'My average mileage is 90% greater': Nitpicky new management tries to dispute a flat-rate, $1,000 stipend for a traveling employee; he retaliates by increasing his mileage and doubling his payout

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Dec 21, 2023 4:00 PM EST

Bean counters can be a bit frustrating. Although we commend the audit-avoiding efforts of the accounting department, their decision-making process feels rather baseless in the real world. As footmen in the trenches on a day-to-day basis, the workforce sometimes knows better when it comes to improving company efficiency. They know how to make the right calls to save money in the streets because it's the actual workers who have the expertise. 

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  • That's why, when there's a battle between new management and the workforce, if the bean counters take precedence, there are bound to be some feathers ruffled. In our next story, a traveling employee who had grown accustomed to a flat-rate stipend gets questioned by a nitpicky new manager. 

  • After they accuse him of thievery, he maliciously complies with their new pay-per-mile plan– which costs them $1,900 per month. Scroll for the entire story of workplace drama and you be the judge on whether or not OP was taking advantage of company policy, or if he was just simply following orders.

  • 01
    r/r/MaliciousCompliance Posted by u/Gullible_Broccoli273 Thieves? MOC I'm a physician, my coworker is a physician. We practice nephrology somewhere in the USA. We do a lot visits to dialysis centers along an interstate, 8 of them, and it involves a lot of driving to see the patients while they're on dialysis. The system we work for pays us mileage plus a good salary.
    via u/Gullible_Broccoli273
  • 02
    Originally we submitted our own mileage reports and they always approved them. We were not trying to maximize the money, we both just wanted about $1,000 a month to offset wear and tear and gas on the vehicle. We were actually just photocopying the same report each month, signing it and turning it in. The original company we worked for was totally fine with this arrangement.
    via u/Gullible_Broccoli273
  • 03
    Well the system got bought by another system who apparently believes all their doctors are thieves. We were told we were scamming them and from now on a middle manager would be reviewing our billings and using Google maps to calculate out our mileage each month for us. And this person would make sure we were adhering strictly to their policy for reimbursement. (Starts from the
    via u/Gullible_Broccoli273
  • 04
    office each day no matter where you started from, doesn't pay you to drive out somewhere if you didn't see a patient but just went to sign forms for nurses, and other stupidity). Now I don't like being accused of thievery. Especially when I was sure we'd been under billing for the mileage just to keep things easy and simple.
    via u/Gullible_Broccoli273
  • 05
    These people dont know me but I had an excel sheet with all my patients, their clinics, and a schedule to drive out to them and see them all in as little time and mileage as possible. It was really efficient.
    via u/Gullible_Broccoli273
  • 06
    So I dove into their travel policy and reconfigured my schedule, not to minimize mileage, but, within their policy, to maximize it. As a bonus the new schedule actually has me home each day for lunch on days I so dialysis rounds so it saved me a little bit of money and improved my mood.
    via u/Gullible_Broccoli273
  • 07
    For example since they start it from the office and end it from the office no matter where you actually start and end, i start my day at the one close to my house but far from the office. And end my day at the one on the other side of town by my girlfriend's house, where id usually hang out after work anyway. Mid day I'd go him for lunch, get a nap or nooner, and then see a couple people in town so I'd get paid to drive back, and then head out for the regular visits that day.
    via u/Gullible_Broccoli273
  • 08
    All together, my average mileage, far from being less like they expected, is actually 90% greater. And on top of this they're paying this middle manager to deep dive into all our billing to examine the locations and compile the report, she said just to do our 2 it takes almost 8 hours! An expense they never had before.
    via u/Gullible_Broccoli273
  • 09
    ThePrinceVultan. Penny wise pound foolish. Every J time. Can't wait for the update when they decide they want to change the policy for 'efficiency' aka their own rules are costing them money and they want to change it back.
    via u/ThePrinceVultan
  • 10
    Gullible_Broccoli273 OP. That won't happen.. corporate headquarters is on the other side of the country. I said a version of this to the CEO of the local hospital, y'all are so worried about the budget you're tripping over dollars to pinch pennies.
    via u/Gullible_Broccoli273
  • 11
    YellowMoya Just throwing the money away with three levels of management paycheques
    via u/YellowMoya
  • 12
    ForestD3w Like the soap opera, where I live, that takes place in a hospital. There's "no money" to hire more nurses, but strangely, there's enough for them to do overtime and to hire agency nurses with "three time their salaries"...
    via u/ForestD3w
  • 13
    Subject_Self5633 Always the mba doing “cost saving initiatives" that in fact are expensive than the original way... They love to invent the wheel time and again
    via u/Subjec_Self5633
  • 14
    fionsichord As someone who's been mobile in my service delivery and had to deal with other mileage before, I found this extremely satisfying! Well done.
    via u/fionsichord
  • 15
    Dangaard1075 I appreciate you doing this so much. People who work healthcare get in the on the daily for trying to do the most effective thing possible. It's nice to see the tables turned for once.
    via u/Dangaard1075
  • 16
    Gullible_Broccoli273 OP Thanks. And for anyone worried, this has not impacted patient care at all. They get the same number of visits and same interventions as always. All I did was change the rotation to maximize mileage. And I agree, the corporatization of healthcare in the last 15 years has really messed it up. I'll probably be out of the business in 5 years.
    via u/Gullible_Broccoli273
  • 17
    VeryGreenandpleasant. So it was $1000, per month before and now it's $1900? You didn't mention final dollar amount.
    via u/VeryGreenandpleasant
  • 18
    Gullible_Broccoli273 OP. It's not exactly the same every month due to the nature of the business. But I have an excel sheet with my budgeting info and in it I track my income too and my rolling 12 month average for the mileage check is not 1908.63. So pretty close
    via u/Gullible_Broccoli273
  • 19
    saraphilipp Tries to cut cost, pays an extra person to correct the issue that now costs them even more. I'd be filing for unpaid mileage at this point. Oh, I hadn't realized how much you were stealing from us in the past until you implemented actual accounting.
    via u/saraphillipp
  • 20
    Rayl24 As someone in accounting, we don't care if the company pays more. We just want to pay the correct amount so we pass all our audits and it's near impossible to explain why someone's mileage claim is identical each month.
    via u/Rayl24
  • 21
    Anonyman41 I wouldve loved to see the look on the auditors face who randomly selected a bunch of mileage logs and found they were the same one photocopied every time lol I wouldve investigated for fraud.
    via u/Anonyman41
  • 22
    Thieves? $1,000 a month to offset wear and tear and gas on the vehicle. We were actually just photocopying the same report each month, signing it and turning it in. The original company we worked for was totally fine with this arrangement. Well the system got bought by another system who apparently believes all their doctors are thieves. We
    via u/canva

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