This dude created a wave of malicious compliance seemingly by accident! He was standing up to his boss after getting his time docked fifteen minutes for being just one minute late. This new policy proved to be ridiculous, and so the Redditor decided he wouldn't work for free during those fifteen minutes, knowing that it's fully illegal to require workers to do so. When his coworkers saw this tactic work, they all followed suit and it was only a matter of time before their horrible boss was called out by his boss for enforcing a policy that led to decreased productivity.

This thread, which was shared to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit, is a mostly positive tale of worker solidarity… that is until the original poster revealed that his boss got his own revenge not much later. Thankfully, according to his responses in the comments section below, he found a better job at a competing company afterward. For more stories like this, take a look at this one about "age awareness" training at work.

Thinking outside the box is this neighbor's specialty. 

What's the worst thing your neighbor's ever done? Mine have stolen package after package, knowing they wouldn't get caught in a building with dozens of apartments. Even installing cameras hasn't helped much. Other people have issues with their neighbors parking in front of their houses. Some drivers simply do not care if their massive trucks are blocking the sidewalk. Then there are neighbors who seem to have the cops on speed dial, ready to call up the moment someone starts a party on a Saturday afternoon or dares to let their kids play outside. 

This person's story really takes the cake, though. U/rey0505 has a "Kevin" (aka someone who is always completely clueless) for an upstairs neighbor. Being the downstairs neighbor sure does come with its challenges. You can often hear your upstairs neighbor as they plod around the house, play their favorite tunes, or watch TV at a frightful volume. Somehow, this Kevin managed to make all those issues look like child's play. 

Divorce court has essentially become a cesspool of petty behavior. Many of us know this from personal experience, and the rest of us know from soapy film and television. Regardless, it doesn't take a stranger to divorce to understand that when kids are involved, it does not take long for vindictive parents to start using their children as pawns. 

This dude was the recipient of pettiness during his divorce when his ex-wife enforced a rule that essentially meant that any future long-term partner of her ex-husband's could not and would not be allowed to babysit. Her ex, who shared this post via Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit, saw right through the rule and couldn't wait to be able to use it to his advantage one day. When that day came to pass, he shared his side of the story online with an air of triumph, only to get roasted in the comments section for going just as low as his ex-wife did.

Keep scrolling below for the full story. When you're done, check out this post about a landlord who had it coming.

This story is about (drum roll, please) new management and the silly demands they make in order to make a statement at a workplace.

They stroll in, head high, title in check, scanning employees to see who will break the easiest. Who can they push around, and who will fight back? Well, one employee was not having it with their new boss. The employee was an engineer for the company, and they had one mandatory team day at the office. OP wasn't feeling well, so they informed their boss that they wouldn't be able to make it to the office, and offered to work from home instead. That email was met with a swift, 'Agreements must be respected' and "Mandatory days can't be missed without a doctor's note'.

Okay then, thought OP, and went to the doctor that same day. Scroll down to read the full, detailed account of events, and when you're done, here is a company that attempted to charge a former employee for failing to cancel their company card… Even though it wasn't their job.

Watching the grocery store cashier ring up your food items, makes every working-class shopper rethink that second box of gourmet cookies. As the receipt tallies your haul of hunted and gathered groceries, it's hard not to think of those days when a family of four could live off of a $20 grocery store run for a whole week– nowadays, $20 gets you a box of lettuce, 12 eggs, and a cluster of bananas (if you're lucky). 

Shrinkflation and rising costs may be lining the pockets of the grocery conglomerate's pockets, but it's having a devastating effect on the common man's wallet. However discouraging it may seem out there, as we all desperately try to fill the fridge, one couple collected an astonishingly simple list of money-saving tips from some of the most frugal shoppers online. 

Scroll for the full account of some grocery store short-cuts that might just save you hundreds on your next Trade Joe's run.

According to these people, you don't always have to work hard for your money. On a rare occasion, the money will come right to you. 

Every now and then, you might stumble across a job that seems just too good to be true. It's good to have a healthy dose of skepticism for things of that nature, but sometimes it really is the real deal. 

For some jobs, having an employee on standby is the only thing that's required. There's one industry where this is endemic: film and TV. For actors and crew alike, there's a "hurry up and wait" type of system in place. A few people with experience in the film industry told their stories below, and they sound like so much fun! It seems like a lot of the time, directors will plan to film maybe two or three scenes in a day. But they don't know how long each scene will take, and there are often issues with lighting, sound, actors, or needing a dozen takes from different angles, as well as other factors that can cause the shoot time to run long. So if you're an actor who isn't needed until that third scene, you might show up to set for 12 hours and never need to act at all. It's just important that you're there, hair and makeup done, ready to jump in at a moment's notice. 

Other people got paid for less professional reasons, like parents who need technical help. It's always sweet when parents try to pay you for no reason! 

Check out these great stories below. Then, read about one coworker who got so fed up with their supervisor's poor trip planning that they decided to sabotage all future travel plans. 

One student became furious when her school principal gave one of her friends demerit points for 'dress code violations'. The most annoying part was that even though she was wearing the same thing as her friend, she didn't get told off. In a sense, this student was upset that they hadn't been punished. That's some real loyalty right there!

The issue was bigger than that, though. This principal would only give certain girls in the school dress code violations. Unfortunately, this was a recurring thing. So a lesson had to be learned, and OP was the student who was going to teach it! Since OP was in charge of the art club, she had been planning a project where she gave 10 disposable cameras to each grade. Everyone would pass the cameras around and take pictures of their day. Later, OP would have them developed and mounted on display… She knew that her principal would never give her permission for such a project, so she turned to someone else instead…

Next up, some hilarious work memes to put you in a better mood.

While it's probably a controversial take, the argument stands with strong reason: If you're a landlord or a professor or in any other position where someone is paying you for something you're providing them… you're providing a service, and the person paying you is entitled to good service. Far too many of these "service providers" not only regard this as unnecessary but also regard themselves as above the person paying them and use this to placate their nagging conscience. Who hasn't had a landlord who refuses to acknowledge their obligations? Or a professor on tenure who is only reluctantly teaching the class because they're being forced to by the university?

Still, it's important to also acknowledge that this line of argument could lead to a lot of entitlement from students who feel that they're being wronged when they're not really being wronged. Anyways, this was the topic of conversation in this online discussion, and commenters couldn't have been more divided on the issue.

Like most things in life, quitting is safer in numbers. The following quitting stories are all the more satisfying because here, we have entire teams walking out, throwing in the towel, and leaving in droves. That's what you get for trying to mess with your employees' time, schedules, workloads, and stress levels. 

These stories take me back to the days of an unpaid internship which shall remain nameless. The other interns and I expected to be doing research and standard office duties. However, when we arrived, we learned that the bulk of our duties were limited to janitorial work because they no longer used a cleaning service (true story!). Unfortunately, I did not have safety in numbers as other folks did not want to quit on the spot with me. But after things did not get better following the first week, I couldn't stomach it any further and I quit at the end of that day. Thankfully, I found another internship (this time, a paid one) less than a week later.

Keep scrolling below for these quitting stories. When you're done, check out this petty email exchange between an employee and their boss.

Some people refuse to listen until there's a real and tangible consequence staring them in the face. Things like "knowledge," "experience," and "common sense" mean nothing to them once they've made their mind up about something.

Take, for example, this boss who told her worker that they were no longer allowed to question her and told them very impolitely to just do as they were told. This, of course, led to disaster when, a few hours later, a printing job came through from a customer, and the boss thought they knew better than the customer too, erroneously assuming that the address the customer had provided must be a typo and fixing it for them. It, of course, wasn't a typo, and since the worker was no longer able to question their boss, the entire order was printed and shipped with the incorrect address that the boss had so generously altered.  

Folks like to stick to themselves on their commute– especially if you take public transit. But when there's an emergency and a person's life is at risk, the "first responders" always end up being the calloused strangers that we're accustomed to ignoring. Have you ever considered how you might handle an emergency? Anything can happen on public transit. With so many people filtering in and out of the metro every day, there's bound to be an accident at some point.

This is exactly why OP in our next story is an unsung hero. Keeping their CPR and First Aid certifications up to date, OP was ready for anything in the real world. One day, while taking their usual commute to work, their preparedness came in handy. However, even after saving the life of a stranger on board their commuter train, OP's boss didn't agree with their life-saving endeavors. 

Scroll for all the details of injustice and backlash where a heroic act of selflessness ultimately got someone fired. 

There are a lot of stressful moments in one's life, but buying a house has to make it close to the top of the list—especially nowadays! Buying a house is not cheap, you're investing more than just a portion of your paycheck, you're investing a lifetime agreement. So to put that ink to paper to make it official can be nerve-racking. It's only natural that you want everything to be perfect before you officially commit. 

Every employer has a particular way of doing things, but sometimes their rationale is so illogical that complying becomes nearly impossible. This can be especially true if their methods are only beneficial to them and no one else. To make matters worse, when bosses tend to do this, they also tend to mask their selfish needs as something beneficial to everyone, but little do they know, we all can see right through that nonsense.

This teacher was pressured by the head of their department to deliver their reports via a USB drive because evidently, that would be more "secure." As many folks pointed out in the comments section, that idea is false. Email should be perfectly fine. But of course, this boss was insistent, and it was difficult for the Redditor considering their laptop was not compatible with most USB drives. Keep scrolling below to see how the teacher managed to get away with a little malicious compliance. 

For more stories like this, check out this post about someone who was fired two hours into his first day on the job.

If our early 2000s self could post a status about our next story, they would say, "It's complicated", but u/Jealous-Highway239 would send an even more definitive status update to his bosses online.  

Back in the early days of the Internet, you could log in to your social media page and change your 'status' to send an update or message to your following. Like communications during the Cold War, these status changes were often misunderstood, inflamed, or just downright passive-aggressive, which is why in 2024, very few social platforms still have OG statuses. So this type of petulant communication only happens on the stages of the un-evolved social media platforms of workplace networking, coworker feuds, and mass-produced job applications… You know the website I'm talking about.

Scroll onward to read about one corporate employee's successful attempt to ruffle the feathers at the office and how one simple gesture– a status update– could finally get a message across to their boss.

It seems that in every office, there is one coworker whose sole purpose there is to point out every little mistake someone else makes. Who knows what their actual job description is and who knows where they actually fall on the food chain within the company? Somehow this person has managed to carve a space for themselves where they feel entitled to critique every tiny flaw without providing solutions or teachable moments. Most of the time, these individuals have a major insecurity complex deep down. By pointing out how bad other people are at their jobs, these coworkers are then able to conceal their own incompetence, at least temporarily.

This Redditor realized that their coworker was totally in over her head despite the constant unsolicited criticism she gave day after day. So when she was expected to take over OP's workload during their vacation, OP decided she did not need any preparation or direction in advance, since she was always so confident in the office. Keep scrolling below to see what happened upon OP's return to the office. For more stories like this, here is one about an employee who was fired for having a medical emergency. 

Noisy neighbors can ruin the tranquility of your living space. One minute, you're peacefully steeping loose-leaf tea on a sunny Saturday morning and the next minute you're hearing rambunctious teens tear apart the backyard with dirt bikes and loud music. Call me Karen, but there is a time and a place to be rowdy. Once a neighbor has crossed the line and broken the sound barrier one too many times, some people like to take payback into their own hands. 

In our next story, an Australian couple was forced to get their payback against noisy neighbors– starting with the stinkiest, smelliest revenge they could imagine.

It is usually advisable to stay away from people who are impolite when dealing with staff. Ultimately, the waiters are there to assist you in having a good time and planning your next visit.  However, what would happen if your guests mistreat the staff for no apparent reason? They turn an evening that could have been genuinely amazing into a major headache. 

The story recounts the tale of a frustrated server who found a perfect way to exact revenge on an obnoxious customer. Surprisingly, no elaborate plan was needed to get back at the guest for his terrible behavior. All OP had to do was comply with every request made by the visitor. To put things in perspective, OP serves customers at a music venue/supper club. Before the live performance begins, attendees have the option to place meal orders with the restaurant. But because the kitchen is crunched for time, just a few lucky customers get to enjoy their meals before the event begins. Ultimately, the band is eagerly anticipating their moment to take the stage. Therefore, it makes sense that by the end of the evening, some of the customers are pleased and eager to return, while others are not as pleased.

So, without giving too much away, this particular evening finished with a few very unhappy customers, one very happy waiter (OP, of course), and, well, a fantastic tale to tell you! So, if you're interested in learning what happened between OP and the entitled customers, read the story below! When you're finished, don't forget to read the account of the worker who gets caught in a manager-on-manager conflict!

One of the most important qualities of a good boss is their ability to give informational answers to their employee's questions. If they can't, or won't, help the people who work for them so they can become better at what they do, what is even the point in hiring employees? They can go ahead and just do all the work themselves.

I hope the boss in this Malicious Compliance Reddit story would learn that she needs her employees just as much as they need her. An employee shared that after she questioned some of the boss's orders, she was basically told to 'shut up and do what you're told'. After that, OP watched while the boss made a major error, but said nothing since that was what she was ordered to do. This mistake cost a lot of money to the boss, but who knows if that will ever get her to change her ways…

Scroll down for the full and detailed story. Once you are done, click here for a tale of a woman who had to refuse her brother when he asked for a loan, but for very good reasons.

Hierarchy is the cornerstone of the business world. There will always be subordinates and superiors in the organization based on seniority and experience. But what would happen if you were caught in the middle of an argument, or perhaps a more accurate description, an ego clash, between two of your managers?

Well, the story below is an account of a dissatisfied store salesperson. OP has worked at a single shop for the past six months. Six months is a century in the retail industry, particularly for a store that is in high demand and experiences a lot of foot traffic all day long. To put things in perspective, OP works as an ordinary salesperson and is overseen by a store manager and shift lead. However, for unknown reasons, OP found himself in the center of a manager-on-manager feud.  Things went south, as you may have expected when OP finally made up his mind and deliberately disregarded his supervisor.

So,  if you're interested in learning what happened between OP and the upper management, be sure to check out the story below! And when you're done, don't forget to check out the story about the overworked hotel employee who gets even with upper management!

It's 100% normal to date the wrong person many times in your life. That's how dating works. You start to see someone you like, until you realize you actually don't click at all. Eventually, you find someone you click with and all the ups and downs of the relationship are worth it. That's when you are able to look back at past heartbreaks and wonder, "What in tarnation was I thinking??" Hindsight is 20/20, after all.