Corporate policies help keep things fair, transparent and standardized across organizations that can employ thousands of people around the world, but we can’t ever forget the human factor. When one person on Reddit was reprimanded for a “generous” tip to waiters who noticed they were sick and took care of them, they decided to stop playing nice and use the company’s own policies to cost it hundreds of dollars.

Actions like these are called “malicious compliance”, and they are a popular and fitting act of revenge when workers are forced – usually against all common sense – to toe the company line. Read on to see how this guy’s story turned out and to see what other stories people shared in response.

Exceptional service often deserves exceptional tips, but gratuities can also lead to problems if you’re on a company-compensated work trip

Image credits: MargJohnsonVA (not the actual photo)

One worker was treated with extraordinary kindness by waiters while on a work trip, but the tip they left as a token of gratitude got them into trouble

Image credits: Kelly (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Sebastian_Studio (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Pressmaster (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Eureecka

As mentioned, accountability in a corporate setting is important. The frustrating thing, however, is when bosses fail to consider the human element in the situations they encounter. Considering a $10 tip excessive purely on the basis of percentage was completely absurd, especially because the total was so small that the worker wouldn’t have even been required to report it.

Furthermore, it was a reward for exceptionally kind and considerate service that, in all likelihood, made a meaningful impact on the quality of the worker’s performance during their trip. We’re sure that even the reluctant tipper would be moved by a gesture like the one the worker received! Traveling while ill can be extraordinarily difficult, so we can only imagine how welcome they were to receive off-menu chicken soup.

The author stuck around to clarify a few questions that commenters had

Though the excessively strict corporate manager was a bit of a bummer, the kindness of the waiters in this story really restored our faith in humanity. Let’s take a moment and appreciate how nice they were to remember a returning customer, recognize that they were sick, and decide to make something off-menu – chicken soup – to help them feel better!

From a practical standpoint, rewarding actions like these is precisely the sort of thing that a corporation can do to vastly improve the public’s perception of it and its products. The manager could have seen this as an opportunity. Instead of penalizing the employee, they could’ve sent an inexpensive gift basket (including branded merchandise, for example) to the restaurant staff. Instead of coming down hard on a clearly dedicated worker, they would’ve had a big internal and external PR win instead.

Corporate expenses are always a sensitive issue, so plenty of commenters had their own stories and insights to share

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