HR reprimands are only as strong as the paperwork behind them, and some HR managers learn that the hard way.

When an IT worker was handed a copy-pasted, incoherent formal writeup for a nonsensical policy, he didn’t sign it — he sent it back with corrections and demanded a proper rewrite.

So when the HR lady failed to make it happen, she ended up destroying her own case.

Keep reading for the full story!

The HR Lady Doesn’t Like Me Much

So this happened at the company that I currently work for, but it was many years ago. I did not plan the outcome — just a coincidence caused by insisting on malicious compliance.

I work in IT, and when I started, my job was rather entry-level but it was paid as a salary position.

After some years, the company decided to make it an hourly position, which I did not like for a variety of reasons.

The company’s compensation structure was starting to weigh on this employee.

The company’s main hourly worker pool was for manufacturing and assembly line, so the company structured its hourly policies around that position.

Rigid start and end times, scheduled breaks, and sick time billed to your earned PTO.

A lot of these policies were not really compatible with my availability and the type of work that I was doing, not to mention some of the benefits changed considerably.

Hourly employees were supposed to use a time clock, but those were only in buildings that had manufacturing.

Luckily, the employee’s manager was a little more understanding.

My manager at the time totally understood why I was disgruntled, and she came up with a few workarounds.

One of which was to enter a generic 40-hour time card for me in the system every week, which was great because it meant that I did not have to use the punch clock.

If there was any overtime, she would go in and fix it later.

Eventually, HR noticed how unsatisfied he was with this change.

There was nothing that I could do about the change to hourly, but being me, I was pretty vocal about it, and my attitude eventually caught the attention of the HR lady.

She also got wind of the whole timecard deal, so that came to an end.

I gave in and started using the punch clock — no more edits.

HR continued to get on this employee about his compliance.

At some point, my manager needed me to start the day in a different building which had no punch clock. I don’t think she was aware that there was no punch clock, so she had to make an edit to my timecard for that day.

Well, the HR lady saw the edit and assumed that I was still being obstinate.

Finally, his manager’s hands were tied too.

Out of the blue, my manager scheduled a formal-type meeting with me in one of the local conference rooms. She presented a document for me to read and sign, which was a formal reprimand for not following the policy regarding the time clocks.

I was instantly furious because I was following the policy, but she had sent me to a site without a punch clock.

She had no choice, as the HR lady was the one who wrote the reprimand and told my manager to have me sign it.

But as the employee read through it, he noticed something.

I read through the writeup and realized it was very poorly written — like a grade-schooler had prepared it. Lots of copy and pasted text, points that did not apply to the issue at hand, and no clearly-defined problem with a desired resolution and probationary period.

So I refused to sign.

He brought the issues to his manager’s attention, but she didn’t want to rock the boat.

I pointed out the many mistakes, the points that did not apply, and the lack of a resolution plan or time period.

My manager agreed with me that the reprimand was nonsense, but the HR lady wanted to go down this path.

I thought, “Well, then we were gonna do it right and I was gonna make her work for it.”

I demanded a rewritten form with a clearly-stated problem, a desired resolution, and a timeframe for when the matter would be considered resolved.

My manager said, “The HR lady is not gonna like that. She is gonna want to talk to you directly.”

So he escalates the issue back up to HR.

I said, “Good. I will gladly tell her to her face.”

We scheduled a meeting.

I explained to the HR lady that the reprimand process was an opportunity to not only point out mistakes, but also to correct them. The lack of an improvement plan in this writeup meant it could not meet those requirements.

HR’s response was quite unexpected.

Begrudgingly, the HR lady accepted my complaints and agreed to redo the writeup. To my surprise, I never heard from her again about this issue.

I had kind of forgotten about the whole thing until they did some restructuring in IT, which made me realize I didn’t want that hanging over my head unresolved.

I decided to formally request a copy of my file from HR, and to my surprise, the reprimand was not in it.

It seemed HR had largely backed off.

I emailed the HR lady asking about this, and she explained that she had rescinded it, so it was gone.

I was a little confused that she hadn’t mentioned this in the months that had passed, but was glad it was over.

Some time later, I was having lunch with my director and he brought up the reprimand. He was asking “whatever happened with that?” and I told him HR had rescinded it.

Turns out, the HR lady had embarrassed herself in front of company leadership.

Apparently, HR cannot close a reprimand without the employee’s leadership signing off on it, which was about four different people. Not a single one would agree to it.

It turns out that my malicious compliance with the reprimand process forced her to write a detailed, intelligible reprimand including an improvement plan.

All the extra detail she had to add made it clear to everyone that it was nonsense, and she couldn’t add it to my file.

Sounds like this HR lady learned her place that day.

Redditors chime in with their thoughts.

Just because someone works in HR definitely doesn’t mean they’re an ethical person.

This user has a laundry list of items they personally blame HR’s incompetence on.

This user expected the story to go in a different direction.

This HR department was already acting out of line.

The employee could also use the company’s inefficiency to his benefit.

Who would have thought asking HR to do their job properly would be such a big ask.

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