Some toxic workplaces love nothing more than control disguised as “policy.”

So when an HR associate decided to play gatekeeper with time off, one employee followed the policy so closely it unlocked weeks of extra leave.

And there was nothing HR could do to stop it.

You’ll want to read on for this one!

HR maliciously reject leave request. Ensuing malicious compliance results in a ridiculous amount of leave taken all within the rules.

I work in a UK company that has a very good leave policy.

I get 27 days of annual leave, and I can also build up flexitime and take up to two flexi days off per month.

In addition, due to a screw-up in HR, I am allowed to float all my public holidays.

I was moved to a joint venture company for tax and legal purposes, and when they moved me back into the parent company, they simply adopted my old contract instead of having me sign a new one.

But when the employee tried to make a request, they received unexpected pushback from HR.

One day, I put in a leave request for three leave days and two flexi days.

An HR person denied it, saying it was against the rules to mix flexi and normal leave days.

The rules had changed some time ago to allow mixing, but the HR person told me it was still against the rules.

So the employee fought it and won — but made a very annoying enemy.

I escalated it, and her decision was overturned.

She did not like that one little bit.

After that, whenever I submitted a request with mixed leave, she rejected it out of spite, claiming it was not in the spirit of the rules.

It was an interesting insight into her mindset that she refused instead of asking how she could do it too.

She was all about stopping me, so the fight began.

As holidays approached, the employee began plotting their time off.

Easter was coming up, and I was due to take two weeks off.

The middle Friday of my holiday was also the end of my leave month, and the Monday started a new month.

And the employee had just found a very compelling loophole.

So I put in for two public holidays carried over from Christmas, two flexi days, and the Good Friday public holiday.

Since the second week was in a new leave month, I used another two flexi days, plus the Easter Monday public holiday and one public holiday from the start of the year.

My 14-day holiday in the sun cost me a single Friday, which was five hours of leave time.

It turns out this HR associate’s spiteful approach has only come back to bite her!

She went ballistic but could do nothing, despite trying to find any way to stop the request.

As a direct result of her trying to block me, I now make a point of building up and using as much flexi leave as I can.

I hand my requests directly to her every single time, just to watch her pretend to smile.

She grits her teeth so hard I expect her to break a jaw.

In 2019, I peaked and managed almost 60 days of leave, all thanks to her.

Maybe I should thank her.

That’s what happens when you read the fine print!

What did Reddit think?

Why not make work more manageable for everyone?

A lot of managers seem intent on misusing their authority.

Sometimes it’s all about the way you phrase it.

This reader questions whether HR even needs to be involved at all.

Sometimes the system ends up working in the employee’s favor!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.