r/MaliciousCompliance - Boss DENIED My Shipment, So I Cost Him THOUSANDS!

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1:00Hello, and welcome back to Karma Stories. I'm Rob, and I hope you are having a wonderful day today. I'm just in one of those happy, go lucky moods today. It's not even really nice out. It's completely overcast, but I've got this feeling right now that everything's going really well, which means it's probably going to get all shot to crap in the next couple of days. But with that being said, we do have some malicious compliance stories for you here today. Ready to go, let's go ahead and jump right in. This story comes to us from Weed Cultist. My boss insisted we cut out the middleman to save 15%. So I let him handle the logistics of a 40 foot container. I work as a purchasing manager for a mid-sized home goods retailer. We have used the same domestic importer for our seasonal decor for five years. They charge a markup, but they handle the customs, the quality checks, and the shipping. It is hassle free. My new director of operations is convinced that he is a business genius.

2:00He called the meeting last month and lectured me about how we're emerging money by using a local distributor. He told me to cancel our contract for the holiday shipment and go direct to the source. I warned him. I told him that dealing with freight porters, tariffs, and port delays is a full-time job. He told me I was just being lazy. He actually said, just get me the contracts, I'll close the deal myself. So I did. I spent a few days on Alibaba compiling a list of legitimate Chinese manufacturing companies that produce glass ornaments. I handed him a spreadsheet with 20 factory contacts, their minimum order quantity requirements, and the timezone differences. I sat back and watched the show. He realized that FOB price does not include shipping to our warehouse. He wired money to a supplier, but forgot to hire a customs broker, so the shipment got flagged by CBP. The container sat at the port for 10 days because he didn't understand what an ISF filing was.

3:01The demurage fees fine for not moving the containers alone cost more than the 15% he was trying to save. He came to my desk yesterday looking incredibly humbled and asked if I still had the phone number for our old importer. Jumping down to the comments on this one we have one from a user called Human Leon. It says, I mean, fair play to him for recognizing his mistake and coming back to you. We learn the most expensive lessons the best. Another commenter down below called plenty aside 8676 said, anyone who has spent time managing purchasing and international logistics knows that this arrangement works well for a reason. It is not only a full-time position, it's an entire industry. Perhaps going forward, he will appreciate you more. Okay, let's be honest, most of these stories end up with the boss doubling down on stupid, but this guy actually realized what he was up against and decided to go right back to the old system that OP said they should have stayed on. This story comes to us from major noodles.

4:04If you won't ship to me because my drive is less than an hour, then I'll make it in an hour. I work from home for a company that makes software for mobile devices. Of course, a lot of the work I do requires having the physical devices. If I need a specific one, I'll put in a request and they ship it to me. However, recently one of my requests to ship it was denied, and I was told I'd have to pick it up. They're reasoning, I live within an hour of the office, so I'm expected to come in and get them myself. The problem is, if you look up the drive on Google Maps, it does take under an hour just barely, but only if you look it up at like two in the afternoon or in the middle of the night when no one is driving. If you look it up during normal commuting time, it's never less than that. I'm writing this at 7am and it's an hour and 15 minutes. In 30 to 45 minutes, it's going to be even worse. I asked if I could just pay for shipping myself since it would be cheaper for me to do than to pay for gas and parking.

5:05Nope, gotta come in. So now I come in, I take lunch, and then head in at one in the afternoon. I get what I need and immediately leave. It takes me just under two hours total, and because I'm only running in for a few minutes, I can leave my car in front of the building and not have to buy parking. Two hours that I would normally spend doing work, I am now spending in my car. For some reason, I'm now back on the approved list for shipping. Jumping down to the comments on this one, we have one from a user called Lancer Sikira. It says, anytime I see something being shipped even across town, I have to remind myself that it's still cheaper than the labor involved for someone to drive back and forth themselves. Another commenter down below called Drew D.P. said, I would have made sure to make the trip at peak rush hour times and gotten it to three hours. I'm not quite understanding why OP has to make a drive to pick up something for work during work hours, and they can't claim the parking and the mileage and the gas and all that.

6:06I mean, what a crappy company, you're using your own vehicle, that's BS. I agree with the commenter, go at rush hour, make this take as long as possible, and then submit all your receipts, your gas, your parking, etc. Get paid for what you're doing because they couldn't pop something in the mail. This story comes to us from Something Clever, a stupid policy was formed as an over correction, I was written up for enforcing it. A few years back, I was a team lead in a call center for a bank. Our building was secure, but policy required any personal information for ourselves or customers be locked up, along with the obvious things like passwords, anytime we weren't at our desks. A separate compliance group would do random desk checks periodically, and violations would result in a write up for the individual, which also rolled up to leadership. Us team leads were responsible for completing the checks and were frustrated despite our being the ones responsible for the nightly desk checks.

7:07One of my peers had the suggestion that no personal information, including photos, nicknacks, that sort of thing should be allowed out, except for the small shelf everyone had in their cubicle. The person making this suggestion was a friend and was one of the closers who had to do these checks on a regular basis. I was not and only had to do these on the weekends. I said something to the effect of, that's the dumbest effing thing I've ever heard, that's an over correction, and no one is going to follow the policy, and it's just making our jobs more difficult. I was written up the next day by my boss, who wasn't there, as her boss was part of that discussion, and wanted me disciplined. I observed nearly no one outside of my team was complying by their ridiculous policy. That Saturday, when it was my turn for desk checks, I wrote a detailed breakdown of every single violation. There were dozens. I kept my feelings on the policy out and stuck to the facts. Monday, I was put on a formal warning. That manager wondered why everyone hated her, wasn't sad when she left, or empathized when she was laid off.

8:16Jumping down to the comments on this one, there's one from a user called Shadow Dragon 8685, it says, Sounds like you need to take that formal warning, along with a copy of the stupid policy to HR, and tell them you are not taking kindly to being written up for following company policy. OP responded and said, this was all years ago, but another post from this sub came up in my feed, and reminded me of this incident. Previous contact with HR about inconsistent application of company or department policy didn't get me anywhere, and I didn't have the energy to try again. Had it led to a termination, I'd have probably explored my options, but it didn't come to that. Another comment down below called Peter Griffin 565 said, that is a fine example of corporate BS. All companies want you to follow their policies exactly till they don't, and then all of a sudden you are the problem for doing exactly what they said they wanted done. OP responded to this one and said, I appreciate the sympathy, I'm surprised by some of the replies I've gotten here.

9:20I'd love to know what you all think on this story, because to me, it sounds like OP got disciplined twice for disrespecting another employee, and then basically telling them that their policies were BS. Okay, if you work for a place, they make policies, and you're a team lead, it's your job to put those policies into effect, and not bitch about it. Two teams, one cup. The prime time stage is set for the TGL presented by SoFi finals, Los Angeles Golf Club versus Tiger's Jupiter links. Keep up, it's playoffs. Tune in Monday, March 23rd, 9 p.m. Eastern on ESPN 2, and Tuesday, March 24th, 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPN, and on the ESPN app, President Barack Obama. Virginia, we are counting on you. Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to raid the next election, and wield unchecked power for two more weeks. But you can stop them by voting yes, by April 21st. Help put our elections back on a level playing field, and let voters decide not politicians. Vote yes, by April 21st.

10:29Paid for by Virginians for fair elections. This story comes to us from Mr. Coco1234. Department head tried throwing me under the bus. Department head asked me to prepare performance numbers for a new product launch, and compare them against our existing product. When I crunched the data, the issue was obvious. The existing product significantly outperformed the new one across every key metric, obviously, because it had built a legacy, and the new one didn't have time to breathe. The reason concerns that sharing a direct comparison with senior management would undermine the launch, and suggested reframing the story around long-term potential, and the need for marketing support, without spotlighting the old product's stronger performance. He rejected that approach and insisted that the numbers be shared as is, making it seem like I lacked integrity. I documented my concerns, and then did exactly what was asked. I posted the full comparison to senior management, clean data, clear visuals, no interpretation added. The difference in performance was impossible to miss.

11:35Senior management reacted quickly and aggressively. The launch strategy was questioned, the investment decision was challenged, and the product team was put under a microscope. During the fallout, the head attempted to distance himself by acting as though he had not yet reviewed the numbers before they were shared. Unfortunately for him, the timeline, approvals, and written trail made it clear otherwise. Now he's extremely pissed at everyone, and stays in his room. Jumping down to the comments on this one, we have one from a user called Paul DeNap, it says, As a product development engineer, I truly recognize and sympathize with this tale. I could always tell how well a product launch was going, according to if my manager declared it as his project, the slightest sign of an issue, and it becomes my project. Another commenter down below called Be Back in a Schmeck said, whenever a senior level employee does something stupid like that, I make it my mission to explain to people that all of the knowledge and experience he's gained throughout the entirety of his career led him to make the decision he just made.

12:42For me, it's not enough for these people to be humiliated by their bad decisions, I want all the work they've ever accomplished to be questioned and invalidated. So in this story, it sounds like OP wanted to reframe the data for the new product to push it out even though they knew that it was worse than the old product. Um, okay, the department head was pushing for transparency because they probably realized that the new product was inferior. That sounds like OP was the one causing the problems. Let me know what you think on that one though, if you're on YouTube or on Spotify, please drop a comment down below. This story comes to us from Chrono Gizmo, client wanted the logo more noticeable, I made it more noticeable. This happened about a year into my freelance career when I was still being way too accommodating with revision requests and not pushing back nearly enough on veg feedback. I have been working with this client for about three weeks on a brand identity package, small business, friendly guy, generally easy to work with except for one thing, he could not give specific feedback to save his life.

13:50Everything was make it pop more or I wanted to feel stronger or can we try something different, I would ask follow up questions, he would say, you know, just more like, you know, I did not know. We got to the logo revision stage, I sent over three concepts, he picked one, we went through two rounds of tweaks, font adjusted, colors refined, spacing cleaned up, I thought we were close. He came back with, I like it, but the logo needs to be more noticeable on the page, can you make it more noticeable? That was the entire brief, more noticeable. I sent one follow up question asking if he meant larger, bolder, higher contrast or repositioned, he just replied, just more noticeable, you're the designer, you tell me. Okay then, I scaled the logo to fill approximately 80% of the mockup page, it was enormous, it was undeniably, aggressively, historically noticeable. I exported it cleanly, put it on the deck and sent it over with a professional note saying, increase the logo prominence as requested, let me know your thoughts.

14:59He replied within 10 minutes, haha, okay, that's not what I meant, can we scale it back? I wrote back that I was glad to adjust and that it would fall under the next revision round per our contract, which he had signed and which clearly stated that each round of provisions after the second was billed at my hourly rate. He paid it, we landed on something good, he actually left me a 5 star review. I still have that enormous mockup saved, I look at it sometimes when I need a little joy. Jumping down to the comments on this one we have one from a user called Buy Polar 2 Bear, it says, I would be your customer because I have zero creativity, I can fix almost anything, but when you're asking for what to change on a logo, that's Greek to me. All fonts are equal, contrast, what's that? I'm being facetious of course, but I can look at something and know it's not right, yet can't tell you why or how. Another commenter down below called Pirolap said, I totally understand your frustration, but you should also know that designers that can translate a half written feeling to something tangible are worth the big money for the client, and usually are a pleasure to work with.

16:10I'm not sure how you're supposed to make revisions on a logo when the customer isn't giving you anything except for some really vague statements that really don't push you in any direction for those changes. Are you supposed to pull it out of your butt and figure out exactly what they want without them even telling you, I mean you can be the best designer in the world, but everybody who looks at something you design is going to see it in a different way. I think OP should have asked this client to have somebody else look at the logo and maybe describe what they thought was wrong with it. Even if it was one of the client's family members because they're just a small family owned business. Exima is unpredictable, but you can flare less with eggless, a once monthly treatment for moderate to severe exima. After an initial four-month or longer dosing phase, about four and ten people taking eggless, achieved itch relief and glare are almost glare skin at 16 weeks, and most of those people maintain skin that's still more glare at one year with monthly dosing.

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18:13Get the job done right, keep more in your pocket. That's pro-saving stays. Our best lineup is here at Lowe's. Valor through 327 selection varies by location, while supplies last. This story comes to us from Little Beauty. Plan exclusion. Bet they're going to regret it. Back story. I've had the same insurance for several years and have a lot of medical issues. The medical issues require me to take liquid medicine or my body doesn't absorb it. Often requires sublingual or IV. I had been taking a medication for my thyroid that worked well and was covered by my insurance. New plan year starts with the same insurance company. My pharmacy called to let me know that insurance was denying the medication. The medication cost without insurance is less than $75 a month under $1,000 a year. After several phone calls over two weeks and especially long phone call with one of the company patient advocates, I have a solution. The patient advocate asks the pharmacy department of the insurance company to list all options that are covered by my plan.

19:19The insurance company covers IV thyroid medication without prior authorization or step therapy. No questions asked. The IV medication cost to insurance is $4,500 per month. So here we are, my $900 a year medication that is now excluded from coverage is now costing the insurance company $54,000 per year. Corporate stupidity at its finest. The wonder medical care in America costs so much. Jumping down to the comments on this one we have one from a user called Intelligent.8969. It says, you can ask your insurance company to add a medication to their formulary for you. We have had success doing this. Opie responded and said, that is what I'm planning to do. But I figured I'd let them pay for a month or two of the IV medication to help ensure they learn to make better decisions. Okay, I'm going to bite my tongue and not say a whole lot about the American healthcare system compared to where I am in Canada.

20:20But I am going to mention that Dr. Frederick Banting, who created insulin, decided that it did not belong to them, it belonged to the world. This is a Canadian guy who refused to patent it because they wanted it to be readily available to everyone. That to me is an absolute win. So many of our systems in this world are purely based on money. But when it comes to our health, it really shouldn't be. It should be based on making sure that everybody has access to the healthcare and the medication that they need to live long lives. This story comes to us from Camera Walk Log. My new manager told me I needed to be more visible in the office. She didn't specify what that meant, so I became extremely aggressively visible. Some contacts I work in a hybrid role and for the past two years I've been going in twice a week, which was the agreed arrangement when I took the job. My work output has consistently been rated as strong.

21:21My projects get delivered, my clients are happy, my previous manager had no complaints. New manager joined four months ago and in my first one-on-one with her, she said she felt I wasn't present enough and needed to be more visible to the wider team. I asked her to be more specific, she said something about making sure people knew who I was and that I was engaged. I nodded and went home and thought about it. I am at my core a very literal person. Starting the following Monday, I began implementing visibility. I sent a brief good morning message to the team channel every single day I was in the office. I started attending every optional meeting I was technically eligible for. There were more than I expected. I walked to people's desk to ask questions I would previously have emailed. I introduced myself to three people from other departments I had never spoken to. I started saying goodbye to the office when I left out loud to nobody in particular.

22:22After three weeks my manager pulled me aside and said I seemed a bit much lately and asked if everything was okay. I said I was just working on my visibility as she had suggested. She looked at me for a moment and said maybe I didn't need to go quite that far. I asked her to clarify what the correct level of visibility was. She has not followed up and has not mentioned visibility since. Jumping down to the comments on this one we have won from a user called Fancy County 4242. It says you did it the hard way. I'd have just showed up the next day in one of those neon orange best. Could you picture OP walking into the office with a little music player putting on one more time and doing their best Vigo Venn impression? If you know, you know. Alright, we're going to go ahead and end this one here. If you enjoyed this episode make sure to follow us on your preferred podcasting platform. If you're on YouTube please hit that subscribe button and drop a like on the video.

23:23It really does help us out. I thank you for watching and listening. I hope you have a wonderful day and we'll see you tomorrow. Good season of Long Weekends. Full of linen shirts, sweaters and coastal shorts designed to go from your desk straight to days off. For me, the collections must have are the baggy trousers with the casual fit and tailored look for endless versatility. Get your closet ready for spring plans. Shop Abercrombie in the app, online and in stores.