In movies, people who travel for work are often portrayed as world-weary road warriors who live out of beaten suitcases and rely on questionable airport food. They are usually jet-lagged and sleep-deprived and constantly rushing to make meetings.

The reality, however, can be different. Reddit user PathOfUncertainty just submitted a story to the platform’s ‘Malicious Compliance‘ community about the time his company refused to pay $4 extra for his hotel room. It was a frustrating day full of corporate nonsense. Luckily, the Redditor found a pleasant way out of it, and he even taught his bosses a valuable (and expensive) lesson.

This employee asked his company for an extra $4 to cover his accommodation on a business rip

Image credits: Helena Lopes (not the actual photo)

But they couldn’t be bothered

So he decided to give them a taste of their own medicine

Image credits: Ketut Subiyanto (not the actual photo)

Image credits: u/pathofuncertainty

Excessive management is often counterproductive

Image credits: energepic.com (not the actual photo)

This is what happens when rational people aren’t given the freedom to act on their own.

Even though just hearing the term is enough to feel disgusted, many people believe bureaucracy is unavoidable. They say that it’s just a necessary outcome of complex businesses operating in complex international and regulatory environments.

Bu Gary Hamel, who is a visiting professor at London Business School and the founder of the Management Lab, together with Michele Zanini, the managing director of the Management Lab, pointed out that since 1983, the number of managers, supervisors, and administrators in the U.S. workforce has grown by more than 100%, while the number of people in all other occupations has increased by just 44%.

We’re increasingly managing ourselves more and more. And as our Reddit story shows, it’s not always worth it.

“The typical management hierarchy increases the risk of large, calamitous decisions,” Hamel wrote in another article. “As decisions get bigger, the ranks of those able to challenge the decision maker get smaller. Hubris, myopia, and naïveté can lead to bad judgment at any level, but the danger is greatest when the decision maker’s power is, for all purposes, uncontestable.”

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)

Sadly, data collected by FlexJobs, a company specializing in the remote and flexible job search market, suggests that bad managers are abundant

According to FlexJobs’ Toxicity in the Workplace Survey with over 8,400 U.S. respondents, the vast majority of workers (87%) have had one (57%) or more than one (30%) toxic bosses or managers in their career.

FlexJobs told Bored Panda in an email statement that being a poor communicator (43%), acting dismissively (41%), and micromanaging (40%) were the top three reasons cited for toxic bosses.

Additionally, roughly one in three (28%) gave feedback directly to their boss about their concerns, which was reportedly ignored. More than one in five (21%) gave feedback to HR, which was also ignored.

In a rigid hierarchy, the power to make decisions is often vested in a single person, and their vague personal interests may cost $300 instead of $4.

“Give someone monarchlike authority, and sooner or later there will be a royal screwup,” Hamel said. “A related problem is that the most powerful managers are the ones furthest from frontline realities. All too often, decisions made on an Olympian peak prove to be unworkable on the ground.”

People thought the worker handled the situation beautifully

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