When Swiss Labor Laws Sink the S.S. Micromanager: A Malicious Compliance Tale

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a boss drop a “brilliant” new policy without actually checking if it’s legal. Now imagine you’re part of an international IT team, happily enjoying flexible hours in Switzerland, when a new manager from Germany decides to “fix” your work schedule for “better team alignment.” What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out, quite a lot—especially when Swiss labor law is involved and your team is armed with the ultimate weapon: malicious compliance.
This is the story of how a well-meaning (but ill-informed) attempt at micromanagement collided with the hard granite of Swiss labor statutes, and how a group of engineers managed to turn the tables—with a little help from their contracts, a dash of legal savvy, and some creative calendar blocking.