Nate
In a remarkable display of malicious compliance, an employee of a Fortune 500 company who had exceeded expectations in their role, including creating a new software program that saved the company $20 million, faced difficulty during promotion negotiations due to their unsupportive bosses.
After receiving a dismissive response to their inquiry, the employee took their bosses’ advice literally and sought out a new job opportunity.
The reaction from management in this story shared in Reddit’s r/MaliciousCompliance sure highlights how valuable they were to the company.
Here’s How It All Went Down:
An employee at a Fortune 500 company was hired to create training using a digital adoption software that their predecessors had struggled with for 40 hours a week, despite being unfamiliar with it initially.
The worker was able to handle everything for the week within 3 hours and began exploring new technologies and responsibilities with their boss’s approval.
They received the highest honors from the software company, had case studies done on their work, and saved their company $20 million in production loss singlehandedly.
Their boss, who has never given them a metric during their employment, deemed them as meeting expectations rather than exceeding them at their annual review, resulting in a 2% raise only, despite the speaker saving the company millions of dollars.
The employee, after saving the Fortune 500 company $20 million in profits and being denied a promotion, requested a share of the profits and recognition for their work, but was offered a 2% raise instead, prompting them to quit.
The employee was initially willing to take on official duties with an appropriate job title and salary, but became frustrated when their boss backed out of the agreement.
For four months, they provided their boss with what was requested and followed up in every 1 on 1 meeting, but received no progress on the matter.
The employee directly asked their boss about the lack of guidance toward the next steps for the role.
Despite the CEO bragging about record-high revenue the previous week, the boss did not review the job qualifications sent to them, indicating tough times for the company.
The boss failed to ensure the feasibility of the new position before approving it, which should have been a priority.
The newly created metric included extra duties, but the individual promptly refused them, causing those in charge to remove them.
The employee inquired about future prospects for an unattainable position, but was met with a discouraging response from their boss.
The worker kept their head down by focusing on job boards, interviews, and avoiding offering help at work.
Finding another job wasn’t difficult for the employee, who worked on a niche software, as the software’s obscurity made it challenging to find experienced candidates.
After giving two weeks’ notice, the boss was left dumbfounded and now in a state of panic, asking the employee for a crash course knowledge transfer to others, despite their previous requests being ignored for months.
Readers commended the employee’s malicious compliance in the comments section:
