New boss enforces unnecessary rules about submitting expenses, team maliciously complies: 'OK boss, you'll get your paperwork in spades'

Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor

May 20, 2024 8:00 AM EDT

Whatever happened to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it?"

If you're ever in a position where you are joining a company and leading a team that already is.a well-run machine, consider not enforcing your personal way of doing things onto everyone else. Unless the team genuinely agrees with your ideas to change the process, the only person who is really benefitting from this change is you. That is not a good enough reason to uphold the way a team does things. You have to adjust to their rhythm just as much as they have to adjust to yours.

Here, we have a new boss who insisted that his team submit monthly mileage sheets every time they had to cross county boundaries while on the job. Based on the geography of their territory, this happened quite often so it didn't take long for all the paperwork to pile up. Additionally, the team may or may not have intentionally made things worse by altering their routes ever so slightly so they had to cross more boundaries per trip.

The point was proven, though. At the end of the day, it was far too much paperwork for this new guy to keep up with and he ended up regretting his decision to change the process in the first place. Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions from folks in the comments section. For more, check out this post about employees who regretted taking certain jobs.