Quite a few company policies clearly don’t make much sense. Even on paper! But it can take putting these new regulations painfully into practice to finally make the higher-ups realize that they’ve made a massive, massive mistake. Sadly, change only really happens when things start to affect the bottom line.

Redditor u/daft_boy_dim, from the UK, shared a tale of dastardly revenge and malicious compliance from the time that he worked as a project engineer at a power supply company, six years ago. The internet user revealed how he and his colleagues reacted after management took away their company cars. They began following the travel policy—with all of its associated allowances—to the letter.

It took the company 8 weeks to realize just how expensive it was to ‘cut costs.’ Read on for the redditor’s full story, as shared on the massively popular (not to mention thoroughly entertaining) r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit.

A British power supply company decided to take away their project engineers’ access to their fleet of cars

Image credits: Obi – @pixel6propix (not the actual photo)

One former employee shared how everyone began following the organization’s travel policy to the letter to teach the higher-ups a lesson

Image credits: Redmind Studio (not the actual photo)

Image credits: u/daft_boy_dim

As the author of the post pointed out, the decision to revoke the employees’ access to company cars came after someone from finances calculated the costs of keeping the fleet after only reviewing the data for a single quarter. Anyone worth their salt knows just how important it is to take a peek at the broader context and to consider the possible consequences of your decisions. And what a powerful knock-on effect that person from finances had!

Considering how much the engineers traveled across the country all year round, it made little sense to revoke their car access. However, the company was adamant about cutting costs. Cue some well thought-out malicious compliance.

“As we were project engineers we had a very particular set of skills for knowing how to follow rules to the letter and how to do so in a manner that benefitted the company or project or individuals. Usually, if it benefitted the company it benefitted all involved. This was not one of those occasions,” u/daft_boy_dim told Reddit.

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After reviewing the business’ travel policy, the engineers began hiring cars and using trains for their trips. What’s more, instead of working overtime as they’d done before, they booked hotels to take “full advantage of the £25 food and drink allowance for dinner.” That’s on top of the work-from-home policy that comes into effect if you were traveling the day before.

It took the power supply company 2 months to get to grips with just how much cash they were bleeding. “Our expenses for the first month after the cars had been returned were more than they were for the previous 12 months combined,” the OP wrote.

The sad reality is that far from every single colleague you’ll work with will be open to honest communication. Not everyone takes feedback well. And definitely, not everyone who works in management or makes executive decisions is beyond control issues, stubbornness, and even basic incompetence. Situations like the one the redditor was in can quickly tell you which of the higher-ups are (in)capable of handling complex, long-running arguments with staff.

As we’ve covered on Bored Panda before, the difference between good and sub-par workplace leaders lies in their character, as well as their relationship with their subordinates. For instance, a strong leader is someone who is principled, moral, and chooses to do the right thing instead of taking the easy road. Compare and contrast that to a weak leader. You’ll know who they are by their flip-flopping opinions, inability to commit to a certain goal or course of action, as well as how much they base their decisions on potential popularity.

A good manager is someone who values empathy, humility, and selflessness. They support, motivate, and elevate their colleagues. However, at the same time, no manager is able to read minds (at least, not yet!). Workers also have the responsibility to communicate with their superiors in a timely manner. Management needs to know what resources, tools, and working conditions they need to get the best results.

The author of the post shared some more details in the comments

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Here’s how some internet users reacted. Meanwhile, others even shared similar work stories

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