Boss regrets advising employee not to cover for coworkers after denying a raise request

A good professional is usually a balance between an employee's contribution at a workplace and an appropriate reward for the same. But sometimes, management at a workplace might go the extra mile not to give a worker a raise. A similar thing happened with u/TheMurderedGirdle, who took to Reddit to share how their boss told them not to cover for their coworkers to avoid giving the person a raise in now-deleted post. The employee complied cleverly, as per Bored Panda.

"This malicious compliance was five years in the making. While my job employs many people, there are only two people whose roles affect me: PERSON-A and PERSON-B," the employee shared. "I can cover for PERSON-A and PERSON-B, and either of them can cover for me, but I'm the only person at my company's many locations who can cover both roles when they are off at the same time. This usually happens 3-5 shifts a year during emergencies, so I'm happy to help." The person added, "During a meeting for a pay raise, I mentioned I'm the only person in the company who can cover PERSON-A and PERSON-B at the same time, and how this has been helpful in a pinch."

"In their infinite wisdom, my boss tells me I am to no longer cover PERSONS-A-and-B and to focus on my core responsibilities," the person pointed out. "I still got a pay raise, but I think they wanted to prevent my argument from resurfacing again in the future in the event I wanted to leverage another raise." The employee knew that the policy would cause trouble for the boss at some point. "Fast forward five years, the boss double-booked vacation for PERSON-A and PERSON-B. Boss asks me to cover both shifts for one day, as there is nobody else to cover." The employee simply replied that they couldn't cover the shift as per the boss's instructions five years ago.

The employee had also learned a crucial thing from Reddit: to document everything. "When they instructed me five years ago to never again cover PERSON-A and PERSON-B, I asked for confirmation via e-mail. I keep these e-mails in the event. I'm seen as uncooperative," they recounted. "During a minute-by-minute emergency, I forwarded the boss's own e-mail back to them, mentioning that I would focus on my 'core responsibilities.' Thankfully, they were able to provide coverage that day someone came in on their day off) and the boss and I had a frank conversation about their rule-making several weeks later." People took to the comments to appreciate the clever response and share their experiences.

u/dacorgimomo wrote, "Reminds me of my last job where I knew how to do about 90% of the job positions (only didn't know how to do two positions, knew everything else). The assistant manager insinuated that I was useless and I quit that job. Recently, I went to visit that job and not only has the assistant manager been demoted, but they don't have enough coverage for everything." u/RadiantTransition793 commented, "I bet the person who had to come in wasn’t so pleased with your boss as well. Well played." u/Tikki_Taavi remarked, "You would think that with five years, they would have tried to create redundancy for one if not both of those folks. LOL."