The Timesheet Takedown: How Malicious Compliance Schooled a Lazy Manager
There’s a special kind of workplace justice that happens when an employee follows a ridiculous order to the letter—especially if it means exposing a clueless boss. Such is the tale of u/Itsgoodtoshare, who turned a manager’s lazy delegation into a masterclass in “malicious compliance” that had payroll scratching their heads and Redditors cheering from the sidelines.
Let’s set the scene: You’re working admin, your manager leaves, and the new boss swoops in, immediately handing you a task that’s most certainly not in your job description—doing the team’s timesheets. You protest, but the boss insists. So you do exactly what you’re told… and not an iota more.
When “Not My Job” Meets “Fine, I’ll Do It Anyway”
In most offices, timesheets are sacred territory. They’re the line between people getting paid correctly and total payroll pandemonium. As our protagonist explained, “The timesheet is the manager's job, not admin.” But the new manager, oblivious or just lazy, dumped the task on their lap.
So, what did u/Itsgoodtoshare do? They filled out the timesheet for everyone—ticking in every employee for the standard 9-to-5, five days a week. No matter if someone worked part-time, had flexible hours, or wasn’t there at all—everyone was accounted for, full-time style.
Cue payroll’s confusion. Suddenly, the numbers didn’t add up, and the questions started flying. As u/Itsgoodtoshare recounted, “Payroll queried the timesheet. New boss never gave it to me again!” Sometimes, the best way to teach a lesson is to let the system break itself.
The Crowd Goes Wild: Reddit’s Take on Malicious Compliance
Reddit’s r/MaliciousCompliance community absolutely loved it. The top comment, from u/old-billie, captures the spirit perfectly: “that's the way to do it.” It’s simple, effective, and oh-so-satisfying.
But the crowd didn’t just cheer—they riffed on the situation, with u/Efficient-Bee-1855 chiming in, “Money for nothing…”, and u/donthateonspiders finishing the joke, “get your sheets for free.” The puns were as abundant as the timesheet errors.
A few clever souls suggested upping the ante. “You should have put your work colleagues down for 3 hours overtime as well,” mused u/skelbagz, clearly envisioning a payroll-induced meltdown of epic proportions. Meanwhile, u/AlaskanDruid joked, “I hope you made sure you were paid the manager's wage for the time you did his job.”
The crowd also recognized the tactical brilliance of the move. “Weaponized incompetence FTW!” declared u/abtij37, while u/zoeyd8 called it “weaponized incompetence at its finest.” This wasn’t about being bad at your job—it was about showing exactly why the job shouldn’t be yours in the first place.
Delegation or Abdication? The Commentariat Debates
Of course, not everyone was on board with the “just do it badly” approach. A spirited debate broke out in the comments about the fine line between compliance and sabotage. u/OkStrength5245 dropped some “Dilbert Principle” wisdom: “If you don't want to do a job, do it badly. you will never be asked to do it again.” But as others pointed out, this only works if the job isn’t actually in your contract—and if the boss is the one who’ll be held accountable.
Some commenters, like u/medoy and u/[deleted], took a sterner view. “You responded by fraudulently completing the task,” argued u/medoy, missing the crucial context that the task was never supposed to be delegated in the first place. Others, like u/Suelswalker, clapped back: “Some things are not up for delegation due to the importance and/or sensitivity of the task and time card filing most likely would fall under both.”
The consensus from the upvoted comments was clear: this was a textbook case of “malicious compliance”—not sabotage or fraud, just a very public demonstration of why certain rules and job boundaries exist.
Lessons Learned: When Payroll is Your Best Ally
The beauty of this story lies in its simplicity. When asked why they didn’t get in trouble, u/Itsgoodtoshare clarified in an edit: “Manager couldn't say or do anything because it was his job. He would have gotten into trouble, not me.” As several commenters noted, shifting responsibility for critical tasks can backfire spectacularly—especially when the paper trail leads right back to the boss.
Perhaps the best summary comes from u/PetalHoneyBabe: “You handled that perfectly. Nothing like letting payroll be the one to teach the new boss a lesson.” Sometimes, the numbers just don’t lie.
And as u/CanAhJustSay pointed out, “You were neither trained nor responsible for this role, the manager knew this and insisted you do it anyhow, and all the lower grades got a little bonus.” It’s hard to imagine a more elegant, low-risk way to demonstrate that some jobs can’t (and shouldn’t) be delegated.
The Takeaway: Sometimes the Best Compliance is Malicious
So, what’s the moral of our timesheet tale? It’s simple: If you’re going to hand off your responsibilities, make sure you’re not also handing someone the rope with which to hang your credibility. Delegation is a powerful tool—but only when used wisely.
Now, over to you: Have you ever been voluntold to do someone else’s job—and found a clever way to comply? Or maybe you’ve been on the receiving end of a timesheet disaster? Drop your stories in the comments, and let’s keep the spirit of “malicious compliance” alive and well.
After all, as u/Redphantom000 so perfectly put it, “This is the way.”
Original Reddit Post: He told me to do the timesheet and send to payroll so I did. Payroll were baffled.