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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/kolecarmot on 2023-06-20 21:08:53+00:00.

This maybe my last contribution due to the upcoming changes, so I wanted it in my favourite Subreddit.

I work for a Printing Company, and as I tell a lot of people, much of my job is literally Malicious Compliance. People wanting things printed despite how they look, spelling and design errors, and just being plain ugly. This is another story that has come up these past two weeks.

A while ago, one of the other locations absolutely destroyed one of their printers. Toner everywhere, the finisher unit was a hunk of Plastic and metal, I genuinely don’t know what they did to the machine but it was FUBAR based on the photo, especially since the toner cartraige is not in the Finisher Unit.

An investigation took place and it was discovered that rather than calling in printer technicians to repair the machines, some of the company employees were repairing them instead. A company wide message went out essentially telling everyone not to repair or perform maintenance on the machine ourselves. Genuinely, common sense things that had to be put on paper because someone did something stupid.

We were always supposed to put in service calls to the techs to come take care of the machines or we will be brought to HR.

Three months later, last week.

Two guys from Loss Prevention, who will be Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dumber, came in to do a regular check in. Everything was going great, until I needed to change the paper in one of the printers. Tweedle Dee approached me and basically began raking me over the coals, saying that only technicians can open the machines.

Of course I am dumbfounded because all I am doing is changing the paper, but just shrug and say “Sorry, won’t happen again.”

Well, the next day, I was brought into a meeting with HR over a video call basically wagging their finger at me. My boss, Dee, took the fall for me and said he was the one to tell me to change the paper, so I got off scott free and Dee only got a slap on the wrist (thankfully so, as this would have been my second write up in two months. The first was a stupid but legitimate mistake on my part). However, as a result of this, the whole facility went into Malicious Compliance mode after that meeting.

Need to change out the paper trays? Service call. Paper jam? Better put in a service call. Need to change the toner? That’s a service call.

Our output of jobs last week was absolutely in the toilet. Machines were down for nearly 90% of the shifts. The techs were having a field day however as they got paid per call they took. While our backlog is through the roof, we were able to make our point eventually.

I am not sure exactly what had been happening in the background, but today I received a handwritten apology from Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber with a $50 Visa Gift Card, saying they didn’t understand what our job required when they reprimanded me and referred me to HR.

We are back at full capacity now, and have a huge backlog to catch up on. I am hoping in addition to this Gift Card, I can also get in some approved overtime for some extra spending money on an upcoming trip I have planned.

The company I work for may be dim at times, but at least they often admit when they make a mistake.