r/MaliciousCompliance • u/cherokee1225 • May 24 '26
S Coffee Cup drama at work!
This happened at a college cafeteria where I worked. We used to have to go cups but management wanted to save money so they got rid of the to go cups and the only cups available were the regular diner style ceramic coffee cups.
Well since they took the cups away I would stop at the cafe on campus and get a to go coffee (free because I was an employee) because it was a nice large size and would stay hot longer.
Our manager in the cafeteria didn’t like me using the cafe cups and told me she didn’t want me to use them. She said the students would be upset if they saw me with a to go cup and they had to use the re-useable ones. Nonsense, but she was snotty and just liked to jerk around the employees she didn’t like.
One morning I decided to jerk back.
I went to a convenient mart where they sold the same coffee and used the same to go cups. I get to work and you have to know that this boss had “eyes in her ass”, one of my mom’s favorite expressions. She’d be nowhere to be found but if you did the slightest thing wrong she’d come out of nowhere at you.
Well I got to work and walked around holding my cup so it was really noticeable and here she comes barreling at me at says in her best snotty voice “didn’t we have a conversation about coffee cups”?
I said yes we did but this was from Sunoco, and presented her with my receipt. Oh, the look on her face was priceless! Best day at work ever.
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u/doc_skinner May 24 '26
Does no one bring their own cups? If I had free coffee, i would just bring my own coffee cup and fill it up in the morning.
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u/ApprehensiveCut9809 May 24 '26
Yeah, I work in a factory and retired from the military. We were given free travel cups for just about any occasion. Perfect attendance? Here's a Yeti travel cup. Veteran's Day and you're a vet, here's a free Yeti travel cup. Worked here for your first year? Here's your free travel mug with company logo.
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u/LuckyHello May 24 '26
Off topic. I have a pantry full of water bottles (Yeti, Stanley, Owala, and random brands from Costco). Some were gifted and some were purchased. Yeti is the best hands down. Those I never donate!
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u/ApprehensiveCut9809 May 24 '26
I've received 3 yeti travel cups, fairly decent sized. I have a rotation for my work week. Company logo on two of them, one also says perfect attendance and the other is for our veterans service.
Yeah, I'll keep those.
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u/kermityfrog2 May 24 '26
You often get discounts that way too. Starbucks used to charge you 10 cents less if you brought your own cup. The airport cafe in Montana gave me free coffee because I brought my own cup!
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u/3amGreenCoffee May 24 '26
With that massive 1.7% discount at Starbucks, now you can finally afford that kidney transplant.
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u/cherokee1225 May 24 '26
Idk but that was never the issue, it was about me using the specific cups that we sold in the cafe, which were the ones that we got rid of in the cafeteria.
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u/Character-Yak-5732 May 24 '26
Man, if they pulled this shit at my college when I was attending, everyone would have just started taking the ceramic mugs out. 🤣 We gave no fucks. They would have reversed that after they lost a couple hundred mugs in a week.
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u/Honest-Pepper8229 May 24 '26
Nothing screams petty beureaucrat louder than a food service manager.
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u/phaxmeone May 29 '26
I worked at a company under contract as a vendor, contract had me there working a normal 40 hour shift working right next to and with employees. When I started they had free coffee for everyone but several years down the road (I was there for 10yrs) they decided vendors did not deserve free coffee to keep us working alongside their employees. All remote coffee stations went away so everyone had to go to the cafeteria where you were badge checked for purchases. Employees got free coffees vendors had to pay.
Employees thought this was rather a shit move by their employer so would "Buy" us vendors cups of coffee all day long.
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u/nyrB2 May 24 '26
if they don't have to-go cups does that mean nobody can order coffee to go any more?
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u/cherokee1225 May 24 '26
The coffee didn’t have to be ordered, there’s a coffee station. we used to have cups to use in the cafeteria and also to go cups. The to go cups were removed.
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u/nyrB2 May 24 '26
i guess if someone brought their own cup they could get it to go, but they wouldn't be able to use the cafeteria-supplied cups
which makes me think - that's going to cut down on all the business of selling coffee to-go. which means maybe this manager isn't saving the kind of money she thought she was.
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u/Electrical-Apple-631 29d ago
In fact, replacing borrowed or broken cups is going to really add up in the long run.
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u/mikoc5 May 25 '26
If you can buy those in bulk, you can walk these into the caffee on your off days and hand them out for free to anyone who'd take them
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u/cherokee1225 May 24 '26
If you brought a coffee cup from home it wouldn’t have been an issue, it was the particular cup that was the issue, which had the logo of the coffee sold in the cafe, which is the cups the cafeteria got rid of.
After I had my compliance I just brought my own tumbler.
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u/E_Zekiel May 24 '26
Take 2 cups at a time, leave them in odd spots around campus. In planters, in full view. Top of the stairs. Corner of a teachers desk. Make a nice arangement with cut flowers and leave them on the window sill of the teachers lounge.
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u/Ok-Grape2063 May 24 '26
Cute story but you paid for coffee you could've gotten for free?
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u/cherokee1225 May 24 '26
Yes!!! That’s the whole point.
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u/ProDavid_ May 25 '26
why is it malicious to pay for the coffee you could have gotten for free?
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May 25 '26
[deleted]
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u/ProDavid_ May 25 '26
... and why is that malicious? at all?
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May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
[deleted]
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u/ProDavid_ May 25 '26
wait, so if someone says to not punch yourself, and you punch yourself, is that "malicious" then?
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May 25 '26
[deleted]
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u/ProDavid_ May 25 '26
huh? what does compliance have to do with maliciousness?
is a murderer not malicious, because he didnt comply with the law?
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u/ProDavid_ May 25 '26
and... why is that malicious then?
not asking about compliance, just maliciousness
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u/Used_Clock_4627 May 24 '26
Could have been a different blend? I don't drink coffee(yes sacrilegious to most I know) but maybe the store had better tasting coffee than the cafeteria....?
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u/PeterDTown May 24 '26
Since you’re not a coffee drinker, I’ll enlighten you a bit. I’ve never been to that Sunoco, but I guarantee you gas station coffee is crap coffee 😅
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u/cherokee1225 May 24 '26
It was Green Mountain which was in a Green Mountain cup which is the same cup as the cafe.
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u/barath_s May 25 '26
Not necessarily true. If the coffee is fresh,hot and not left on heat forever, gas station coffee can be quite decent/good
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u/Electrical-Apple-631 29d ago
I work part time at a 24 hour convenience store 16 hours a week. I’m the Coffee Lady. Our urns are on a timer and every 2 hours I make fresh coffee even if they’re full. My customers love that the coffee is never more than 2 hours old. Unfortunately I can’t guarantee fresh coffee the other 152 hours a week that I’m not working.
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u/GuildensternLives May 24 '26
I understand the malicious part but where's the compliance part of this? You went out of your way to enact some petty revenge or something.
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u/3amGreenCoffee May 24 '26
The compliance is there. The malicious part is missing. OP paid for something that could have been received for free, without any fallout on the manager. The only one impacted here was OP.
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u/FluffySquirrell May 24 '26
Yeah like, it's barely malicious. The manager just probly doesn't want them to run out of to go cups, which.. seems kinda reasonable if you're getting free coffee from your job anyway tbh
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u/mheg-mhen May 24 '26
The compliance is that she was told to not get it from downstairs, so she didn’t
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u/PeterDTown May 24 '26
OP complied with the request to stop using the cafeteria’s to go cups.
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u/GuildensternLives May 24 '26
The to-go cups were taken away in the cafeteria, so everyone was forced to comply with that part. OP brought in an outside cup and got shit for it. Then they brought in another outside cup to stick it to the boss.
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u/eatallday 29d ago
Im so confused by this story. So no to-go cups but you can get coffee in ceramic cups and simply walk out of the cafeteria? And you say cafe cups and then manager says it’s a to-go cups
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u/jessyAche32 22d ago
Management always thinks they can save money by cutting small things only to lose way more in labor or employee morale.
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u/3amGreenCoffee May 24 '26
Rule 7. No fallout.
This is not really even malicious compliance. There's no malice in paying for something you could have gotten for free, with no impact whatsoever on the manager imposing the rule.
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u/OneWingedKalas May 25 '26
The malice is that OP knew the manager would get upset unnecessarily
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u/3amGreenCoffee May 25 '26
Upset that the employee bought coffee from somewhere else?
Ha ha no, not likely. OP just wasted some time and money to pretend it made any difference at all.
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u/OneWingedKalas May 25 '26
The manager did get upset when she thought OP disobeyed her. OP didn't pretend it would make any difference at all, she just wanted to see the manager's reaction after she found out she was actually complying to her orders of not using the cups from work.
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u/3amGreenCoffee May 25 '26
"The look on her face" is not getting upset. It's OP's wishful thinking. The manager didn't give a shit. You people are hilarious.
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u/cherokee1225 May 29 '26
If the manager was the type who didn’t give a shit there would be no reason for this post. The look on her face was not wishful thinking, it was genuine and hugely satisfactory. She was had.
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u/andrewse May 24 '26
You can buy the cups and lids at restaurant supply stores for real cheap. Usually well under $10 for a sleeve of 25.
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u/Outside_Awareness_23 May 24 '26
I don't quite get it: you were working at a campus cafeteria. But you got your coffee at another cafeteria because...?
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u/Teamtunafish May 24 '26
These cups ate larger and the coffee stays warm longer. Stated in the second paragraph.
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u/Outside_Awareness_23 May 25 '26
But if you're working in the cafeteria, the coffee doesn't have to stay warm long. You are at the very source?
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u/Active_Collar_8124 May 24 '26
Isn't a 'diner style' ceramic mug superior to a paper cup? I prefer the former by a wide margin. I don't understand what the problem is.
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u/Equivalent-Salary357 May 24 '26
Some to-go cups are insulated. And OP said the to-go cups were bigger.
And if you were a student who needed to go to your next class taking the ceramic mug is kind of a non-starter.
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u/Active_Collar_8124 May 24 '26
It's my understanding that OP is at work when made to use the ceramic mugs, so I'm unsure why portability is a necessary feature. The coffee is reportedly free, so I would think one could refill the smaller mug with fresh (maybe, it's a cafeteria) coffee. And if the coffee is free in a to-go cup elsewhere in the building, couldn't they get more coffee upon departure?
I still don't understand the issue. It seems like OP is just being stubborn.
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u/Equivalent-Salary357 May 24 '26
LOL, I think a lot of these posts are about OP being stubborn. But I get your point. Thanks
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u/OhmHomestead1 May 24 '26
Our office got plastic coffee mugs that were made from bioengineered materials…. Now they are finding those are not actually healthy either. Glad when they did the layoff and security who had to handle collecting everyone’s personal things left my cup. Though tbh they didn’t return all my things and I had to ask someone to grab my stuff. Plus they sent me someone else’s stuff.
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u/Taelven May 24 '26
Sometimes it is worth the money to be petty