Senior operator follows his new manager’s order to stop making independent decisions, until manager Phil changes his mind after spending two weeks approving every minor fix, and one costly redo – FAIL Blog

Malicious compliance gets a bad reputation as petty, but at its best it is really just a demonstration. Every color drift became a walk to Phil’s office, a wait through lunch, an explanation, a pause while Phil researched the issue, and eventually an approval to do the thing that needed doing twenty minutes ago. Every paper stock question, every client scheduling call, every operational hiccup went through the same process. A notepad tracked all of it. By the end of week one a deadline was missed and a 300-unit job got reprinted at company expense because a machine sat idle for forty minutes waiting for a message response from someone who was in a meeting.