'You will do as I instruct you to do': Warehouse manager enforces temperature policy despite warnings from employees, malicious compliance ensues

It's always a good idea as a new manager to run your policies by your employees before enforcing them. Nine times out of ten, they will point something out to you that you may not be anticipating, especially if you're new to the job and haven't been on the ground like the folks reporting to you have been. For this manager, he had a strong belief in how to keep the temperature cool over the weekends in the warehouse where his team worked. The problem was that he completely underestimated exactly how this would impact the temperature control of the neighboring production area. Despite numerous warnings from his staff, the new manager refused to back down, which meant that the only way to prove to him that this was a bad idea was by way of malicious compliance.

Let this story serve as yet another reminder that managers' policies should reflect at least the majority of a team's voice. Without doing so, chaos will inevitably ensue. As for the manager, your team will not necessarily have your back after you refuse to listen to their critiques.

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The charming part about the author's retelling of this tale of malicious compliance was that he seemed to have passed this tradition onto his wife, who is currently experiencing a similar discrepancy between management and the will of employees at her place of work. Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the reactions from several members of the online community.
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_{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}
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