'You're gonna pay, one way or another': Technician uses company commute rules to get 50% pay bump after being promoted without a raise

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
Feb 26, 2024 9:00 AM EST

Getting promoted without a raise… Tsk, tsk. It's almost like managers want you to work twice as hard without being properly compensated… Oh wait, that's actually what they want. So silly of me.

This technician was working on large machines, and the site he worked on was across a border, so he had quite a commute every day. Unfortunately he didn't get any mileage because it was the site he was assigned. Alright, fair enough (Is it though?). After some time, the technician got promoted to work on more complex projects, which sounded good, until he was informed he would not be getting a raise because it wasn't 'in their budget'.

We've all heard those words before… 'Not in our budget'. Sure it isn't, Karen. In any case, the technician decided to maliciously comply with management… and found a way to receive a 50% pay bump nonetheless. This just goes to show that upper management doesn't always win. Scroll down to read what happened, and then check out these wholesome posts for employees who are in serious need of a vacation.

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  • 01
    "I skimmed through my contract and my eyes lit up..."
    via Canva
  • 02
    Promote me but won't bump up my hourly wage? Sure thing, I'll just use your rules to give myself a 50% pay bump.
    via u/InterestedObserver20
  • 03
    This happened in a company I worked at over a decade ago. I was a technician working on large machines, we had numerous clients and were assigned to a given site. The site I worked on was across a border so I couldn't live near it, and had an hour commute each way every day. I got no expenses or mileage for this because it was my assigned site.
    via u/InterestedObserver20
  • 04
    After working for this company for a while I got promoted to stop doing routine maintenance and work on more complex projects. Most of these projects were on a site near where I lived so that suited me just fine. However, the company told me they didn't have any budget to increase my wage, which is where the malicious compliance came in:
    via u/InterestedObserver20
  • 05
    I combed through their rules and regs as well as my contract, and found that if you had to travel to a site that was not your assigned one, you got paid as if you had driven from your assigned site to whatever other one you were working on. My assigned site was classified as being 1.5 hours from the site that I was doing most of my work on, so I was allowed claim those 1.5 hours as hours worked on my timesheet. So every day I would put down 1.5 hours commute there, 1.5 hours commute
    via u/InterestedObserver20
  • 06
    home, and 8 hours regular work. Anything over 8 hours worked a day was paid at OT rates, so for those 3 hours "commute" I was getting paid 4.5 hours. Because my contract said my assigned site was site A, and I was mostly working at site B, there was nothing they could do about it and my country has pretty decent employee protections so I'd have had to agree to a contract change, which I obviously was not going to. They told me
    via u/InterestedObserver20
  • 07
    numerous times they were going to change my assigned site but until the day I quit they were never able to. The length of my commute most days was 10- 15 mins each way.
    via u/InterestedObserver20
  • 08
    TL;DR - I used the company rules to get paid an extra 4.5hours each day for driving for about 25 minutes.
    via u/InterestedObserver20
  • 09
    ErixWorxMemes - 2 yr. ago No room in the budget for raises, but always plenty for OOP$! 5.2k Reply Share Chain DriveGlider 2 yr. ago This is what my local police department says about being unable to hire despite paying 2x salaries through OT. 1.3k Reply Share
    via u/ErixWorxMemes, u/ChainDriveGlider
  • 10
    Krabby-Daddy - 2 yr. ago Gu in you got paid a day and a half every time you went to work? Nice. Reply Share 3.2k Interested Observer20 OP 2 yr. ago Yup, they accidentally drastically cut my commute and increased my pay, despite trying to not give me a payrise. Reply Share 2.3k
    via u/Krabby-Daddy, u/InterestedObserver20
  • 11
    latents 2 yr. ago I see it was one of those "we think it should be this way when it benefits us, but we want it to be that other way when it benefits you" kind of rule. Yeah, that's not how it works. Good for you. Reply Share 446
    via u/latents
  • 12
    [deleted] 2 yr. ago This is a nice one! There's no such thing as a promotion without a pay increase. That's simply called a title change. Make sure you always push back on that terminology. 183 Reply Share
    via u/deleted
  • 13
    Ansollis 2 yr. ago edited 2 yr. ago So if we're assuming you charged 8 hours a day before the promotion and now you're charging 12.5 hours a day at the same pay rate, you essentially got a >50% pay raise all because they didn't want to give you a raise. Save* a penny, cost a dollar Edit: spelling* 137 Reply Share
    via u/Ansollis
  • 14
    RedHellion11 2 yr. ago "We don't have the budget to officially increase your wage, but we apparently do have the budget to give you the equivalent of a 50% pay increase for weeks/months when it's classified as OT" Either their accountants are really bad (or really stubborn) and couldn't/wouldn't shift funds around to ultimately save the company money in the long run by just giving you a raise, or the company had so much
    via u/RedHellion11
  • 15
    bureaucracy that getting anything done according to common sense was almost impossible so it was easier to just let you claim the OT. The latter seems more likely, since even though you were doing most of your work at Site B they still weren't able to make that your assigned site by the time you left weeks/months later. 443 Reply Share
    via u/RedHellion11
  • 16
    JamesWjRose - 2 yr. ago You are the hero we deserve. You rule. Have a wonderful weekend 26 Reply Share . havereddit 2 yr. ago A really good boss would have pointed out this loophole if their hands were tied about a pay raise ↑ 27 Reply Share
    via u/JamesWjRose, u/havereddit
  • 17
    SnooPickles 1731 - 2 yr. ago It me off when companies have that attitude. Company I work for always have that excuse when we ask for a raise, but the owner just bought himself a new Audi RS etron. And, to further twist the knife, they make use of a lot of temp drivers that literally costs the company DOUBLE per hour to the temp agency what we as the permanent staff cost, so they can employ 2 drivers for the price of one temp driver. And the temp drivers only
    via u/SnooPickles1731
  • 18
    put out about 50% of the work we as permanent staff do cause they don't know the routes etc. So now all of us permanent guys are on a slow strike, only doing as much as the temp guys. We are patiently waiting for them to bring it up, cause the amount of failed deliveries are mounting at an astronomical rate... 22 Reply Share
    via u/SnooPickles1731
  • 19
    [deleted] 2 yr. ago I did something similar a long time ago. I lived in A, worked in B and for a long time worked on site C. A,B and C were same distance from each other, about 1 hour drive. Good mileage allowance. One day I drove A-B-C and got picked up on that when I claimed mileage. Only allowed to do that when I needed to do something in the office.
    via u/deleted
  • 20
    So, it turns out I needed to do something In the office almost every day, either putting in a mileage claim or to collect the claim (they paid cash). We were living on the mileage allowance, didn't touch my salary, and of course the driving time was OT. They had a rule that to claim mileage allowance you had to register a fairly new car. I did that and then bought a old car to actually drive with.
    via u/deleted

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management promotion boss commute OT rates machines malicious compliance company rules on site raise contract technician pay bump malicious compliance reddit machinery
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