Company demands employees keep headshots as profile pictures, cue malicious compliance

Every workplace needs guidelines to ensure smooth coordination and effective outcomes. While most rules aim to improve efficiency, some can spark debates or even unintended hilarity. Humor often becomes a great way to navigate such situations. A Reddit user, u/Virule93, shared a funny story on the r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit about a quirky incident at their workplace involving employee profile pictures on the company’s internal site.

According to the post, employees were initially allowed to personalize their profile photos by adding icons or flair to their images. This customization was visible during announcements, work updates, and comments, bringing a personal touch to the digital workspace. However, things took a dramatic turn when some employees started using their icons to express political ideologies, sparking tensions among colleagues with opposing views.

Not everyone got caught up in the politics, though. Some employees opted for humor, changing their pictures to anime characters or celebrities, turning what could have been a divisive moment into an opportunity for some lighthearted fun. The situation quickly escalated into a chaotic but entertaining workplace saga.

Now, HR had to intervene and maintain professional decorum. They set out new guidelines, which required all employees to use a profile photo that was “a clear headshot of the employee on a plain background,” without any other person, animal, flag, or icon visible. Here’s the thing, though—nobody said that this had to be a recent picture! So, sensing the opportunity for humor, some employees started setting their profile pictures to their photos from when they were babies. The situation was so hilarious and ridiculous that some members of the HR team did the same.

Many users on the platform gave their two cents in the comments. u/Bokko88 wrote, "I loved how anime is worse than political issues and possible bigotry." While u/Herobrine__Player wrote, "The title made me think this was about staff bringing their kids in and making other people basically babysit their kids, but I like this even better." u/WaywardMarauder wrote, "I’m picturing some 60-year-old man calling home 'Ma, my 1st-grade class picture, ya still got it? I need it for my company profile.'” u/Retlifon had an interesting view to add, "This is more “beneficent compliance”. Compliance in an unexpected way, but still achieving the intended goal."

u/undiurnal wrote, "Nothing brings people together quite like dunking on HR." u/bdpmbj had a story of their own to tell, "We've done the "submit a baby picture and then run a competition where everyone has to guess which baby is which adult" thing at a couple of previous jobs. People always laugh at my baby picture because apparently when I was very small, I was much more of a camera ham than I am now." While u/DynkoFromTheNorth wrote, "I love HR's response to your petty response!"

While some fun banter does no harm to anyone, heated debates can really ruin a work environment and bring animosity among people who have to work together for many years. Here, humor plays a vital role in making light of the situation and bringing people together to share laughter.

This article originally appeared 1 year ago.