Malicious compliance is something that occurs at a workplace when the employees take the rules too literally! You might not have heard of this term but there is a possibility that you might have come across this scenario in your workplace.

Compliance means adhering to the set of rules and regulations that are set out by an organization or the government. In most cases, irrespective of how rules are framed, employees follow the spirit of whatever the rule is meant to convey. However, some employees may be rebellious trouble-makers. When employees take the words of the rules and regulations literally to cause disruptions in the workplace, it is known as malicious compliance.

In this article, we will discuss everything you need to know about malicious compliance. Here is what you can find up ahead:

1. What Constitutes Malicious Compliance?
2. Example of Malicious Compliance
3. Reasons for Malicious Compliance
4. How to Prevent Malicious Compliance

What Constitutes Malicious Compliance?

As mentioned above, malicious compliance refers to a behavior in which an employee follows rules and policies strictly with the intention to cause harm to the company or the management despite realizing that doing so will not yield results desirable to the management. In other words, some employees use the company’s rules against the company by strictly following them.

What is important here is the intention of the employee. Someone simply adhering strictly to the rules does not constitute malicious compliance, unless you can establish that the intent behind doing so is malicious. The simple definition of ‘malicious intent’ is the will to do harm. In literal words, “malicious compliance” means following the rules with the intention of causing harm.

In these cases, the employee remains within the legal framework since they are following the rules but they’re still able to harm the company. Such behavior is usually shown by those employees who want to take revenge against the company or their managers.

Example of Malicious Compliance

Take an example of a restaurant where a security guard did not check a customer properly and it was found that the latter carried alcohol into the restaurant. The manager of the restaurant lectured the security guard about how irresponsible it was to not check the customer’s purse properly. The guard tried to explain to the manager that a usual check was conducted by him and rigorous checks if done annoy the customers. His explanation was given no importance and he was further humiliated. Afterward, the guard became angry and he started to check the purse of every customer requiring them to empty their purses, thereby slowing down the entry process. This made the customers entering the restaurant angry and many of them even left. This is an example of malicious compliance by the security guard as he did compliance with a wrong intent to bring harm to the restaurant by bringing bad publicity about the way the restaurant treats its customers.

Reasons for Malicious Compliance

The origin of malicious compliance in most of the cases is imposing unfair orders on the subordinates without understanding the consequences of the same. The result is that the subordinates tend to become rebellious and take revenge against the seniors or the company by following orders aggressively or strictly knowing that doing so would invite worse results than the senior’s expectations. The subordinate employee doesn’t communicate about the defect in the order or the policy and instead follows the same aggressively.

Usually, malicious compliance occurs on account of unfair policies being imposed by the company which are not well thought for consequences. The result is that affected employees start taking revenge against the company and indulge themselves in malicious compliance.

How to Prevent Malicious Compliance

Dealing with employees engaging in malicious compliance can be a real struggle since they are using your company’s policies against you. Here are some ways that can help you in avoiding the incidences of malicious compliance by the employees.

• Hear Out Your Employees

Malicious compliance occurs when employees are disregarded and humiliated. If any concern is affecting the performance of your employees, it is better that you give them a chance to explain themselves and understand their concerns. You must establish a sense of security amongst the employees that their concerns will not go unheard.

If any employee reaches out to you to discuss any shortfalls in any policy then you should not chide them. Instead, try to understand what they are trying to convey and then reach a conclusion in such a way that everyone benefits from the same.

• Review Your Rules and Regulations

You must periodically review your rules and regulations to look for any such clause that brings negative energy for the employees and doesn’t yield much results for the company as well. It is better to amend the company rules in such a case and remove such undesired clauses. Not doing so will not only result in malicious compliance but also lead to increased employee turnover.

• Show Trust in Your Employees

A company can’t function without trusting its employees. Therefore, it is necessary that you do not put any unreasonable policy just to punish your employees such as penalizing them for coming a few minutes late or taking an early leave due to some genuine reason. Human resources are the greatest asset for any company and you must value them. That is how big businesses excel.

It is generally found that malicious compliance is a result of poor management practices. However, in such cases, some mischievous employees can also use this as a tool to harm the company. It is not possible to altogether curb such occurrences, but they can be reduced if you follow good management practices.