'Expenses [...] were more than they were for the previous 12 months combined': Company takes away company cars in an attempt to save money, malicious compliance ensues

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Dec 9, 2022 12:00 PM EST

Sometimes, you get so fixated on one little detail that you miss the bigger picture entirely. That tunnel vision can result in horrific errors in judgment in professional organizations that snowball and cost companies thousands, if not millions, of dollars.

You, a new manager (or finance person), are looking to implement some unnecessary changes in order to fuel your insecure ego (under the guise of saving the company money) and think that taking away your project engineer's company vehicles will achieve your ends. There's no way that this could go terribly wrong… right?

Well, project engineers have a reputation for being an organized, methodical bunch. If any group is going to be able to orchestrate concerted malicious compliance, it's going to be them. When their new manager thought they could take away company vehicles in order to cut costs, they could immediately see the way that they could cost the company far more.

Keep reading for this tale of malicious compliance. For more workplace MC, check out these workers that banded together to get rid of an oppressive "smiling policy."