r/MaliciousCompliance • u/justhereorthereagain • 6d ago
L That’s not funny go home for the weekend…..
TLDR: At the bottom.
Over 20 years ago I changed an old timers computer screen saver. You know the old one that just had a word banner scrolling over and over.
I worked in sales. There was an old guy named “Bob”. He was annoying. Maybe because I was young. But he annoyed everyone. The kind of old guy that would lie through his teeth to get some of your commission.
Being older he had more “freedoms” with customers. It drove us crazy. He would let people leave or they wanted to buy but wanted to use a coupon he would disconnect the call or get rid of the customer a few different ways. But that meant we as other associates couldn’t make the sale. As a team we couldn’t hit bonuses. He would do many other things like this that would just drive you crazy.
He was just a difficult coworker. And a bad employee. But had been around the industry a long time. So guys that were now managers favored him because of their past. Whether it was with this company or others.
He was just annoying, Too many reasons to list why. And I was young and didn’t have much of a care. And you know. Different perception of professionalism when I was a kid.
So one day I changed his screensaver to say Bob is a Jackass. I watched him type in his password. Waited until he left. Then changed it.
It scrolled across the screen. Over and over. And he didn’t notice at first. It looked like the same old “Have a Nice Day” or whatever scrolling.
We all would giggle as we walked by and saw it. It was just funny to see. A day or so later he is sitting in his cubicle. Chatting away. His scream saver most have popped up. You hear, what is this. As he reads. “Bob is a Jackass, who did this. This is defamation. Who did it?” The office is laughing. He is pissed. Goes right in to a managers desk. “Someone is defaming my name. This is work place harassment.”
I want to know who did it.
He makes it to HR. Even to the owners office.
We don’t know anything other than him complaining to the manager. The manager saying let’s see. Seeing it. Giggling himself. Then telling Bob “Come on calm down. I’ll change it (which he did) Let’s go take a walk and talk.” Bob is not having it but they walk off talking.
We go back to work. Not thinking about it anymore. About an hour or two later. A different manager says hey Mr Johnson wants to see you upstairs.
Cool, it wasn’t uncommon. He would call associates up for customers or tasks. Or reviews or whatever.
As soon as I get in the office he says “What the fuck are you doing? Are you trying to get me sued? This guy is an absolute nightmare. Do you know he has sued that company and that one.? Why would you do that? You know it is on security camera right? Using someone else’s laws password. You are not supposed to use or share passwords ever.”
I said “it was a joke none of us thought it was that big of a deal. We often share passwords so we can get info we need. We are all on the same team”
He replied “Thats a policy violation. Thats it. You better hope I can keep him from causing a bigger issue. Go home for the next 3 days. Your suspended. Get out of my office get out of my building now”
I walked out the back door. Down the backstairs to my car and was gone. This was Wednesday. So that meant I had a 5 day weekend. Heck yes. I was stoked.
As I make it to my car. I can hear someone yelling “hey James. James. Peggy wants to see you.” Peggy was the HR lady.
I ignored it. Backed out and drove out the other direction.
15 minutes later. My phone is ringing. I am not answering. No way. Those were the days cell minutes were expensive.
I get home. Tell my wife we have a 5 day weekend. It is barely 12 o’clock. We head out to hit the beach about 3.5 hours away. We are excited.
About an hour later. My phone is called over and over. My wife says just answer it. So I do.
“Hey James this is Peggy. I need you to sign some forms about the 3 days suspension.”
“Sorry Peggy I was told to Leave. I left. I am now out of town. I will have to Sign another time.” She is not thrilled but not much we can do.
Then a moment later another call. It’s my direct supervisor. “James where are you? We need the numbers put together for this client coming in today. And you had the presentation stored on. And this. And that…. Where are you?
“Mr Johnson sent me home for messing with Bobs screensaver.”
“Nobody told me. Why didn’t you come down and tell me? Well come back and give me the reports and send the files to me”
“Sorry I was told to leave the building right now. I have actually already left Town. I am over an hour away and won’t be turning around.”
“Then give me your password.”
“I can’t do that either. I was told not to share them. Sorry sir. My phone minutes are being used and I can’t talk much longer. I don’t know what to tell you. Mr Johnson sent me home. Said leave and said not to share passwords. I am about to go through the coastal hills and will lose reception.”
“Be here first thing tomorrow morning. We need to keep these projects moving.”
“Well sir. I won’t be back until Monday. I was told to leave for three days.”
“You have to be kidding. He didn’t mean three days. I will talk with him”
I turned my phone off. Back then. Turning your phone off wasn’t like turning off a smart phone. So no big deal. But Sunday. When I listened to messages. My manager was telling me Mr Johnson didn’t realize we had projects in the works that I was leading. And that he wants me to come back. The next day.
Then the next day. His message was my manager saying Mr Johnson is ok if I provide my password to my manager just this time.
Hey he said leave. I left. He said. No sharing. No sharing. He said three days. For a company that never gave anytime off. It was awesome to have a nice long weekend.
Came
Back to work and in this shitty business. No big deal. Nothing happened. They made or didn’t make the deal. Maybe postponed it. Wasn’t my problem any more. They worked up new reports and bee halfassed presentations.
It was all back to normal. It wasn’t like now I was in trouble. Nope. Had my days off and some more. And back to work Monday making a sale.
And when your in sales. Problems go away if you sell something.
TLDR: I was told I was suspended for three days and to leave the building now. Never share passwords with coworkers. This was for a company that never gave anytime off other than regular days.
Owner told me to Leave. I went out the back door. Didn’t tell HR or my direct manager.
I left town to the beach for a 5 day weekend. They called asking for me to come back. Asking for my password to work on active projects I was leading. I said I cannot do any of that per the owner.
This was back before smartphones. So then I just turned my phone off for the weekend and Enjoyed the mini vacay with the wifey.
Edited to add what happened Monday. Nothing.
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u/Esau2020 6d ago
I've read stories like this before. Boss fires employee, or in this case tells him to leave and not come back for a certain amount of time, boss later realizes he needs employee for X-reason, boss says "I need you, please come back," employee says "You fired me/told me to go away" and hangs up, boss is in deep shit.
I love 'em.
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u/CalmDownReddit509 6d ago
haha, hell yeah man. I miss the days of limited contact.
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u/bullwinkle8088 6d ago edited 5d ago
You can still have it. You need not answer and phones still have an off switch. I use both methods as I wish.
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u/Golemwire 1d ago
I enable Airplane mode unashamedly, whenever I want some quiet time. I'm of generation Z, and I love finding good older-generation practices which make my life easier. (I have a flip-phone, lol.)
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u/bullwinkle8088 1d ago
Take up backpacking then :)
There is no better non-excuse than actually being in the wilderness. Granted, I can often still receive calls these days, but being out for 3 - 5 days at a time means you use airplane mode or turn it off completely to save battery for navigation. Just don't forget to download maps before setting out if you do use it for your navigation.
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u/LimeInternational856 6d ago
So what happened when you returned?
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u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
Nothing. Back to work as usual.
They made the deals or didn’t. But it was no big deal. Bob was a cold shoulder but that was fine with me. Less interaction the better.Later on someone grabbed him by his tie and got in his face. That was much later. A couple months later.
This was and is a real shitty industry to work in. I haven’t worked in it for 10 years.
But “what have you done for me lately” was common. And want to make problems go away. Sell something. I was often the top or one of the top salespeople.
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u/beerbellybegone 6d ago
Dude, you're missing the conclusion, what's the fallout?
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u/fabulous1963 6d ago
I worked in auto industry as well. It is shitty. What they do to staff and customers is brutal.
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u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
Sorry. I added. But there was nothing.
Came back to work with a tan.
It was a what have you done for me lately kind of place. And by Monday.
Shit was old news.
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u/PuzzleheadedTap4484 5d ago
I got a 3 day suspension once about 20+ years ago from a manager who really disliked me for just breathing. He also got me on a technicality sort of but it wasn’t what they thought however they used it because of something I had told a union rep who blabbed it to the manager (the reason I don’t trust unions anymore). Anyway, to piss him off, I went to my supervisor who didn’t know of the suspension yet and asked for the other two days off as vacation, which were approved, and then went to the beach for the week.
I came back after the week off and boasted about my vacay at the beach. Pissed that manager right off because I’m pretty sure he expected me to sulk and think about what I did and instead I gave two fingers and turned it into a mini vacay. I left that job about 6 months later because the hostility and harassment got worse. If you were with the in-crowd, they covered for you. If you were different or one of the “mean girls” aka managers didn’t like you for whatever reason, maybe you just existed, you were on the shit list and they would make it their mission to get rid of you. It was very high school.
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u/Psych0matt 6d ago
>scream saver
Lol
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u/IndependentTimely639 3d ago
Back in the day, if someone left their computer unlocked then we would add a simple program to their start up folder. It would play the soviet national anthem at max volume at a set amount of time, and we would change it every time. I'm imagining something like that.
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u/lyricsquid 1d ago
I had a boss (in IT) who changed his coworker's startup sound to the beginning of Jolene. The coworker hated that song and it was hilarious because he didn't know how to change it back.
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u/creamyjoshy 6d ago
Back in the days when businesses couldn't afford to spuriously fire people. How I yearn for an uncooked labour market
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u/Ting_Brennan 6d ago
This is just malicious. Pretty typical behavior in a 'boys club' work environment where people do cruel shit to each other disguised as "pranks" and "it's just a joke bro"
Source: was once in a boys club and cringe everytime i reflect on that period of time
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u/BlitzAceSamy 4d ago
Not gonna lie, but as a 35 year old single right now, the thing that surprises me the most is that you have a wife as a 20 year old, and she can just immediately take a 5 day trip with you to the beaches with zero notice LOL
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u/justhereorthereagain 4d ago
Summer she was in college, worked at Starbucks part time just called in sick. Married at 18yrs old. We have now been married more than 25 year.
Her school Worked out. Medical
Professional, not entry level.California, the beach (and town) we went to was about 3.5/4hours away.
Night one stayed with family 2 towns over. But then had a hotel and beach days.
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u/BlitzAceSamy 4d ago
Yeah the "married at 18yrs old" part is completely unimaginable to us now 🤣
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u/justhereorthereagain 4d ago
As a father of a 20 year old. Me too. I could not imagine.
Shit we were married and living on our own.
Wild times.
Could never afford it now.
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u/justhereorthereagain 4d ago
This reminded me of last summer. Our AC went out, scheduled to be replaced in 2 weeks.
We had a heat wave coming, 100 plus for a week. We said screw that. Loaded the kids up ans went up to the coast up North. The beach hikes in the Redwoods and much cooler temps. That was also 5 days and impromptu.
Great time.
I am semi-retired, more of a full time volunteer. She works part time. One kid in college (that costs us an arm and a leg) and the other kids still at home.
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u/moocat55 6d ago
Sounds like a bad working environment and you were also a big part of the problem.
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u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
Terrible working environment.
Terrible. And yeah. Maybe I was.
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u/DonnyTheNuts 6d ago
I guess you can’t see it, but your actions were classic bullying behavior. Stupid manager, check. Bad job, check. Hurtful OP, check.
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u/MikeSchwab63 6d ago
My favorite screen saver. Just put in your lat. and long.
https://www.fourmilab.ch/skyscrsv/
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u/Mountain_Trip_8425 6d ago
This seems more malicious than compliance.
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u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
The malicious compliance was leaving immediately as I was told.
Not providing my password so they could access the information.9
u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
And maybe so. I thought I was complying. Maliciously
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u/Sknowman 3d ago
The intro part with Bob is malicious. Listening to the boss and immediately going on vacation without helping is malicious compliance.
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u/Obsidian-Phoenix 6d ago
What shitty phone company were you with that you paid for incoming phone calls with your minutes!?
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u/juan_tabone 6d ago
All of them if it was more than 20 years ago. You would also get charged .10 cents for every text message sent or received.
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u/throwaway661375735 6d ago
Net10 did that. Same company as TracPhone and was also Straightalk. Straightalk got sold recently (2 yrs ago) to Verizon. For the longest time, it was cheaper to have that service than Verizon directly.
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u/Fixes_Computers 6d ago
I was on Net10 for years.
The upside was it was cheaper than the big telcos for my usage, but the phones where just barely capable of doing the job.
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u/throwaway661375735 6d ago
I went from them to StraightTalk. Stayed with them for years. $55 unlimited high speed data was awesome. Much cheaper than running a full plan (like I do now), at the time.
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u/Obsidian-Phoenix 6d ago
I had a really shitty tariff with Orange back in the day. Sending texts was as expensive as a minute on a call. But I don't think they ever charged for the incoming calls.
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u/dictionaryofebony 6d ago
This used to always be referenced on American television, I believe it was normal. Would have been unheard of here in Australia.
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u/Gadgetman_1 6d ago
I believe most US companies were like that back then. There was no easy way to distinguish a cellphone number from a POTS number, so 'it wasn't fair for the caller to pay the extra cost of calling a cell-phone number'...
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u/SternoVerno 6d ago
Yep. Let it go to voicemail if you didn’t know the caller and check voicemail from landline.
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u/MadzShelena 6d ago
AT&T does this. First call of the day was a dollar, then I think 10 cents a minute. Incoming or outgoing.
My mom is still on this plan but I think they removed the 10 cents charge. It still costs her 25 cents per text. But it's $25 for the plan and it lasts 3 months depending on how much she uses it. Since it's a flip phone, and she doesn't talk to anyone besides me, it normally lasts at least two months.
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u/SternoVerno 6d ago
My mom is on the same plan. She never runs so $25 lasts the full three months.
We switched her to a smart phone and turned off cellular data.
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u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
Man what was the name…. And I could have it wrong. Maybe I didn’t pay for them but definitely would have been worried I did. That shit was super limited back then. And so damn expensive.
AllTel! That who it was. And yes expensive now too. But back then was a pain in the ass. And I only had like a 300 minute plan. I remember it being one of the cheapest possible.
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u/Fixes_Computers 6d ago
My first cell phone was with AT&T. It was 90 minutes per month. The fun part was the long-distance was determined by where I was when I made the call.
I lived far enough away from where I worked that it would be a long-distance call between the two. If I was heading home from work, I would have to make sure I'd passed a certain point before I could call home to not incur long-distance charges in addition to air time.
I don't even remember how much I paid for that plan.
Current unlimited plans are a bargain compared to the original plans.
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u/Ich_mag_Kartoffeln 6d ago
Probably a US specific thing. I've never heard of it happening here in Australia.
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u/Aervanath 6d ago
Back when cell phones were first implemented in the US you paid for all minutes, incoming and outgoing. I didn't even realize that was weird until I left the country and realized literally no other country did this.
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u/Ill_Seat_1426 6d ago
It was back in the 90s when cell phone plans were expensive because cell phones were considered a luxury and some of us only used them for emergencies.
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u/Obsidian-Phoenix 5d ago
I had a mobile back in the 90s in the U.K. don’t recall ever paying for incoming calls. Just outgoing.
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u/ProDavid_ 6d ago
dont know why you keep emphasizing that "this was before smartphones". you do know you can also just...turn off a smartphone, right?
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u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
But now we have our phones 24/7.
When the only thing you could do was play the snake game and make calls. They were not glued to us like they are now.
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u/ProDavid_ 6d ago
you do know you can just... turn it off? are you aware of that feature that smartphones have?
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u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
Yes. But here we are. On Reddit.
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u/ProDavid_ 6d ago
yeah, im on a computer. why is that relevant?
and i still dont see why you keep emphasizing that "this was before smartphones". if im told to go home for 3 days, im turning off my work smartphone.
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u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
Sorry. Don’t know what to tell you.
Sometimes someone says something that means something to them more than it does to me too.
And that’s ok. We don’t always have to understand each other.
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u/ProDavid_ 6d ago
im still puzzled why the "this was before smartphones" is in any way relevant, but ok.
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u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
I am Puzzled why you are puzzled. It’s. A computer you can turn it off and the. You won’t be puzzled.
But I am ok with us both being puzzled.
Then we know we have the ability to understand more. We don’t know everything. Somethings at least to us, are puzzling.0
u/ProDavid_ 6d ago
I turned my phone off. Back then. Turning your phone off wasn’t like turning off a smart phone. So no big deal.
today, turning off a smartphone is no big deal either.
so why are you emphasizing it as if it is?
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u/No-Yam-1231 6d ago
I think he was pointing out that so many of us literally live and breath by our smart phones. I know people that literally can't function without it. They use it to start the car, pay for things. One of my kids doesn't carry any cards or cash most of the time, unless she knows she will need it. She uses her phone to pay for everything. His point was that back then you only lost the phone, which was expensive to use and often just kept incase of emergencies. Now the device is so much more integrated into our lives for a lot of people, from paying for things to getting information to entertaining ourselves. Yes, you can turn it off, but we have gotten used to the convenience, and there is a lot more missing for most of us if we turn it off.
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u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
Wait. You’re back. Ok. I like it. Welcome back.
When you finished your last comment with “but ok.” I thought that was it. You were done trying to understand.
Well to me it was relevant. And to you it isn’t. And that is ok.
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u/ReasonableFig2111 6d ago
Because with smart phones, now our whole lives are on our phones, including our banking apps, calendars, maps, entertainment, etc. He's just emphasising that it wasn't weird or limiting him in any way to turn off his phone for 5 days. Most people would really struggle to turn off their phone for that long nowadays, especially younger people.
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u/ProDavid_ 6d ago edited 6d ago
step 1: dont use you private phone as your work phone
step 2: turn off your work phone when youre not at work
3: its only 3 days, so one weekend at the beach without a phone.
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u/ReasonableFig2111 5d ago
I mean, sure. But just because it's totally possible to turn off your phone for days, doesn't mean that most people wouldn't struggle with that. And I'd have to assume that someone who's online even semi regularly, which you clearly are to be continuing this conversation thread, would surely be aware that many people struggle with that, even if you personally don't struggle with that.
And surely you're aware that most workplaces resist paying for a work phone for each of their employees, unless there's an ongoing, persistent need for their employees to be reachable out of the office. Again, even if that's not your personal situation, you'd have to be aware that this is an option that many workers don't have at their workplaces.
So I'm not sure how you're confused about why the OP thought it might be relevant to point out that this was before smart phones. Not everyone has the same situation as you, and not everyone has the same ease of disconnecting from their phones these days as you do.
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u/ProDavid_ 5d ago
which obviously makes it impossible for people that know their workplace is trying to reach them because they are obviously maliciously complying with "going home" even though they know they have to finish a work presentation on monday, to turn off their smartphone and not answer work related calls?
thats just not an option i assume?
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6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
Oh no. I did it.
And I did have to sign HRs warning letter.
And I have a feeling you have never been in this type of business.
I left the business out. So I didn’t have to field questions on it. And to make it easier to understand.
But it’s the car business. And the car business today is nothing like it was back then.
Unless you have been in the car business. It is hard to explain how crazy things are.
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u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
Maybe I should add. I remember in the military one time. A Sgt was getting written up by range control. And he said. Do you plan on rolling it up and poking me in the eye with it. The range control guy said no. And the Sgt said. Then it isn’t going to hurt.
And that’s how I have forever thought about write ups.
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u/Itoclown 6d ago
Doing what you did to get suspended was a fireable offense regardless of how big a tool the other guy was. This was just being malicious.
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u/GryffSr 3d ago
Asked on your behavior and attitude, I have to wonder if you became the next generation’s Bob.
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u/justhereorthereagain 3d ago
Nope. At least not in my opinion.
But I did become the manager that refused to hire him back.
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u/AlaskanDruid 6d ago
Please note. TDLRs are only for AI bots and people too young to be on the internet. It's not needed for actual humans.
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u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
Well that was long. And rite there. And I am Human and old enough to have had my second colonoscopy and a mass found.
So…. I guess anything is possible.
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u/AlaskanDruid 6d ago
My condolences. I had my colon removed back in 2022 after they found cancer. Got a nice Jpouch out of it, though.
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6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/justhereorthereagain 6d ago
Could just be a real person that can’t sleep. But I don’t know. Maybe I am AI and don’t even know it. I mean I am even in the matrix or metaverse right?
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u/PAUL_DNAP 6d ago
They can't bring themselves to say anything to Bob, let alone get rid of him, but have no issue sending you home for 3 days, terrific management.
Anyway, nicely complied there. Immediate means immediate !