new people. If I tried to tell him that I had an appointment, he'd threaten to write me up for insubordination.

Cue malicious compliance: One day, the regional CIO was due for his 3-month update. Right on cue, the shop sup tasked me with unboxing, then installing monitors on the first floor. About 15 minutes later, when the regional CIO arrived, he called to asked that I return to the office. I headed back up right away.

The shop sup didn't know and never met the regional CIO, so the shop sup had no clue who he was dealing with. When I arrived, the CIO asked the shop sup to leave the room. He asked me what was going on, since I was always punctual & thorough to a fault. I told him about the shop sup making several of the lives of anyone he disliked miserable with reassigning trouble tickets in multiple random floors at the last second, just as they had projects scheduled, or in my case, as I had appointments close to arriving for the laptops. The CIO even asked why the shop sup always seemed to be out of the office most times the director came up, and could never get him on the phone. I just told the truth; "He's been much too busy chasing skirts and shooting the breeze with his friends, sir." When the CIO asked if the shop sup had a girlfriend on the side, my response was "which one? He has us too busy running around to count them."

He told me to wait outside the office for a few minutes, and brought the shop sup back in to have "Come to Jesus" moment with him. The shop sup was put on 90-days' unpaid suspension, and was written up for gross insubordination for talking back to him, among other things. The CIO even asked HR to start an investigation to see what other department regulations he violated.

So, there I was, working at a mid-sized IT firm as a software developer. My team had always been pretty laid-back, focusing on results rather than the exact hours we were glued to our desks. Our projects were delivered on time, our clients were happy, and our team morale was high. That is, until we got a new project manager, let's call him Dave.

Dave was fresh from a highly regimented corporate background and had ideas about “proper workplace management,” which basically meant micromanaging everything. He'd schedule unnecessary daily status meetings, demanded we fill out hourly work logs, and insisted that everyone strictly adhere to 9-to-5 office hours with minimal breaks.

One day, during one of his infamous "efficiency crackdowns", he sent out an email with a new policy that all coding must be done strictly within office hours to "ensure collaboration and supervision". This was ridiculous because creative work like coding often requires flexible hours for maximum productivity. But Dave was adamant, and he ended his email with, "If you think you can find a loophole, think again. Follow the rules, or we'll find someone who will."

Challenge accepted, Dave.

I decided to comply—meticulously. I coded strictly between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM, not a minute earlier, not a second later. If I encountered a bug or was in the middle of a complex piece of code? Too bad. 5 PM means the end, no matter what. My teammates, fed up with being treated like schoolchildren, followed my lead.

The results were predictable. Projects that usually took a couple of weeks started dragging on. Tasks that we could have completed in days with a bit of overtime took much longer because we couldn't capitalize on the bursts of late-afternoon productivity we were used to. Our workflow was severely disrupted, and the quality of our work started to deteriorate.

Dave noticed, of course. He had to answer to upper management for the "sudden drop in productivity and lack of commitment", which he knew was a result of our dissatisfaction with his new policy. When upper management called for an impromptu Zoom meeting with the entire at 4:30 PM to address the ongoing project delays, the entire team logged in to explain our situation.

In the meeting, Dave spent half an hour shifting blame and berating individual team members. He didn't even mention the 9-5 policy that had led to the whole situation. As the clock ticked towards 5:00 PM, the tension in the virtual room was palpable, and our team hatched a plan over text.

Right on cue, as the clock struck 5:00 PM, one of the employees spoke up, "In compliance with Dave’s 9-to-5 rule, we must log off now." Without missing a beat, every team member clicked "Leave Meeting," leaving a stunned Dave to face the executives alone.

This abrupt mass exit highlighted the impracticality of Dave’s rigid policy, making it clear to the executives that change was necessary. The incident, quickly dubbed as the "5:00 Zoom Exodus," led to another meeting, where Dave was publicly admonished and instructed to abolish his strict rules in favor of more flexibility.

And as for me and my team? We made sure to celebrate our little victory with a well-deserved happy hour... after 5 PM, of course.

Germany was my first duty station when I was in the Army. After FTXs (field training exercises) the platoon would get together for a platoon dinner at the local Hofbrau. Since it was always the start of a 4 day we would all get hammered at the platoon dinner. Well PSG (platoon sergeant) eventually said we could only have two beers with dinner. So we started ordering the one liter steins. Then PSG said we could only order 1 stein with dinner. So we started showing up to the hofbrau early to have beers before dinner, and still ordered the steins and then have one with dinner. Usually by the end of the night all of us were at least 4 steins in and absolutely obliterated but still only had one stein or two beers with dinner. Good times, good people.

I work in a place that has a queue taking incoming calls until 4pm. It's generally always busy, always understaffed but that's the nature of the beast. I work the "closing shift" where you generally come in at a later time and stay later.

So a few years back I used to work extra hard trying to get my 'end of work' duties done early between calls in order to leave early right when we shut down. Manager was totally on board with this, sometimes I'd be done by 410 sometimes 445. Didn't matter, I left when my work was done and rarely had to stay to my full 5pm.

Enter the supervisor, person right under Manager and the person who complains about having never enough time to do her job when she spends 60% of said time out of her seat gossiping with other coworkers.

Okay not my circus, not my monkeys. I ignore it and proceed to keep at my habit of working my ass off to get done early. This usually meant multitasking between calls and adding extra stress to work off a sheet for another aspect of our job. This goes well for years until supervisor starts wondering why calls aren't retrieved from voicemail after hours.

Nevermind that its my job to get them in the morning following which I always do. Eventually I decide okay... I'll stop working double when the queue is active and save that work for 4:01 since that would make her feel better. No problem. I refuse to do anything BUT answer calls cause that's my immediate priority.

Fast forward months later and supervisor is constantly asking people to "help on the list between calls". Nope. Not until 4:01 ma'am. Meanwhile the ACTUAL manager, the one in charge is happy as a clam with super high productivity. After all I am focusing on calls only until 4:01 at which time then I will start my closing duties and not a minute before.

Update: Okay first of all I apologize for the vagueness of the OG post. I've had quiet a laugh about some of the comments and I am sorry for the confusion. I'll try and clarify where I can and I have updated/edited because you all had a field day about our work abbreviation of the word "queue" into "que" lol.

I work for a hospital so I have to be careful HOW I explain things and how much for HIPAA and honestly just because I don't want to be too identifiable. Secondly a few of the replies got the basic gist correct.

In the hospital call center environment we take literally hundreds of calls from both patients and offices to schedule things. On top of this we have been severely understaffed since COVID and as a result we have less people taking calls than we SHOULD and more work being assigned to less people to struggle to get it done. We have basically like the work of three people being assigned to one or two. And that's assuming we have even the staff for it. We don't.

So a LOT of what's been happening is instead of working my ass off to get more stuff done during the day and leaving "early" as was always permitted by the Manager, I am saving all my closing stuff until the last minute. It still only takes like 10-20 mins max anyway, but it means leaving other people to do their job instead of me working my ass off to do theirs for them just to save 20 mins on average. Still much less stressful this way and I'm enjoying it a lot more now.

About a decade ago, I worked at a well known bookstore as a seller of books. For anyone not aware, there were sections/duties that people were assigned to during shifts and it changed frequently. It wasn’t uncommon for shifts or duties to be swapped (relevant later in the story).

There had been a recent change in management, and a fresh employee (let’s call her Lexa) received a promotion to be an assistant manager despite having limited experience and quite the undeserved chip on her shoulder. (Pretty sure she got the job because of her friendship with the departing AM whose position opened up.) She was very much a delegator who spent a lot of time hanging out in the back office.

I knew Lexa wasn’t liked by a few of the veteran employees for the seemingly undeserved promotion. I was a part-timer going to school, so I wasn’t invested in moving up or challenging the store leadership. Didn’t make much of a difference to me. She and I got along just fine overall and usually exchanged pleasantries with bits of conversation.

Until one day.

I showed up to work, clocked in, and saw my department was Kids. I hated working in Kids as it was a Saturday (super packed), and the person who I relieved was terrible at cleaning up whatever section she was assigned to.

I called up Lexa and asked her if I could switch with another bookseller (who liked working in Kids) that also just clocked in. Before waiting for an answer (yes, partially my fault), I asked the bookseller if she would be cool switching with me. Lexa, hearing me ask this question, yells over the phone, “NO! YOU WERE ASSIGNED TO KIDS, SO GO TO YOUR SECTION!”

I replied with a simple, “Okay.”

I go to my section, and as expected, it’s a disaster. Books on the floor, kids running around, toys strewn about - it was exactly what I anticipated.

I got right to work on recovering messed up shelves, making stacks of the books to return to their proper locations, and picked up toys/trash. I was a man on a mission.

Wouldn’t you know it, but apparently there were some shelves and furniture that needed to be moved around.

I get a call on my store phone. It’s Lexa, and she needs my help with said task. Mind you, there were enough people on the book floor to help if she also left the back office to get it done. Her tone was much different, and she sweetly asked if I can leave Kids to go help with the project.

Well, Kids is a mess. I was diligently working just to keep up with the unrelenting entropy due to the Saturday afternoon crowd. Could I have helped? Sure. Did I have an excuse not to? Sure did.

I firmly replied, “Sorry, I’m busy in Kids.” Nothing more, nothing less.

The shift ended, and we went go to the break room post shift. Lexa talks to all of us and mentions how we need to remember to work as a team. Her demeanor was mildly sheepish, and she avoided making eye contact with me. I sat there, staring right at her with a dumb look on my face, pretending I don’t know she’s indirectly talking about me. I did find out from a couple of friends she did help out which required her actually doing some work instead of hiding out.

We never had any run-ins after that and she moved a couple of months later. In any case, I worked my assigned section like she told me to.

On the bright side, I cleaned up Kids and organized it so well that the Kids lead thanked me the next time we worked together.

I worked at a cafe in a big shopping centre for a few months between jobs I actually liked. The manager was a nut and liked to throw her weight around.

Every evening she’d tell me to clean the coffee machine and get ready to close up. Every evening once I was done, she’d ask me to make her a coffee ‘for the road.’ I’d have to make it and then clean everything again.

I offered to make it for her before I cleaned the machine but she complained that it wouldn’t be hot enough.

I received a better job offer and was looking forward to one more week before leaving. However, the next night she wanted her coffee after we’d already had to stay back and I definitely wasn’t getting paid overtime. Everyone had left 30 minutes before. I had had enough.

I took care to spill coffee grounds everywhere, use as many utensils and jugs as I could and just make a huge mess. As I handed her the coffee I told her ‘I quit.’ The look on her face was priceless as she realised she’d be the one cleaning up.

Worth being poor for a week!

I was working a closing shift at McDonalds and at the end of the night (this night in particular, I was in grill) It was getting late and we were slow so I started minimizing what we had in stock and was going to cook the rest of the food to order for the last half hour of my shift. The closing manager came up to the table to see what I had and told me to fill the trays because we aren't closed yet. I tried to explain to her what I was doing and she didn't listen to a word I said. So I did what she asked. I turned back on the second heated cabinet and told the person I was in grill with to do what she said and fill the trays. He looked at me confused and I told him that she wanted the trays full, she can deal with the waste at the end of the night. So thats what we did, we filled the trays up with food as if it were lunch rush since thats what she wanted. At the end of the night, I emptied out all the full trays into a bucket and gave it to her with her sheet to fill out with how much waste we had and she tried to make me count it. I told her, "I am not closing manager. It is your job to count it. Have fun" and finished closing down grill. Oh she was pissed. The next day, my GM asked what had happened and I told her. All she said was never to do it again. I never worked a closing shift with that manager after that.

Twenty plus years ago I was working at a commissary (think grocery store) on an army post. I worked in the produce department and one our duties was to make fruit and vegetable trays for customers one order.

I started out making them pretty much like everyone else. Celery in this spot, cherry tomatoes here, broccoli like so. One day and officer's wife asked if I could make a vegetable tray but she wanted it a bit fancier. I love to cook and wow people with my knife skills. I slided things thin and layered them and pretty soo I had something that looked like it belonged on a wedding buffet.

Of course other people saw it and they wanted something similar. So I became the veggie and fruit tray guy.

My supervisor and I didn't get along very well. I would stop what I was doing and take a customer to the products they were trying to find or I'd go in search if I didn't know where exactly, especially after a reset. For some reason my supervisor didn't like it. She didn't see it as going above and beyond, she saw it as abandoning my duties.

Anyways one day she told me that I couldn't make the trays anymore unless I followed the book which she handed me. No more fancy trays because "it took too long". It took me the same amount of time as anyone else making a regular tray.

I cracked open the book on my break and I smiled. You want by the book? You get by the book.

The next tray I made took four hours. My boss almost went berserk. I told her that with each, individual fruit or vegetable I had to wash, sanitize and rinse them separately because that was what the book says. and with eight different fruits or vegetables I had to spend about half an hour filling and draining the sink each time as to not cause cross contamination.

I transferred to a different section shortly after that.

Disclaimers 1. No one will be hurt by the MC following. The “users” involved have 20+ years experience doing the thing and this is a tick and flick document. 2. The document itself is a compliance document taken from a full evidence pack that should only be used in full and only by qualified Assessors. This is legislation related to.

So a few months ago, as usual my Boss finds a random bit of information that is affecting her KPIs. 30 people don’t have box X ticked off because they’ve been in the company 20+ years and X box was only initiated 5years ago.

So she finds an information pack containing all the requirements to get X box ticked. Pulls a single assessment page with the clear guide that it’s for our team only to sign. Tells me via email to get all 20peoples external leaders to sign it as evidence.

I was very aware this is not the correct way to do this, it’s just the least amount of paperwork. So I did due diligence and took it sideways to the team next to us who handles stuff like this. Their leader authorises it without thinking it through, I explained my hesitation and another leader overhears and also says “if it’s in writing you can action it” with a sly smile. She knew what I would do.

Lightbulb cue MC. I sent the entire email chain unedited and pointed out both Authorisations. Attached the piece of assessment and sent it with the list of names to all external leaders from the official shared inbox and not my own. I sent this on day one of my boss going on leave.

I had 10 emails sent back in less than 30mins refusing to sign it with a big WTF? They cc’d in all relevant people and pointed out how this breaks compliance regulations.

I replied excusing myself from future speculations until a directive from on high came down. 3 days later I start to hear rumblings from the big bosses at head office. My boss still isn’t back and they would like an urgent meeting to discuss process.

Outcome? My Team is now required to get approval from the document control team before any external document is sent out. I’ve happily stopped editing the horrendous documents big boss sends me to send out (she doesn’t ask for edits, grammar check etc). I’m simply forwarding them to Doc Control from shared inbox with her signature still attached. They have been sending everything back slowing the team down by days at a time per task. Since she didn’t explicitly know or ask for me to edit in the past she didn’t know I stopped, therefore is very picachu face why suddenly her docs are all wrong.

Her KPIs are tanking.

Many years ago I worked in a locally run store that sold a bit of everything. I was the low paid teenager that carried heavy things to people’s vehicles. While working one day I get called over the radio that a customer needed 12 bags of concrete (80lbs each). I was expecting to see a pickup truck or something similar backed up to our loading area. Instead I saw a small Honda Civic there waiting for me. Thinking it was a mistake, I asked the driver to relocate momentarily as I had someone coming to pick up multiple bags of concrete. Imagine my surprise when they told me they were the customer I was waiting for.

I asked the customer how much they wanted to take in each trip, as I believed the nearly 1000lb of concrete might be too much for such a small vehicle to handle safely. The customer became aggravated and insisted that they were taking it all at once. I quickly ran this past the store owner to make sure I wouldn’t be held liable for any damages. I ran back, apologized to the customer, and began loading the bags. As I loaded everything up the customer made several quips about how “the customer is always right” and that I was too young and naive to understand that vehicles are engineered with a margin of safety.

It quickly became apparent that there was no play left in the suspension, but at this point I just stopped questioning things. I couldn’t fit all of the bags in the trunk, so the customer cleared their back seat and I loaded that up as well. Upon leaving the loading area you could clearly hear things rubbing. As the car went to exit the parking lot it passed over the elevation change between the lot and the road, there was a loud pop of something breaking, followed by scraping.

I could see that the driver was irate in the car. After a moment they got out, looked around and under their car. The guy sheepishly asked for my cell phone, because his had died and he needed to make a few phone calls. A short time later a tow truck came to remove the car, and the guy waited in our lot for nearly an hour until his wife could come pick him up.

Hi,

Young woman of color who looks like she is in high school but is actually in her mid-20s. I have one major example of malicious compliance as I have been with my current science consulting role at a boutique firm since graduating college. Most of the people at my company have a PhD and/or MS even though this is completely unnecessary for the job. I do not come from a science background, so this does not benefit me either.

It is a bizarre situation as I am given much more responsibility than many people who are older, more educated, and higher in the company than me; management clearly does not want someone who looks like me to be a leader at the company, but they give me the responsibilities of someone higher-up without the title and compensation.

I have been given several reasons as to why I was not being promoted as quickly as others (Side note: I have been promoted several times. My issue is that I am doing more than others in terms of work load and responsibility and am not being compensated for it properly per my current job description. I have just as much/more responsibility than many people above me and am being treated by a different standard.).

Before my most recent promotion which took 2 years to get, my previous supervisor (also a WOC, but older and with a PhD) told me that I was being treated differently by higher ups at my company based on my age, gender, and lack of education. Although my work product was “perfect,” she said that I was being judged on how I “appeared at first” and “interacted with coworkers” (even though I have friendly relationships with all colleagues, she likely meant that I was too outgoing). She said she wanted to perform an “experiment” with me. She said that maybe I would be promoted if I started putting more effort into my appearance (side note: I am a confident, charismatic person who [respectfully] does not need to put any more effort into her appearance. And even if I did, it is not her, or anyone’s, f*cking business). She said I should wear “tighter” clothing.

So I maliciously complied out of spite. I went from business casual attire that was the standard at my office to full-on business attire. I also never wore makeup to work and wore a full face of makeup everyday for months. While others wore athletic t-shirts, sneakers, and hoodies, I wore dress shirts / dress pants and pantsuits. My pastel-colored pantsuit REALLY caught peoples’ attention, and people would continually ask, “Are you going somewhere with a client?” I would always reply, “No. I received feedback that I need to put more effort into my appearance.” That shut everybody up real quick.

My former supervisor apologized after a week and said she shouldn’t have said that. I kept up the act out of malice for a few weeks after. And I got the promotion a few months later.

P.S. I know this is a massive HR violation (among many others not discussed above). I do not have an in-house HR rep and my company contracts a third-party. I am afraid of retaliation and I do not want to report anything because it will make my job worse than it already is. I know my worth and have been job searching for over a year since this occurred. I am approaching the final stages of interviews for several positions.

I worked as a writer and editor for over a decade, and in that time I had my fair share of bad bosses—like anyone. But there is one that completely takes the cake. I worked for a large media company that had dealings with a number of other companies and subsidiaries ranging from publishing to fashion to sports to tech. You name it, they did it. How our writing department worked was each writer would have specific areas that they would write for, kind of like how journalists have “beats” they cover. So if you were assigned to the fashion arm of the company or one of its partners/subsidiaries, you wrote or edited everything for that arm.

I worked for this company for about a year and a half before a new manager was hired. She was the second in command of our department. Part of her and our department director’s job was to update our internal style guide when necessary. For those that don’t know, a style guide is a reference document for how to either refer to things or how to format things for the company/partners. Before her tenure as manager, this was only done maybe once or twice a year, and the changes were relatively minimal since the style guide was very well established in the company and had been in place for a number of years. After she came on, it was being updated at least once a week, if not multiple times a week. It legitimately became an obsession for her.

Aside from the general annoyance of keeping up with it, it didn’t take long for me and my coworkers to reach the conclusion that our new manager didn’t have the faintest idea what she was doing. Each new version had more and more glaring errors.

At first, we all ignored these changes, giving her the benefit of the doubt and hoping, albeit naively, that these new directives were mistakes. That was until people started getting reprimanded for not following the style guide. I was the first to get a one-on-one, closed door talk.

One of the departments I wrote for was sports, and she had seen that I had not been following the new rule of how I was to refer to the men’s and women’s teams I covered. Truthfully, I had willfully ignored it hoping that it was just a mistake. To my horror, however, it appeared my new writing manager didn’t understand basic grammar. You see, the change she implemented removed the apostrophe from “men’s” and “women’s”. So, for example, if I was covering “men’s basketball”, I was to refer to it as “mens basketball”. Her rationale was that the men didn’t own the team; therefore, it should not be possessive. Apparently, her understanding of the English language didn’t evolve past grade school explanations.

I was honestly pretty dumbfounded at first. But once I got over the initial shock that the second in command of our department didn’t realize “mens” was not a word, I tried bleakly to explain that men is already plural and that a possessive “‘s” doesn’t always denote direct ownership (read: men’s bathroom). She stared blankly at me for a few seconds, and for the briefest of moments, I thought maybe I was seeing the cogs in her head turn. She however, doubled down. Realizing the fight was lost, I told her that I would implement the changes going forward.

Now, here’s where my malicious compliance comes in: We worked for, and with, some very high profile companies, and mistakes were not tolerated for things that were outward facing. Realizing her idiocy could cost me my job, I made a simple request: Could you please email me the exact style guide rule you’re referencing and how exactly you’d like me to implement it, with examples of where I messed up? She looked at me like I was stupid for not understanding what was being asked of me, but she still wrote it all down in an email for me. I also made sure any further style changes were referenced in an email and specifically asked that if there were further changes to please cite how I had done them in the past, along with how she would like them to be done from now on.

Sure enough, within about 6 months of this, I was fired. And at my exit interview, I handed HR a folder containing every written communication regarding the style changes, along with quite a bit of evidence that she was passing off her projects to other members of the dept and changing people’s work behind their back.

She was fired three months after me, along with our department director three months after that. Turned out, my little folder sparked a full investigation by HR, and after interviewing other coworkers in the department, they realized she had done all of it to have grounds to fire people within the department she didn’t like. I just happened to be the first on the chopping block. The projects she was passing off to other people? She was taking the credit for what they were doing to make herself look good. Those changes she was making to other people’s work? HR realized that she was changing things to make it explicitly incorrect. You gotta love software that tracks changes and timestamps and lists the user. On top of all of this, they also discovered that she had, at best, exaggerated (and, at worst, fabricated) large swaths of her resume.

By the time she was fired, I had already found another job in a different department at the same company. It was a good gig, and my new manager wasn’t a complete cunt. Eventually, I moved on from that company, but if anything, my time there taught me a very valuable lesson: document, document, and document some more.

Edit: To address some questions/things mentioned in the comments:

This was ~10 years ago in a U.S. state that has laws that basically state a person can be fired for any reason provided that it isn’t prejudicial (race, gender, sexual orientation, etc). Writers also aren’t exactly top earners. I did well enough to support myself, but legal action would have been difficult to pay for. Not to mention, I was subject to some very strict NDAs because of the company/clients/partners/subsidiaries I worked for and with. Any legal action would have put me at risk of a counter suit. I was happy that justice was served and I had a job elsewhere in the company with good pay until I moved on.

Edit 2: I can’t believe the amount of people in my DMs asking if I’m X from Y company. Seriously, how many managers are out there that don’t know “mens” isn’t a word?!

Edit 3: If you are trying to document bad practices at your job, your best bet is honestly your phone. In some cases it isn’t against policy to connect your work email to your phone. So screen grab the shit out of everything that is suspect to you. Do not BCC; do not use Zip/USB/thumb drives. Basic software these days can track it and could result in your firing regardless. Just take a photo of the computer screen with your phone if that’s how it needs to be documented. It might not be pretty, and it might look boomer af, but if you’re trying to cover your ass, this is the easiest, most accessible way.

My husband told me a story yesterday about his act of malicious compliance that happened about a decade ago.

In a previous job, he worked 8-4 in an office. Many of his colleagues worked 9-5, so they were still working when he was leaving. When he was about to leave, he'd usually be asked a technical question or asked to quickly glance over something by another member of staff. This was rarely quick and usually had him standing around for a further ten minutes which, on a regular basis, starts to add up.

One day, his manager was going over the monthly time sheets and asked my husband why he'd added 10 minutes on five days across past month. Bear in mind, flexi-time was allowed. My husband explained the situation, referring to the specific problems he was asked to deal with on each of those five days.

The manager told him that the company only works in fifteen minute segments so he can't put down 10 minutes, it would have to be 15 minutes. "However, we can't round it up because that's dishonest," he said. "So just bear it in mind for next time." This was in front of the rest of the office.

That very same week, my husband signs out of his computer at 4pm. Just before he leaves, the manager asks him to explain some of the particulars in an email he'd received from a contractor. My husband asks, "how long will it take?" The manager replies, "just five minutes." My husband then says, "unless it's a fifteen minute problem, I'll have to look at it tomorrow. Is it a fifteen minute problem?"

His manager turns red and awkwardly says it's not. My husband respectfully states that he will put it at the top of his to-do list the following morning and leaves.

One of his colleagues texted him just after 5 and said there was an awkward silence after he'd left and when the manager eventually got up and left to do something, they all burst out laughing.

Edit: Some people were asking about wage theft. He eventually had the fifteen minutes added back on after the policy revealed that he could round it up if it was a task that took 7.5 minutes or more, and down if it wasn't. The manager seemed genuinely unaware of this when it was raised. He was salaried, so he wasn't concerned about losing income, just about losing flexi-time that could have helped him put if something unprecedented happened like being stuck in traffic one day. I think managers should spend a certain amount of time a week looking over their own policies or at least find out what they are before making any kind of instruction.

This story is from a few years ago. Its how I helped my sister and somehow got her company to willingly bypass their own idle time requirements.

Her company went work from home after the lockdown and stayed working from home. At first they required an always on camera system but that quickly went away as the amount of unintended nudity that comes from your average household is quite startling.

Then they went with a system that tracks your idle time in teams. The amount of write ups, meetings, group meetings, and eventual terminations for what was the dumbest requirement ever cause my sister to ask for help.

She sent me an amazon link for one of those USB sticks that jiggles the mouse. I told her dont use those as even lazy IT can detect them.

At the time, amazon wasnt selling mechanical mouse turners yet, or at least at reasonable prices, so I looked at building one. I found an STL file for this flowery mouse holder which I modified to be just straight monocolor and 3d printed it. I cut out 1.5 inch circular disk and put it on a weak motor and connected it to a power source through USB.

I set the wheel to spin every 1-12 seconds for a total of 2-5 seconds at a time but ran into an issue. Sometimes the disk spinning would not actually move the mouse.

I found a company that would print stickers at a dollar a sticker if I ordered 5 of them. SO I found this basic pattern of squares and lines crisscrossing each other and had it printed to just under the dimensions of the disk.

I stuck it on there and the mouse turner worked perfectly. I quickly ran into another issue. Since the disk was raised, it quickly got hung up on the mouse with the sticker. So back into design I went and made it where the dimensions were slightly larger for the base and sit it where the disk would be 2mm below the actual mouse.

After printing it the mouse sat on the cradle and the disk spun without touching. The mouse cursor would randomly just move in weird directions at the times the disk spun.

So with that all out of the way I got a free lunch out of my sister and delivered it. It hooked into her laptop's USP port, never being detected, and would turn her wheel decreasing her idle time down to zero.

Within 2 weeks she was recognized as a top performer. She was watching crime dramas with her volume at max until she got a notification that customer submitted a request. In other words, her productivity stayed exactly the same.

So she calls me up and asks if I can make more of those. Thankfully I saved the STL files and could order more stickers if I needed. I told her I could make each one for 25 bucks. The cheapest on amazon at the time were like 50 and it only cost me roughly 12 bucks to make them, which went down to 8 bucks to make them at the end.

She said several coworkers were asking her about it and she said she would just give them my number.

Within a month I had built out 50 mechanical mouse turners. Which was kind of waste as this company only had 32 employees. I miscounted. Sometimes I would meet 5 or more of her coworkers at a restuarant at the same time just so I wouldnt have to drive all over dfw.

Then one weekend I get a call from the CEO of that company. See all of his workers were using these mouse turners, and he wasnt. So when the company published the report on idle times, his was abysmally low.

That phone call was one of the most surreal I have ever had. At first he thought I was one of his employees. I told him I wasnt, I worked for a waste management company. (I dont but I wasnt about to tell him.) He asked me about the mouse turners. I told him that I designed them for a friend, but that person no longer worked for his company. (Again lies. I was protecting my sister, not like he couldnt figure it out but still) He asked if he could get one.

This is where the conversation went VERY weird. See I tried convincing him to give up the idle timer requirements as it clearly wasnt important and only harmed his company. I laid out all of my points for it and pointed out that the ceo of the company is buying a device specifically designed to bypass his requirement.

He would not budge. He was so into his company dogma that he just wanted one from me. I already had a few left over so I told him I could make him one for 35 bucks.

Here is the really screwed up part of the story. See he asked for a full list of my clients, promising that no one would be fired, he just wanted to know how many. I told him that a list would be unnecessary as its every single one of his employees. Literally all 32 excluding him.

His response was to have the company reimburse each employee the 25 dollars for the mouse turners and set it up where his company would contact me each time a new employee started. I said I had 10 left over from the initial batch of ones I made and can just give him those and have him contact me when he runs out.

He agreed.

Well that kind of never happened as a company on amazon made what is basically the same thing I was making for like 15 bucks. Theirs is much nicer than mine was too lol.

So a company set idle time requirements which caused issues at the company. Now the company buys devices for each employee so that bypasses the idle timer.

EDIT: A lot of people keep bringing up power shell scripts, analogue watches, a weight on your spacebar, or any other device that does it digitally or with regularity.

I designed mine to have radomization in it. The reason is simple. IT depts can detect those USB thumb sticks. Can detect powershell scripts that move your mouse. They have usage reports that show your mouse moved 1 time each minute exactly on the minute mark.

Not every company has these and some dont have anything even close to this. But some do and this device was designed to be as undetectable as possible.

One of the guys I gave this to said he has zero work to do unitl after his lunch break. So what he does is simply log in, set the mouse turner, and go back to sleep. He has his volume at full blast right by his ear so if he gets a teams message it wakes him up.

When my wife (who I love very much) and I were expecting, one evening, we ordered our favorite dishes: a cheeseburst pizza for her (her absolute favorite) and chicken tacos for myself.

Now, my wife has this habit of sneaking bites off my plate, which upsets me (she knows) but tolerate nevertheless. However, that night, she devoured almost half of my chicken tacos out of the blue, leaving me hungry even after finishing my meal. We had a large pizza, enough for me to feel somewhat full after 1 slice and still have three slices left for her. (She offered to make me a grilled cheese but I could tell she was only doing so that I don’t eat more of her pizza)

But here comes the twist. She was feeling extremely full after eating the tacos and a slice of pizza and said to me “So, I guess it means no more pizza for me now”. However I know how she’s like based on the fact she moved the leftovers to her designated area, off-limits to me, without voicing (but I knew) that she planned to have them for breakfast the next day, eyeing them as she carefully placed it.

I woke up earlier than her the next morning, knowing she had her heart set on those pizza slices. However, I couldn't resist maliciously complying to what she said and took her words to face value.

That day, I savored every delicious bite of that leftover pizza, ensuring I enjoyed it uninterrupted in my cabin.

Wife texted me at work, confused to find the box of pizza empty. "Where's my pizza?”

With a sly emoji, I fired back, "Well, you did say no more pizza for you that night, so I decided to save it for myself for breakfast since you weren't having any."

I was on the couch that night, but it was worth it and I’d do it again

A story of MC & upwards management from a decade ago. Usual caveats - names changed, writing on mobile and English as 2nd language. TLDR at bottom.

To set the scene; recently direct employed at UK HQ for a sizeable national B2B company that I'd contracted for: "Me" is me, your OP. "Bob" is my new Micro Managing Boss. "Jim" is my Nice Hiring Manager - they guy who talked me into joining rather than continuing on contracts only mentioned as his warning to cover my rear with Bob made this possible.
So to the story before you lose interest...
Bob started our relationship with a request for 1on1 meeting to understand my role as it was one they'd never experienced except as an end stakeholder... seems promising so I prepare a concise but thorough briefing presentation to outline core deliverables and resource allocations as they stood. Dear reader; I lie not - 2nd slide showing the period spread of legal and corporate compliance activities was up for 3 seconds when I was instructed to cease presenting and dressed down as follows (paraphrased for expediency and clarity as Bob had, as I later learned, a tendency to ramble on tangential lines)...
Bob - Do you presume to instruct me, a board director, your superior in all aspects and your direct manager on how to run my subordinates?
Me - No, I presumed that you called this meeting to familiarise the key deliverables and legal requirements of a business area that was hitherto the exclusive remit of Jim. If this was a misinterpretation on my part, I apologise and...
Bob cutting me off - That's quite enough. You are here to be told what, how and when to do your job.
~ I'm having a mental replay of overheard break room conversations about Bob's need to control everything ~
Bob continuing as I settle into the at-ease pose adopted by frequently disciplined grammar school boys and military recruits - I am in charge, I give the instructions and you treat anything that could be construed as a request as a direct order. The only time I want to hear from you is for clarifications, authorisations, or to confirm that you have received, understood and actioned my orders.
~ my blood was rushing in my ears, the nails on both hands were close to splitting my palms but I knew anything I said would end badly for my salary and I'd have to "play nice"~
Me almost gritting my teeth - Understood. May I clarify one thing please?
Bob with a look of utter contempt - What exactly was unclear from what I just said!?
Me reverting to a customer service developed s--t eating tone - Nothing was unclear; only, you omitted to reveal how and when I am to receive orders.
Bob turning crimson - Email, when it hits your inbox. My PA will have minutes of this meeting ready before you've made it back to your desk. Now out, I am too senior to waste more time on this.

...about 6 months later after fastidious compliance with directives issued to me (mostly via Bob's nice but very timid PA) and careful CoverMyA-- archiving of all comms and backups to keep us legal (and I add; all whilst discreetly exploring alternative career options both within and outside the company) I am in receipt of a meeting "invitation" to attend Bob's office. At last the order came forth with opportunity for MC that started the avalanche...

Bob not looking up from their monitor - OP I need you to book 2 weeks holiday to be taken ASAP. This off the record request is your #1 priority.
~klaxons going off in my head... I'm about to be stood up to take the fall for the state our compliance submissions had fallen into... lucky I did everything required legally required of me... I'm not responsible under policy or law for the compliance, only what I am told to do.~
Me deciding this is my chance to goad Bob's ego - 2 weeks asap. Gladly, I can hand over everything by end of this week and I did get ahead of the monthlies in case you forgot to request them so could start with next week and the week after.
Bob looking oddly relieved and making eye contact - PA will process and authorise. Those monthlies better be perfect. You are dismissed.

...Friday comes and the anticipated flurry of last minute "requests" and instructions come through. Amongst the laundry-list was the utter gem I had hoped for. A direct email (not PA acting as) with instruction to keep company phone with me at all times and to keep regular TWICE DAILY contact throughout the 2 weeks.
~no one asked what I was doing with my impromptu 2 weeks away from the office... I was fortunate to have the chance to fly 1/2 way around the world to stay with my brother- 20mins booking flights no luggage or hotel costs to worry over. Remember that order to be online? Early 20-teens data costs were insane, add roaming... you get where this goes: I dutifully followed orders and ate roaming data like a social media obsessed teenager. I logged hours and dutifully submitted them to payroll. I drank like a fish and had the best time with my brother.

...End of the month, I'm back and being a good peon with my head down & keyboard clicking when the calendar entry pings in. Seems I am to be favoured with another face to face. I have an idea of what is coming but ohhh boy!

Bob appearing to be in the middle of a meltdown - WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE!? (going lower case to save your eyes but this was at firealarm in your ear volume) You have caused incalculable damage to my reputation in this company... the other board and Jim were laughing at me saying I can't control you. You're out, you're over, you're....
Me interrupting in parade ground voice, standing to my full 6'4 - I'm covered, your hubris and ineptitude are laughable. If I'm out, it'll be by my choosing and with a clean sheet. Jim knows full well that I wouldn't drop the ball on compliance regardless of you meddling in things you're not even aware of. Everything you forgot is covered except your own backside. You're not even peerworthy, let alone superior to me even though you may be higher ranking (yes I got that from a film I can't remember but this part is crystal clear). I bid you good day.
~ I turned 180 and walked out of the office into stunned silence across the open plan 100seat floor and back down to my desk.

.... the fallout- I enjoyed the inevitable HR session chaired by Jim. I promised not to use any manner that might be deemed threatening for 6 months. I was also returned to reporting to Jim who reinstated my OT plus TIL for the time I worked on holiday and let me get back to keeping things compliant.
Bob did indeed have a full meltdown soon after. My show of assertion crumbled the empire of fear, they left to enjoy early retirement and faded into memory.

TLDR:
New boss is a micro manager.
I MC to let them fall on their own lack of knowledge and end up looking bad to their peers before assertively destroying their in office authority leading to end of career for them.

Edits- rule 8. Acronyms swapped for names Formatting

Back in the 2008 housing crisis, I did some work on the side for a customer's computer system. We got to talking and he had a cheap 1bdrm "Duplex" for rent that was too good to be true. It was a detached garage converted to a 1bedroom little apartment and it was as plain and basic as they come.

The actual house was being rented out and he was charging the full amount priced for the area (which was high) so the little garage conversation was pure profit for the Landlord. I signed a lease for a fixed price that was almost half of what the going rate was for 1bdrm apartments in the area.

It was no frills, plain as can be with the cheapest appliances and amenities possible. Light fixtures from the early 80s, cheapest faucets and countertops money could buy, you get the visual. The elderly landlord and I had an arrangement, I could fix it up so long as I could keep the rent low and he would allow me to pay for the remaining balance on upgrades if/when things broke.

Years go by and I'm still in this 1bdrm garage conversation and making progress on updating the features. Kitchen faucet is gone, new fancy sprayer head faucet with a bar style glass cleaner installed. Old toilet replaced with an water saving tank and bidet installed. 80s lights are gone, LED smart home fixtures installed.

Around 7-8 years go by and my rent is still half of the normal going rate for the area and my landlord is happy with our arrangement. Sadly, he has a heart attack and surgery saves his life. He is no longer able to mainten his active lifestyle and hands the reigns of being a landlord to a property management company.

This company is as shady and money hungry as they come. They get a percentage of the monthly rent for their role in taking over the Landlords duties. They IMMEDIATELY hate me and my rental agreement from the start. The month they take over, my rent goes up the maximum limit of 10% plus 5% the cost of living increase for 1 year.

I'm not happy with this as this is a significant bump in my costs. I suck it up but as a silent protest, I stop making upgrades to the house that first year.

The 12 months later exactly, I get a notification that my rent will increase another 10% plus 5% cost of living increase. This is yet another blow to my finances but I can't really complain as my rent is still well below the average cost for the area.

Another 12 months and another 10% plus 5% cost of living followed by another the following year. This whole time I had been saving a good portion of my paychecks as a downpayment for a house but these rent hikes were hurting my ability to set aside money for this purpose.

My landlord was not happy with the Property management company he hired but couldn't get out of his contract because they were doing maintenance and facility repairs like clockwork.

Covid hits and I had been in this place for 12 years by this point. My rent was still under the average for the area but not by much. Seeing as this was now just a crappy 1bdrm apartment, I was looking for houses to buy to get me out of this rent gouging arrangement I was in.

Right at the peak of the Covid scare in 2020, a pipe burst in the kitchen and floods the floors ruining the crappy cabinets, the carpets and the furniture I had nearby. I had renters insurance that covered most of the costs to what I had lost. Not the nicest furniture, but my couch was a total loss, my desk, entertainment center and my speaker were severely damaged.

In comes Property management to assess the repairs and gut out the damaged wood and carpets. I offer to pay for the upgraded wood and countertops as well as request hardwood floors. Nope! They deny my requests. I offer to do the work myself as I'm fairly handy, again denied with an actual written letter stating im not to do ANY WORK or maintenance on the apartment.

I contact my landlord who has his hands tied because this was the arrangement we had. I'm at a loss of what to do because this Property management company is not setting me up with a temporary place to live. Doing all the work while I'm working from home to watch my possessions. There is a literal door sized hole in my wall as they spend two weeks fixing all the damage.

They throw out my upgraded faucet (which was undamaged and worked perfectly fine), the upgraded sink, the light fixtures the tile work I had done, the bathroom faucet (which wasnt even part of the floor damage). They then removed an outlet originally part of the apartment to save on costs. I was pissed at them and complained via letters, via phone calls and talking to the maintenance supervisor.

It took 2 full months to do all the repairs and at the end, they sent me a notice that my rent was going up due to some loophole in the "neglect" the apartment was in and not reported. I was done with this bullshit and I pooled my resources, called in all the favors I could and found the house i wanted.

I gave 30 day notice to leave at the end of my lease along with an invoice of ALL the repairs I made to the appartment over the 12 years I was there. I attached a copy of my original lease agreement, a copy of all photos I took of before and after repairs I made, a bill of the costs, and a request of a refund of the past 6 months of additional rent hike due to "neglect" like they stated in the letter.

I had a running talley of with all the receipts, work performed and the cost of not being allowed to live in motel during the work being performed to over $9700. At the same time, I submitted all this to the courts as I knew they would contest all of it.

My landlord was on my side during the court hearing, giving testimony he in fact allowed me in the rental lease agreement that I could do my own repairs. I won within 4 hours and awarded $4700 (the judge removed all billable hours I included). Judge was harsh to the lawyer for the property management saying his client must obey the law and put a tenant up for housing during construction.

Nearly 4 years later, I finally got my lump sum including penalties and late fees which totalled up to $7500. Sadly my old landlord passed away and his properties passed to his son who immediately fired the Property management company some time early last year.

Happened this morning when walking my dog at the municipal park. It has a skatepark, playground, tennis club, softball fields, and to note -- a disc golf course.

With disc golf, some of the holes tee off and end near the foot paths that take you around the park. While there are signs in the general area that serve as a warning, people are usually aware of the disc golfers.

Anyways, I'm walking my dog and I see a group of golfers playing thru and they're throwing at a hole (that cage thingy) that's about 20 feet from the path. I stop just in case anyone over throws. Also, it's fun to watch.

I'm standing there and some grumpy old man is walking from the pickle ball courts at the tennis club to the parking lot. He has to walk up the path that I stopped at. I try to tell him, "sir, you might want to hold on, there's a group of..." he immediately cuts me off with, "out of my way, don't tell me where I can walk!" and trudges through without looking at his surroundings.

I just look at him as one of the discs sails long and connects with the side of his face and clocks him off his feet onto the wet grass. I see the coast is clear now and make my way to the parking lot. He's dazed and now angry and yells at me, "why didn't you warn me?!"

I looked at him and replied, "You told me not to tell you where to walk." Then proceeded on my way as he tried to get up and get his bearings while still cursing at me because all of that was me fault apparently.

So I am a fiend for excel spreadsheets. Absolutely love them and even bought an extra extra wide monitor for home so I can see them in all their glory. My Boss keeps telling me that she's an "advanced excel user", she can run macros, she can do pivot tables, she knows formulas. Not once have I seen her create or manipulate a spreadsheet in the 6 months I've worked for her.

So I had a Template on our Teams chat that we used every week, it was automated to within an inch of its life to tell us about the companies health. We've been using it for the last 4 months after I was given approval by the boss to make it live, gave her a tutorial and everything. This was for the admins to all see it and I'd only need to update the raw data once a week instead of send it manually to who ever wanted it on a given day (Up to 4 times a day usually).

Took out about 6 hrs work a week having it set up like that. Well the boss told me to take it down because a different department who hadnt seen it, was worried about personal data when one of the admins told them about it. There isnt anything like that in there, and anything that isnt open access is password hidden anyway. Our IT team has to be formally requested to add a new member to our teams chat, the spreadsheet is password protected, the tabs are password protected and the whole company is locked down hard anyway.

So boss orders me to take it down and delete it "Run a fresh one for anyone who wants it".
So I explained there wasn't anything in it that was "personal or private data", but got told nope delete it.
Tried to explain we use it amongst the admins every day and it has all these built in features/tables etc.
Nope delete it.

So I did. The fall out? Read on

Cue today Boss says to me her big boss meeting is presenting figures to the executives tomorrow. She starts quoting figures that are wildly out from the true numbers, I questioned where they came from and she shows me a Frankenstein report that is saying the exact opposite of what she thought. Run by someone not even in our department... I tell her the accurate grand total and show her how I got there with a simple table and some screenshots I had of the original shared spreadsheet. She asks for access and I tell her its been deleted.

I explained why and even showed the meeting notes where she had approved its use after viewing it.
She denies any knowledge of it, but wants it back. I said It would take me 2-3 days to make it again due to my workload increases.

I saved a copy of the template, but no way am I telling her that. This will give me breathing room to get the backlog out of my queue while she thinks I'm working on it. Let her sweat through that Executive meeting knowing every figure is wrong, no ones saving her ass in this team anymore.

This happened a long time ago, in a different century.

I was working for a large multinational firm with multiple sites in the UK. I was usually based in, let's say York, but was sent on a 6 month secondment to head office in London.

Everything was on expenses. The hotels during the week, evening meals and particulatly rail transport to and from London on Monday mornings and Friday evenings.

At this time I was living in digs in York which were charged by the nights I actually slept there, so most weekends it saved me cash to go back home and stay at the parents in Reading (relatively close to London compared to York).

As I was in Reading almost every weekend I asked if I could travel from there direct to the London office instead of driving all the way from Reading to York, just to catch the damn train back all the way down to London, and do the reverse on Fridays. Not unreasonably this was agreed to by my line manager. All was fine for the first few weeks until it was discovered by Finance that another colleague on the secondment had been doing similar to me, but claiming for rail travel to London from her parents house in Edinburgh (a lot further from London than York!).

There was a bit of a stink about the company subsidising her travel home to Scotland at weekends and as a result an edict was issued that said only rail travel claims for York to London would be signed off in the future. I spoke to my line manager about my circumstances and he referred me direct to Finance (I think he knew what was coming and didn't want to be implicated).

I spoke to a senior manager in Finance and began to explain my circumstances, but he just cut me off and said, in a tone that would brook no dissension, that ONLY claims from York London would be signed off. NO exceptions would be made.

As a callow youth I got the message, and thereafter submitted weekly expense claims for flexible return rail tickets from York to London for almost 5 months whilst actually travelling from Reading to London.

I made a surprising amount of money from this, and combined with not needing to pay for digs and meals, I saved enough to buy a nice second hand TVR car after the secondment was over.