Stories That Make Us Want To Quit | Reading Reddit Stories

24:25They sound delicious. I don't know what you're talking about. okay can I say something kind of like more serious than this story is but like it is my problem with revenge where I'm like that's cool you're doing this thing to him that's it's cathartic but I'm like you're not making the situation better he's still racist and sexist and creepy like is not the goal to try to eliminate that behavior or get rid of him from this office and now if all of those are exhausted and there's nothing you can do yeah I eat his apple chips that's funny but And I think as an audience, like our initial like, yeah, when we heard he was a bad guy, is like our want for justice when we're watching bad things happen and people get away with them.

25:07We go like, oh, like I don't necessarily want harm on him, but I want him to be held accountable. And if I can't see that, then I'd rather him be minorly inconvenienced as an audience member. But it's not right. Yeah. It's not even a matter of like right and wrong. It's just like it's not doing anything. Like, it's not in the long run going to fix anything. I think that's how I feel sometimes with Reddit stories. It's like, we love this, like, vengeance, cathartic thing, but I'm like, all right, and then what happens? Yeah. And it's like, and now we're back to square one. And they're still bad.

25:39And they're still doing their thing. Well, it is doing something. It's making me laugh. It is making us laugh. Exactly. That's why I like it in movies and stuff. Like, I like revenge, like, in a story. But, like, in real life, it is hard. You're not doing anything. You're doing it for yourself just to feel some enjoyment, right? Slip some notes being like, hey, stop being racist. Maybe the apple chips are, it's like a long con plan that eventually he's going to blow up and have a freak out over the apple chips that's going to lead to him getting fired. Fair. Maybe. But I also understand, I will say at the end of it all, I understand watching someone be awful and get away with it.

26:14You're just like, come on. You want to equal things out. So it's like, I'm going to steal his food. I understand. I understand where people are coming from. I'm going to steal his fruit. Yeah. Okay. It's fruit. When I eat potato chips, I'm like, I'm enjoying this root. Yeah, go for it, dude. You sound weird, but do that. Potato is starch. Apple chips are weird. Is this just a starch, not a root vegetable? Is potato a root vegetable? I don't know. I actually don't know. What is it? It can't just be. It's not just starch. It didn't grow from a starch. What is it as a plant? Oh, it's a tuber. It's a tuber.

26:50It's a tuber. Okay, it's a tuber. What's that? So I'm going to say, I'm enjoying this tuber right now as I'm eating chips. Sucking down my tuber. What the fuck is a tuber? We do say potato chips. Like, that is the long, so like anything is a chip. I don't know. I'm going to think on this and have something to say in like 10 to 15 minutes. You know, this one's going to stick with me. Yeah. All right. Our next story. This comes from Ask a Manager. Okay. My coworker tickled another coworker, and now there is chaos. Classic. We're having too much fun. Classic. My company has had a relatively informal, somewhat relaxed working environment in the past, where colleagues generally got along well and we had a decent time together, even while working hard.

27:38Unfortunately, that balance has recently been upended in the department I work in. Two weeks ago, my coworker Rachel kicked the power strip under the desk in her cubicle, So she slipped off her heels and crawled under to pop it back in. The young woman in the cubicle behind her, Monica, had a serious lapse in judgment at this point. She knelt down and slipped an arm around Rachel's ankles when she was vulnerable and began tickling her feet. It was an unusual moment, to say the least, and reactions ranged from amusement to mild horror. It's God. It's God's disgusted. Scott's curling up into a ball.

28:15I was envisioning like tickling like ha ha ha like whatever but like oh someone was like yeah.

28:26If you're going to go to tickle your coworker and the feet are the first thing you go for. Yeah you're not touching someone. That's somehow weirder. You're touching someone's bare feet. Oh my god. Like if you not you should never tickle a coworker. But if the story was like, oh, you came up behind someone you know and like kind of grabbed their midsection or something. No! I'm just saying it's like you should never do it. But that's less freaky to me than while someone is on the ground going and grabbing their foot. Yeah, this is like, oh, they're in a vulnerable situation where they're crawling under a desk.

29:00And you're grabbing them like a Stephen King monster.

29:06Like, holy shit, dude. Hey, under the desk. What if when Dina lobbed us, she was like, got your neck! And he was lobbed. Tickle, tickle. Fuck. If you asked Monica, she would say she only had a light hold to avoid getting kicked during a playful moment that went too far. If you asked Rachel, she'd say she was rendered largely immobile and humiliated. I didn't have the best view, but it looked to me as though reality was closer to Rachel's side. Our manager, Phoebe, rushed in after several seconds of laughing slash shouting to break it up. It was a good thing she was there because I thought for sure that Rachel was going to slug Monica otherwise.

29:48This person watches Friends. Rachel, Monica, Phoebe. Okay, cool. Phoebe walked Monica to HR, and we wondered if Monica was done for. Apparently, they allowed her to remain with the company but told her she'd be dismissed if she put one toe out of line. Heh. That's what it says. It says, parenthesis, heh. Heh. I don't know the details, but I do know that Rachel was furious that the girl wasn't fired. Since that point, she has done everything she can to make Monica so unhappy that she feels compelled to quit. From passive-aggressive emails, to trying to rally coworkers, to petition management to let her go, to bringing up the incident, as it's come to be called, at every available opportunity.

30:26As a result, Rachel is becoming difficult to work with, and Monica is becoming a basket case. It's gotten to the point where yesterday I talked to Monica because I felt sorry for her. I'd heard her crying in the ladies' room that morning, only to have Rachel snarl at me later for trying to be friendly. I'm fairly certain that Phoebe knows what's happening, but is hesitant to address the issue with Rachel since she was the original victim. Phoebe is also rather hands-off in management style, so that isn't helping the situation. The environment is becoming increasingly uncomfortable, and our department being split on whether Monica should have been let go from the start hasn't helped.

30:59And I can sense people starting to take sides. Any advice would be appreciated. Whoa. Whoa. That's crazy. What a wild situation. This is so interesting. Because I'm assuming for these managers, it's like this is not a situation you're prepped for. HR is like, okay, if someone makes you uncomfortable, does something sexual or flirts with you or something, those are lines. But it's like, okay, so I was crawling under my desk and she grabbed me and tickled my feet. I'm like, oh, I'm sorry. What? Oh, yeah, our coworker's a leprechaun. And so... Our co-worker's Elmo. This is Sesame Street. This is Sesame Street.

31:44My co-worker's Elmo. Oh my gosh. I mean, yeah, because at the end of the day, I guess with the tickling, there is no malentent. Right? Like, you don't go to harm. I need to see this because she's saying it's more like what Rachel said where she was rendered immobile. Like, grabbed the feet and was tickling. What the fuck was going on? The way she described it was like she put one arm around the feet. So I'm imagining she's like on the ground and she scoops her arm and then is grabbing her feet. She headlocked her legs. She headlocked her legs and it's tickling her feet. If this happens to me, I'm fucking losing it.

32:22I'm running out of the building. Imagine, she's like, hell yeah, brother. Imagine going home and being like, how's your day at work, honey? And he's like, ah, I got tickled. A lady grabbed my legs fully. In what world do you see someone like, oh, I have to fix the outlet and go, there's my opportunity to grab her by the leg. That's weird, dude. I'm going to start threatening people with that. Like if Spencer's being an asshole, I'm going to be like, bro, I'm going to tickle you. That's going to make you look so bad. Pop those shoes off. I'm going to tickle your feet. But it's like she had to take her.

32:58It's not a situation where they were like laughing and playing. It was like, oh, shit, like I knocked off the power. Let me take off my heels. And I'm like, that's a very vulnerable situation. And I think it's hard for me to picture because we do such silly stuff on the regular here, right? Not like that. Well, no. But I'm like, this wasn't a silly situation. They're not performing. She's like, I'm crawling under my cubicle. She's probably not like wearing clothing where she feels comfortable doing that. And then someone grabs and is tickling. I'm like, yeah, it kind of is fireable. Like, I'm like, the more I'm thinking about it, I'm like, yeah, I don't know how you reconcile this without firing them.

33:36How long do you think was the wind up on this? Like, she looks over, sees the heels coming off, and is it like a little like. You see Rachel foaming at the mouth? Yeah. Or is it like she sees and she's like, all right, finally. Like, I don't know. How instant was it? Monica was the tickler. Rachel was the one who got tickled. So Monica was the one who saw the feet and was just like, oh, and like had to tickle. Okay, you're Monica in your new job interview. Oh, so I saw you were at Brother and Will's accounting, and you left after two years. What was that? Oh, yeah. It was great. I had a great time there.

34:08I had to left. It was just this little, you know, I took some steps that they disagreed with as a company. Creatively? Yeah, it was creative. I don't think you should have been fired. I think you're doing a great job. Tickle, tickle. I tickled a co-worker. So, yeah. Well, so what happened was my friend, she kicked off the power and she had to take off her heels to crawl under her desk. You know, and so I, you know, I think in this industry, when we see opportunities, we have to take them. And so I scooped up her legs with one arm like a sailor and I tickled them. You know, like macho man Randy Savage.

34:53And, you know, I got her. And then, you know, naturally there was some resentment there. Like, how do you ever get hired again if you got fired for tickling? You just don't bring that up. Calling up your previous, like, your new company calling up as a reference. Like, yeah, so why did you end up, like, parting ways with her? She tickled the shit out of some goody shit. She put someone's legs in a headlock and tickled her. You wouldn't believe it. She was tickling everyone. I do think it's one of those situations. I don't like to use this unless it's, like, really clear. if Monica was a dude fired, like full on, so she needs to be fired the same way and treated the same way, because that is a wild thing to do.

35:35And I think it's because it's tickling. We're being like, oh, it's tickling. No, it's grabbing someone's body. It's more than grabbing someone and holding them. I'm like, that's kind of like a very forceful move. It's very invasive. So very clearly, Monica misread their relationship and friendship. It's just some of those things where it's like, hey man, at work, no matter how friendly you are with someone, and there's ground rules, right? And that's why I'm sure romantic relationships in the workplace and friendships in the workplace, it's like, hey, but you just keep those boundaries. Just keep it like, hey, we're at work, we don't do that at work.

36:05Yeah, even outside of work, I don't think you grab bodies. Yeah, well, yeah. I don't think I've ever tickled my friends. I want to go so far and be like, I think we should stop tickling children when they're born, so we stop tickling as a whole. You think tickling should be done with? Yeah. I would love for someone in the comments to tell me if their life was improved by tickling because I can't think of anyone who was. Yeah. No. That's a fair... My brother used to tickle me until I couldn't breathe and it was really scary. Tickling, I think, is like... That sounds awful. I'm really ticklish. Most of the times that I think of tickling, it is a form of bullying when you're a kid.

36:40Yeah. Yeah, I do remember tickling my brother and it was hella funny, but... You're like, actually, wait a minute. That shit was funny as fuck. I do remember doing that to him. My brother would scream really high pitch and it was really funny.

36:54TLDR, the ask manager responded and here are the main points. The manager doesn't know if it's a fireable offense especially if Monica's had no other problems in the past. There needs to be a serious, you cannot touch a co-worker ever again and there will not be another warning conversation. However, Phoebe, the manager needs to sit down and have a talk with Rachel and say that she understands her feelings but we have to keep a professional environment. The reality is if Monica continues to work there, they can't allow one employee to bully another. Maybe moving desks will help the situation. I've got a pitch.

37:26Not a real one, but I've got a funny one. If the manager comes in and goes, okay, this situation's fucked. Monica, what the hell were you doing? You grabbed Rachel and you tickled her? That's not cool. You said it would be funny. Well, it's not cool, but here's the situation. Rachel, you're allowed to tickle Monica at some point and you do not have to give her Warning, at any point. So, Monica, watch your back. When you least expect it. I don't know if I'll be able to focus on my work. Well, you're gonna have to try.

38:04Just standing over the cubicle wall, like, looking down. Like, every now and then, Monica just turns and just across the way, just Rachel's just like. And, like, lowers down. She's like. And then, like, like. This is like nightmare fuel. But Monica's in the bathroom, and all of a sudden she just sees steps outside the stall. And they just stop, and then they just move again. Or their big red shoes. Because it's Elmo. A clown. She just comes to work dressed as a clown. Oh, God. No, that's not a real solution. Okay, comments. I can't imagine ever wanting to touch my coworkers bare feet. Ew. Someone said Monica should have known better.

38:43Do not touch your coworkers like that. but management well and truly fucked up this entire thing from top down. If Rachel ended up leaving soon after, I'd have fully understood. Someone said, I'm trying to wrap my brain around why anyone would think, even in the most relaxed casual work environment, that it would be okay to engage in a tickling moment with a coworker. No matter how casual we're talking. Yeah, someone said, management really dropped the ball here. Either fire her, Monica, outright, or apply some authority to manage the situation. Yeah, it's certainly like their response makes you not feel safe in that work environment.

39:14Because, like, I'm, based on, like, how OP is writing this and, like, the reactions from coworkers, I'm like, this, I think if I saw this, I'd be like, oh, this was bad. I think, like, reading it and hearing tickling, it's hard for me not to associate it with, like, me as a kid, like, with tickling. I think seeing it would scar me for life. I'm like, I think I would not be able to function. And I'm also thinking about, like, all the insane shit we do here at Smosh, nobody has ever tickled another person here at Smosh. If it wouldn't fly here, then. If it's not flying here, it is not flying in a regular workplace.

39:45I just, yeah, I can't imagine tickling another adult, let alone in the workplace. Yeah. I wouldn't be able to look them in the eyes. Yeah. Like, I just, like, ah. I think it's, like, just the word tickle. Yeah. For sure. It's the finger movement, too. Like, the fact that this is the primary motion for tickling. It really is like the creepiest things that we societally aren't looking down upon enough. It's kind of fucking crazy. Yeah. It is. Yeah. Update. Five months later. Whoa. We get an update? On the tickle? On the tickle story. This is fucking rad. First and foremost, I want to thank you for taking the time to craft a thoughtful response to my letter.

40:33Monica, the tickler, left the company last week. I don't know all the details, but I reached out and she said that she and management came to an understanding, but wouldn't say more and I didn't push. She was a middle child in a large family that showed a lot of physical affection. And tickling wasn't something vicious or mean as far as she was concerned. And it was probably that background that contributed to her lack of judgment. I won't make excuses for her actions, but I really feel bad for her and hope she finds another position and that she can learn from her mistake instead of being punished for it further.

41:04She is clearly an extrovert and feeling cut off from people and caught in an atmosphere of hostility and isolation really affected her. Though how much pressure was from Rachel and how much, if any, came from higher ups, I couldn't say. I offered to have coffee and catch up, and if she takes me up on that, I might have more info in the future. As for Rachel, once Monica was gone, some of my coworkers expected her to gloat or strut around, but she's been awfully subdued. She doesn't talk much about anything except work, even inconsequential things. Perhaps that will change, but it's as if she didn't know how to react when she got what she wanted.

41:37As far as I know, our manager never confronted her, though I won't swear to that. Things seem to be getting back to normal otherwise. Our boss brought some treats, and we did a couple of fun group exercises, and people have relaxed a bit. Still, I'm wary of how quickly things can get deeply uncomfortable. Thank you again for your time and your advice. I'm sorry, but the beginning of that is so, like, Monica the Tickler. It's like a Dark Souls boss. It's like Molog the bloodthirsty. It's like Monica the tickler. Monica tickler of feet. Oh, God. So Rachel was feeling weird when Monica left? Yeah, it's just kind of like, oh, wow, she's gone.

42:19Yeah. Because you have to feel, I would assume, no matter how justified it is, you have to feel weird that someone got fired. Got fired for that. And you kind of feel responsible, but you were just there. That's hard. It's also tough. It's got to be a weird situation when, whether she left the company because of the situation or she was fired or whatever, that it was a one-time situation. And it's just like that. Because if someone's doing a pattern behavior, it's like, oh, this is who they are and they are doing this and I want them gone. But it's like this one-time thing. It's got to be like I would feel, I know, and I'm not saying this right or wrong, I would feel guilty.

42:54No, for sure. So I'm like, oh, this one-time slip-up. No matter how wild it was, but still it happened. It's like clearly the workplace could not get past it. Yeah. And then your boss is like, I brought cookies. I brought cookies. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Wow. Man, what a, it's these situations that just ride the fence on things you've never heard. It's literally Sesame Street. It is Sesame Street. Cookie Monster, Elmo. Cookie Monster, Elmo. It's a treat, right? He brought a treat or something. I guess cookies. Yeah. Probably cookies. Slices of apples. I would love that. Yeah, as a slice. The count?

43:33Slice. Apple slices. The count? The count? The count, dude. Yeah. Another one. Maybe it's an accounting firm. Our next story also comes from Ask a Manager. My employees played a horrible prank on a coworker. What do I do now? Okay. I'm writing seeking advice as to how I, as a manager, can handle the aftermath of a joke gone wrong. The joke never should have been played in the first place, but that ship has sailed. I managed four reports, and two of them made another think$50 ,000 had gone missing, and she was being arrested for stealing it. My other report was not involved at all. They went so far as to get one of their wives to pretend to be a police officer there for the arrest.

44:16The one who was accused wept so hard she vomited. She was adamant she didn't do it and asked to phone someone to go stay with her sick mother while she was in custody It was only then she was let in on the joke She has not returned since it happened and will not answer calls or letters I am furious their joke was unacceptable and if I had known what they were planning I would have shut it down I don't have the power to fire them or I would have already I have no clue what they were thinking they say it was intended to be hilarious not mean I don't know of any trouble before this, and all of my reports seem to get along.

44:50The one they played the joke on has only worked here for a few months and is fresh out of school, while my other three reports have worked here for anywhere between six to nine years and have all been on this team for over five years. That is so awful. Hey, we're going to play a prank on you where we ruin your life. Yeah. We're going to convince you that your life is ending. Impersonating a federal officer? Yeah, that is a crime. They did commit a crime. This is. Hey, what's all we say on every episode where we have a prank? What is a prank? What the hell is this, and what's it for? Especially because they don't even know him that well.

45:30Like, this is not, I'm like, okay, if you did it on, like, someone you've worked with for five years. Yeah. It was a little more like, oh, you understand each other. You understand their sense of humor. This is someone brand new, and you all pulled a prank where the. That's so sad. This is, like, hazing. You know, and like a really extreme, awful, like, yeah. It's also the thing where, you know, because you think it's real at first, like, okay, so she really legitimately experienced being told that she embezzled$50 ,000 and is about to go to jail. Like, that's a real experience she has. Then she's told it's a prank, but in her brain that was still real.

46:06So she cried so hard she vomited. You can't just be like, oh, ha, ha, ha, you guys got me. It's like, no, your body's still going through that shock. Yeah. Now, I feel like especially you got to have a sense of maybe in the moment figuring out that it's not. Because, I mean, they let it go on long enough that she called someone to take care of her mother. Yeah, that's so sad. At what stage of this prank is are you? Do you go like, what? When she barfs? Like, what do you? Or when she starts sobbing that much, I think you have to be like, okay, reading the room here, maybe we let her know. Yeah.

46:41Someone did show up. The wife showed up for the arrest. And stealing$50 ,000, that's a felony, like a massive felony. You're not like talking like a small little crime. This isn't like, oh, you got a parking ticket. Ha ha, psych. It's like, no, you're going to prison. Damn. This isn't funny. No, most pranks aren't. We have not read a prank on this show that I thought was funny. They've all been just, hey, an awful thing is happening to you. Yeah. It's just not good. Like, what the fuck are you doing? That makes me like, oh, my God. I can't imagine. Because it seems like, yeah, this is like her first job.

47:20Yeah. Kind of in this industry or whatever. Like, very new. Yeah. Probably very excited to be, you know. I'd rather have someone rip off my cowboy boots and tickle my feet than be told that I've stolen$50 ,000 and the police are here to arrest me. But honestly, at the end of the day, if you fucking even make a joke about it. If you reach your hand out, I... Trevor, don't! Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, they're falling off! But I'll say, about the tickling and about this, it's not mutually fun for both parties. It's only fun for one. Yeah. It's not... Like, why are you getting enjoyment out of this? Like, why are you getting enjoyment out of, like, telling someone their life is over?

48:04How bored do you have to be at your frickin' life to make someone cry so hard they vomit? In the name of funny. It's a person you don't know that well, too. Go home. Read a book. Comments. Yeah, I got the part where she was pleading for time to make arrangements for someone to take care of her mom and just lost it. There aren't enough adjectives in the dictionary to cover this one, but I agree with everyone that's been used in this thread. This was vicious, heartless, sociopathic torture. Someone said, impersonating a police officer is a class A misdemeanor in my state. In some states, it's a felony.

48:37Either way, the fake officer could be subject to fines, jail time, or both. Wonder if your team member's wife has some spare time, a lot of cash, and a good lawyer. Because your former employee has at least two of those things. But, someone replied to that saying, but the employee can't prosecute anyone for impersonation of an officer. All she can do is make a police report. But most jurisdictions I know would not prosecute someone for this. Someone said, every time I think an office prank story can't be topped, there's a new letter. I used to think the guy who locked a co-worker on a balcony was the worst.

49:07This is like 1 ,000 times meaner than that. I hope the OP can get rid of these people and figure out how to do the right thing by the harmed employee. Horrible. The OP that's writing this as a manager said they don't have the ability to fire these people, but they certainly have the ability to talk to someone who has the ability to fire them or figure out something because this is so bad that this employee is going to be scarred forever. Update. One day later. The incident had happened almost three weeks before I sent in my question. Because there was speculation on the possible dynamics in several of the comments, all three persons involved, both pranksters and the prankie, are women.

49:42The pranksters are both in their late 20s, and the prankie is in her mid-30s. One of the pranksters is the same ethnicity as me, Chinese-American, and the other prankster and the prankie are both white. One of the pranksters is gay. The other prankster and the prankie are not. As far as I am aware, myself and the three of them are all the same religion, Anglican. That's a lot of information. Here's our addresses and our social security numbers. Clearly, in the previous Red Thread, people were probably asking for, like, is there a cause for discrimination? Like, what's the dynamics? Got it. Got it.

50:13Yeah. So clearly that's not seeming to be pointing towards that. The only difference is Pranky is new, slightly older. Other people have been working there for years. My other report was on a two-week vacation at the time, and he had no knowledge of or part in the prank. There were no other witnesses besides my three reports. The wife who said they were a police officer there to arrest the employee was not wearing any kind of uniform, and she didn't enter the building. She was standing by her navy blue car outside the building on the public street. The pranksters gestured to her out the window when they told the prankie she was police, and she gestured for the prankie to come outside.

50:47She never spoke to the prankie. So this prank happened in the office. They had someone's wife drove to their place of work to just stand outside. The amount of effort. Like, get a hobby. How does not a single person sit down for a second and be like, is this a good idea? Yeah. We don't have to do this. Yeah. Our day, we can have a normal ass day. Like what if instead of driving to my workplace, we got, I don't know, ice cream or something. Dude, ice cream sounds awesome. Your wife has a day off. Your wife is chilling. Like let her go to the beach. You're having her drive to your place of work to stand there.

51:22Your unemployed friend on a Tuesday. Yeah. Since she never dressed as or told anyone she was an officer, there's no way she can be charged with impersonation. The officers at the real police station I went to, the lawyer I spoke to about this, and the company lawyer looked at me like I had two heads when I brought up impersonation charges. They all agreed what happened was awful, but the wife of the prankster did nothing illegal, and the prankster pointing at her once and saying she was an officer also is not illegal. The prankie was also never handcuffed, touched, taken anywhere, or stopped from leaving.

51:53So no crime was committed there as per the police and the lawyers. My reports don't have access to money to steal, making the theft allegation part of the prank baffling. But I understand why the prankie was scared given how new she was to our workplace. We don't deal with money in our work. We work in the compensation and benefits section of HR. We tell employees what benefits and other compensations they are entitled to. They work in HR? They work in HR, which does add a layer to this. Rich! We do not have any parts in administering these benefits, and we don't work with the books, accounts, or payroll.

52:27All of that is done out of a different office. My boss, the executive director, and our legal division know what happened. Multiple voicemails and letters to the pranky from me, the director, and legal have gone unanswered, and the letters were marked as return to sender. Her LinkedIn profile shows the job she had before, and when she was in school, the school she went to, and a current job that is with another company. The company I work for is not mentioned on her profile anywhere, and anyone from the company who tries to reach out is not responded to. I have accepted she wants to be left alone, and the company lawyer advised all contact attempts to cease.

53:00The executive director's idea of disciplining my reports was to give them a talking to slash lecture and to send a memo division-wide saying no pranks of any kind are permitted at work, without giving context since no one else knows what happened. I am going to resign. I wasn't sure at first, but the more I found out about what happened the more angry I got I was also angry about not being able to fire the pranksters I promised my other report a good reference if he ever needs it because he didn't do anything I was not sure about resigning without another job offer But my girlfriend told me I would feel better if I did and we could make it work on her income until I found one So I've made the decision to leave I appreciate your answer to my question Allison I am grateful to you and see I am not wrong to be angry at what happened.

53:44Thanks so much Wow. Wow, so bad. They're like, I'm going. But it is also, you see something that bad happen and you see no action taken. You're like, well, I'm not safe here. Like if something bad happens to me at this job, I'm on my own, so I should get out of here. Especially the people that report to you. You now have to like tell these people what to do and like work with them on a regular basis. And it's like, you just know that they're awful. Like that they just did this awful thing and you're never gonna be able to look at them without thinking of that. Right. Oof. Wow. I'm glad OP is even taking care of themselves.

54:20Like, it just, like. Yeah. Yeah, in an environment like that's not good for you. No. Well, dang. That's it. No more updates. Okay. Time for our final story. Ooh, and this comes from Malicious Compliance. Oh. Which I love. I love some Malicious Compliance. It's the best. You demanded my entire team be at the office for the 4th of July. Fine. Enjoy paying for the office party. Hell yeah. Okay. Little warning up front. If you haven't eaten, this story is going to make you hungry. I haven't eaten. I haven't eaten. I haven't eaten. Lunch is after this. I was going to say, what a crazy thing to read right before lunch.

55:02So this starts on Monday, the 13th of June. As I receive an email from a VP not over in my department, our bad VP, I am told that my team will be required on the 4th. I politely tell them, no, that our team has been scheduled this day off and people already have plans. My team is the IT team, and as many of you know, the IT team gets shafted every time it can get shafted by any company. So over the course of the week, I let my team know what is happening. I let them know I have been reaching out to higher-ups to fix it. I also tell them that if their plans are ruined, I will make it right at work.

55:36Over the course of three meetings, it starts to look like things will not go my way. In response, I sent an email to the CEO of the company. All of my higher-ups knew I was going to do this and said I should do this as he is very family-oriented and that he would not allow anyone to work on a national holiday. Well, he is on vacation in the Bahamas until the 6th. But his assistant informed me he would look at this after he gets back. Repeatedly slams head into desk. So I tell everyone that it will be work from home and that we will be setting my cell phone as priority in the call routing, meaning I would get most of the calls.

56:10To be honest, I was expecting almost zero calls, especially since I was asked to send out a notification that IT support would cover the 4th of July. I never sent that email out. A day later, I was given another outrage. I was told in an email that my employees would be required to be at the office and no one was allowed to work from home. They would be checking the door badge ins to verify we were at the office. I asked why in an email, and they said that they wanted to make sure no one was playing video games at work. We normally work from home about two-thirds of the week, and video game playing is a normal occurrence at work.

56:44Hell yeah. Us too. Hey, been there. So I walked into the person's office after a very long conversation where she was losing the logic war with me. She told me that it's just IT. You guys don't have lives. She said that? That's a vice president. She said that? Yeah. The vice president told him, it's just IT. You guys don't have lives. What? Wow. No, I am not kidding you. This is exactly what they told me. I reported this to my VP who said, I will take care of this. It likely won't be until after the 4th, so get creative. I know this man well. We have worked together a long time, and get creative is code for corporate fuckery.

57:23He's like light it up. Yeah. I asked the person requiring us to be at the office if they cared if we had an office party. They said no, as long as it did not interfere with the call flow. They even suggested using my new company card to pay for it. Go wild. Pro tip. Never tell me to go wild. At this point, it was Tuesday the 21st. I let everyone know what's up, but that I have something planned. I asked who had things planned for that day. Two people told me they were planning to shoot off fireworks with their family, but the rest were planning barbecues with friends. I write up an email to the VP over my department and the bad VP.

57:56I tell them all that I let everyone know. We all were expected to work until 8 p.m. Monday. Per the conversation with the bad VP, I will be having an office party as a sort of sorry to the guys and gals who got shafted by this decision. The bad VP replied again. Thank you for your understanding. Also, yes, I would expect an office party if I had to work on the 4th of July as well. Go fuck yourself. So go wild and enjoy your time. Use your new company credit card if you need to cover a few expenses. Also, I should not have to remind you or anyone else, no fireworks or alcohol on company property.

58:29So now it is time to tell you about my office. See, a while back, the IT team was moved from the main corp office and into a smaller building by itself. It has a nice gaming break room, a decent-sized gym, and a full-on drink bar. Soft drinks, mind you. No alcohol at work. Outback is a big patio that crosses county lines as soon as you cross a small creek. A creek that just so happens to have a footbridge over it, leading to an empty field. I start making phone calls. Perfect for fireworks. Perfect. Monday, June the 25th, I call everyone into an hour early meeting that morning. I explained to them all that I will be making it right.

59:03I asked everyone to invite their friends and family to the office. No supplies will need to be brought by anyone. I tell them that this will be non-alcoholic, but that I will be planning something for everyone. I told them to expect all food to be provided, and they don't need to bring anything unless they want to bring some fireworks, i.e. they won't have to spend a dime. The fourth comes, and the entire day, we did absolutely no work. No tickets, no calls came in. Well, seven calls did come in, but from the same person, the bad VP. She was calling to make sure we were manning the phones. All of us were playing video games or watching movies.

59:356 p.m. rolls around and everyone was told that the food was ready. People were expecting hot dogs, hamburgers, maybe a bratwurst or two. What they got was a full-on barbecue feast with pizza and other foods. There was smoked brisket, spare ribs, smoked sausage, smoked turkey, both kinds of tater salad, coleslaw, green beans with bacon and onion, potatoes au gratin. Yes, the original potato chip. Pizza from two different places, excellent hamburgers, and bratwurst hot dogs. On the dessert side was cake, very good cookies, four different kinds of pie, and about two pounds of fudge. Families and friends started showing up at around 6 to 6.15-ish.

1:00:10Some brought alcohol, but I told them they would need to leave that in their cars as I was not that crazy. Some were not too happy about that, but agreed as it was free dinner for random strangers. So let me set the scene for you. I am out there with all calls routed to my cell phone, and everyone is just having a good time. We have a ton of people there just enjoying the fun night, chatting about random stuff, eating the food, and occasionally lighting off some sparklers or throwing firecrackers into the stream. It's not stocked and only one foot deep. My VP, not the bad VP, mind you, showed up with his family and brought some water balloons for the kids and man children.

1:00:43Around 8.30ish, it's getting dark and people want to shoot off more than the simple sparklers and fireworks we had been using. The VP over the IT department had everyone cross the footbridge, over county line and off company property, mind you, and we set up a big wooden board using it as our launch pad. We fired off what we had for an hour or two and sort of just hung out for a little while. At around this time, people were tired and ready to go home. I told people to take home leftovers within reason. We all clocked out at 8 and no one left until about 10.30 p.m. The bad VP did call once more while we were out back at the party.

1:01:17It was 7.50, and she called asking for a status update. My exact words were, well, you were the only one to call us today. The rest of us are on the back patio enjoying the 4th of July shindig. She simply acted like my boss and said, as long as no alcohol or fireworks are on company property, I do not care. We ate roughly half of the food catered. The rest was taken home. A small group volunteered to stay behind to clean up, including my VP. We had a funny conversation about how this will make waves with the bosses. But he said he had my back and asked how much this cost. I just gave him a sideways look, which made him laugh.

1:01:50Tuesday morning, I submitted the expense report to my VP. This email would inevitably make its way over to the bad VP and up the chain to the CIO of the company. It would be a bad idea to give out the exact cost of the party, mind you. But I can tell you that because of this 4th of July party, new rules were put into place. Any expenses of over$4 ,000 or more must be approved by the direct supervisor. VP over the department and the full expense report must be sent to the financial department for review after the fact. $4 ,000, pretty good. That's pretty good. Hint, the party cost over$6 ,000. Holy shit.

1:02:24And no alcohol? The barbecue was the most expensive part. I did not order from a low or mid-tier place. The place I ordered from has consistently been on the top 10 in the DFW listing for the last 30 years. That is Dallas-Fort Worth. Oh. Is Texas barbecue? This is Texas barbecue. Oh! I ate at that place so much, I made friends with the owner. the best barbecue I've ever had. The pies and cakes were custom made by a bakery and the cookies were made by a boutique cookie place. I had 10, 12 packs of Coke, Coke Zero, Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper Zero, Pepsi, and Pepsi Zero. I bought five pepperoni, five sausage, five cheese, two Hawaiian, 55 hot tacos, 55 hot tacos, and three cheeseburger pizzas from one place and nearly the same number from another place.

1:03:09Excluding the cheeseburger ones, I subbed out those for a different specialty pizza from the other place. The burgers were from an excellent burger place that did catering. I know that owner well. He brought his kids for the night of fun after he heard what was going to be happening. He was also the one who brought the brat dogs as he recently added those to his menu. This was the most expensive office party in the history of the company. The only things more expensive than this were some business meetings that the CEO rented private rooms in high-end restaurants for. As for the CEO, he was outraged.

1:03:40Not at the cost of the party, mind you. He knew that the party would not have been necessary if people had been allowed to go home. He was outraged that IT was the only group required to work on that day. When I submitted the log showing how we received no real phone calls, no service requests, and that we basically watched movies slash played video games during our shift, he had heard enough. He apparently sent out a scathing email about work-life balance and the importance of our holidays to every upper management. It was kind of funny as people wanted me to get in trouble for what I did, But the reality is other departments have done similar things in the past, just not on the scale that IT did it.

1:04:16The bad VP was admonished quite effectively and sent me an apology email. I forwarded it to the team with a strong hint to not reply. Then my VP let the CIO and the CEO know what the bad VP said. You guys don't have lives. The bad VP did actually confirm she said it in a meeting with her EVP. It did not go over well. I have never heard people yelling in an office meeting like that before. The CEO of the company came to our office and yelled at her. Not sure if she was fired, but she is not at work today. In Active Directory, she does not have the down arrow of death, so not 100 % what happened to her.

1:04:53I know she lost whatever clout she had at this company with her attitude. If anything more happens, I will update. But so far, it looks like the fallout from this is that I caused a new rule to be put in place about how much you are allowed to spend at one time. The bad VP may or may not be let go slash forced to resign. I know she got yelled at. Strangely, there is now no longer any pushback for my bid to get everyone back to working from home. Edit. Please stop asking me where the restaurants are. I'm not doxing myself. Oh, my God. Outstanding work. Outstanding. That was a book. Yeah. And you killed that.

1:05:29Wait, so that kind of worked out well on all fronts. Perfectly, yeah. That was, yeah, that was spectacular. Kind of like zero consequences for that, which is pretty awesome. This, I mean, this does walk that revenge line we were talking about, right? Where you're like, there is some revenge here. This is, malicious compliance is this weird thing where it's like, all right, you're telling us to, this I kind of have no problem with because I'm like, you're. We're following the rules. This VP clearly like, this is just fun for her that she gets to have power over people. The fact that she's calling seven times just to be like, you're at work.

1:06:03You guys are at work. Like something's wrong. Why do you care so much? Checking the badge check-in, like the log. Like, insane. She's freaking out because she knows what she did was wrong. And she needs to make sure they're there for a reason. This was a power trip. I don't know any other explanation other than this is a power trip. Yes. Like, you're calling at 7.50 p.m. to get a status report. Just to make sure they're still at work when you know they've received no calls that day. I'm like, you just wanted to send them all there. I'm like, what barbecue are you at, lady? But no, I'm like, oh, if I'm losing my 4th of July, we're throwing a fucking party.

1:06:35And we're following the rules. This is being resourceful. Yeah. Six grand. Incredible. Over six grand on the food and drinks alone. No alcohol. I know. That's a lot of soda. Alcohol is where you rack your prices up. Yeah. The menu sounded a little bit like a Mr. Beast video. Yeah. A hundred pizzas. No. Fifty. Truly silly levels. It must have been a rager. Yeah. There had to have been so many people there, though, because, I mean, how many? Did it say how many people were, like, in the department? There was, like. I don't know, but they have their own building. Yeah, they have their own building and, like, a bunch of friends and family, like, being invited.

1:07:14Even the chefs bringing in their kids? Come on. That's awesome. The fact that restaurants were like, whoa, we're going to this party. And then only eating half the food. Yeah. Like, they had to have been so. Texas barbecue. They're like, what are you doing this July 4th? I'm hanging out with a bunch of IT people. They party hard. Yeah. And there's not even alcohol there. Yeah. Yeah. And it's going to be a rager. There's Pepsi Zero, Pepsi Diet Pepsi, Coke Zero, Vanilla Coke. Comments. Can I work for you? This is fucking magical. Someone said, everyone wants a day off to spend time with friends and family relaxing.

1:07:47I'm in IT and spend most of my time on the computer at work and at home. I still had the 4th of July off and spent the day hiking and just enjoying life to its fullest. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect, full stop. We all have lives outside of work. Just because I enjoy video games doesn't make my time worth less than someone who enjoys watching football. OP, mad respect for how you handled that. Someone said, this is how to be a manager. Have your teams back. I just wrote in my annual review how much it means to me that my manager takes my physical and mental health seriously. Tell him I can be reached by phone on vacation.

1:08:17No, you cannot. Direct anyone who bugs you to me. Feeling burnt out from debugging assembly code and binary data files for most of the day. Maybe you should take a walk for the rest of the day. It's not good to be sitting too long, you know. It genuinely makes me feel okay to say yes to new projects and to keep pushing. and expanding my expertise. I love my job, and my manager is a huge part of that. Yeah, I mean, the VP is a bad VP, not because they're just being a bad person, but also they cost the company money, and they're absolutely killing motivation. They're doing bad things by business standards, too.

1:08:52Yeah, and telling you, like, oh, IT people don't have lives. That's a crazy thing to say. What do you expect to happen? Yeah. What do you expect to happen there? Your IT department is one that you need to, like, be on their A game. Yeah. Yeah. Our IT team rocks. We have two people, Lopati and Tim. They're the shit. Yeah. If they stopped working here, nothing would happen. The building would blow up. The building would blow up. There is a bomb that they have to keep defusing every day. My favorite is when Tim's on set and you're like, oh, there's a slideshow in the programming. Hell, yeah. There's going to be a transformer in this one.

1:09:29Yeah. Yeah, IT departments are huge for what we do. Anyways, that's it. Crazy group stories. Dude, we should throw a$6 ,000 party. Yeah. Okay. I won't do it without alcohol. I don't care how much barbecue there is. There's no alcohol. Not really a meat dog. For Texas barbecue, I don't need alcohol. If you tell me there's going to be a bunch of Texas barbecue somewhere, I'm like, I'll show up. See, I'm like. Have you had like genuine Texas barbecue? I don't think so. Oh, dude, it's a game changer. Really? It is a full game changer. I luckily, the last time I had Texas barbecue, I was in Austin, and I was with mythical chef Josh.

1:10:11Yeah. And he ordered everything on the menu. And he, like, of course, like, he orders everything. We eat everything. And then he's also like, oh, yeah, the chef is letting us come back and check out the barbecue. Yeah, we, like, walked into the pit. Yeah. It's so cool. There's this big tank just in there. It was amazing. That's so cool. No, it's truly like unlike anything. Yeah. It's the best. That beef cheek. Oh, my God. You're eating things you've never heard of before. That beef cheek. That beef cheek burger. You're just having stuff that you're like, I guess I'm going to eat this, and it's delicious.

1:10:43Oh, wow. I can't explain it. Well, tickle me fancy. Yeah. I'm not going to tickle you. Tickle me fancy. We're not going to tickle each other, but. Let's go to lunch, yeah? Yeah. I am ready for lunch now. I am hungry. And I think I want a Coke Zero. Dude. I could go for a little Pepsi Max right now. Whoa. Max? What's Pepsi Max? All right. Crystal Pepsis for everyone. Crystal Pepsi. Thank you both for being here. Thanks for having us. Yeah. Thanks for being good coworkers. Yeah, thanks. And now I know that I'm not supposed to tickle my coworkers, so this was educational for me. I'm glad this happened.

1:11:18Thank God we did this episode. Because I've thought about it before, so I'm glad I didn't do it. I was really close a couple times. Yeah. Well, it's not going to happen now, so don't worry. Don't stress. Thank you all for watching. Be kind to your coworkers, and we'll see you next Saturday. All right, goodbye.