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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Zodiac72826 on 2025-04-03 19:59:15+00:00.
This is probably super mild compared to most things posted here, but I just remembered it and it made me laugh so here goes.
When I was in high school, far longer ago than I care to admit, I was a bagger at a local grocery store. One of the policies of the store was that we had to offer to help everyone take their groceries out to their car. Anytime someone elderly, or someone with a lot of bags, came through the line, I would offer to help, and many of them accepted. There were a lot of parents with kids that turned down the help because they would make their clones help instead. I quickly learned who was going to accept the offer and who wasn’t, so if they fit the criteria for not being interested in help, I didn’t bother to ask. They always refused, so why keep asking?
Well, one day my manager is hovering while I’m bagging, and a lady bought a carton of eggs and a loaf of bread. I smiled and wished her a nice day, handing her the single, featherweight bag, and she smiled and returned the greeting, and was on her way. My manager noticed I didn’t offer to help her out and scolded me, and I just pointed out she had one partially filled bag that was super light, so probably wouldn’t have needed help. He emphasized it was the store policy and I need to offer help to EVERYONE.
The next guy in the line was definitely a gym rat. A foot taller than me, biceps as big as my head, a tight tank top and basketball shorts. It’s been so long I can’t remember what he bought but it occupied a single bag, and wasn’t heavy. I double bagged it, still in front of my hovering manager, and said “Sir would you like me to help you carry all of your groceries out to your car?”
He laughed, saw I wasn’t also laughing, and his expression changed to utter confusion. He looked at me like I’d just asked him what shampoo he used on his armpit hair. It was 95% confusion, 5% suspicion at what game I could be playing with him. He looked at my manager with a new look that said “Is this kid okay?” then turned back to me, still chuckling a little bit in confusion, and said “Uhh, nah man I think I got it…” He took his bag of protein powder and eggs or whatever it actually was and walked out, shaking his head.
I looked at my manager and shrugged. His expression read as “Yeah, alright, fine.” And he went back to the office. He never hovered or enforced the policy again after that.
Like I said, super mild and short compared to a lot of posts on here but it was my first case of malicious compliance so hopefully you guys got a laugh out of it as well.