‘I kindly cited the new rule.’ Shorthand Was Not Allowed On The Job So A Call Center Worker Decided They’d Get Revenge

No abbreviations? No problem!

That’s what the person who wrote this story on Reddit’s “Malicious Compliance” said in their head when they decided that the only thing they could do was follow the rules.

The story started when they were told that no abbreviations would be allowed in their work.

“Recently, my quality assurance has handed down a new policy that we are “not to use any abbreviations in our call notes whatsoever. Short hand is not permitted.”

I work in a call center taking information for admissions of new medical clients. So the people reading my charts/notes will be medical professionals. The only abbreviations used are those commonly known in the practice, such as IOP (intensive outpatient), ASAP (who doesn’t know this?), etc (come on now).

So they did what they had to do.

So I have adopted their rule to the letter. I wrote every single thing out that would typically be abbreviated. Sometimes the notes require that times be recorded. Example: “I set the callback expectation for by 10AM.”

But their boss had an issue with it…

In my most recent scoring I was marked off for using “spelling errors in notes”.

When I requested a review of my score, my supervisor advised me that writing “ante meridiem” was what caused me to lose points.

So they had to cite the new rules to show that they were only following directions!

I kindly cited the new rule that requires no abbreviations be used. My supervisor stated that he had never heard the term ante meridiem before. I explained what it meant, being the long form of the term AM.

My score was amended to reflect no error was made.”

Here’s what people had to say.

One reader said this post made them CRINGE.

Another individual made a funny comment about their own work.

This reader wouldn’t be able to do this in their job.

Another reader said abbreviations would NOT be a good thing in their industry.

And one individual shared their own malicious compliance story.

Work can be so weird…

And people sure are strange…