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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/shieldtown95 on 2025-01-22 05:09:57+00:00.

This was in the late 90’s, my city decided to save a few bucks by not paying overtime to garbage collectors during the holidays. Instead of coming up with a reasonable solution, they told the garbage collectors to only pick up two bags per household, regardless of how much trash was actually out.

Here’s the kicker: there was no rule for residents. We could put out as many bags as we wanted. The city didn’t bother communicating anything to us, so when Christmas came (which fell on a Thursday, one of the usual garbage days), everyone put out their mountain of holiday trash like normal. Wrapping paper, boxes, leftovers—whatever didn’t fit in the bins was bagged and sent to the curb.

The following Monday (another trash pick up day) garbage collectors, following orders, only took two bags per house. The rest just sat there. By the end of the week, the streets looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie, with bags piled high on curbs and sidewalks. The result? Absolute chaos. Some houses had 10+ bags sitting out. The garbage collectors had no choice but to haul it all away because, let’s be real, there was no way this backlog was going to fix itself.

In the end, the city ended up paying overtime anyway because the backlog from one week of “savings” was impossible to clear in regular shifts. Instead of saving money, they gave the garbage collectors twice the work and had to scramble to deal with the mess.