When you have to travel for work, the employer is supposed to pay for all the expenses you have that are related to the travel itself.

What would you do if you submitted an expense report that had one meal that was $.03 over the approved amount, so your boss refused to sign off on it?

That is what happened to the employee in this story, so he read the company policy and found a bunch of added expenses he could submit and more than doubled the cost of the trip he got reimbursed.

Angry boss refuses expense claim and tells me to read the policy for guidance.

England, 2015. I was sent on a week long mandatory training course through work.

I already knew the subject backwards but my boss wanted me to get the certificate to prove to upper management that his team was 100% certificated.

I was told that a train ticket would be booked, as would a hotel – Bed and Breakfast only.

These all seem like reasonable expense policies.

I’d have to pay for lunch and evening meals but I would be able to claim up to £5 per day for lunch and £11.72 per day for evening meals. It was a really strange value, but I could eat easily within that limit.

On the last night at the hotel, my food bill was £11.75 – 3 pence more than allowed, however seeing as on the other nights I’d barely spent £10, I chanced that I could talk the finance people into approving it as the total spend would still be less than allowed for the week.

The Monday I returned, I completed the expense form with the receipts and handed it to my boss for approval.

An hour later, I was summoned to his office. He flatly refused to sign off on the expenses as I had overspent.

Why is his boss being such a stickler?

When I tried to explain that it was by three pence, and that on the Monday night I had actually underspent by £2.50, I was lectured as to the reason that the limits were there, and to “read the policy”. He sent me back to my desk and told me to resubmit.

Cue malicious compliance.

I read the policy regarding expenses, then I read the staff handbook, and then my contract.

As it turned out, I could claim for the following:

Understanding the full policy can be very helpful.

Reasonable costs for calling my family in the evening – no receipt required.

£5 per night for being away from my family – no receipt needed.

One off £30 for being more than 3 hours travel – offered as an incentive.

Regardless of time spent on course, It was equivalent to 40 hours – my standard was 37.

Overtime? Nice!

Travel to and from the venue was classed as being in work. That was overtime as it was out of hours and double for the Sunday.

Friday, as I was late home, was considered an overnight stay.

I bet his boss hated this.

I resubmitted, making the adjustments and highlighting the sections of the policies. Where I had expected around £75 in expenses, with the extras in the policies I claimed for an extra £100, then filled in the timesheet for the travel overtime which granted me an additional £150 or so.

The boss called me back into the office and tried to tell me that he wouldn’t sign off on it.

But I referred him to the policies and simply told him that if he refused, I’d go above him and maybe submit a formal complaint about him.

He should have just accepted the original submission.

I did take great satisfaction in reminding him that if he hadn’t have told me to “read the policies”, then I’d have never found about all the extras.

Yes, I did inform every one of my work friends.

Yes, I did get all the claimed funds in my next paycheck.

It is always nice when a boss tries to screw you over but it back fires on him beautifully. Well done.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about this story.

What were they thinking?

Sometimes company policies are foolish.

Oh, of course!

Yup, I bet he regrets it now.

This is a much better way to do it.

Well that backfired spectacularly, and I love it.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.