Careless manager flouting safety rules dared worker to tip off the fire department — so he maliciously complied

Some bosses are appreciative of constructive feedback from employees, while others? Let’s just say they prefer to challenge them in ways no one sees coming. And oftentimes, these bosses only learn their lesson when employees resort to malicious compliance. Narrating one such story, a Reddit user on September 25 shared an incident from their retail job in the 1990s and how it hilariously ended with the manager learning a valuable lesson.

Reddit user named u/ProFriendZoner took to the popular subreddit r/MaliciousCompliance to narrate an incident that happened at a retail store where they worked in the 90s. The user who was working at a temporary retail position at a now-defunct department store noticed that the sales floor was overcrowded during the Holiday season. The floor was so packed with merchandise that it made it difficult for customers and workers to walk through. The employee, concerned that it would lead to a fire hazard with blocked emergency exits, casually mentioned it to his supervisor. "If the Fire Department ever came in, they would close us down for the hazards and lack of egress," the user told the supervisor. However, the already irked supervisor snapped at the employee and said, "You know what? Then call the Fire Department!"

The Reddit user, however, took her at her word and decided to stop by a local government building to ring the fire department. To his surprise, the Chief Fire Marshal himself answered. After hearing the situation, the Chief laughed and promised to look into it. The next day, the Fire Chief arrived with his entire firefighter crew for an inspection. After inspecting the aisles, they ordered the manager to clear the hazards. However, the manager declined the order and cited that it required instructions from the corporate office. Here, the Chief confidently responded that 'he will win the argument'. What happened next was straight out of comic Hell. During the middle of the Christmas shopping season, all three floors of the store were evacuated with the fire department sealing all the entrances. The store remained closed for over 5 hours, and the management and employees had no choice but to rearrange the merchandise and clear any hazards.

Surprisingly, despite the store owners being unhappy with how things turned out, the supervisor managed to keep his job. More interestingly, the supervisor never treated the Reddit user differently, maybe suggesting that she had forgotten his earlier comment. But having learnt a valuable lesson, when the supervisor asked why a certain procedure couldn’t be done, the store manager simply replied, "The Fire Department won’t allow that." In a study authored by Vern Putz Anderson and Heekyoung Chun, in 2014, explored workplace hazards in the U.S. retail trade sector by interviewing managers and owners. Findings showed that although many retailers recognized hazards, prevention efforts varied widely. The study concluded that the level of commitment from management played a crucial role in whether safety interventions were implemented effectively. 

Soon after the story was posted, many fellow Redditors shared their hilarious reactions to the story. u/DMercenary wrote, "'Store manager says he has orders from corporate, fixtures stay. Fire Chief assures him he will win the argument.' Lmao. Fire Marshalls don't play."

u/chris14020 wrote, "Imagine being naive or dumb enough to argue with a fire department official operating in an official capacity. You weren't gonna win when it was strictly business. Making it personal is gonna go even worse for you." u/Sillowa commented, "The FD’s ONLY job is to save lives. Why would anyone be stupid enough to mess with it?"

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