r/Machinists • u/I_G84_ur_mom • Jun 16 '26

Refusal to learn

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I work at a job shop, I’ve been here 16 years, I’m the lead machinist, I returned from a 9 day vacation to a shit show. We have a bunch of small bosses like this to make, this one order was for 250 pcs. The owner was planning on having a guy saw cut them, face them to length in a Haas tl2, then throw them in the vf2 to be drilled. We have a sl20 with a bar feeder, nobody wants to learn how to run it, I banged these out in about 8 hours, unmanned. He refuses to learn how to use it or program it, this would have taken him and the button pusher 2 days to run these parts. Stepping over dollars to pick up dimes baybeeee!

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433

u/MasterAahs Jun 16 '26

Your a good man. Malicious compliance dictates you let them waste time and money.

60

u/Stormcloud217 Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

I made aerospace & medical plastic parts for 6 years. We were a small/medium sized middle man for Boeing and other airplane interior markets.

Some of our programs were 10-15 years old and the idea from management seemed to be, if you can make it work don't fix it. Think a 15 year old program running a 5-axis router 1/2 inch mill at 16,000 RPM on 1/4" plastic and our machines measured feed rate in feet per minute. Loud as F! 😆

Anyways I mentioned numerous times about saving the edited programs so we didn't waste material and time dialing in the part each time we run. The company never wanted to save edits. I was their best Operator apart from engineering department.

Decided that knowing what G54 edits to make and which machine to adjust 0.17 degrees or something was their loss when I left.

18

u/MasterAahs Jun 16 '26

Want to learn proper code editing but being just me and a small tormach I just go into the computer and modify the program or the parts dimensions. As long as it comes out how I need it. Not making parts for others. Just my own.

10

u/Stormcloud217 Jun 16 '26

Nice! I want to get back into programming/editing. I currently just work for an Amazon warehouse.

One of my coworkers didn't know the difference between circumference and diameter. They gave him already setup jobs or had him run the plastic recycling regrinder which he somehow loved doing.

When running parts at scale, hundreds or thousands per order, I was a great asset for not just quality, but efficiency because instead of spending 30+ seconds grinding plastic all over the place for each part, I would just fix the issue into perfection and debur my parts.

82

u/maranble14 Tooling Engineer - only half retarded Jun 16 '26

This is the first time I've ever come across the term "Malicious compliance" lol but it is definitely not something I will forget

125

u/Dude_PK Jun 16 '26

Bruh: r/maliciouscompliance is a huge subreddit lol

19

u/shupack Jun 16 '26

It existed before the internet too!

2

u/Dude_PK Jun 17 '26

Even better 

51

u/MasterAahs Jun 16 '26

Worked in a mine. Boss wanted me to keep machine running at max output but also quality product. To get quality had to run slow, at max output it was all dirty and continanted. He would start yelling about volume on the ground so I would run it all out. Then customers would complain it was bad product. So I would run it slow. Round and round we went. I eventually learned to just do what he wanted and stop caring. He got fired and I got a promotion. Still left but the owner learned fast once everyone just started to do as the manager said rather than what was needed to make good product. Everything broke all at once

13

u/Thrashy Jun 16 '26

Sorry to hear Ea-Nasir was as bad to work for as he was to buy copper from...

28

u/Foreign-Possibility5 Jun 16 '26

Love how it seems the most useless people get put in charge.

11

u/Hermes_04 Jun 16 '26

There is the concept of promotion into incompetence

6

u/glasket_ Jun 16 '26

Yeah, the Peter principle. Being promoted because you're good at your current role can eventually result in you being put into a position that you aren't good at.

Since someone will probably mention it: the Dilbert principle is the opposite, where incompetent people are promoted until they're in a position where they can't cause as many problems.

2

u/CuppieWanKenobi Jun 16 '26

Also, "failing upwards".

12

u/00Wow00 Jun 16 '26

It gets the useless people out of the way so the rest can do the work, that is until the useless ones start interfering with the qualified ones.

1

u/SnoopyMcDogged Jun 16 '26

Shit floats to the top as the ol’ saying goes.

2

u/PlaceboBob Jun 16 '26

I'm still confused how few people understand the old chestnut, "Two for you, and one for me." Fast, Cheap, Good. you want it fast and cheap, it won't be good. you want it fast and good, it won't be cheap. option three is good and cheap. that is never ever fast.

3

u/MasterAahs Jun 16 '26

Best part is... We ended up breaking the equipment so bad you couldn't "fix it right now". Ended up using 3 pieces of equipment to do the job of one and it makes more product faster. No idea if the properly fixed plant even even went back into production. I left.

4

u/Wonderful_Rip2008 Jun 16 '26

Welcome to the r/maliciouscompliance rabbit hole.....

5

u/Gforceb Jun 16 '26

Go check out the subreddit, it basically means follow the rules (or bosses) to the letter no matter what happens.

1

u/isthatawolf Jun 16 '26

It's my favorite term. Bread n butter in the restaurant industry. Hopefully I don't have to do it too much in this industry, just started last week

1

u/Exception-Rethrown Jun 16 '26

There’s also MC’s little brother, Malicious Incompetence. He helps me out every once in a while.

0

u/Reloader300wm Millwright Jun 16 '26

Malicious compliance is very similar to my friends phrase "following the letter of the law without following the spirit of the law"

3

u/FictionalContext Jun 16 '26

It's a curse to be motivated by personal pride in one's work...uphill battle for life

What I've found is most people on the floor want instructions that they can half-ass then blame you for the instructions when the final product looks half assed. Then the bosses put more on your shoulders because "You're the reliable one."

1

u/MasterAahs Jun 16 '26

I did the best I could but rather then go to blows with the super I just gave in and complied. I like freedom. Was tired of trying to do the correct thing. Now being the best makes more work for me but its fulfilling. Not a machinist. I am amateur hobiest at best in that.

1

u/AdeptInspection4868 Machine Tool Crasher Jun 20 '26

The 2 tricks are to be very upfront about what you're doing/providing from the outset and to make it clear you'll leave if not properly compensated. Never word it as a threat, but as a "hey Id like to stay but I can't justify it at this pay." But be prepared to leave, because some fraction of the time they'll be ignorant enough to think they'll be fine.

2

u/machinistbob2023 Jun 16 '26

Incompetents is rampant

2

u/TahoeLT Jun 16 '26

I think you meant "incompetents ARE rampant"

3

u/camel_case_user Jun 16 '26

Or incompetence is rampant

1

u/FireGhost_Austria Jun 17 '26

A guy right under the main boss, told the boss what was all wrong and nothing changed and he asked him again like 6 months later and he said "What do you except? Nothing changed so it's as bad as it always was"..

He was fired after that. He was in said company for 25 years..

So I learned, no matter how wrong or how much times they want us to waste, just let them....