Worker maliciously complies with boss' email causes company to not get paid for weeks.

I'm a big proponent of not doing more than you're paid for. If you do more, you need to ask for a raise. If you don't, then the money you save or the profits you bring in for the organization will only fill the bellies of the greed at the top.

On a popular Reddit thread in the Malicious Compliance, a loyal admin employee goes above and beyond their job description for no extra money and then gets told to stay in their lane, only for the company to suffer.

They write:

So, I work for a construction company as an inventory admin. My job is to schedule counts of our warehouse and input the numbers they give me for inventory. Then try to see the problem when the numbers on the last and current counts don’t add up. There is a little more to it, but I will not bore you with the specifics.

The problem with this job is that there is less work when you have been doing it long enough and are good at it. In the beginning, when counting one rack out of 60 racks of material would take a few days, it was okay because I was always busy. But now that everything is in order, the warehouse can be counted in three days. This leaves me bored most of the time.

So, to fix this, I studied our cloud-based ERP service that we use for all internal and external transactions and have become an expert on it. Every single aspect of this company uses this ERP service to do its job.

Timesheets, HR, Payroll, Accounting, Scheduling, Management, Manufacturing, ordering from vendors, Delivering, Inventory, etc., run through this ERP service. So this service must be up and running perfectly 24/7.

I became so proficient in this service that our VP decided to cut ties with our consultants of the ERP because I could do what they did but better, quicker, and MUCH cheaper.

For reference, we were paying these consultants $5,000 a month to be on standby if we needed them for some problem that could arise from using this ERP and had to dish out more money to fix those problems depending on how many hours of their time was spent to fix said problems.

Not sure of their exact rate, but it was something like $200 an hour, and they took weeks to fix anything, while I could fix the problem in time for my daily afternoon sh*t break.

I never got an official job title or raise for being an expert on this service. The company saw me being able to do it and let me fix things that happened, so they no longer needed outside help. I wasn’t too upset because it gave me something to do, so I was glad to help the company save money, even if none of that money fell my way.

Skip ahead a few months. We now have a new warehouse manager, and someone in the warehouse f*cks something up in inventory by sending a bunch of materials to the wrong job with no records of it being shipped. We are talking half a million-dollar f*ck up here. On the same day, our ERP had an update that caused many bugs in our accounting department.

So, I decided to work on the ERP problem first because the warehouse f**kup is more of a delay f*ck up and not stopping anybody from doing their job at the moment, while this accounting problem means our bills are not able to be paid. You can guess what issues we will have if bills are not paid.

The ERP bugs are significant and numerous, so it takes me a couple of days to figure out, but I fix it before any bills are due and decided to grab lunch a little early to celebrate a victory. Crisis averted.

The new warehouse manager storms into my office after I get back from lunch and is LIVID. The bosses were pinning the blame on him for the warehouse f**kup. And considering he is the one who oversees shipments and personnel in the warehouse, the responsibility is rightfully placed. He starts laying into me, asking why I have not fixed the problem yet. I was yelling and screaming like a child.

I tried explaining that I was fixing an ERP issue and had not yet had time to look at the warehouse problem. He gets even angrier and notes that it is funny how I have time to take early lunches but not do my job.

That started to piss me off, but I held my tongue and kept calm about the situation. He then ordered me ONLY to do what is in my job title and to leave the 'ERP bulls**t to the people competent enough to handle it,' as he put it.

Since this guy was technically my supervisor, I had no choice but to obey. I asked him to send me that in writing, and he snarks and storms back into his office. Five minutes later, I got an email stating that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES am I to work on anything related to ERP unless it involves inventory.

Cue MC. I do nothing but inventory from that point forward, knowing damn well that we would be coasting until we hit a problem I would refuse to fix. Sure enough, not even a week later, I got an email from HR that some bug in the ERP system was preventing them from accessing payroll to pay employees this week.

I reply an apology that I am no longer able to work on ERP bugs due to the supervisor and to refer to the ERP system help guide for further assistance.

I knew the help guide would not help her, but it was no longer my problem, so I would not deal with it. Skip a few days later to Friday. I checked my bank account in the morning before getting to work and laughed because no money had been deposited. That problem never got fixed. I hurry up and get to work, excited to see the chaos unfold. And what I was expecting was an understatement.

When I show up to work, I see the ENTIRE warehouse staff of 50 people walking out of the front door. I stopped one and asked why they were leaving, and they replied, 'I didn’t get paid today, so I am not coming back until I do.' I go into the office and see the warehouse manager in a panic.

He has jobs that need material and nobody to load it onto trucks or deliver. I ask him if he needs help with anything, and he screams at me to leave his office because he is getting phone calls out of the a** from superintendents of jobs asking why our material has not arrived yet.

I pass by HR on the way to my office and see a bunch of the bosses huddled up over her computer with her with angry and confused expressions on their faces. I guess trying to figure out the problem. I felt terrible for her because it was out of her control, but I knew she would ultimately be okay because she had been there so long that they would never fire her.

I see the VP waiting for me when I get to my office. He has a very pissed-off expression on his face. When we got inside, he demanded to know why I did not fix the problem in HR when she emailed me about it. I replied that I could no longer work on ERP problems as it is not in my job title.

He had this shocked look and asked why; I suddenly changed my heart. I showed him the email from the warehouse manager, and I could see the dots connected in his head. He immediately storms out, and I see him heading straight to the warehouse manager's office.

They were there for a few hours, but he eventually returned to my office. He seems calmer now and asks me politely if I can fix the HR problem and resume fixing the ERP if needed.

At this point, I liked the relief of responsibility and told him I would only do it if he put it officially in my job title and a raise. His calmness turns to anger again, and he says, 'I cannot believe you!' as he storms out and returns to his office.

A few hours later, he sends a mass email that he has hired the old ERP consultants to fix the problem and that next week, everyone will be paid for the money they are owed and the money they earned if they return to work. This surprised me as he would rather pay consultants over $60,000 yearly than give me a few extra bucks an hour for better work.

I think he expected me to change my mind and do it for my paycheck, but I decided to wait because I knew how these consultants were, and if they managed to fix this problem in a week, I would streak naked through the office. Most warehouse staff agreed to return but were still upset about not getting paid.

Sure enough, next Friday comes around. Nobody gets paid again. They have bills to pay. It is becoming a real problem, and the entire staff is becoming agitated. I even heard several warehouses talking about some competitors nearby they could work for.

At this point, I even considered fixing the problem because the warehouse didn’t deserve to be treated like that due to poor management. Maybe I am the a**hole here for this, but I am severely underpaid and can barely afford my apartment. There is no reason I should do extra work for free.

The VP returned to my office that same day and handed me papers. These papers said I would be promoted to a newly created position dealing with inventory/ERP upkeep. It would be its own department, and he would be my direct supervisor, also coming with a hefty raise.

All I had to do was sign and agree. After reading the paper, I looked up at him, and he had the saddest look. 'Please just sign it; the consultants said it would take them weeks to fix it due to the high volume of clients they have taken on, and we cannot keep skipping paychecks.'

I happily signed it and immediately got to work on the HR issue. I even managed to fix it that same day. It was just a simple problem with the permissions of HR and payroll in the ERP due to the update.

The internet loves a hero's journey.

funique says:

Nicely done (and nicely written)! I'm impressed with how you stood up for yourself with the VP. What happened with your manager? Seems like he was in a bit of a pickle

CriminalDM says:

Call the ERP consultants. They might pay better. Get some experience in client management, sales, etc., and then go solo. $200/hr is low depending on your specialty. Granted you are unlikely to bill 2,000 hours a year. Still, if you can bill 1,000 hours at $300/hr that's $300k. You'll be on the hook for taxes, insurance, etc. but I'm guessing it is a higher take-home than you've currently got.

dsdvbguutres says:

Lessons: Get sketchy instructions in writing. If someone tries to add new responsibilities to your job description, keep in mind that additional responsibilities merit additional compensation.

We should all go ask for raises after reading this.