Workplace policies are often designed to keep things running smoothly, but sometimes they end up just creating more chaos.

When one company tied medical clearance to a gauntlet of paperwork and approvals, a single sick day turned into a multi-day bureaucratic spiral.

Read on for the full story!

Can’t come back to work until we get a doctors note? Sure boss

A new policy at work: get a doctor’s note or you cannot go back to work.

I guess the boss does not believe flu season is real.

This employee got checked out and thought they were in the clear to just wait it out.

So after getting a fever and vomiting, I decided to call into work. Went to the doctor right away, and luckily it was not the flu.

I was told to rest for a day and I’d be good to go back to work.

Great! Just one day of rest and then I can go back to work, right?

But what the boss had envisioned was far more labor-intensive.

Nope. Bossman wants the doctor to write, sign, and date that I am clear for work.

After that, I need to go to another doctor to get a new medical card saying I am cleared to operate heavy equipment.

Then came even more hoops they had to jump through.

Then I have to go to the DMV to re-certify the medical card to my license.

Then send over all this information to corporate so they can approve it.

Once corporate looks over it and approves, then I can go back to work.

All of this extra worked ended up having some unexpected benefits.

Being off for one day turns into 3–5 days off because of this new policy.

It gets even better.

They never knew they could get paid just for sitting in waiting rooms!

Because now I have a doctor’s note clearing me to work, but this new policy is preventing me, I am getting paid just to go to a doctor, DMV, and wait for corporate to approve all the paperwork.

Sounds like a better deal for the employee than the employer!

What did Reddit have to say?

These types of stories usually go very differently.

Maybe this boss purposely made things difficult to help his employees.

This user thinks the employee should take this policy as a win.

Maybe the boss is simply executing a malicious compliance plot of his own.

All of this red tape would drive anyone crazy, but at least he was getting paid to wait.

It turns out, recovering from the flu was the easy part!

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.