This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Geehzin on 2025-07-10 16:03:39+00:00.

A few years ago, I worked as a tech support guy/salesperson at a small, family-owned computer store in my hometown. It wasn’t a franchise, just a local shop. The owner? A mustached, arrogant dude who could never admit when he was wrong. No matter what went wrong, it was always someone else’s fault. That constant blame game was a big reason why I ended up quitting, but that’s another story.

At the time, my main job was delivering products to clients and doing on-site tech support at their homes or businesses.

Now, for some context: My boss was obsessed with the idea that I was “too slow” during client visits. No matter how long I actually took, be it 5 minutes or 2 hours, it was always too much in his eyes. He couldn’t seem to understand that tech problems vary and can take different amounts of time to fix.

And of course, he loved to compare us to past employees. “Back when So-and-So worked here, he was way faster than you!” Funny thing is, I knew that when So-and-So worked there, the boss used to say he was slow and someone else was better. That was just his thing: guilt-tripping whoever was working for him at the time.

Fast forward a bit: One day, he was in an extra bad mood and decided that from now on, I should message him every single time I finished with a client and wait for his reply before moving on. Same thing when I arrived somewhere, message him to say I’d arrived. He wanted this done through WhatsApp, SMS, or even a phone call. If I didn’t have credit, I was supposed to make a collect call (where the person receiving the call pays, not sure how common that is elsewhere).

Basically, he didn’t trust that I was working and thought I might be wasting time between clients or just riding around town. Spoiler: there’s not much to see.

I was annoyed, but sure, whatever. Rules are rules.

Day one: I followed the rule to the letter.

Arrived at a client? Message. Finished the job? Message and wait.

I lost way more time waiting for responses than I ever did between jobs, but okay.

Day two: same deal. Morning went by. After lunch, I loaded up the bike with deliveries and gear and headed out.

First client of the afternoon: Messaged when I arrived. He replied.

Fixed the issue. It didn’t even take 30 minutes, so I messaged when finished.

No response. Waited 5 minutes. Nothing. Called him. No answer. Waited another 5 minutes. Still nothing. So I sat down on the curb, under a tree, and waited. Watched some videos, scrolled through Facebook, chatted with friends. And I waited. And waited.

Almost 3 hours passed. I just sat there, doing nothing, waiting on the guy who demanded that I never move on without his go-ahead.

Eventually, my phone rang.

Boss: “Where are you??”

Me: “Still at client X’s place.”

Boss: “STILL?? He was the first one this afternoon! The day’s almost over! Just go back here.”

Me: “On my way back now.”

I got back to the store and was greeted by him practically foaming at the mouth.

“Why the hell did you take so long?! You’re so slow!”

I looked him straight in the eye.

“I was following your rule. You told me to notify you every time I finished a client and wait for your reply before moving on. You didn’t respond, so I waited. I’d never go against your orders.”

He froze. Just stared at me. He didn’t know what to say.

Then he tried to backpedal.

“Well, you should use common sense! If I didn’t answer, it’s because I was busy!”

Turns out he’d spent the whole afternoon dealing with contractors and problems at his house renovation, and just completely forgot he’d given me that rule.

Needless to say, that rule was never mentioned again. I went back to the old way of doing things.

But, of course, he still kept complaining that I “took too long” with clients. Some things never change.