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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Reformingsaint on 2024-08-13 19:57:10+00:00.

I’m retyping this one since I did not include the fallout. That was my fault and I didn’t read the rules. Unfortunately, I DO NOT remember the number of people I scared so apologize if I retell the story and be vague on the numbers. If you just want the fallout, look for Fallout in bold letters. Thank you everyone who upvoted my last post and left awesome comments!

TLDR: The loud ninja makes noise so people aren’t scared. When told to be quiet, he ends up scaring them instead.

Ever since I was little, I was quiet. This was mainly due to having terrible older siblings and learned to walk silently. I have tried to make myself plop my feet so as not to scare people but I’ve been known to walk extremely silently. Please note, I am a 300+ 5’10" person with a huge beer belly. So I couldn’t hide even if I wanted to since I usually wear black in a red vest.

Since I am so silent, I have become loud (very vocal) so as not to scare people and let people know I am in the area. I talk to myself, sing songs, talk to everyone passing by, etc. I do my best to be friendly even though I’m socially drained every day and rather stay inside for that month. Regardless, I am a very loud person. A regular customer apparently did not like it since I was a very loud person and asked me to be quiet. I apologized and toned everything down but my supervisor was also complained to. I was asked to become less loud. Okay.

Since then, I have scared a lot of people ranging from customers to the very own supervisor. I usually greet people 5-10 feet away from them so as to not get too close. Most of them I have even made eye contact with and still scare them. Essentially giving jump scares to everyone and people complained I wasn’t in my department. Almost everyone I have joked with by stating I need a bell.

The FALLOUT

Last week, I decided one week of torture was good enough. It was time to go ahead and stop being a gremlin. As much as I enjoy scaring people that are taller than me, I was probably creating an unsafe work environment. So I decided to make three rules to make things better. No big blow out, no real problems, just making an adult decision.

1: Try to greet every from the end of the aisle so as to avoid scaring them too much. 2: If I somehow sneak up on them, take several steps back so as to give them even more space. 3: Tell your coworkers you are going behind them at any point in time.

I have followed each one to the letter and have gotten less jump scares from customers. The fellow supervisors and coworkers are another story. I have actually gotten more jump scares from them then when I was silent. For example, I came around a corner and I stopped to see a supervisor helping a cashier. I said, I was coming behind them and they both jumped. The supervisor even screamed a little.

Responding to some comments from the last post that I could remember.

I do NOT come close to someone I know that was in the armed services or police force. I make sure they know where I am at all times because you don’t own PTSD, PTSD owns you. Meaning something could set you off and I DO NOT want that because of me. I respect them too much for that.

Unfortunately, no one else has joined me in on trying to scare the supervisors. I told maybe one or two people about it but they just put it off as workplace antics.

I wish to thank everyone that posted a comment stating they also scare people. I got a HUGE kick from those comments and hope you occasionally scare people when it’s safe to do so. I certainly plan to restart being a gremlin when Halloween hits.