'I am forbidden from driving my truck even a few feet': Salesman lets truck get pummeled by hail in order to follow boss's strict rules

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Aug 26, 2023 5:00 PM EDT

At this company, there is zero room for error when it comes to driving the company trucks. Employees can never use the trucks for personal use, so if they don't like it, there's the door. This salesman clearly values his job, so he followed the rules to a T. 

Some companies are extremely strict with their property. Whether they're monitoring every keystroke you type into your computer, or keeping an eagle eye on the company van's GPS, it can put every employee on edge. Businesses like this almost want their employees to fail — with super strict rules like this, they insist there's no room for human error. 

This worker wrote in to r/MaliciousCompliance with their own proud accomplishment. The rules at their sales job were super strict. The company somehow trusted the OP to drive the company pickup truck, but the boss loved to monitor the OP at all times. However, the OP complied so well that the boss had to change the rules to prevent it from ever happening again. Check out the entire story below, plus comments from people who had their own MC stories. 

After that, this person's boss is beyond technologically inept — their employee reports that he "routinely attempts to fax me when I have no fax machine."

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  • 01
    Motor vehicle - TETRNIC 'You know you are not to drive the company truck on the weekend'
    via Caelen Cockrum on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - Can't even drive the company truck 12 feet on the weekend? Okay. M OC This is my husband's story from a few years ago. He was an equipment salesman and had a company pick up that he brought home at night and on weekends. His company did not allow personal use aside from driving it to and from work.
    via u/RumBunBun
  • 03
    Font - Some salesmen took advantage of having a pick up and did use it for personal use and the company installed GPS systems on all company vehicles at the first of the year. My husband was pretty miffed as he really hadn't misused his truck, but he figured he had nothing to hide, so he shrugged it off.In February, he had to attend a trade show on a Saturday. This triggered the GPS and he would got a nasty call from his boss who was located in another state. My husband had to provide documentat
    via u/RumBunBun
  • 04
    Font - One Saturday that spring, he backed the truck out of the garage and onto the driveway to get the lawnmower out. After he finished mowing, he pulled it back into the garage. Yup, you guessed it, this triggered the GPS twice and on Monday, his boss called him and chewed him out. My husband tried to explain, but "Lou" was mad.
    via u/RumBunBun
  • 05
    Font - "You know you are not to drive the company truck on the weekend!" "I was moving it out of the garage so I could get my mower out. Does your report show how far each trip was?"
    via u/RumBunBun
  • 06
    Font - "They were .0025 miles each...(he paused as he seemed to realize how short of a distance these trips were)...but, well, that doesn't matter. No driving after hours or on the weekends. This is being noted in your file!"
    via u/RumBunBun
  • 07
    Font - So on the weekends he either parked on the street or in the driveway. A few weeks later, his compliance became malicious. We lived in the midwest where thunderstorms, tornados, and hailstorms are not uncommon. We were under a storm advisory with a strong probability of hail.
    via u/RumBunBun
  • 08
    Font - "Should you move your truck into the garage?" I asked my husband. "You'd think so, but today is a Sunday and I am forbidden from driving my truck even a few feet, so it's going to stay where it is," he said.
    via u/RumBunBun
  • 09
    Font - As the hail came down (about the size of a quarter), he stood looking out the window at the truck grinning. He loved explaining the damage to his boss and reminding him why the truck was no longer parked in a nice, safe garage.
    via u/RumBunBun
  • 10
    Font - Edited to add: When he reported the damage, he reminded his boss that it was a shame he wasn't allowed to move the truck into his garage when he became aware that a storm was coming. The boss knew da well he had maliciously followed the policy. The policy was relaxed/reworded a few weeks later, not sure if it was a direct result of this.
    via u/RumBunBun
  • 11
    Font - Lowflyn Yeh... I used to hate those stupid gps emails. Once a week it seems I'd have to explain to the regional manager that my guy was stopped at a red light for 5 minutes, he wasn't just idling the truck for no reason. I did use it once to prove my guy wasn't at the customer's house when it was broken into but that's the only time it ever came to good use.
    via u/Lowflyn
  • 12
    Font - L1A1 I was a mobile IT service engineer for a while, and although it was before gps, our mileage was monitored. Unfortunately one of the techs abused their car for personal use and from then on we weren't allowed to use the car on our own time at all.
    via u/L1A1
  • 13
    Font - After getting angrily interrogated about some excess mileage over a weekend (there were major roadworks and my trip to/from home increased by about 5 miles) I decided that the car could just stay at head office from then on. I'd drive to the office, pick up the car and then start work, leaving it there at the end of the day. Management were ped as they could no longer get me to go straight to a job in the morning, but there was nothing in my contract stating I had to take the car home wit
    via u/L1A1
  • 14
    Font - vontdman Unfortunately you know a company doesn't trust you when they have intense GPS monitoring. Our GPS monitors would notify the boss when you were speeding. We had little hatchbacks, not really capable of doing more than about 160kmph at a push. I got a call one day. Boss: "GPS says you're doing 190kmph" Me: "Well that's not even possible. Do you think this call is even necessary" Boss: "Yeah, true"
    via u/vontdman
  • 15
    Font - [deleted] I always wondered why we switched fleet management companies practiaclly overnight where i used to work It was a weird thing to just change then the only diffirence seemed to be was you can now get a "Carwash" on the fuel cards.
    via u/deleted
  • 16
    Font - Turns out it was for the GPS tracking, they were using it as evidance to fire a sales rep who was basically not even working at all. He drove all over the north island during work times heading up the coast to be with his GF on work time. I am not talking about cuttong off early on a firday, i am talking about leaving at midday and travelling 2h out of your working region (which was pretty broad anyway). His wife with 3 kids under 5 at home had no idea. So not only did this guy get his a
    via u/deleted
  • 17
    Font - MrPlow_357 Great Story. So glad he did that. I worked as a regional manager for a retail company and they put GPS in our cars. They would also track our laptop usage and could see if we were logged in to main server from a store or another IP address. Some time ago a bar was opened next to my office store. I could get the store wifi sitting at the bar and my car GPS would show I was in the store parking lot. I knew the bartender better than the folks in the store.
    via u/MrPlow_357
  • 18
    Font - Nowyouknow42 What did the boss say about the dimples on the truck? 59 KushChowda Reply Share those are speed dimples. they make it go faster, like a golf ball.
    via u/Nowyouknow42
  • 19
    Font - Greedence I would have had you, the wife pick me up from work and park my work truck behind Lou's car. Trapping him in for the weekend. 186 Reply Share RumBunBun OP Lou was in a different state.
    via u/Greedence
  • 20
    Font - drdeadringer "Oh I can't mow my lawn? I can't shelter your truck. Let's make a deal."
    via u/drdeadringer

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Tags

salesman gps workplace-stories toxic-workplace garage work driving sales workplace truck boss malicious compliance malicious-compliance-reddit toxic-boss Horrible Bosses
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