Woman maliciously complies by reporting to boss every 5 minutes until he realizes his mistake

Editor's note: This article was originally published on August 29, 2023. It has since been updated.

Many working professionals have to deal with micromanaging bosses daily. Due to that, the work environment ends up becoming stressful. u/Dramatic-but-Aware shared an intriguing tale on Reddit from her workplace, at the time, when she was employed at a clerical position in a law firm. In a tight schedule where this fellow had to deal with a demanding boss and her studies as well, it was getting increasingly difficult to juggle everything at once. 

The Reddit post was interestingly titled: "You want to know where I am at all times? Your wish is my command." Then, u/Dramatic-but-Aware shared an incident that took place eight years ago. "This happened about 8 years ago, 1 year into just my first clerking gig. I loved my job, I was very grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow. My days looked pretty hectic and I would often eat while driving," she wrote. "I had worked weekends, pulled all-nighters, I would leave school at 10 pm."

After finishing a year working at the firm, this fellow had to deal with something they did not sign up for. "A new partner joined the firm...and kind of took over as unofficial managing partner. He was the typical old-fashioned lawyer and could barely use Microsoft Word to type a contract," the user wrote, describing her new superior. "He had this weird obsession with punctuality while simultaneously being late to everything." Needless to say, the new boss was a bully to the staff in the law firm and especially to this Reddit user.

After the boss joined the firm, it started struggling under his command. He demanded the clerks to "get there by 10 am," but u/Dramatic-but-Aware couldn't do it because of their late classes. One day, the boss finally yelled at her in front of all the clerks for being late. The micromanaging boss was not ready to accept any explanation from the user despite her informing him how she was juggling ther studies and job. "I know you are lying, from now on, I want to know where you are at all times, and if I catch that you were slacking off or lying, you are fired and I will make sure no one will ever hire you," the annoying boss lashed at the poor clerk at one point.

But u/Dramatic-but-Aware had enough of the unruly boss. "The next day, I woke up extra early, took a time-stamped photo and sent it to both his e-mail and phone since I could not risk him not getting it and him not knowing where I was. I sent a time-stamped photo every 5 minutes captioning what I was doing like it was my own personal social media platform with 1 follower," she continued. The user continued sending the boss snaps of her every activity at an interval of 5 minutes, which included "taking a photo of the toilet door with the text 'peeing.'"

After a point, the entitled superior got the hint, showed up at u/Dramatic-but-Aware's desk and said she could stop now. Within a couple of weeks, the boss stopped bugging people at work and mostly stayed locked up in his office. "My guess is I was not the only one to complain and the other partner realized how dangerous he could be for the firm and asked him to back off," the post concluded.

The Reddit community had a lot to say and laugh about. u/CoderJoe1 jokingly wrote: "Bullied him into submission with his own incompetence." u/WPplugindiva commented: "This is awesome and great MC. I wish there'd been a hidden camera to see his response every 5 minutes." It appears like the annoying boss got a taste of his own medicine and learned his lesson well.