‘You said you wanted these answers first thing in the morning.’ Guy Maliciously Complied When A Boss Didn’t Respect Time Zones

Sometimes you just have to go along with stupidity because you’ve done all you can and you’re blue in the face from arguing with people.

And it sounds like something kind of like that went on in this story from a Reddit user who decided to share a story about their father-in-law on the website’s “Malicious Compliance” page.

Read on and see what happened!

“Father-in-law’s story.

In the 1970s (before email and faxes), my father-in-law, Carl, worked as a trust agent for a bank in the Midwest, which is on Eastern time (ET).

He handled trusts and estates for bank customers, including one older lady. Her son-in-law, Brewton, lived in California, which is on Pacific time (PT), three hours behind Carl, and managed his mother-in-law’s estate on her behalf.

Brewton used to call Carl with questions, which is not a problem. Except Brewton would call Carl at home at 8 p.m. ET, expecting him to answer questions. Carl would be at home, eating dinner or spending time with his family, so Brewton’s calls were unwelcome.

Carl would explain the time difference and said that Brewton should call before 5 p.m. ET, not PT. But Brewton always ignored Carl’s requests, and demanded that Carl call him back “first thing in the morning.”

Carl was nice and would wait until 11 a.m. ET to give Brewton time to get settled in his own office. Until he decided he’d had enough.

The day after Brewton’s latest call, Carl went to his office extra early, got the information, and then promptly at 8:00 a.m., Carl called Brewton’s house.

A sleepy Brewton answered the phone and croaked, “Hello?”

“Good morning, Brewton!” Carl all but hollered into the phone.

“What time is it?” Brewton groaned.

“It’s 8:00,” Carl said.

“But it’s 5:00 in the morning here.”

“Huh, so it is. I guess there’s a three-hour time difference. But you said you wanted these answers first thing in the morning, and it’s 8:00 here, so I thought I’d give you a call.”

Brewton never called past 5:00 p.m. again.”

Here’s how people responded.

This person had some difficulties with this during a job in Chicago.

Another reader has some problems with time about co-workers in India.

And this Reddit user said they’ve had issues with people IN THE SAME TIME ZONE.

Hmmmm….

This guy handled this brilliantly. 10/10.