Employee pulled a fast one on company that failed to utilize their potential amidst merger

Motivation is the essence of productive job performance and some employers fall flat in that aspect. Recently, u/aniea39 shared on Reddit about an uninspiring experience from a previous job they took as a college student. Being an efficient and hard worker in general, the student was looking forward to showcasing their skills in the job that they took as part of their college program. However, the automotive supplier firm they worked for exhibited poor management, especially during a merger. As the employee revealed their response to the company's mismanaged merger, people online had diverse opinions.

As the merger called for all the equipment to be moved to the new headquarters, the employee who was retained in the old site along with a supervisor and other workers did not have much to do. "After about 2 weeks of sitting around, my Supervisor finally came up with a small task for me," they said. "I completed this in about 4 hours which I thought was pretty good for something I had never done and had little training on, so I went to let her know." Instead of appreciating them, the 60-year-old supervisor angrily said, "This was supposed to take you all week! I don’t have anything else for you to do now! I need you to look busy in case Boss walks by. Next time I give you something to do you need to drag it out longer."

Though initially confused, the employee went along with what the boss said. "I was to take thousands of these tiny explosive devices we use and dispose of them by detonating them in a concrete box," they said about their next task and added, "The great thing with this task was that it had to take place in a back garage that nobody ever went in to avoid the obvious danger of people walking in while I was setting off controlled explosives." They explained, "I could have easily hooked up 20 of these bad boys at a time and set them off every 5-10 minutes, finishing the whole batch in about a week but I had to 'look busy,'" and added, "So instead I set off about 5-10 of these once an hour and spent the rest of the time on my phone playing games, watching Netflix, listening to music, etc. while getting paid over double minimum wage at the time."

"I managed to stretch that project for the remaining 2.5 months I was there finishing just in time for the end of the semester," said the employee and added that they pretended to be busy even when someone asked for help with their job. "The company ended up paying me over $10,000 (a lot of money for a student at the time) just to sit on my phone all day for 3 months," they wrote and added, "In my best corporate language I let them know I was leaving to 'pursue opportunities that would better utilize my time and skills.'" They also revealed that a few other interns have also quit this company owing to its incompetence in handling the merger and the uncertainty of the job.

While some users agreed with the employee's decision to pursue a better "work ethic" others quipped on taking advantage of the "malicious compliance". "Talk about a 'blast' of a job! Efficiency is usually appreciated, so it's disheartening you had to dial it down and risk safety. Good on you for standing up for your worth!" commented u/Adam_o_Harper. "I have a mental image of you cackling like an evil genius every time you set them off!" joked u/Chewiesbro.