A VP tells the IT team they have to come into the office on the Fourth of July because, in her words, it's just IT and they don't have lives. So the team lead asks if he can throw an office party to make up for it. She says go wild, and suggests he use the company card. Brisket, pizza, pies, and a bill over $6,000 later, the CEO is yelling at the VP and the company has a brand new expense policy.

In this Reacting to Reddit at Work episode of Why Does It Feel So Wrong to Be Human at Work?, host Bree Bartos is joined by Pinaki Kathiari and Lottie Bazley to react to stories from r/MaliciousCompliance, a subreddit for people who follow the rules exactly as written and watch what happens. Bree reads a Hall of Fame post about that Fourth of July party, then a brand new one that was only hours old when she found it, about an IT guy who was asked to monitor employee productivity and wasn't told to leave management out.

Pinaki calls the first story benevolent compliance, Lottie explains why a rule with no reason attached makes people dig in, and Bree shares a quick tip for keeping your work and personal browsing separate. Two of the three hosts had never even heard the term malicious compliance before this recording.

In this episode, they discuss:
• What malicious compliance means, and why it feels like the work word for petty revenge
• A VP, an IT team, and a $6,000 Fourth of July party that changed a company's expense policy
• Why Pinaki thinks the first story is closer to benevolent compliance
• Why a rule with no reason behind it invites people to rebel
• A VP's job is to lead and grow people, so what if the first move is asking the team what they think?
• A founder who asked for browser history reports on everyone, and the list HR brought IT a few days later
• Why your browsing history and keystrokes can be tracked, and Bree's tip for a separate work browser profile
• The question to ask when a task makes no sense: what problem are we really trying to solve?
• Checking whether a thought you're having is a story you're telling yourself
• Whether internal communicators are guilty of malicious compliance too

The lesson everyone agrees on: be nice to IT. Pinaki also wants a part two on malicious compliance and petty revenge, so tell us if you do too.

Got a workplace story? Share it on our subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/humanatwork/

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Connect with Us

Pinaki Kathiari – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom

Chris Lee – LinkedIn | Gallagher Communication

Bree Bartos – LinkedIn | Local Wisdom
Lottie Bazley - LinkedIn
Edited by Dave Casto - LinkedIn

Special thanks to digital communication agency Local Wisdom (www.localwisdom.com) for really believing in our mission and making this podcast possible.

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