No one knows where the practice of cutting costs came from in business - even in quite prosperous companies. But be that as it may, even if the company has just made the biggest profit in its history, there will definitely be a manager who will offer to save on something.
For example, on travel expenses for employees, even very important ones. It happens when you have to travel regularly between several cities - and why waste money on trifles if you bring a lot of money to the organization? But still, cutting costs is cutting costs, maybe just "because everyone is doing it".
But sometimes such pettiness is punished. As in the case of this Redditor, whose Malicious Compliance community post has garnered nearly 10K upvotes as of today and over 300 people have commented on it.
More info: Reddit
The Original Poster had to travel a lot between Brussels and Frankfurt on business purposes
Image credits: Tejvan Pettinger (not the actual image)
So this was about fifteen years ago, when the Original Poster was based in Brussels and their company had a headquarters in Frankfurt, so the OP had to travel there periodically. The cities are about 200 miles (320 kilometers) apart, so there were three transportation options: car, train, and plane.
Image credits: u/Finniemc
They used to go by train, especially first class as the difference in ticket prices was not so big
The management warned the OP in advance that it was better not to use their car, because it would be too expensive to pay per km. Therefore, the author of the post usually traveled by high-speed train. Second class as usual - however, after one trip, when a mother with a baby suddenly appeared in their booked place, flatly refusing to leave it, so the OP had to stand up for the entire trip, they decided to go first.
Image credits: u/Finniemc
One day the OP received a letter from HR stating that they were violating company rules
Moreover, the difference between the cost of tickets in different classes was not very big - around 20 euro. In general, for almost a year, the OP traveled between cities by first class, and one fine day they received an unexpected letter from the HR department. The letter stated that they were violating company policy, so the company would not refund travel expenses for first-class tickets.
Image credits: Frankie Roberto (not the actual image)
The OP was surprised and decided to clarify about the rules. As it turned out, the rule was - either the second-class train, or the economy flight. The Original Poster asked if they could make some exception, but received a strict refusal.
Image credits: u/Finniemc
The OP made their next travel with an economy flight, but it cost about 5 times more than the first-class tickets
Not a problem, the OP decided, and the next time they flew to Frankfurt by plane. The only problem was that flights between Brussels (the capital of the EU) and Frankfurt (one of the banking capitals of Europe) were incredibly expensive. On top of that, the OP, in full compliance with corporate rules, also included the transportation costs per km on driving their car to and from the airport - and S-bahn trips in Frankfurt as well.
Image credits: u/Finniemc
The result was an amount about five times more than that they usually spent on first-class train tickets. Needless to say, about a week later, the OP was granted the same exception that had been so sharply denied earlier.
Image credits: Isabelle Abrego (not the actual image)
Commenters on Reddit were mostly delighted with the OP's witty decision
People in the comments mostly admired the OP's witty decision, although some pointed out that they could have taken the cheaper tram instead of the S-Bahn in Frankfurt. However, it is possible that they simply once worked in company management themselves and thought just in terms of frugality.
It is interesting that such cases were not isolated as the commenters cited at least three similar situations that happened to themselves or to acquaintances, and in various countries. And the most remarkable thing is that the OP added that since then, a special provision for "choosing an option that is cheaper for the organization" has appeared in the rules of their company.
By the way, this article also has one "corporate rule" - you should either leave your comment or tell a similar story. Just choose the option which is more convenient for you. 😉