Sometimes, it pays to read a memo carefully. If you receive a memo, reading it carefully could really work to your advantage, but if you’re sending a memo, you better proofread it for any typos!

This man received a memo from the corporate office.

It says that PTO and vacation leave requests should be sent to the VP instead of the Lead Sales Manager.

But there was a glaring typo, and he decided to have some fun with it.

Read the story below to find out what happened.

Nothing better than when your bosses know you’re completely in the right.

A memo came down two days ago from the corporate office saying that all PTO/vacation hour requests had to now be sent to the VP of Operations, not the Lead Sales Manager.

The memo specifically stated “Effective January 2015.”

This man decided to file some PTO requests asap.

When I saw this, I decided it would be a good time to send my PTO requests before this went into effect.

I faxed it to the LSM. End of story? Yeah, no…

About an hour later, I get a phone call from the corporate office.

I’m on speaker phone with the LSM (a strict guy we’ll call “Steve”), the District Manager, and the VP.

Steve confirmed if he had seen and read the memo.

Here was the following conversation:

Steve: [My name], were you working on the 29th?

Me: Yes.

Steve: Okay, well, did you see the memo?

With a slight second of confusion, I immediately realized that my boss assumed I had failed to follow directions.

He reminded Steve that the new policy will be effective on January 1.

I smiled to myself knowing I had the Coup de grâce.

Me: According to the memo, that goes into effect January 1, 2015.

Steve: (silence)

DM: (in the background) Uh, Steve, he’s right…

The District Manager and VP giggled after hearing their conversation.

Steve: …So, you did read the memo?

Me: Yeah, Steve, I read it. I was just making sure you read it.

I heard an audible chuckle of laughter from the DM & VP over the receiver.

Steve: My apologies (click).

It’s a terrible curse being right all the time.

That’s funny! A typo can make a big difference!

Let’s read the responses of other people on Reddit to this story.

This person is impressed.

This user shares their personal thoughts.

While this person shares how it’s going in their workplace.

Finally, short and sweet.

Being right is satisfying, especially if it humiliates your boss a little.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.