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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/baz1954 on 2023-06-19 20:37:41+00:00.

In the 1980s, I was general manager of a cable television company. Of all the reports we had to generate for our corporate office, the “converter reconciliation report” was probably the most important. Every cable TV office in nearly every company had to complete one monthly. If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember the converter boxes that connected the TV and the cable so that the customer could tune all the channels.

Well, let me tell you, they were expensive, and we had to account for every one of them every month. Many were in customers’ homes but others were on technician’s trucks, in inventory, in repair, lost, stolen, and so on. The Converter Reconciliation Report told us how much of this important asset was in use and where it was. It had to be correct and it had to be in corporate’s hands monthly without fail.

The company was run by a bunch of disorganized idiots. Every month I would submit this important report to corporate and they would call wanting to know where it was and why I hadn’t completed it. Every month I would have to send them another. And they would call again, angry, and I would send another. Wash - Rinse - Repeat. Four or five times every month they would lose my report and call, threatening to fire me for not getting the report in on time! I was always in trouble for allegedly not sending my Converter Reconciliation Report.

Cue Malicious Compliance.

Having had enough of corporate’s b.s., I took the completed converter rec report and made 22 photocopies of it, 22 being the average number of work days in a month. I put one in each of the 22 envelopes addressed to the corporate office, put postage on each envelope, and then made sure that in each day’s outgoing mail, one report was sent. Sure enough, the angry phone call came. Manager: “Where’s your monthly converter rec?” Me: “Should be in your mailbox. Did you check?” Manager: “Oh, here it is. OK, thanks.” A few days later: Manager: “Where’s your monthly converter rec damnit!?” Me: “Should be in your mailbox, boss. Did you check?” Manager: “Oh, here it is. OK, thanks.” Wash - Rinse - Repeat.

Finally, after about three weeks, I get a phone call. Manager: “Why do I have a stack of the same converter rec report?” Me: “I just always want you to have one handy, boss.” After that, they quit losing my report.