Here's a shorter story of malicious compliance, again from when I was working front desk at a value/budget motel.

After working at a front desk for a while, you get used to all kinds of guest interactions and don't take it to heart. Some guests are more talkative, some are just curt. I never get bothered either way. I know some people came off a long drive and just want to sleep, and don't particularly want to talk to me, that's fine.

During check-in, I have a standard script that I use for every guest. It depends on the hotel, but it's always something like "Here's 2 copies of the room key, turn the key clockwise, it sticks a little so wiggle it a bit. Your room is on the left/right of this corridor. The ice machine is down that corridor. Breakfast is available from 7am-10am at the lobby, check-out time is 11am. You can adjust the heat in your room using the knob on the wall, but please don't leave the windows open while running the heat."

I usually say all that while holding on to the room key, and then hold out the room key and offer it to the guest once I'm done. However, I had this one guest who seemed to be in a particular hurry and did not want to listen to my script. After my first sentence, he reached across the counter to grab the keys from my hand and turned around to walk away. This was the first time I had encountered that, so it caught me off-guard for a bit. As I recovered, I started to say "uh, sir-" to try and catch his attention before he left.

Without turning round, he said "I've been here before, I know the drill, I don't need to hear anything else you have to say."

Ok that I get. The problem was, I saw where he parked his car, and he missed a sign in the parking lot that said not to park in one specific area because construction would be starting soon. The sign was posted on the side of the counter too, but nobody reads those unless I point it out to them.

I said "Ok but-" and was promptly cut off by a "Goodbye!" as he walked out of earshot.

The next morning, the contractors came by. Naturally, they used the space reserved for them in the parking lot and built a little fenced-up area to store materials.

The next evening, the same guy comes over and complains that the contractors blocked him in that morning, and he had to wait 15 minutes for them to open the gates and let him out.

I said to him "Oh I was trying to tell you that yesterday sir, but you said you knew the drill, and so I assumed you saw the sign posted in the parking lot and the sign beside me, and I didn't want to waste your time any more."

He walked away without a word.

Thanks for building up this community here! I used to love reading it on reddit. I have a story from many years ago, I'm not a good storyteller but I'll try!

I used to work in a motel. Some guests are chatty, some are just curt. That's fine, some people came off a long drive and just want to sleep, I completely understand. But some people were just plain rude for no good reason.

I was doing an overnight shift when a man came to check in. I could already tell he wasn't nice by the way he threw his ID on the counter. When I was processing his reservation, he was tapping his fingers on the counter constantly. His assigned room happened to be pretty far away from the main lobby. Once I gave him his keycard, he took a look at the room and said "this room is too far away. I want a room that's nearer.

I checked the system, but we were pretty full up that night and there wasn't anything closer, not even if I cleared him for an upgrade. I told him we had no rooms that were closer, and he starting cursing at me. "Come on, look harder, don't be stupid, you didn't even try". Ok, rude again but whatever. I know how to use the system and I can see we have nothing left, but I pretend to click around a bit (sometimes that helps calm people down) and say "sorry, no, there really isn't anything". He cursed me and went to get his bags from the car.

I saw him unload a few bags. He struggled a bit and tried to carry everything, but finally he gave up and left one bag on the ground beside his car.

As he walked past my counter, i started to ask him if he needed any help with his bags. Mind you, it's a motel and we don't have porters so I was just being nice. I pointed at his bag outside and started to speak. I got as far as the word "Sir" when he cut me off and said "don't touch my bag!" Well alright then, I wasn't in a particular hurry to anyway.

I had other things to do, so I forgot about this until a few hours later. When I came back, I realised that his bag was still there. He'd forgotten about it.

Well, he said not to touch it, didn't he? Not my problem then. To make matters worse, it rained for a bit that night. Not a heavy downpour, just a bit of a drizzle for a few hours. But that was enough to drench the bag.

When the guy came out for breakfast next morning, he didn't even realise he'd forgotten his bags. I was handing over my shift and my colleague was asking me about the bag outside. The man saw my colleague pointing and his eyes widened in between bites of cereal. "THAT'S MY BAG!" he roared as he ran out.

When he came back in, dragging a bag that was thoroughly drenched, he started yelling at my colleague and me. He's never seen such irresponsible staff, he's gonna complain, etc etc.

I muster up the sweetest smile I could and said "Oh I'm so sorry sir. You told me specifically not to touch it last night, so I did my best to keep an eye on it for you."

I had a really enjoyable drive home that day.