A worker has gone viral for sharing that they once received an “absurd amount” of money in a hilarious payback plot against one of their clients.
Posting in Reddit’s “Malicious Compliance” forum under the username u/Mother_Distance_4714, the worker said the incident happened years ago when they were working as a contractor with a large “service provider.” The post has received more than 9,500 upvotes and over 300 comments from Redditors who applauded u/Mother_Distance_4714 on a job well done.
Before launching into their story, u/Mother_Distance_4714 explained that they used to do “service work” on gas station ad displays.
“Working on gas stations [in Germany] is highly regulated,” they wrote, adding that workers need to wear protective clothing and set up proper work zones.
Andrii Zastrozhnov/istock
“If the oil company finds out you did not follow this protocol you risk your contract,” they said.
However, u/Mother_Distance_4714 went on to say that workers would sometimes bend the protocol to address system reboot errors.
“In 9/10 cases the reboot button can be reached with a long screwdriver so no ladder and no secured work area are needed,” they said. “This stretches the security protocol just a little bit, but we all (techs working with this customer) agreed that this would be OK.”
By not following protocol, workers can get these jobs done in just 15 minutes, and they can get out of their clients’ way.
One day, u/Mother_Distance_4714 was called to a gas station to fix one of these simple errors. As soon as they arrived at the station, however, they were turned away because the station’s employees wanted to go home early. When they arrived at the station the next day, they decided that rather than bend protocol to get out of their client’s way, they would follow their protocol to the letter.
“I assessed the situation and found that the one button I needed to push was juuuuuust out of reach and thus I needed to set up a ladder. This meant I needed to set up a proper workplace,” they said.
The customer asked u/Mother_Distance_4714 not to set up a work zone, as they would be forced to shut down their registers. Of course, u/Mother_Distance_4714 insisted on having the work zone, as this was proper protocol.
After two hours of back and forth, u/Mother_Distance_4714 was sent home. Only, they were paid in full for doing the job despite not doing any work. They also got paid two days later, when they were called out to the station a third time.
“Instead of letting me do my job when I was already on-site, they paid me an absurd amount for not doing my job,” they concluded.
Commenters loved the story and applauded u/Mother_Distance_4714 for getting paid.
“This is great!” exclaimed u/tryllast.
“This was truly malicious compliance, but I have to agree that it was well earned as well!” said u/throwaway47138.
“They made you go through so much trouble for one little button? Perfect malicious compliance story,” agreed u/uwillnotgotospace.
Other Redditors from “Malicious Compliance” to go viral include a business owner who said a woman paid her bill using only pennies, a former ice cream shop employee who shared the “petty” solution they once had for a customer wanting a “milkier” milkshake and a “weekend” firefighter who took a work call on his day-off while on a hazard reduction burn.
According to The Wall Street JournalEuropean gas prices increased on Thursday as a result of Russian sanctions on several European energy companies, including Gazprom Germania GmbH.
“German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Thursday that while some subsidiaries of Gazprom Germania have stopped receiving Russian gas as a result of the sanctions, the companies had found non-Russian alternatives,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
Still, Habeck is urging the public to “reduce gas consumption.”
“The situation is escalating, insofar that the use of energy as a weapon is being realized,” Habeck said.