Woman gets co-worker fired for making false complaint about the way she dresses.

The Peter principle says that people will be promoted up until they reach a level at the corporation that they are no longer qualified for. Which then leaves the organization full of incompetent employees. For some people this is when they reach the level of CEO and for others this is when they enter into the organization.

On a popular Reddit thread in the Malicious Compliance Subreddit a woman deals with her incompotent coworker after they make it clear that they hate the way she dresses.

She writes:

I work at a hospital that doubles as a research institution. Since I'm on the research side, I have to involve many other departments, and most people I work with are very chill and understand that I have to beseech them for things to do my job.

I'm one of those 'she can go a hundred hectares on a single tank of kerosene' type of people, and I'm very on top of things, for which my coworkers value me. However, the one place where that camaraderie breaks down is with [some of] the nurses who work in my specific clinic (focusing on one particular disease).

I've done an excellent job making most of the nurses like me. I bring them homemade treats sometimes, and I'm always extra friendly and approbative with them. Some have their days regardless, and I put up with them.

Right after I started working in that clinic, unfortunately, one nurse in particular (let's call her Michelle) had decided that I was on her sh%tlist. Michelle hates doing work. She's like a kid playing Xbox when their parent asks them for help with groceries. She'll moan and groan, and if she helps, it's with an angsty indignation.

I needed a series of blood tubes drawn in the clinic for a patient one morning (instead of down in phlebotomy -- protocol rules -- more complicated and stupid than it's worth getting into here), and Michelle was the only nurse available.

She was highly put off by my asking her to draw this protocol kit (despite my informing the clinic that this needed to be done). She did not want to leave her computer (which was not open to anything work-related), but she begrudgingly went and drew the tubes. She was unnecessarily profusely thanked by me... just for doing her damn job.

I came back down later to get a prescription signed for another patient, and a different nurse asked me what I'd done to upset Michelle because she'd been going off about me to anyone who would listen. I explained what had happened.

The other nurse informed me that Michelle was pissed at me and also felt my outfit -- a white medical coat, a modest blouse, work pants, and high heel boots -- was too provocative. What? I just decided to let it go and try to avoid Michelle as much as possible.

This did not work. I kept running into situations where the other nurses were busy seeing patients. I was forced to walk back into the nurse triage room- off-limits to patients- and ask Michelle to draw two more of these blood kits in the next month. She was never happy to see me and always wasted time on her work computer when I entered the room.

Maybe two or three days after that last kit draw, my supervisor called me into her office to discuss my 'presentation.' She very nicely, and with pity in her voice, told me she'd received a report about my dress habits in patient-facing spaces. She said she hadn't noticed anything (no s@%t) but was obligated to discuss this with me anyhow.

I assured her I had no idea what she was talking about. I thought about confronting Michelle but decided not to because, you know. Loose cannon and whatnot. After a brief reminder of the dress code, I figured that at least it was over.

It was not over. Two weeks later -- and I hadn't even asked anyone to draw any kits in the interim -- a formal report was filed against me for my conduct in the clinic. This went to the hospital and my supervisor, who seemed clueless about what it could mean even after reading the report. I explained what had been happening with Michelle.

But then my supervisor told me a second person had reported this as well, on the same day as who was Michelle. This time, it was a patient. The patient had said that I was dressing improperly for a patient-facing environment.

I asserted that I wasn't, but I was nonetheless put on probation, which meant that my supervisor, against her will, now had to come with me when I saw patients in the clinic for the foreseeable future. A nurse manager would have to accompany us when free since I was 'dressing provocatively' in patient-facing spaces, which was her domain.

But as you can likely guess from her browsing habits, Michelle did not need MORE supervisors in her area. Cue malicious compliance. Fine, you want to punish me and force me to work in the eyesight of the supervisors? Let's get some supervisors down here as quickly as possible.

My next in-clinic patient came in two days, and it was one of those stupid timed-in-clinic protocol kit visits, which meant I was forced to ask one of the nurses to draw the patient's blood. I informed my supervisor, and we set off for the clinic. The nurse manager was in that day, so she accompanied us.

We all went back into the triage room so that I could ask for help with the blood draw. Michelle and one other nurse were there. Upon entering, we saw the other nurse entering vital signs for a patient into our health database and Michelle… sitting at her desk with an online clothing retailer open on one monitor and Facebook on the other.

I asked for Michelle's help drawing the kit, and she sighed heavily and spun around… to see two higher-ups looking on with disdain at her work computer.

In embarrassment, she swiveled back and closed those two tabs, which revealed — you can't make this stuff up — a website for MARITAL AIDS that had been open in another tab, about which Michelle had forgotten until now. I just smiled and handed her the bag like nothing had happened.

In the hall, my supervisor and the nurse manager talked about Michelle's display just now. She had been previously warned about wasting time at work. The nurse manager told the supervisor that she would check all of Michelle's work computer activity, which I didn't know any supervisor could readily access.

What followed was so incredibly beautiful that I hope it made the ending of this long, long post worth waiting for. According to the nurse initially asking me what I had done to upset Michelle, her activity was searched. She was revealed to have been spending hours daily browsing the web, shopping, and using social media. She was given a formal write-up since she had been previously warned about this behavior.

But this was just the beginning. The day after the three of us went down to the clinic, my supervisor called me into her office again. She told me that Michelle had FABRICATED the patient's complaint about me and posted it from her work computer (how did they learn this?).

Oh, that'd be because she saved a draft of the message that reported me to the hospital and accessed the patient complaint/comment webpage the same day.) My supervisor apologized for the hassle and told me I was no longer on probation.

As for Michelle: fearing the worst, she gave her two weeks' notice the same day after getting wind that she was in much more severe trouble. For reasons I will never understand as long as I live, the hospital let her quit after two weeks instead of firing her on the spot.

Maybe they knew what a nightmare she was and were comfortable letting her leave on her own accord. It's not as though she was due to glean any glowing references from this experience. Maybe they just wanted some extra work — our clinic was VERY short-staffed for nurses then. In any case, they chose not to fire her and let her quit.

On Michelle's last day, I returned to the triage room to retrieve some outside records from their printer. When I entered, Michelle was alone and browsing Glassdoor. I unbuttoned my white coat and told her, 'Good luck with your next job.

I hope the employees are less provocative.' She slowly spun around with a scowl on her face. Then I lifted my dress to my neck and walked out, and I never saw Michelle again.

The internet is not impressed with Michelle.

Techn0ght says:

Depending on the state and a companies own requirements, firing someone for cause can be a lot of paperwork. Letting someone resign in two weeks and then quietly marking their personnel folder as 'Do not rehire' is so much simpler.

The waters can get muddier when the employee is known to lie and fabricate things. 10 to 1 Michelle would have file a wrongful termination complaint to get unemployment and severance. She's eligible for squat when she quits.

Peruda says:

I really hope they weren't any cameras in the office on that last day.

MasterOfTheAbyss says:

So she was caught using company computers to commit fraud? That seems pretty serious. I imagine they didn't fire her because it would save the paperwork. It is probably a lot cheaper to let someone quit.

I wish you could make a poster of Michelle's face on that last day.