'I MC'd with my companies WFH policy because someone in my office is having a power trip.' UPDATED
"Important calculation due? Sorry, no WFH allowed."
wenrdogred writes:
I am currently in my malicious compliance phase at work right now. I got ripped a new one last week because I needed to work from home in order to get some urgent stuff done for a conference I needed to attend the following week.
I was explicitly told that I could not work from home without approval. And I was told that I signed a policy about it. I responded that my job requires me to work from home all the time, to which they replied, "You signed the policy."
So now, after I leave the office, I turn off my work issued cell phone and never look at it on the weekends. I am a salaried employee, but I am not going to beg my employer to allow me to work from home.
This weekend I got a call on my personal cell from one of the other managers about approving some billing rates that were due. I told her that I wasn't allowed to work from home, and I will get to it on Monday whenever I have the opportunity.
Everything will be late, but I signed the policy. It literally would have cost them nothing to just let me do my damn job. I already get paid a fixed rate. But if they want to play stupid games, they can win stupid prizes.
OP added some extra context:
So a number of comments asking about why I would even bother to WFH after hours. Here is my take, my employer is not paying me to sit in an office for 40 hours a week. They're paying me to do a relatively specialized job.
Sometimes I do 30 hours a week. Sometimes 40. Sometimes more. Whatever it takes to do the job. It has been extremely flexible for me in the past and has allowed me to balance family, work, and a few volunteer activities. This isn't really an anti work thing, more of an anti-this-particular-person on a power trip.
OP added an update the next week.
Monday came and went and not a peep from anyone about the rates getting out. Fixed a couple of bugs, but I think the other manager edited the PDF reports to get them out the door. Also, the deadline for it was pushed back a week. So everyone survived, but I have made some changes.
Change #1, I am no longer taking my work cell home with me. It is freeing and anxiety-inducing at the same time after doing so for so long. Change #2, I have informed any staff that may need to contact me that I won't be doing anything work related once I walk out of the office. Change #3, I am updating my resume today, it's time to leave. Thanks to everyone for their feedback. Wish you all the best!
OP added one final quick update.
UPDATE 2: Received a new job offer. Waiting for the official offer letter before putting in my notice. Good luck to everyone out there in this struggle economy.
Here are some of the comments on OP's post.
Rigorous-Geek-2916 says:
"I told her that I wasn't allowed to work from home, and I will get to it on Monday whenever I have the opportunity. Everything will be late, but I signed the policy." Now THIS is true “Malicious Compliance” Well done.
kaosreyns says:
Sadly I feel that employers will only enforce the policy when it suits them, and turn a blind eye when it also suits them.
TrashedLeBlanc says:
For me, I'd have that policy printed highlighted and available on my desk, on my personal company use cell phone and on any and all computers I might use for work. Oh you now want me to work from home? Cool, I signed the policy though. Oh you want to amend it now? Ok let's talk about proper compensation too for me working outside of office hours. Brilliant MC love it.
OP responded:
I texted my entire team something along the lines of "I know this is against who you are and what you do, but you are not to respond to any issues outside of work hours." That was hard because my team has earned a reputation for going above and beyond.
And now I'm handicapping them. My advice to them was that bad policy deserves bad consequences. My number 1 rule was always "make sure employees get paid". And now innocent people pay the price for other people's bulls^&t.