Aug 6, 2026 · 21 min · 19 segments
Today’s Malicious Compliance stories prove that the smallest power trip can create the biggest mess. An underpaid factory worker discovers just how heavily his employer depends on him, a fitness…
This story comes to us from DocBaker74.
Boss wants two weeks notice, company loses thousands.
And to note, he was very poorly when he told this to me, so this is the story that I managed to hear.
There's bits missing and not a lot of specifics, so all of this is what I gathered.
Back when my granddad was younger, he used to work in a factory making engines for cars, and despite being a hard worker, he was always disrespected and underappreciated, and he felt it more so with his boss.
Despite this boss holding very little power over a very little area of the factory, this boss would constantly yell and exert his power over everyone.
And what I could gather from my granddad, this machine was like a computerized machine before computers were really a thing.
Instead of one computer doing all of these complex calculations, you have pegs and wires that you have to physically move to work this machine, but he didn't say what the machine did.
Now, obviously, this was complex, so the company sent a small group of workers to Germany to be taught how the machine worked over three months.
And despite the language barrier, my granddad understood how it worked and how to fix it.
Pretty much everything he would have learnt if he went to Germany with the other workers.
After some time, my granddad got married to my grandma, and realizing he needed a house, he went to the bank to talk about mortgages, but the only issue is that he gets 22 pounds a week when he needs 44 pounds a week to get a mortgage.
So he asked his boss, who promptly said no.
Later on in the week, my granddad spoke to a mate of his who's now living in France, and the friend said, "I recently lost my driver's license, so I can't work for my company anymore, but they need someone to do deliveries for 48 pounds a week between England and France." The next day, my granddad went up to his boss and asked, "Sir, who do I give this two weeks' notice in to?" And the boss, playing a power play, leans over my granddad, puffing smoke into his face from his pipe, and says in a low voice, "You hand that to me, you understand? I'm the boss here.
I'm the most important." And my granddad handed it over to him.
Over the course of the two weeks, it was normal until the last day when the manager came over and said, "Mike, I heard you're leaving us today.
Is that true?" And my granddad said, "Yes, Boss asked me to give him my two weeks' notice." And the manager went white, asking my granddad if the boss told anyone, listing anyone who had the same or more power than the boss did, even asking if the owner knew.
And my granddad said no each time, with a bigger smile each time.
And after everyone else on the factory went up to him asking the exact same questions, he couldn't hide his excitement.
You see, what everyone failed to notice is that while the workers who went to Germany, they were in a country known for big beers and pretty women, so they learnt absolutely nothing in those three months.
This story comes to us from DocBaker74.
Boss wants two weeks notice, company loses thousands.
And to note, he was very poorly when he told this to me, so this is the story that I managed to hear.
There's bits missing and not a lot of specifics, so all of this is what I gathered.
Back when my granddad was younger, he used to work in a factory making engines for cars, and despite being a hard worker, he was always disrespected and underappreciated, and he felt it more so with his boss.
Despite this boss holding very little power over a very little area of the factory, this boss would constantly yell and exert his power over everyone.
And what I could gather from my granddad, this machine was like a computerized machine before computers were really a thing.
Instead of one computer doing all of these complex calculations, you have pegs and wires that you have to physically move to work this machine, but he didn't say what the machine did.
Now, obviously, this was complex, so the company sent a small group of workers to Germany to be taught how the machine worked over three months.
And despite the language barrier, my granddad understood how it worked and how to fix it.
Pretty much everything he would have learnt if he went to Germany with the other workers.
After some time, my granddad got married to my grandma, and realizing he needed a house, he went to the bank to talk about mortgages, but the only issue is that he gets 22 pounds a week when he needs 44 pounds a week to get a mortgage.
So he asked his boss, who promptly said no.
Later on in the week, my granddad spoke to a mate of his who's now living in France, and the friend said, "I recently lost my driver's license, so I can't work for my company anymore, but they need someone to do deliveries for 48 pounds a week between England and France." The next day, my granddad went up to his boss and asked, "Sir, who do I give this two weeks' notice in to?" And the boss, playing a power play, leans over my granddad, puffing smoke into his face from his pipe, and says in a low voice, "You hand that to me, you understand? I'm the boss here.
I'm the most important." And my granddad handed it over to him.
Over the course of the two weeks, it was normal until the last day when the manager came over and said, "Mike, I heard you're leaving us today.
Is that true?" And my granddad said, "Yes, Boss asked me to give him my two weeks' notice." And the manager went white, asking my granddad if the boss told anyone, listing anyone who had the same or more power than the boss did, even asking if the owner knew.
And my granddad said no each time, with a bigger smile each time.
And after everyone else on the factory went up to him asking the exact same questions, he couldn't hide his excitement.
You see, what everyone failed to notice is that while the workers who went to Germany, they were in a country known for big beers and pretty women, so they learnt absolutely nothing in those three months.
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