A night shift convenience store worker got tired of missing raises because mystery shopper evaluations penalized them for realistic inventory management. So they followed corporate policy exactly as written, wasting $100 worth of food every single night until their boss practically begged them to stop.

The Backstory

Our hero worked the graveyard shift at a major chain convenience store, pulling 10pm to 6am shifts completely alone. Corporate used mystery shopper evaluations to determine employee raises, which sounds reasonable until you dig into the details.

The mystery shopper checklist demanded “hot fresh coffee” and “roller grill full” at all times. Makes perfect sense during busy daytime hours. Makes zero sense at 2am when tumbleweeds outnumber customers.

Day shift employees kept getting raises while night shift got nothing. The reason? Store policy said not to waste money making fresh food during dead hours. Corporate policy said the opposite. Classic corporate contradiction at its finest.

The Incident

After two rounds of watching coworkers get raises while he got zilch, our protagonist approached his boss diplomatically. He asked what a night shift worker could do to improve their mystery shopper scores.

The boss handed him another evaluation sheet and delivered this gem: “Just make sure you get full points on every line, that is your only job.” Challenge accepted, boss man.

The malicious compliance began immediately. Fresh coffee and fully stocked roller grills at 10pm sharp. Hotdogs, jalapeño sausage dogs, taquitos – the whole shebang.

At midnight, exactly zero items had sold because normal humans don’t crave gas station hotdogs at witching hour. Time to restock the coolers, which meant closing the doors for an hour anyway.

Here’s where it gets beautiful. At 1am, our hero dumped everything and made it all fresh again. At 4am? Rinse and repeat, because corporate policy demanded nothing sit longer than two hours.

The boss called him in pretty quickly after that. Apparently $100 worth of nightly waste tends to catch management attention. Who could have predicted such a shocking turn of events?

What Reddit Said

Most people applauded this textbook example of malicious compliance. The overnight worker followed instructions to the letter while exposing how ridiculous the mystery shopper policy really was.

Some pointed out that corporate policies often ignore operational realities. Day shift managers create rules without understanding night shift challenges, leading to exactly this kind of expensive lesson.

A few retail veterans shared similar stories about mystery shopper programs gone wrong. Apparently this type of disconnect between corporate expectations and store-level reality happens constantly.

Others noted the boss’s quick change of tune once money started disappearing. Funny how “follow policy exactly” becomes “use common sense” when profits take a hit.

The Verdict

This worker handled corporate nonsense perfectly. When policies contradict each other and management gives vague directions, sometimes expensive object lessons become necessary.

The real lesson here goes beyond mystery shopper compliance. Companies that create contradictory policies shouldn’t act surprised when employees exploit those contradictions. This falls squarely into work drama territory, but with a satisfying revenge stories twist that actually improved working conditions for future night shift employees.

From r/MaliciousCompliance (1,745 upvotes)