A netizen shared a story of how a university IT worker maliciously compiled and got around the dean’s creepy request on who to assign to his class. We reached out to the person who shared the story via private message and will update the article when they get back to us.
A creepy boss is a nightmare on the best of days
Lecture hall filled with young women attending a class as requested by a creepy professor, leaving him visibly fuming.
But one IT worker had a plan how to maliciously comply with a weird demand
Text excerpt about a creepy professor asking IT to place young women in his class, shared during a network admin course.
University IT department handles mostly female students in philosophy, including recent graduates and retirees starting new careers.
Text about Argentina IDs explaining how numbers indicate birth year and exceptions for foreign-born citizens with h**h number IDs.
Older man in suit with gray beard sitting with arms crossed in office, portraying a creepy professor mood.
Creepy professor requests IT to add young women in his class, causing tension and frustration in the department.
Text about university course assignments explained, related to creepy professor and young women in class scenario.
Text describing a computer program that randomized student assignments, ensuring varied class composition for the professor.
Text describing a creepy professor demanding IT to enroll young women in his class, threatening their job if denied.
Text excerpt about a creepy professor’s request for young women in class, highlighting faculty gender ratio and university concerns.
IT professional wearing headset and glasses, sitting at desk with multiple monitors, giving thumbs up in office setting
Text excerpt about a creepy professor’s request to IT for young women in his class, causing frustration.
Text describing IT professional assigning older foreign female students to a creepy professor’s classes, causing frustration.
Fuming creepy professor complains after IT complies with his request to add young women to his class.
Text excerpt discussing a creepy professor involved with IT and young women in his class, leading to his fuming reaction.
There is a lot baked into our love of malicious compliance stories
There is something intrinsically gratifying about seeing someone comply with the very letter of a rule or requirement to showcase its absurdity or to punish its author, and that is the essence of our affection for malicious compliance tales. While ordinary acts of defiance would comply with the rule while violating the spirit, malicious compliance is a precise, almost surgical, following of the letter of the law or directive, nothing more, nothing less, so that the essence of the rule is overturned. This mixture of obedience and subversion achieves a form of narrative alchemy that turns ordinary workplace or everyday situations into moments of sly victory. We smile in admiration because we think we could outwit a nasty boss, a bureaucratic umpire, or an obnoxious customer with rules against their own interests.
The second powerful attraction is the dream of justice. We’ve all felt small and helpless confronted by someone in power who is being unreasonable to us. Malicious compliance stories offer us a means of gaining vicarious revenge. We see the worker diligently log each step, fill out each form to the letter as dictated, or obey each preposterous command to its logical conclusion, knowing that the complainer will get their comeuppance when the system freezes with self-created rigidity. There is a sense of cosmic retribution served when outrageous demands return on their creators, and that sense of moral retribution is richly rewarding.
Second is the pleasure of intellectual superiority. Connected to a sense of justice is the pleasure of intellectual superiority. These stories tease with wit and finesse rather than raw muscle or blatant disobedience. The enforcer must consider the rule, read all the clauses, and predict the consequences of strictly literal compliance. This mental exercise takes advantage of our own fondness for puzzles and problem-solving. We appreciate the ingenuity required to turn a rule into a sword, and we enjoy the moment when the trap springs on the rule-maker. In a world where hard problems do not always get neat solutions, malicious compliance offers an unambiguous, rational victory for the underdog.
Oftentimes, these experiences tap into classic narrative payoffs
There is also a communal aspect to such tales. They share anecdotes of inflated time sheets with infinitesimal increments in offices and internet forums, of email chains to thousands of people, or of safety protocols implemented with such diligence that work grinds to a halt. They share their own in order to build solidarity between people who suffer similar frustrations in strict hierarchies. Laughing together at the absurdity of bureaucracy or irritation of an irate client makes us not less isolated in our frustrations. It’s a means of saying, “We’ve all been there, and we know how to push back, without breaking rules.”
On a more fundamental level, malicious compliance enables us to play with the conflict between rules and human judgment. Rules are designed to introduce sameness, fairness, and safety, but in their excessive application, they can become a hindrance when enforced without sense or sensitivity. In pushing an enforcement of a rule to its limit, the “complier” and audience alike are reminded that policies are to serve the people, not the other way around. There is some kind of moral lesson behind every story: blind obedience is as devastating as absolute disregard for authority.
Finally, malicious compliance stories are amusing in themselves. They unfold in suspense as if with mounting tension as the employee follows each step with meticulous detail, ending with a climax when the consequences become indubitable. The joke is typically in the contrast between the employee’s phlegmatic, rule‑following nature and the growing anger or disgust of the rule‑maker. That timing for comedy , watching fastidious systems fall apart through their own inflexibility, is a uniformly fun show.
At the end of the day, malicious compliance is our affair of the heart with schadenfreude , intellectual jiu-jitsu, community building, and moral satire. These stories let us fantasize about a world in which the weak can resist arbitrary authority peacefully, but with wit, rule-bound rebellion. They remind us that rules are for us, and that using them just so can be the strongest form of revolt.
Readers thought the IT worker’s plan was brilliant
Reddit discussion text about a creepy professor asking IT to put young women in his class, causing frustration.
Comment thread discussing a creepy professor and IT complying with his request to add young women to his class.
Comment about creepy professor requesting young women in his class, met with strong female response online.
Comment on forum with username and points count, discussing an IT professor praised by users.
Comment on social media post about creepy professor asking IT to add young women in his class, causing frustration.
Screenshot of a forum comment warning a creepy professor after IT placed young women in his class, mentioning karma and consequences.
Reddit comment showing user TheHypnogoggish praising a clever move, related to a creepy professor and IT involving young women in class.
Reddit comment discussing a creepy professor and the reaction to IT placing young women in his class.
Comment discussing IT professional accessing browsing history, highlighting creepy behavior and inappropriate workplace culture.
Some folks wanted more details
Screenshot of an online forum discussing philosophy-related careers, illustrating IT assigning young women to a professor’s class.
Professor looking frustrated after IT places young women in his class against his wishes in a creepy and tense campus setting.
Reddit conversation about ID numbers related to age, errors in manual processing, and reuse of numbers in Spain.
Others shared similar stories
Text conversation about workplace behavior involving young women, highlighting creepy professor and IT compliance issues.
Comment discussing a creepy professor asking IT to place young women in his class, leaving him fuming and frustrated.
Screenshot of a Reddit comment discussing IT control and network access related to creepy professor and young women in class.
Thanks! Check out the results:
Anyone can write on Bored Panda. Start writing!
Follow Bored Panda on Google News!
Unlock an Enhanced Experience with Bored Panda Premium
Go ad-free, access unlimited content, and enjoy our sleek dark mode. Your favorite stories, uninterrupted.
No fees, cancel anytime
Olympian Makes Stunning Admission After Judge’s Conspicuous Scores Ignite Cheating Accusations
