Companies love a paper trail, but strict reimbursement policies can push employees to take the long, expensive way around.

When one worker’s $20 claim was rejected over missing receipts, a little malicious compliance helped management see things their way.

Read on for the full story.

Expense Reimbursement Policy? I’ll Follow It to the Letter!

“At my previous job, we had a strict expense reimbursement policy.

The rule? Only expenses with receipts were reimbursed—no exceptions.

And it turns out, management was quite serious about the “no exceptions” part.

One month, I traveled for work and had a few small expenses, like bus fares, street parking, and tipping, where getting a receipt was impossible.

I submitted my report, clearly listing these minor charges, totaling about $20.

Rejected. My manager said, “No receipt, no reimbursement. Policy is policy. We need every receipt for audit purposes.”

So now the employee is really ticked.

Fine. Cue malicious compliance.

The next trip, I went all in.

From now on, no expense would be spared.

• Needed a bottle of water? Bought it from a fancy café with a printed receipt.
• Short taxi ride? No cash—only expensive app-based rides with e-receipts.
• Instead of public transport, I took more costly options that provided invoices.
• Tipping a server? No cash—added it to the bill at high-end restaurants with detailed receipts.

And this really made a difference.

My total expenses? $280 instead of $20.

When finance processed my claim, my manager was furious: “Why is this so high?!”

This employee had this next lined planned out.

Me: “Well, you said no receipt, no reimbursement. So I made sure everything had a receipt.”

So guess what happened next?

A new policy was introduced the following week: “Reasonable expenses may be reimbursed at management’s discretion—even without receipts.”

These managers tried to control spending, but they ended up only adding to the bill!

Let’s see what Reddit had to say.

Sometimes it takes a little malicious compliance to help management see things your way.

Sometimes you just have to play the system.

This commenter advocates for really pushing management to spell out expectations.

Pettiness only begets more pettiness!

This employee gave management exactly what they asked for – just not in the way they expected.

It turns out, flexibility is the real money saver!

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