Ahhhhh, this is good…

It comes to us from Reddit’s “Malicious Compliance” page and we think you’ll be impressed by how this person handled this situation at work.

Read on and see what you think!

I have to use the rest of my vacation time by the end of the year to prevent critical understaffing issues? Okay then.

“I’m an analytical chemist in the petroleum industry (boo! hiss!).

I’m attached to a refining pilot plant where we test products related to refining. The data I produce supports various other groups. My lab is staffed by me (senior chemist) and a temp/contractor lab tech (Minion).

The Minion does a lot of the day-to-day work with the basic analyses as well as some regular tasks for my boss. I do maintenance, repairs, method development, special project planning, as well as the more advanced analyses where there’s more nuance in the data processing.

They got some news…

Due to the global pandemic, an edict came from high up in the corporate pantheon that we weren’t allowed to carry over any vacation time this year (I’m usually allowed to carry over a 5 days).

I guess they are worried about people banking up too much time and leaving various groups critically understaffed when too many people take vacation time at once (never mind that vacation time has to be approved).

This being America with lax labor protections, this is all perfectly legal. (Suck it, Europeans! We’ve got the freedom to be taken advantage of by our corporate overlords!)

My boss e-mailed me and said I had 5.5 days left and she’s been told to tell me to use it or lose it. I look at our holiday schedule and figure out that strategic use of vacation and holiday time means I can take two consecutive weeks off.

I told my boss this and she said, “Well, if they didn’t want you to use it all at once, they shouldn’t force you to use it all at once.”

Bam!

She approved my plan.

So, the lab will be critically understaffed for two weeks (what they were trying to avoid) because I am doing what I was told.

The R&D and tech service groups are going to be wanting the analytical results from the pilot plant to crunch on while “working from home” (since they were required to use up their vacation time, as well).

Not sure what they are going to do but it won’t be anything that requires data from the pilot plant.”

Here’s what people had to say on Reddit.

This person weighed in.

Another individual shared their thoughts.

This person spoke up.

This Reddit user had a lot to say.

Another person weighed in.

Nicely done!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.