Workers No Show At Meetings And Cost Company Lots Of Money, So One Employee Hatched A Plan That Got Things Back On Track

Some people think they don’t have to play by the rules when it comes to work or really anything in life.

I’m sure you’ve been around folks like that before…

And the woman who is the star of this story from Reddit deserves a huge round of applause because of how she dealt with a bunch of workers who didn’t feel like showing up at meetings.

Read on to see what she did.

“This story is about my sister’s first job after graduating from college with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management back in the middle ’70s.

She was hired by that recording tape company who’s advertising tag line was “is it real, or is it?”

Anyway, her job was the travel coordinator for both the sales and tech support teams out in the field to come to the corporate offices periodically for various types of meetings or training, depending on the field employee’s specialty.

Brooke’s responsibilities included booking airline flights, hotels, rental cars, approving per diems, and other travel-related upfront arrangements.

A lot of folks weren’t exactly putting the work in.

It didn’t take her long to figure out that there were a lot of no-shows, particularly from the sales staff, who always seemed to have some valid excuse not to make it to the meeting, and often with last minute cancellations.

You know, the “I’ve just booked this golf game with my most important client this week, so can you reschedule me?” type of reasons.

So she took action…

Seeing how these cancellations were costing the company big bucks, Brooke hatched a plan that created class rosters for each class, and would, just like a teacher, make notes as to who showed up and who didn’t.

After the class was over, she would calculate how much those who didn’t show up had cost the company in terms of cancellation fees, missed flights, etc., and present them to Mark.

His reaction, typical of a middle manager protecting his little fiefdom, would take her report, tell her “I’ll look into it,” throw it into his inbox and then promptly forget about it.

My sister has a tremendous amount of patience, unless you’re being stupid, which, in this case, Mark was, as far as she was concerned.

The days went by…

Fast forward a couple of months, the reports are still stacked on top of each other in Mark’s In box, and Brooke’s getting real frustrated because these field guys are abusing the time and effort she’s putting in while attempting to get them in for their required classes.

So one day, Brooke’s having lunch in the company cafeteria along with a gal from corporate accounting. They get to talking, and Angie mentions that she’s noticed the travel department expenses are really high, percentage-wise, compared to others, and asks if Brooke has any idea why.

She decided to let loose.

Well, that was all it took, my sister unloaded her frustration with all the cancellations with no repercussions thus sending the travel department’s budget off the charts, not to mention the fact she wasn’t getting any support from Mark towards reducing the numbers.

Brooke tells Angie she’s got an idea to put an end to the waste, but she wants to get approval from somebody higher up the food chain in order to implement her idea, because she doubts Mark’s ability to comprehend, let alone implement.

Angie tells Brooke that she thinks she knows exactly who Brooke needs to talk to, and within a couple of days Brooke and Angie are sitting in a plush corner office talking to the Vice President of Operations, Victor, explaining the situation.

This was gonna shake things up.

It only took Victor a couple of minutes to make a decision after Brooke described what was going on, plus her idea on how to correct it, and he told Angie that Brooke’s idea was brilliant, and that the policy change would become effective on the first of month – 10 days later – which he followed up with a memorandum sent to all employees shortly after their meeting was over.

Paydays were the 5th and the 20th. Those in the field who had expense accounts had to complete and turn them in to

Accounting by the 5th to be processed and paid along with regular wages, bonuses and commissions on the 20th.

And it wasn’t gonna be cheap…

Brooke’s policy change idea, with the Victor’s blessing, was to charge back against the offender’s expense account the costs associated with getting him to his corporate meeting when he didn’t show up (airline fares, hotel rooms, rental cars, etc.)

Sis told me that the first month the policy went into effect, the howls of protest could be heard all over Silicon Valley, as several ended up with minuscule paychecks after the charge backs.

But the policy had exactly the results Brooke wanted – within three months, everyone showed up to their meetings on time as scheduled and virtually without any more no-shows.

And now it’s time to see how Reddit users reacted.

One reader said this was a good revenge story.

Another individual thought this was cringeworthy.

This person said she’s a Karen.

Another reader said this was wage theft.

But this individual had other thoughts about that.

Did those folks learn their lesson?

You bet they did!

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.