r/MaliciousCompliance | atrophy or bust 

As a calibration tech myself, the whole standards thing is no joke. When it comes to anything used in a lab, SOP (standard operating procedure) is law. They've been designed and are constantly revised in order to get the most accurate readings. Some labs, such as those who make vaccines or things people eat, have incredibly strict environmental conditions and record keeping so they don't, you know, accidentally hurt someone. It's a small part of the puzzle, but calibration needs to be done right. Don't cut corners with the SOP. Any salesperson who tried that at my company would be fired, tbh. The quality of service is highly important to maintaining our brand image, moreso than the speed.

23:32 the army must have gotten better about this, because when I went through grenade training, the sergeant repeated three times, with emphasis "Remove the PULL PIN from the grenade, and put the PULL PIN in my hand." Followed by "if you put a live grenade in my hand without any safeties on, I'm going to throw it, then slap you." 😂

I had a boss tell me I cant leave until they say I can, so I'd do very small things like re-wash something or sweep an already swept area. They saw me working 10ish minutes after my shift was over and got pissed. I had to ask about leaving at the end of my shift then on.

The thought of a line of soldiers throwing grenades while one dude at the end hurls the pin instead just kills me.

On the donation one, the employee was following procedure. But, they could have gotten a new form, to get it in writing. There was no need to argue back and forth. That one was an "everyone sucks" moment, to borrow from r/AITA

20:05 A bill is a contract. Them giving it to you and you paying it is both parties agreeing to said contract of the exchange of a product/service for an amount of money. Legally speaking, if they put the wrong price on the bill, that's what you have to pay. This also covers if they have the wrong price listed, legally you can pay a lower price if that's what was offered to you. If they just don't give you a bill however, then there's an assumed obligation to provide something in exchange and not doing so would be considered theft.

betting the clothes donation one was probably due to corporate wanting documentation about the donation incase the customer gets weird and sues them over taking clothes without giving them anything for it.

Only an evil genius could come up with solid soap in soap dispensers.

If a restaurant gives you the wrong check, and refuses to give you the correct one, then you are not liable if the check they gave you is cheaper than what you owed. They assumed responsibility when they wouldn't correct their mistake.

15:20 Common scam, bring in a bunch of old, tatty but branded clothes, turn up during slow hours when one member of staff will be there to pick up the cash and ask them to donate the rest. Come back after the clothes have been donated, during peak times when a more senior member of staff is there and complain that first member of staff had stolen their branded clothes. Get paid for the old tatty stuff that the charity shop already donated elsewhere. The box is there for a reason, I have worked and volunteered for several charities over the years, the amount of theft, scams, begging and fake money you see working for charity is miles above anywhere else

Always love it when Jack narrates. Now we just need to -torture- hear Lexi read r/softwaregore

5:24 As former janitor, restocking consumables is not the job of a particular shift, it's the job of whoever's watch on which it runs critically low.

the torque wrench one is straight-forward in a way. Basic truth: ALL things expand and contract with temperature changes. A metal wrench will contract in the cold. The amount it will contract will depend on the temperature and the material as different metals change different amounts in response to the same temperature - this is the basis behind a thermocoupling - the thing that tells your fridge when it needs to turn on the cool, or your AC knowing when to turn off the heat. Two metal strips that expand at different rates, so one will be the "too cold" and the other will be the "too hot" ANYWAY measuring the wrench at the incoming temp will give you a lower bound, but a calibration test has to be done on a standard temperature, and that will be the lab temp. It's got to be allowed to come to that temp before it can be measured, so it can come back with "at standard temp [24˚] the measurements come to [x], off by [y], so the wrench has been adjusted by [z] to bring it back to [within normal compliance]" if you wonder why a tool might need to be compliant, most items in manufacture have specific sizes, shapes, and other nuances that must be controlled - planes fail if a bolt comes loose in the fuel tank

While you were talking about soap dispensers i thought that no one has tried to change the settings on the automatic ones so instead of a little bit of soap gets dispensed it actually starts dispencing for an uncomfortable amount of time and the person using it freaks out.

14:29 I actually understand the reasoning behind this. Because they don't want to be accused of stealing something because you know for a fact someone said they could donate it, forgot / change their mind, and then raise hell when they found out that the clothes they wanted back wasn't there anymore because it was donated. So it's probably a thing where unless it's physically written down to have permission to donate, they won't be allowed to donate it. It's basically Insurance to protect them from Karens

20:02 Technically speaking, if a company sells you an item and receives payment for the item and accepts payment, even if it's the wrong payment in your favor, they can't do much about it. If I buy a $100 item, but they only charge me $66 (same ratio as the story here), accept payment and give me a receipt, then it's mine and they can't then demand the other $34.

1:42 Cold shrinks metal and expands wood. Hot expands metal and shrinks wood. Music director explained this when discussing tuning musical instruments outdoors.

24:38 - Mr. Grayson was new, the whole point was to show he was IN CHARGE. New management does that in every company - massive sweeping policy changes to "shake up the status quo" (re: piss everyone off for no reason whatsoever) just to show everyone they're the new boss.

4:23 banks do this with mortgages also, you have to make sure that your overpayments are going towards the principle or else the bank will just push the due date of your next payment further and further out to make sure you don't pay it off early.

1:55 Torque reffers to rotation. I know it as a variant of screws available (Star shaped if I assume the right type here). So naturally there are screwdrivers for it. And screwdrivers come in all kinds of sizes. Now, these sizes are standardized, meaning that a 1 is x mm, 2 is y mm, etc. The problem here is, that metal, which screwdrivers usually are made out of, expand and retract depending on their temperature. These differences usually are barely noticable, yet still important. That's why calibration and alike are done at specific temperatures (iirc 20 C°) to ensure that the measurements are consistent everywhere. You can also see the "National prototype metre" which if my mind serves me correctly also is located in a climate controlled room to keep it at a constant temperature, as it would otherwise display an incorrect length. I for sure know that such a metre exists in switzerland. My point is, calibration happens in climate controlled rooms to ensure that the dimensions of the thing they calibrate are always the same and not vary...

15:30 The issue isn't that they followed the form's lack of donation check They were right to assume they should be handed back, that's normal, nbd The issue is the massive fuss they made when told the clothes could be donated If it's hard to edit in the system, have a sign up, and maybe petition to have another box added in the form that clarifies a check before donation because I know others probably also want to do that. ..Or just make it easier to edit in the system ^^' And surely you might be able to just make a new order, say that all clothes are not sellable but are valid to donate, and close the ticket in that sense I'd imagine So while a bit more effort, it's doable in the moment, and you can just say 'Oh shoot, yeah, sure thing, just make sure to check that box next time or have us write a note somewhere to not finalize the ticket until you can confirm you want them donated, this system is a headache when it comes to telling it to donate after the fact, and we're required to take note of what and when we donate.' Informative and polite, and gives a chance for sympathy/empathy on the customer's behalf (or for the customer to be a butt and you to change your mind, hah) I get not being paid enough to wanna do the extra work, but You don't need to snap at a nicer customer because your systems are junk and your boss and higher ups don't pay you enough and won't hire someone to make the systems better ^^'

20:15 would like to mention that when an error like this occurs, it's the manager's responsibility to figure what to do about this. The customer always gets the right of way in these situations. (coming from someone who's worked in retail, restaurants, and fast food services)

Wait, the school counsellor just straight up came to class and got someone in plain view of everyone? Wtf?

24:23 *Drill instructor: “Why did you throw the grenade pin instead of the grenade private?????!!!!!”* *Guy’s father: “Sir you said pull the pin and throw it high and long downrange sir!”*

also, regarding the fact that the narrator had a bloody meltdown in the story about the person who refused to donate the extra clothes, consider the following: they refused to donate them even after he SPECIFICALLY TOLD THEM TO DONATE THE CLOTHES!

11:21 What state and/or institution was this that basically made people take yoga classes once every 3 years on work time? That actually sounds quite pleasant…

15:28 omg I so agree, like... yeah, the checkboxes are there for a reason and you getting annoyed at someone because you filled something out wrong (which is your fault) is kinda weird not going to lie

I don't comment often but Jack narrating Malicious Compliance is something I never thought needed

I get the second thing..... especially as it was about calibration. external temperature can wreak more havock than you think. Like, I have these expensive nerdy resin statues..... every time I get a new one I have to give it several days to acclimatise before assembling else you risk breakages or warping. With a tool like a torque wench, I'm pretty sure if it's cold any calibration would be utterly useless.... and in the case of these guys wanting to impress a big customer, that's exactly the opposite outcome they'd get. While I'm not exactly a lab tech myself, I studied enough of the basics to know that the sales person is an absolute moron and should listen to the people that actually know. It's like the higher management that can't operate a computer properly. Drives me nuts

15:35 ...pretty sure the idea is "I am giving you permission to NOW, what's it matter if my box wasn't checked before‽" The latte comparison is nonsense, also.

I have a professor that always had our online assignments due on tuesday and thursdays. One week, she changed the due date without telling us (she told us in class that the assignment was due thursday still, but changed it to Wednesday. She changed the due date ON wednesday without telling anyone because she was going to be "too busy this weekend to grade them on friday"). So no one got points for it. When we confronted her on it, she told us that it was our duty to check the site every date for changes (this isnt an easily navigated site. It is a collection of folders in folders that we have to search through to find assignments. All she did was type the new due date at the bottom of the assignment). She told us to follow the listed dates and refused to give anyone points for it. Fine. We'll follow the posted dates. She just copied and pasted folders and dates from the previous semester and only remembered to change the year for most of them. We were just ignoring those dates and going off what she told us verbally in class for the due dates. So I talked most of the class into not turning in the following two weeks assignments. She tried to yell at the class for ignoring her assignments and I told her that we didnt miss any assignments, since they werent due until April and it was currently September.

5:37 that's not only an example of bad malicious compliance, but failed malicious compliance. They specifically said "so people can wash their hands." And I don't expect the average person to know how to open a liquid soap dispenser, and that's assuming it doesn't need a key.

Why would they get rid of the gaurdian of the machine, were they scared of it?

15:36 the point was they argued about it for a long time rather than her just saying "oh sorry, as you didn't tick the box I assumed you didn't wanna donate them. I will now process and donate them"

My school is very poorly organised, so it has had alot of 'incedences', as i have been to the school since its beginning i know all of them... now i did a prank on my friend when i send an email to him through his own email, the issue being i did it on the school wifi therefor breaking the legal clause of not doing 'illegal' activity on the school wifi, they threatened me to press charges if i did not act like a respectable student... so did, they now have implemented special messures while bringing visitors around the school to avoid me because like a 'good student' i will inform them about the real side of the school, including but not limited to: the knife fights, pushing someone to suicide before expelling them, the prostitution ring, fight clubs, drug trade... it can go on...

17:19, The voice you did for the company is perfect.

I'm not sure how it is everywhere, but here if you're not given a receipt(or given the wrong one) you're free to walk out and not pay for the meal/drink you have consumed because it's the seller's responsibility to provide you with one and if they don't well the money for your meal comes out of their pockets.

20:20 - They asked for the check. They got the wrong check. It's the restaurant's responsibility to make sure that they got the right one. If it's an error in the customer's favor, then so be it.

13:21 as an employee this really pisses me off. At my work we have rules we have to follow that customers may not understand or think don’t apply to them. I work in a concession stand at a movie theater and we have those cardboard boxes to put your bag of popcorn in to make it easier to carry without spilling. There’s currently a national shortage of those boxes, not to mention our theater is barely earning enough to keep our doors open due to slow business and though the boxes only cost about .50 per box, we go through hundreds or even thousands every month. So we were told to only give out one box per bag of popcorn and to get a manager if a customer pushes getting more than one (we’ll often get large groups who just get one or two bags of popcorn and then a crap ton of boxes to split the popcorn between them). So many entitled people will push and push and push to get more boxes EVEN AFTER WE EXPLAIN THE NATIONAL SHORTAGE. It’s so annoying. When I go to the theater with my two friends we get one bag of popcorn and no boxes and we just have the bag sitting on the middle person’s table where everyone can reach it, but noooo, these people must have their OWN container for their popcorn. God forbid they all have to take from the same container

13:10 She shoulds just made a "Recommendations" list. "Hey, not all these trainings are worrth the time and effort, so look at these if you want to spend your training time better."

2:10 the wrench needs calibration, so that means the measurements required is very important and very precise. Temperature makes metal expand or contract. Cold metal contracts. So technically, it's smaller. Not by much, but when you need exact precision, it's more than enough to throw things off. so calibrating it while it's cold means after they calibrate then when the temperature goes back to normal, it will expand to the wrong size. (and when it's calibrated to room temperature, is also standardized to match the weather and other machinery, so temperature changes affect all the parts equally. The wrench would change differently to the rest, making it even further off)

15:30 the dude in the post isn't saying "they should've just donated it before I came" he's saying that "If I come in and then say that you can donate the clothes you should donate the clothes, you know, because you donate clothes and that's what I am asking for"

8:04 knowing my civics teacher, this very well could be him. but if it was, he wouldve told us that story by now. im confused lmfao

Skeleton in the thumbnail has double humerus bones 🧐

20:13 this person… Their tone is just so… I can’t find the words for it.

In response to Jack's last comment, you're very lucky, Jack, to never have dealt with someone who can work in a company for decades and still not understand that a stupid idea will not magically work because it was their own ass it came out of.

9:38 > Person tries to intimidate me with 3 people. > Laughs in gun loaded with 100 round dinnerplate

20:33 I imagine the fault lies with the provider if they provide the wrong bill to the customer and it gets paid, same as if the customer gets misbilled and requests a refund because they were charged too much

Completely unrelated to the vid but as someone who can’t stay concentrated on video more than 5 minutes long, your videos are the only videos I can Sit and watch for the whole time

If they put your name and card number on the check, even if it's for the wrong things you ordered, you still technically paid your bill. If they contact authorities, they'll look like the ones lying because your customer copy receipt will show you paid the bill, regardless of it was inaccurate. I doubt the new guy would try to clear up the issue after being treated so poorly

hey man, the non-janitor DID leave soap. Bar soap in a liquid soap box. :) Just use the bar soap~

As a person that has been sent to the school counselor, I think that one was funny.

The climax of a story is not the last suspendue moment, it is the turning point. The last post’s climax is the design flaw, actually. The exposition is the design flaw, and the moment of final suspense is the meeting, and the conclusion is that finally, people could collaborate again Freytag’s pyramid, please tell me if I missed something

20:13 Nope, in the US at least if they give you a bill, you have to pay that bill. If the bill was given as less in error, you *can* do the right thing and pay the correct amount, but you aren't required to by law.

I don't know if this counts as malicious compliance, but I've heard the story bunch of times from my mom. Apparently when I was like 5 or 6 years old I loved those Trixs yogurt cups and at one point my dad took me grocery shopping with him. While shopping I kept bugging him about wanting yogurt and he got so fed up with me asking, he said that if he heard me say the word "yogurt" one more time we weren't getting any. So when we were getting the milk and eggs I almost told him we just dairy case. My mom said I made Dad laugh and I got my yogurt. My dad said he really couldn't argue because I stopped saying "yogurt."

1:55 Metals and other things expand or shrink based off temperature. You can see how much water does that by freezing a full PLASTIC water bottle. Why not glass? I want not to be responsible for someone getting cuts.

jokes on you, I don't have a girlfriend! take that! ... wait.

14:53 Sounds more like a liability issue.. Probably had problems in the past just assuming or going by word of mouth.. They wanted documentation to avoid potential legal action as well as accusations akin to theft.. Having it written (or in this case, a box checked) can be used as evidence to protect the store from fraudulent claims..

0:50 *_never_* use sidewalk on a chalk board. That s*** is a b*** to clean off of a chalk board.

14:58 while i agree that assuming the person whants the clothes donated is stupid, not accepting when the person outright asks you to donate them is eaqually so. Plenty of people do what this person does and choose to look through what's left one more time in case they missed something they wanted to keep before donating and forcing them to go thought the process again or use a different organization is moronic.

24:25 Seriously? He should've NOT gotten pushups and the others should've since he was the only one who did what he was told and not what he thought was right!

I would love to be instructed to only do what my contract stipulates. Mainly because my contract doesn't stipulate anything 😂

1st story... Somehow I love this low key superstition, many engineers, machinists, tech-people and scientists have. Sure - it doesn't make sense rationally... but then... as long as it doesn't hurt - who is complaining?

I think liking school could be a sign of distress, it was for me. I was being abused at home so school was a safe place for me at one point.

15:29 but after they didn’t tick the box they directly told them they wanted to donate. And either way it was fine in the end, they tried to go through the way the worker wanted but the worker went screw it.

Jack singing bits 23:27

15:31 The OP here was saying that they had already had the employee sort the stuff, took out what they'd buy then returned everything to the OP. The OP was planning to check and see if they actually wanted anything left over, and after deciding that, no, they didn't want anything that was left, they asked if the employee could just take the stuff that was left and donate it, as they didn't want it. The employee essentially replied with "Nope. You didn't check the box on the paperwork that would make it my job to donate the remaining items, and I'm feeling lazy, so do it yourself." The OP's Malicious Compliance was completely warranted, as, if there really was an issue with the employee taking the items to be donated without the checkbox checked, the employee could have handled it better.

3:36 WOOOOW NOBODY'S MADE THAT JOKE BEFORE

I don't necessarily agree with your take on the clothing donation story. While yes, if OP didn't actually plan on keeping any of the clothes they should have checked the donation box, they weren't upset with the worker for not knowing that they actually wanted to donate them, but because there should have basically been no reason why they couldn't donate them after being told by OP that they could donate them.

3:42 Good one, Jack! Too bad she isn't real...

my first job includes stealing designs. i was never given any sort of contract or NDA and management pissed a lot of us off. hence, I'm saying that if that company looks like they stole a design. They did.

3:40 Jokes on you, Jack I’m gay 😎

I give up on how many people dont understand OP refusing to just check off a new donation form.

15:10 I think the thing is sure, OP didn't tick the box, but they then gave verbal permission to donate it. Basically, they didn't want the clothes immediately taken from selling to donating, but wanted a chance to look at what was left in the middle It's a bit different to OP being given back the clothes and saying "why didn't you donate this"

The way the school system is set up, I would be concerned if someone liked school. The bullying is rampant, you’re on your feet all day, there’s no free school lunches, and the mountains of homework are not helping.

I also had poeple from the sales departement pressuring us in the honing depertement to push out cylindres, my dad did not like it one bit so he just did what they wanted, but like a week later

Ngl I watch this kind channel every day and I’m not stopping

The grenade story reminds me of a joke I read many rears ago: What do you do when a [ethnic group] throws a pin at you? Run! He has a grenade in his mouth.

The donation story, i don't think Op was wanting them to "assume you want to donate their clothes" like you said. they are directly telling them they want to donate it, just at the wrong time in the process. They want a chance to look over what clothing sold or not before choosing to donate all or nothing. They probably took in a couple nice/expensive items and wanted those specifically back if they didn't sell, but everything else is fine to donate. That seems pretty reasonable to me, esp with how expensive some clothing is. If its about needing to have documentation, which is also reasonable, it shouldn't take more than a couple minutes to have them mark their original form or fill out a new form. Especially since they were able to easily donate them by just starting the process over again, wasting even more time than just letting them donate it in the first place.

Fun fact: The diaphragm is a muscle, which means that if you stopped moving all of your muscles, you would suffocate.

Nah, the lottery ticket one. The store paid HIM $4 to cut the line.

The problem with the clothes donation one is that the donator *explicitly* asked for their clothes to be donated and the worker *refused* . There was no *assumption* to be made.

Okay… but they didn't have to assume. They were told\asked to donate them when the person came to collect the money. I'm not saying they should donate everything they get automatically, but having a "I'd like to look through what you don't buy for anything I'll keep when I collect payment, and then you may donate the rest" option would help.

ok, the clothing donation issue wasnt that they didnt donate the clothes, it was that the worker wouldnt accept them as donatable items after the seller had come back and told them they wanted the remaining items donated

That "check the box vs assume" logic is fine UNTIL they explicitly states "I want to donate these" in person. Like, yes, fine, don't accidentally donate things that people want. But also don't argue for 10 minutes with a person who wants to donate stuff. The checkbox is saying "I want to donate stuff." Which is the exact same thing the person is saying. The box has now effectively been checked. Like, OP even knew they'd give the rest back as they intended to sort through the clothes and see which ones they'd like to keep. They did so, and decided they didn't want to keep any of them, and offered to donate the rest. You're flaming OP for something they explicitly did not do. They weren't upset because the clothes weren't donated the first time. They were upset because the person refused to take them ONLY AFTER saying explicitly "I want to donate these." Also, for the restaurant one. You are correct in general, but your statement doesn't really apply here. You have a legal obligation (at least in the US) to correct their mistake if you notice it. However, OP did... Twice (three times depending on how you count it). They asked for the check. When the waitresses tried to refuse because it wasn't their table, OP tried again. And when they begrudgingly gave the wrong check, OP tried AGAIN to get their attention (sounds like repeatedly even) and they refused to correct their error. OP went above and beyond what is reasonable to correct the mistake. They have fulfilled their legal obligation and is no longer liable for the mistake.

14:53 how does politely saying "there's nothing i want to keep so you can donate it" and getting frustrated when they refuse and (presumably) don't give a good answer to "you already offer donation so why not?" make you comparable to the first thing people think of when they hear the name "Karen"? if it's for legal reasons they could've just said that and op probably would've understood

15:31 except they literally informed them that they wanted to donate the clothes

First story is just the origin of the mechanicus in wh40k

15:05 - I don't understand why they couldn't have just checked the box after they said they wanted to donate them? like why make a fuss over it? Like they said "I want to donate them." At that point, they should have said "okay" & taken them. Maybe it would have been an issue if they hadn't had said they wanted to donate them.

15:34 you are deliberately ignoring the fact that that person EXPLISITLY SAID THAT THEY WHANT TO DONATE THE CLOTHES.

15:20 also they dont wanna get in legal trouble if they do donate without you saying they could and someone trys to sue

20:31 So the deal with the Restaurant, even if you were either obligated or legally made to correct the mistake of the bill, the sole responsibility would fall on the employee(s) that made the mistake in the first place. Now having done food service, waiting, and food handling, if in a scenario like this if I had given someone the wrong bill or remotely even treated a customer in such a way, then the leftover unpaid amount would fall on me and promptly fired. But since the customer had indeed tried to get the attention of the waitress, was ignored, and paid the ticket they were handed. By law it would still be counted as a transaction of fair trade, and nothing could be done. Good on OP for still paying, but I wouldn't also reported their behaviour and made sure a proper punishment would be in play.

That person should've just made changes to the account anyway, let the government sort the boss out

3:40 Im no longer single yessss

You missed the point of the donation story entirely - and it was the worker who was being pedantic. They'd already sorted the clothes and given them back to OP, and then OP looked through them and didn't want any of the ones she got back so she said she'd like to go ahead and donate the rest. That's when the worker refused to take them for donation since OP hadn't checked "the box". Your entire scenario had absolutely nothing to do with the events in the story.

21:26 well they did save money, 4 dollars in fact

i think its probably fiine because the transaction was completed erroniously on the part of the seller.

Jack on the donation post the donator once getting their clothes back then asked the employee just to donate the rest and they don’t mind but then the employee was hus😊being uptight and declined

You laugh, but think on schools and you'll realize that if you don't like it… then they really don't want you.

Dude paid his bill, it’s paid for. It’s a them problem that they billed him incorrectly. If they had done their job and he didn’t say anything, it would’ve never been a problem. He is no longer responsible for that bill. It is considered paid.