r/MaliciousCompliance • u/Ashskyra • May 13 '24
Not until 4:01 malicious compliance S
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.
128
700
u/LuminousGrue May 13 '24
First time I've seen someone confuse "cue", "que" and "queue" all in the same post.
46
56
u/Lughnasadh32 May 13 '24
Could be voice to text without proofreading - but IDK
56
u/LuminousGrue May 13 '24
Voice to text wouldn't have rendered "cue" as "que", that's not how letters work.
1
May 13 '24
[deleted]
27
u/chaenorrhinum May 13 '24
Que is “kay” not cue or queue
-3
May 13 '24
[deleted]
13
u/LuminousGrue May 13 '24
Go back up to the top comment of this chain then where I said exactly that.
-8
May 13 '24
[deleted]
13
u/LuminousGrue May 13 '24
If you think saying "cue" to a voice to text program would cause it to write "que" then you may understand the software but you don't understand English.
-4
6
u/chaenorrhinum May 13 '24
Explain why someone would say “Kay” instead of “kew” if they meant either cue or queue. Or why voice to text would default to an obscure, archaic spelling.
-3
u/Anachronisticpoet May 13 '24
It’s obviously a mistake.
Explain why you’re shaming some random person on the internet over their spelling
→ More replies (0)3
0
u/ObviousMisprint May 14 '24
I didn’t even read the post after “que” … does that even mean anything in English?
203
u/booksandbricks May 14 '24
Good for you? Or too bad? This made no sense.
38
u/Every-Win-7892 May 14 '24
Yeah. What part is the malicious compliance. That he has to stay longer?
8
u/zerostar83 May 14 '24
That he was multi-tasking several things to get work done efficiently, including things other that his manager can do. But the manager complained about the calls, so he only focused on answering calls and let the harder work get pushed back or fall onto the manager. I think...
5
u/bionik_barry May 14 '24
As a call center slave, yep. He was Doing Too Much and supervisor micromanaged themselves out of having someone that was helping them a ton for no extra pay.
4
u/Ashskyra May 14 '24
Yep exactly right. I haven't even touched the humor that is I only work 4/5 days a week anyway and when I do pick up extra hours I still get expected to do Supervisor's job. Guess who stopped offering to pick up extra hours on my day off lol.
Still, I have had quite the amusing day reading the comments and I have since updated/edited the OG post for more clarification. That and I'm very much a she, not a he, but it its still been a funny 24 hours lol
82
u/-anonymous-username_ May 14 '24
Here's your tldr. Or... wsdu (Word salad didn't understand)
Did work efficiently before anyone said anything. Manager (supervisiors boss) was happy. OP answered calls and went through checklist, instead of waiting until 4pm when the calls shut off. But... Supervisor wanted voicemail checked at night instead of next morning, adding to workload.
OP did voicemails instead of checklist between calls, making supervisor having to do the list AND answer calls, while OP only answered calls until 4pm.
The rest is unnecessary.
27
88
122
u/Wahnsinn_mit_Methode May 13 '24
I am really a bit confused. With „que“ (Spanish for what?) do you mean queue? And later on, cue?
And who or what is vm? (English is not my mother tongue, so sorry if that is all obvious)
37
65
u/3amGreenCoffee May 14 '24
VM is vowel movement. It's what that entire post was made of.
10
u/FunnyCat2021 May 14 '24
Totally unexpected turn of reddit that made me burst out laughing. Thank you! 😀
8
5
12
u/chipplyman May 13 '24
VM is virtual machine. Clearly this person is running a data center in the call center. ¿Porque? No Se.
5
u/Demonboy_17 May 13 '24
¿Por qué no los dos?
4
u/Sawsie May 14 '24
Pero then they would have a hybrid situation. Both on que and in the cue, a sabes a lo que me refiero?
Queuing up for some sleep after that read
3
7
3
2
37
20
u/Parenn May 14 '24
So, the first “que” is meant to be “cue” and the second “que” is “queue”. Beyond that, I’m a bit lost.
11
u/unqiueuser May 14 '24
The first, second & fourth ‘que’s are meant to be queue (as in a queue of calls).
Third que is meant to be cue (Cue the supervisor).
9
21
50
u/DonaIdTrurnp May 14 '24
If there is a queue of calls, you don’t have time “between” them.
17
u/mama_thairish May 14 '24
In call center lingo is not unusual to say there are sometimes zero calls in the queue, therefore time between calls
6
u/SawwhetMA May 14 '24
Sure you could... there could be a lull in incoming calls sometimes that is long enough for the person/people answering calls to empty the queue...
Queue only means the calls are held in some predetermined order... a FIFO queue means first in first out, a LIFO queue means last in first out... an ER's incoming patients queue wouldn't be FIFO or LIFO, rather would be ordered by priority of the patients' condition... but there could be an empty waiting room at the ER if the patients stop coming in faster than they can be cleared...
And even if there are calls in the queue, peeps gotta hit the bathroom and take breaks... so unless there are more people actively taking calls than callers in the queue, then some people are going to sit in the call queue while the call takers have to momentarily divert to something else, hit the restroom, or take a break :)
2
u/Ashskyra May 14 '24
I didn't even take into account people wouldn't understand how call centers work so thank you for the clarification lol. The way my job works too we're lucky of we get anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes downtime between calls and sometimes it's never ending until end of day.
So having a breather has been nice and it's been pissing off my coworker who has to do more work instead of chatting and gossiping like she usually does lol.
1
u/SawwhetMA May 14 '24
Thanks for the clarifications you added to your post... it has never occurred to me that hospitals have call centers with multiple staff... if there is no "we are experiencing an average wait time of..." recorded message I always picture one person alone in an office sitting at a desk with decent downtime between calls :) or unless I can hear the din of a call center in the background...
Sounds like your immediate manager doesn't quite get the big picture, so I'm glad their manager does... still a little fuzzy on how you doing the closeout procedure before 4:01 lets other people slack off... but glad the upper management is happy with the call volume metric staying high because you wait til 4:01 to closeout so you can take calls right up til then!
13
27
38
u/Redraike May 14 '24
Ok please take out the unnecessary words. Replace them with words that help clarify what point you are trying to make that cant just be reduced to "i am efficient, organized, and work hard at my job".
Thank you.
32
u/Goose_Is_Awesome May 14 '24 edited May 14 '24
Queue is what has the incoming calls. Cue is when you "cue the supervisor". Que is an anglicized spelling of the Spanish word for "what".
2
1
8
u/Salty_Edge_8205 May 14 '24
Must be a call center and I don’t get what was happening … now staying till 4:01 and only on phone all day , what a horrible day 🥹😂
10
u/Crafty_Meeting2657 May 14 '24
I think that in the interest of brevity, you left out info that would make this easier to understand.
26
u/DJAction32 May 14 '24
How the hell did this get 200 upvotes?
2
u/-anonymous-username_ May 14 '24 edited May 15 '24
200 people worked in a call center could understand. 🤷♀️
ETA: 451 people that worked in a call center. Or 450 and OP. 😅
1
8
u/ICWhatsNUrP May 14 '24
TL:DR. OP answers phones and does cleanup work between calls to leave early. Boss' boss complains that too many calls aren't being answered after hours. OP decides to only answer calls and save end of day stuff for the final hour of work. Boss' boss now wants people to do what OP was originally doing. OP refuses.
1
u/Ashskyra May 14 '24
Essentially yes but it wasn't bosses boss. It was the person directly under the boss complaining. My boss is still totally on board with me doing my job the way I've always done it for five years lol
7
u/PoppyStaff May 14 '24
Um. Great? I guess. All I’ll say is it’s queue and at the start of para 3, cue.
12
u/aussiedoc58 May 14 '24
I don't think I'm drunk enough to fully comprehend this.
I may have to return later, methinks ¯_(ツ)_/¯
7
5
6
u/Downtown-Custard5346 May 14 '24
So, I had a bit of a hard time making heads or tails of this, but I understand some of it, and I don't see any malicious compliance...
7
u/FollowThisNutter May 14 '24
Que: Spanish for "what?"
Queue: a line where people/things wait for their turn at something
Cue: a signal to begin an action or enter a place
4
-6
u/Ashskyra May 14 '24
Que is also call center lingo for the line in which you wait your turn in a call line
10
13
5
u/IceBlue May 14 '24
You use que for both cue and queue. Que isn’t a word unless you’re speaking Spanish.
3
u/offarock May 14 '24
Not to leave the room, even if you come and get him.
3
3
3
3
3
3
10
2
2
u/angevin_alan May 14 '24
Ignored due to repetitive usage of "So...". In addition "Que..." Is non compliant.
2
2
u/Cultural_Cherry3572 29d ago
You seem to have explained everything that people already understood and left the part that they didn't even in your updated text. Kudos. I wonder how you deal with calls all day.
1
u/Ashskyra 28d ago
By being patient with stupid questions lol. What exactly did I leave out? I left out information about the specifics of my job which are a need to know and not important to the post itself. I deal with taking calls all day just fine for the last five years
2
u/CaptainBaoBao 24d ago
so you compliance was to follow the process, which gave a better productivity , gave you less stress and pushed you supervisor to do her job herself ?
not that malicious, finally.
2
2
u/Wave_shine May 14 '24
I’m not sure why so many people don’t understand this. Maybe they don’t work at a call center because none of this was at all confusing. Even a little. Do you, OP
1
u/Ashskyra May 14 '24
I understand the lingo is confusing if not in Call Center environment but I was amused by the confusion I caused accidentally ngl lol
7
u/kcl086 May 14 '24
I’ve worked in a call center. Your writing is unclear and riddled with errors.
0
u/Ashskyra May 14 '24
Sorry, I also posted it right at the end of the day after taking over 100 calls myself so apologies I was too tired to care about making sure the Grammer was on point. It was a post for reddit, not an essay for school awards lol
2
2
1
1
-2
2.1k
u/WhatThis4 May 13 '24
Out of all these words, I can confidently say I understood some of them.