You gotta be pretty smart if you’re able to get an unexpected trip on your company’s dime…

To Brazil!

That’s what happened in this story from Reddit’s “Malicious Compliance” page and we think you’re going to be impressed.

Read on and find out what happened!

Thanks for the Carnival vacation!

“Many years ago, I worked as a controller in a financial institution.

The role is essentially to engage with traders about their trading, ensure they are on top of their positions, provide evidence they are priced correctly, report profit and loss (P&L), that sort of thing.

A good controller is an asset to a trader, because they don’t have to worry about surprises: they can start each day knowing their positions are correct, their P&L is accurate, and they can take each day on its own merit.

This stuff is pretty complicated.

Some of the products that they trade are quite complex. For example, buying ‘sugar futures’ is a great idea if you think the future value will rise, but at some point, you need to take delivery of those futures.

If the contract specifies a building that has no roof, and it is during the rainy season in that location, the physical sugar you purchased becomes worthless in a real hurry. Other products have country specific rules, for example, requiring you to physically present yourself to take delivery.

My emerging markets trader was denied by his boss from taking a vacation, others were already out, the markets were volatile, and his attention was required at the desk.

Oh, boy!

So be bought esoteric Brazilian bonds and sugar futures, requiring control (me!) to ask him to provide evidence, directly necessitating a physical trip to South America to take delivery and to inspect the locations.

This required the company to pay for his trip to Brazil, his stay there, and his transport to cover the locations.

It was “just a coincidence” that this required him to travel to Rio during Carnival!”

Here’s what folks had to say on Reddit.

This person chimed in.

Another individual shared their thoughts.

This reader weighed in.

He maliciously complied and ended up getting a sweet vacation out of it!

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.