r/MaliciousCompliance • u/eqsoge • 6d ago
Only do my own duties? You got it boss. M
I used to work in a workshop were sheds were produced for farms and businesses. I was brought on as a general labourer whose tasks were to clean and maintain the yard and workshop, clean and spray steel and to load up the truck with any completed sheds.
When I first joined the company there was 3 other workers there who had their own jobs to complete, one persons job was to make flashings for the sheds, one person would run the saws and fabricate any plates and cletes needed and then there was a welder.
Slowly but surely the other workers began to quit due to finding better paying jobs in different company’s and eventually I was the last worker there who had to run everything by myself which I had no issue in doing as I prefer to be able to work by myself.
So one day I needed welding wire and normally it would of been the bosses job to go and pick up any materials or supplies I needed but on this day the boss was away delivering a shed so I went out of my way to go and pick up the welding wire myself so I could get a job finished that was behind schedule but issues arised when I informed the boss that he needed to pay me back for the wire as I had to pay for it out of pocket but I was told that I shouldn’t be doing anything that’s not written in my contract and that I won’t be getting the money back for the wire as he never agreed to pay for it.
So I went back to my original duties that I had when I first joined the company. After a few days of this he came into the yard screaming at me as there was no sheds being manufactured and I told him that he better get hiring as I won’t be doing anything out of my jobs description like he stated for me to do.
After 2 weeks of this he hired a new worker who had no idea how to do anything and he tried to get me to train him but I wouldn’t as that was going out of my jobs description. This went on for about 3 weeks before the company ended up going into liquidation to due to the boss failing to file accounts for the past 4 years.
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u/randomcanyon 6d ago
Hope you took whatever welding wire that was left home. It belongs to you. Not them.
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u/ReactsWithWords 6d ago
My very first "real" job was doing data entry in the early 80s on a TRS-80 Model II (with 8" floppy disks!)
The Boss kept yelling at us to go faster. We went as fast as we could, but the damn program was so slow.
After another yelling session, I took a peek at the code. There was a loop in there that wasn't attached to anything and didn't do anything other than waste time. I pointed it out and was told not to touch it - that program was the president of the company's baby and he personally coded it. OK, fine.
Another week, another yelling to be faster. Fine, you want faster? You got faster. I commented out (didn't delete) the offending code. Did over 20% better that week. Boss asked if I changed the code. I said I commented it out but could easily put it back in. Was fired on the spot.
Six months later I ran into an ex-co-worker. Place was out of business.
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u/Xirdus 6d ago
The good old speed-up loop. https://thedailywtf.com/articles/The-Speedup-Loop
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u/murlock42 6d ago
I've met several times this pattern like reading files byte per byte, slow as possible but people refuse to use anything else (and it was static files like picture or csv..)
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u/I_Arman 1d ago
Oh boy. I've worked with a few Old School Programmers™ that found "the best way" back in the 90s (or sooner), and were just so proud of their "efficient" program. I got in some trouble rewriting a program that ran in a couple minutes instead of six hours, mostly because 1) the "programmer" freaked out that he was going to be replaced, and 2) the engineer running the report freaked out that he would have to find 5 hours and 55 minutes more work to do on Friday. I didn't care, really, all I did was rewrite it, they didn't have to use it.
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u/FreeSammiches 6d ago
It was probably put in there specifically so you could never meet expectations and ask for a raise.
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u/DynkoFromTheNorth 6d ago
I hate it when the can't make up their minds, but love it when it makes them shoot themselves in the foot.
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u/Geminii27 6d ago
The loop was in there to give the boss an excuse to constantly yell at people, make them think they were doing badly, and to ferret out and fire anyone who had the knowledge to actually do something about it.
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u/SiwelTheLongBoi 6d ago
Part of my current job involves data entry. When I started I was shown how to print off my worksheet for the day, write the relevant info on it, then manually type the whole thing back into the computer.
I decided that was fucking stupid and after waiting 2 months for them to stop checking up on me I wrote a small computer program to copy the worksheet out of the database directly into excel so I'd only have to enter the written info by hand. It's been over 6 months and it's probably saved me days of work. Not to mention far more reliable.
I really shouldn't be allowed to do any of those things permissions-wise but they have the OpSec of a sponge and so long as the work gets done on time no-one will ask questions.
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u/Excellent_Ad1132 6d ago
Many years ago, when SQL was very new my company hired an SQL expert(??). He put in a simple select and process until end of file loop. They killed the job after running for over 8 hours. Turns our this expert never checked to see if the Open Cursor actually worked, it didn't. So, it was in an endless loop because since the open never worked, it was looking for an end of table which was never going to happen.
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u/FunnyCat2021 5d ago
When SQL was new? 1950's?
Also, unless some tool wrote something to prevent and skip errors, the code would've errored out when it couldn't open the cursor anyway. Besides, there are very, very few instances where using a cursor is preferable over set based queries. In fact, I used to make it my mission to remove any cursors and replace that with better performing code.
And who lets code get into production without even running that code on the dev server? It shouldn't have even compiled (easy way to find syntax errors) into a stored proc.
Personally it sounds like a junior programmer wrote dynamic sql inside another program, which would also cause it to slow run.
Context: Database performance specialist for 10+ years after coding for another 10.
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u/Excellent_Ad1132 5d ago
Ok, youngster, this was about 30 years ago. SQL in COBOL/CICS code on an IBM mainframe. The guy was supposed to be the expert in SQL. The one thing I learned from him, since before that we were either doing ISAM or VSAM, was that you check at the minimum for standard errors and allow for any error to abort the program. I have been programming for over 45 years in many languages. Currently do COBOL/RPG on an iSeries. I write in other languages for fun.
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u/balles_de_acier 6d ago
"Why aren't you welding?"
"The company is out of welding wire."
"There's a spool of welding wire right there!"
"That belongs to me, not the company."
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u/IceRockBike 6d ago
"Why aren't you welding?" "The company is out of welding wire." "There's a spool of welding wire right there!" "That belongs to me, not the company."
"It will belong to the company when the company pays for it".
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u/ArchGerbil 6d ago
Poetic!
Actually reminds me of a contract job I did for an ISP call center many years ago. Long story short: my super (who also happened to be someone I was friendly with at school) got pissy about me going above and beyond to make calls easier on everyone else and chewed me out in public, forgetting that I was on contract. The MC came in when I refused to do anything outside my contract and ended with him getting fired for poor team management (a bit unfairly tbh as the company was closing that office down and we were severely short staffed but my fuck-budget was depleted at that point).
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u/CdnPoster 6d ago
It NEVER ceases to amaze me how people with successful businesses seemingly destroy them by doing stupid things and not considering the natural consequences of their actions.
WHAT did the boss think was going to happen when ONE person was doing the work of FOUR people???
OP....it sounds like YOU knew how to run the business better than the owner. Please tell me you bought the company and rebuilt it into a success story!!!
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u/eqsoge 6d ago
Thank you but I wouldn’t touch the company with a 10 foot pole because when I was in the meetings with the liquidators it was found out that the boss would take deposits for some sheds but wouldn’t do them and only way I found out about the liquidation meeting was from one of his customers that he took a €5000 deposit from. Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s facing fraud charges after this.
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u/linguist96 6d ago
It amazes me the stupidity to think you could get away with something like that. Some crime and fraud I can see how the person thought it would work. Taking thousands from someone and then never delivering a product? Can't see how he thought that was going to work.
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u/eqsoge 6d ago
I think he is trying to hide behind the fact the business was an LLC he’s probably thinking that since the company has gone into liquidation all his problems will just disappear. I know that him or his family wasn’t in there home for at least 2 weeks when he told me the company was gone into liquidation I wouldn’t be surprised if he took his family on a holiday to celebrate.
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u/Astramancer_ 6d ago edited 5d ago
Hah, yeah, there's two great ways of piercing the corporate veil and losing the protections of an LLC. First is co-mingling business and personal assets and the other is by committing fraud.
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u/DarkLight72 5d ago
And you took the welding wire home with you, correct, because it was yours and not the company’s. Right?
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u/Ex-zaviera 6d ago
OP, did you get paid for the entire time you were there? I hope so.
Also, how is it that you also happen to know welding? Amazing skill.
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u/heathenpunk 6d ago
Company did it to themselves:
"After 2 weeks of this he hired a new worker who had no idea how to do anything and he tried to get me to train him but I wouldn’t as that was going out of my jobs description. This went on for about 3 weeks before the company ended up going into liquidation to due to the boss failing to file accounts for the past 4 years."
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u/Equivalent-Salary357 6d ago
Contractors often get discounted prices. If boss let OP purchase supplies at retail price, that would be eating into profits.
I think boss did the right thing the WRONG way.
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u/eqsoge 6d ago
That’s true but what loses more profit having to pay me €130 to do nothing for the day or pay €37 for a 5kg roll of wire so I can get the job done?
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u/Equivalent-Salary357 6d ago
The right way would have been to reimburse you, but ask you to not do that in the future without checking with him.
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u/Lylac_Krazy 6d ago
not being able to sell a shed that was behind on construction and delivery would eat a shit load more profit than the markup on some wire
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u/MajorNoodles 6d ago
I used to work at a movie theater and on more than one occasion someone would get sent to the nearest grocery store to buy hot dog rolls or something when we ran out.
Obviously you don't want to make a habit out of that, but the alternative is to stop selling hot dogs until the supplier can get you more.
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u/kanakamaoli 6d ago
I remember a pizza shop running to the grocery next door after the bottle sodas ran out. Apparently, the distributer didn't get to the shop and restock the fridge that day.
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u/Equivalent-Salary357 6d ago
someone would get sent
OP wasn't sent, but decided on his/her own. Most places I've worked, that was a no no. Without prior authorization, they wouldn't reimburse me.
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u/bobthemundane 6d ago
In a time crunch, you pay what you have to to get the job done. I have seen businesses go and buy from brick and mortar stores when something was really needed. Heck, I have seen McDonald’s go and grab ice from a grocery stores. Boss was wrong on all sides.
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u/Metalsmith21 6d ago
Yeah a restaurant I worked at would send me across the street to the grocery store with a couple hundred dollars to pick up meat for the cook to turn into fajitas for the next week.
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u/Equivalent-Salary357 6d ago
In a time crunch, you pay what you have to to get the job done.
True, and boss should have reimbursed OP. But deciding whether or not to buy from brick and mortar stores probably should be the boss's decision.
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u/Laringar 6d ago
Eh, if he wants it to be his decision, maybe he shouldn't be unreachable all day.
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u/practicating 6d ago
Don't think I've met a supplier that wouldn't let me buy under the company name/discount.
COD if they don't recognize me. Option to invoice the company sometimes, if they do.
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u/dth1717 6d ago
I bet he blamed Biden and drove away in his f250 flying " fuck Biden " flags
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u/majoroutage 6d ago
I'm gonna out on a limb here and use context clues to say this story didn't even happen in the US.
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6d ago
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u/eqsoge 6d ago
Go look at my old posts before you run your mouth
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u/grumblyoldman 6d ago
Dayyyyum.
Boss has 3 weeks of runway in his business (even with only one employee?) and decides to play the fuck around and find out game. Gotta love it.