'Fine, I won't save you money': Company denies traveling worker's per diem after he checks out of hotel early, cue malicious compliance

Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor

Jan 23, 2024 2:00 PM EST

Let this story serve as a friendly reminder to never try to save your company extra money. That will almost always backfire in some way, and in this case, a worker ended up getting denied payment proper payment. It's the kind of lesson that applies to friendships and relationships as well. If you're going out on a limb trying to impress or extend acts of kindness to someone, you better get that kind of treatment in return. Otherwise, you'll end up feeling used.

This thread was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by an employee who frequently had to travel for work but decided to try to save his company some money by checking out of his hotel early and spending the last couple of nights in a visiting city with a friend of his. Well, guess what happened next? OP was denied his per diem for his last few days of travel despite continuing to work those final days. According to folks in the comments section, this is unfortunately a common mistake that most traveling employees learn by making the error. Keep scrolling below for the full play-by-play and best reactions. For more, here's a post about an employee who refused to clean up his boss's mess.