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Following a rule, policy or instruction so literally and rigidly that you deliberately produce a bad outcome, in order to expose how stupid, badly written or unfair the rule actually is. Long established as a workplace and military concept, the term exploded online through Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance community, where users share stories of bosses or bureaucracies that demanded the letter of a policy and got it — usually with expensive, embarrassing or hilarious consequences. Malicious compliance is distinct from sabotage because nothing is actually broken — the rule is simply applied as written, sometimes to the point of absurdity.
Boss said "no exceptions, follow the checklist exactly" — so I did, and the entire production line stopped for four hours of malicious compliance.
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