Man "Turns the Tables" on Boss After Being Told to “Get an Attorney” When They Quit — "Malicious Compliance"

A Redditor went viral after following through on their manager's challenge to "get an attorney" when their bonus was delayed. They uploaded their story to the social media site's MaliciousCompliance sub under the username @Virtual_Meeting113, where it racked up 9.1 thousand upvotes and received over 235 comments.

Users praised the Redditor in the post for the way they handled the situation, but from the sound of their tale, it was a classic case of upper management attempting to renege on a promise they made to a worker.

It seems that the trouble all started for OP when they were passed up for a promotion, despite the fact that they were constantly told they were an "asset" to the company on several occasions.

How they came to work for this particular business wasn't intentional, either. The Redditor stated that the original company that they worked for was bought up by a larger corporation who then "smushed...together" several other businesses from across the country that performed a similar function. This meant the umbrella corporation (no not the one from Resident Evil) now had access to all of these business' clients in one location.

To maintain operations as seamlessly as possible, the employees from these rolled-up companies were expected to interface with the clients they'd been working with before their acquisition, something OP intimated they were fairly adept at and that brought in money for their new owner.

However their manager, who they refer to as "BigBoss," torpedoed their chances at getting a promotion and delayed a promised bonus. The Redditor says this was directly attributed to the "finance metrics" BigBoss was in charge of analyzing being off-kilter because several employees demanded pay bumps to stay on staff.

Instead of discovering a way to adequately fund these salary increases and the promotions OP and others were vying for, BigBoss purportedly went out of their way to "bad-mouth...everyone" who threw their name in for promotion. This way, BigBoss didn't have to deal with the headache of justifying the salary increases.

This left a sour taste in OP's mouth, so they began looking for other career opportunities elsewhere. OP ultimately secure employment at another, "unexciting" company that provided more financial stability.

When they informed BigBoss of their decision, the promised bonus summarily disappeared and they were told, since they were leaving, they effectively forfeited their right to the bonus.

The only trouble is that they were already sent an agreement for the additional cash, which had been signed and approved. When OP reminded BigBoss of this, they were essentially told to lawyer up.

On top of that, OP's manager asked them to keep interfacing with a client to make sure that the profitable contract they were working on with them wouldn't fall through. However, through carefully worded conversations with the client, OP revealed that they more than likely wouldn't be working with them much longer.

This caused the client to dissolve their working relationship with the corporation. What's more, OP took BigBoss' up on securing an attorney, who was "laughing her a-- off" upon seeing the agreement. Not only did OP's attorney say it was one of the most poorly worded documents she had ever seen, but that the verbiage clearly entitled OP to their bonus check.

The attorney contactied BigBoss' corporation's law firm and they managed to work out a settlement. OP says the legal costs ended up costing the business three times what they would have incurred had they just issued the bonus as promised.

So what happened to BigBoss? Well, OP heard through the grapevine that they were ultimately fired. OP still works in the same city as their former employer but has yet to come across their former manager.

Other Redditors who viewed the post couldn't believe that the corporation staffed an "idiot" in BigBoss' position who would attempt to go back on a signed contract. Others applauded OP's ability to keep a cool demeanor about the situation and bide their time until they were able to get their revenge.

How do you think OP handled this scenario? Have you ever been in a situation like this with a manager who seemed to be going out of their way to make your job more unnecessarily difficult than it should be?