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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Zealousideal-Post332 on 2024-06-26 05:08:27+00:00.

First post ever, loving Malicious Compliance and realized I had a good one…

I don’t give permission to repost anywhere, read in a video, etc., please forgive any formatting errors. I’ll post a feedback comment, welcome to it if you can keep it under there.

Setting:

Back around 2010 I was working for a chain auto parts store while going to school. O… O… O… I shouldn’t tell you which one.

Background:

We had a Regional Manager, let’s call him Bob, that would come by now and again and among other things work on enforcing internal policies. He’d also make sure to pick up a few customer calls while on premise and deal with them as I suppose a show of comradery. One of the policies we had was “Never Say No”, the premise being that if a customer wanted something, you make it happen. Generally, I had a pretty good feel on both internal and external resources; we had our warehouses, “special order” outside supplier networks, local vendors, a local WalMart, even our competition that I was authorized to buy from, mark up, then sell to customers if that’s what they wanted (saving a potential future edit, I was always very transparent when I thought it was a dumb call and gave options to customers). Basically, an auto shop could ask us to bring them Tacos and we would make it happen. I’m a car guy myself and can generally find whatever part is in question if I really need to.

Setup:

Bob is in store one day and hears me tell a customer that we’re far from the best option for getting whatever part it was, or just flat out probably couldn’t make it happen, I don’t know. I sure wish now I could remember the details. Call ends, I get a lecture on “Never Say No” even though the request was truly beyond feasibility, even having a good grasp on what we can provide.

Malicious Compliance:

Some time later, Bob is back in the store. He picks up a call, listens to a customers request and is a little baffled because it’s for something very odd. He turns to me as he knows that if we can get it, I’ll figure out a way “Hey, Zealous, can we get X?” Without even thinking I respond right back “Sure Bob, absolutely!”. He takes customers info, hangs up, then asks me where we can source said item. I tell him flat out “Heck if I know, Bob! Never say no!”

Fallout:

His jaw hits the floor, full surprised Pikachu, forced into stunned silence. Sadly again, this is almost 15 years ago and I don’t remember the details. I do know I never got any verbal or written waring resulting from it, and he never pestered me about the “Never Say No” policy again. Customer wise, we could never get whatever was requested in the first place, so they may have gotten a glimmer of false hope before the call back, I see that now, didn’t in my instinctual reaction at the time.