Amid allegations of careless spending, employee's strategic compliance floods the administration with receipts, causing drastic adjustments to corporate policies

Author image for Sienna Varady
Sienna Varady
Jun 4, 2024 12:00 PM EDT

The two words that every employee fears are 'company policy'. You can be certain that the context won't lessen the severity of the assignment or the punishment.

The story below is an account of a frustrated employee. The original poster (OP) had been employed by the same business for a considerable amount of time. He is reimbursed for the petrol he consumes and is permitted to use the company vehicles. Therefore, one can only imagine how taken aback OP is to receive a letter warning him about his purported misappropriation of the company's kindness and instructing him to forward each and every receipt he gets following a gas fill-up so that they can keep track of his spending.

But as was to be expected, this did not sit well with OP, who then devised a devious plan to exact revenge on the business. So be sure to read the story below if you're interested in learning the specifics of what happened and how OP settled the score! After you're done, don't forget to read the story of the man who cleverly complies with his neighbor's request to have the fence taken down!

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  • 01
    0200094 66091 13013 1009 AHT: 100.00 AMI: 90.00 AHT: 60.00 AMI: ANT: 40.00 50.00 VID Ref:[41 19:03:09 Batch "Consider it done" 40.00
    via canva
  • 02
    Oh you want ALL my fuel receipts every month? Certainly! Make some room...
    via u/erroneousbosh
  • 03
    Prompted by /u/TheMobydi er's tale of Malicious Compliance I thought I'd add my own mileage claim tale. We had a new office admin start in the expenses department, who decided that all the rules were to be followed to the letter - and if it made it inconvenient for people to claim expenses back so much the better! It'd make her department look far more efficient, reducing costs and all.
    via u/erroneousbosh
  • 04
    At the time I was working in a group of four people, going out to fix things in remote places. We had one company Landrover, which two guys went in, another guy used his own van and claimed for the diesel, and I used my own old Range Rover which was ridiculously suitable for getting out into the trackless wastes. The guys in the company Landrover just used the company fuel card, and the other two of us claimed for our mileage.
    via u/erroneousbosh
  • 05
    But then, I got my mileage back with a note saying that in future, they would not accept the claim without every fuel receipt for the month being attached in full - no copies, no partial receipts, and definitely enough fuel indicated on the receipts to cover the distance claimed for. Right then, it's like that, is it? As I mentioned I drove an old Range Rover (still do, in fact). It's big, it's heavy, it has a ridiculous 4.6 litre V8
    via u/erroneousbosh
  • 06
    engine so it can drag trailers up mountains easily, and it gets through a lot of gas. No no, not "gas" like "gasoline", like the Americans call it. This is Scotland. We call that petrol. I only ever put about a gallon or two of petrol in a month, just enough to get the engine started and warmed up. Like a lot of older vehicles with big thirsty engines, it's converted to run on propane. There's a big tank in the back where the spare wheel would go, a bit of extra
    via u/erroneousbosh
  • 07
    plumbing, and a special controller to adapt the fuel injection system to cope. With gas being about half the price of petrol it made a lot of economic sense, especially when I was claiming for anything up to 2000 miles of travel a month. That is a *lot* of propane. That's filling the tank about ten times a month, and they want a receipt for every fill-up. So, here's where the MC kicks in.
    via u/erroneousbosh
  • 08
    I started fuelling up at the local Calor gas depot, making sure I got them to print me off a full receipt for it. Each receipt was three pages of the pink copy of tractor-feed duplicate paper, and you just know it was the wide-carriage 14.5" stuff. Wads and wads and claim. *wads of bright pink tractor paper for every
    via u/erroneousbosh
  • 09
    The policy lasted three months, then they decided they only needed the first receipt for the month as long as it had a VAT number on it. A week after they changed the policy, Calor stopped doing Autogas so I had to start getting normal receipts from the supermarket filling station instead.
    via u/erroneousbosh
  • 10
    The_Truthkeeper · 23 hr. ago Huh. Was not aware you could convert a car to run on propane. I got to read an entertaining MC and I learned something today!
    via u/The_Truthkeeper
  • 11
    SailingSpark 22 hr. ago . As the driver of a Land Rover with that same 4.6 engine, I can attest that these engines drink fuel like a drk on a bender. 15mpg was my best with it usually averaging to 13mpg (american gallons, imperial are larger). I have heard that diesels are better to convert as the higher compression makes up for the lack of energy in LPG.
    via u/SailingSpark
  • 12
    Kaug23 22 hr. ago Here in Florida, almost all garbage trucks run on compressed natural gas (CNG). It's pretty much the same as propane, the engines run very clean and last forever. No diesel smell when you follow them either, just stinky garbage.
    via u/Kaug23
  • 13
    Cfwydirk. 21 hr. ago And no mileage allowance for the wear and tear on your vehicle? Use your Range Rover for free? Make them buy another company vehicle and issue a fuel card.
    via u/Cfwydirk
  • 14
    technos 8 hr. ago · edited 1 hr. ago I used to have a customer with a Series III Land Rover that insisted on a hand-written carbon receipt containing the exact words 'Tank fill for <license plate>'. Couldn't just send him out with our standard one that read 'LPG' or his company accountant would reject it, and the same went for hand receipts reading 'propane' and 'auto gas'.
    via u/technos
  • 15
    Keep in mind that propane conversions are a lot less common here in the US. They were primarily done on European vehicles from the late 70's/early 80's to make them meet US emissions and on small fleet trucks who's owners already had LPG filling infrastructure for their forklifts.
    via u/technos
  • 16
    I worked for the largest propane filler in town and, other than this guy, there might be one other a week, so I don't really blame the accountant for not knowing it's a thing. But once it was explained to them? I mean, c'mon.
    via u/technos
  • 17
    Professional-Head963 8 hr. ago • Maybe I just don't get it since I've never had to be reimbursed for fuel and thus never printed a receipt for it but it doesn't sound like it'd be such a big deal. Unless there's not a print receipt button at a pump but even then doesn't seem that annoying. Or if you're referring to something else other than a regular receipt.
    via u/Professional-Head963
  • 18
    Yeah it sounds like this new person was kinda trying to be irritating and trying to make themselves/their department look better but idk. Seems like kinda a reasonable policy, if a bit annoying. Like the most annoying part of this seems like lack of trust.
    via u/Professional-Head963
  • 19
    • erroneousbosh OP 19 min. ago I don't mind giving them a receipt, but they only need the VAT number of one supplier off it. It doesn't matter if you have filled up at different stations.
    via u/erroneousbosh
  • 20
    my4floofs. 12 hr. ago How is this malicious? I have had to turn in every gas receipt, in fact every receipt I claim for company reimbursement for the past 30 years. This just seems like more work for OP and the expense person. Silly and not very malicious.
    via u/my4floofs
  • 21
    erroneousbosh OP. 17 min. ago You only need one receipt with a VAT number dated before the first journey claimed for in a month. They wanted to compare the distance claimed for with the amount of fuel claimed for, even though that's not in any way relevant - it's a flat payment per mile regardless of fuel cost.
    via u/erroneousbosh
  • 22
    IcyOpinion1964 · 20 hr. ago Love this! Well done, petty stranger!]
    via u/IcyOpinion1964
  • 23
    0 Own-Butterscotch3343 · 18 hr. ago OP here's my idea - since propane is less expensive than petrol. ask the station to save you some receipts for when a Customer makes a petrol fill up and turn those in on your expense report.
    via u/Own-Butterscotch3343
  • 24
    Zealousideal_Sir_264 18 hr. ago Had a similar issue. No MC, just started taking pics of the gas pump and sending them via this awful communication app we had ("slack", if it matters).
    via u/Zealousideal_Sir_264

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oddly specific employee malicious compliance tales-from-the-workplace work reddit story petty revenge employees workplace Reddit coworker malicious compliance reddit money
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