Malicious Compliance

There is a certain number of people who will follow orders knowing the result will get the order giver in some hot water.  I first learned about this in the military where as a Lieutenant I knew next to nothing about the Air Force or leading a whole group of people who were of different minds about being led.

One morning we had a bomb threat, something more popular back then than now, at the gym on our base.  I got the 20 or so men together and said, "Don't let anyone in the containment area except the bomb squad."  When the Base Commander came, they denied him entry.  He ignored them and went in anyway, and some of us spent the afternoon passing pictures of the Base Commander around so everyone knew who he was and what his role was on the base.  The Chief Master Sergeant who worked for my boss told a secret about this.  Give them a little discretion and ask them to do their job.

I was reminded of this yesterday when I heard that a person in TSA commented about the Executive Order on immigration, "If you don't like the action, call President Trump."  I have seen a few of these guys around and they aren't trying to make government work, even though that was part of their job too;  they want to make a name for themselves as "independent thinkers" or just rebels with a cause.  In business we used to be able to fire these kinds of people, though it was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  Firing anyone in business gets to be a chore when HR is more concerned about getting sued than having a workforce that doesn't have to be watched every minute.  Try firing somebody in Government and you will learn a few things about documentation and second chances.  Being able to do a job, and having the good sense to do it well don't enter into the equation.  I have fired people in both environments and would prefer to never have to do it again.  It takes a little part of your life away from you.

Just from the people around here who worked for the President before he came into office, it is not hard to see that he was used to having a workforce around him who did their best to make his orders work out for the best, even to the point of making exceptions when they were the right thing to do.  Unfortunately, that isn't the way government works.  Some of those people are just trying to make a name for themselves and have no real dispute with the order.  They will hide behind their interpretation of what was said without trying to make it work.  He will find it difficult to rid himself of these kinds of people.