Company Says “Company Cars” Are Too Expensive, So Employees Maliciously Comply And Cost Them A Whole Lot Of Money

You hear stories like this all the time…

Stories about people at companies who can’t get out of their own way and they end up implementing policies that hurt them instead of helping them.

ALL THE TIME!

And here’s another one for you to chew on.

Check out what this worker had to say in this story on Reddit.

“About 6 years ago I worked for power supply company in the UK

I worked in a small project team that coordinated all the companies major infrastructure projects and the role required travel to meetings all over the country, we’d average around 800 miles a week in company miles over the year, depending on time of year and location of projects etc.

And of course, someone had to throw a wrench in things.

Someone in the finance department had reviewed our expense claims and calculated that over one quarter we’d not covered the required number of company miles to meet the companies policy on company cars. For that one quarter with out looking at any other data.

We lost our company car entitlement and the company told us we had to return the the fleet company at the end of their leases.

Whatever you say…

Malicious compliance activated.

As we were project engineers we had a very particular set of skills for knowing how to follow rules to the letter and how to do so in a manner that benefitted the company or project or individuals. Usually if it benefitted the company it benefitted all involved. This was not one of those occasions.

They realized they were gonna get screwed over.

We pay benefit in kind tax on our company cars in the uk, the rules around this changes as and when the government feel like it. My team had all carefully chosen out cars to be zero cost to our selves by choosing cars that were below the allowance of £300 month so the remaining allowance covered the tax obligation. We’d all be screwed by the benefit in kind tax changes that year and were now paying tax.

So they got busy and went to work.

So for starters we reviewed the company car policy, and found the company had no way of stopping us handing our cars back with immediate affect, whilst the company was still responsible for the leases. So we all made arrangements for personal cars and handed our keys over at the next team meeting.

We’d also reviewed the company travel policy.

They started using different modes of transportation.

We started using hire cars and trains for travelling. (Trains and hire cars in the uk are not cheap) As none of us were willing to use our personal cars and claim the 50 p per mile.

Usually we’d work a long day and book a bit of over time or lieu to drive to and from meetings with out staying over as we would prefer to be at home even if it meant getting home late. That stopped with immediate effect.

They were living large!

We’d only work the mandated 7.5 hour day then book into a hotel and take full advantage of the £25 food and drink allowance for dinner. Then work from home the following day as we’d been away from home the previous day, as per the policy.

After about 8 weeks we were called into a meeting with our line manager and dept manager about our expenses. Our expenses for the first month after the cars had been returned were more than they were for the previous 12 months combined.

I think the company learned a lesson…

Our line manager agreed that our expenses were in line with the policy otherwise he wouldn’t have signed them off. The dept manager told us we were getting company cars back and he expected the expenses to return to previous levels.

We declined the “offer” of company cars and let management know we’d be adhering to the travel policy to the letter.”

Let’s see how folks reacted.

This person shared a story about mileage for work.

This individual talked about some incompetence they encountered on the job.

Another Reddit user talked about a money-wasting story from the military.

This reader spoke the truth.

And this reader said they actually left a job because of the travel policy of the company.

I bet they regretted that policy!

What were they thinking…?