September 18, 2025 at 12:15 pm

Engineer Tries To Save His Company Money, But He Revokes His Good Deed After Client Makes Him Pay For Car Service Home

by Laura Ornella

businessman looking at a laptop computer

Pexels/Reddit

Kindness can go a long way in the workplace.

If you were working as a consultant for a company, would you try to do your job as efficiently as possible to save the company money, or would you charge them for every second of your time?

Read how one Redditor engineer revokes his good deed after a client shows their true colors.

See the story below for all the details.

Consulting engineers are second class here

Years ago, I worked as a consulting engineer at this company with a very tightwad CEO with multiple sticks up his butt (everyone else was super nice).

I engineered a machine that shipped to the Far East and was asked to go onsite to startup the system. This was in the Northeast in February.

And the worker was thoughtful about all of the client expenses.

I parked on an offsite parking lot to save my client the expense of parking at the airport and flew out on a cold, clear day and landed at my destination many, many hours later.

I spent 2+ weeks working long, long hours to start up this machine. So many hours that I felt bad for my client and decided that I would not charge OT since it was a fixed price contract.

But, when they arrived back at the airport — they needed help getting home.

Fast forward to my departure — I asked for limo service home because the car was frozen solid, and I’d flown some 20+ hours and was severely sleep deprived.

“Nope” — only full-time employees get limo service. Consulting engineers have to drive themselves decreed the CEO (even though I had been on their staff as an engineer for a long time — just not employed)

So, gone was the OP’s good deed!

I decided to charge full OT to the letter for every hour over 8, especially the all-nighter I pulled while there.

It was the most expensive $80 limo ride he never paid for…

Did the worker take it too far or is this completely fair? Let’s see what Redditors are saying in the comments below.

One person could relate.

Screenshot 2025 08 19 at 2.14.17 PM Engineer Tries To Save His Company Money, But He Revokes His Good Deed After Client Makes Him Pay For Car Service Home

Another had to make a joke.

Screenshot 2025 08 19 at 2.14.24 PM Engineer Tries To Save His Company Money, But He Revokes His Good Deed After Client Makes Him Pay For Car Service Home

One said the parking was a major red flag.

Screenshot 2025 08 19 at 2.14.38 PM Engineer Tries To Save His Company Money, But He Revokes His Good Deed After Client Makes Him Pay For Car Service Home

And finally, one Redditor pondered if you could monetize kindness.

Screenshot 2025 08 19 at 2.14.45 PM Engineer Tries To Save His Company Money, But He Revokes His Good Deed After Client Makes Him Pay For Car Service Home

For this employee, time definitely needs to be money.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.