Employee Celebrated for Sticking Company With $6,000 July 4 Party Bill

The team lead of a company's IT department is being celebrated for his tale of sticking the company will the bill for an extravagant office party after a vice president demanded they come in because she felt "It's just IT, you guys don't have lives."

The original poster (OP), u/TheLightningCount1, shared his story to the popular Reddit forum r/MaliciousCompliance, where posters share tales of following the letter—but not the spirit—of rules. He earned over 40,600 upvotes and 1,900 comments in seven hours for his post, "You demanded my entire team be at the office for the 4th of July. Fine, enjoy paying for the office party."

He writes that the tale started three weeks before July 4, appropriately enough on June 13, when a vice president of the company, identified as "Bad VP," told him the IT department would need to come in on the holiday. Though he protested as the team was already scheduled to be off and some members had already made plans, his pleas fell on deaf ears.

Though he told his team about the requirement, he also mentioned that he was trying to fix it and give them all their previously promised day off. Three meetings later and nothing had changed, so he tried the next step: emailing the CEO.

"All of my higher ups know I was going to do this and said I should do this as he is very family oriented and that he would not allow ANYONE to work on a national holiday," u/TheLightningCount1 wrote.

Unfortunately, the CEO was on vacation and wouldn't be back until July 6—after the holiday—but the assistant assured OP that he'll look into the situation on his return. Realizing he's stuck, u/TheLightningCount1 returned to his team to tell them the bad news, and that they'd be working from home. To lighten the load, however, he said he'll be the priority team member, meaning he'd be first in line to deal with any calls that should come in.

This isn't the end of the story, however. Bad VP came back to say that not only did the IT department have to work the holiday, they had to be in the office—and the company would be checking the door badge records to make sure everyone actually came in. He confronted Bad VP about the situation, but after she tried to argue, she eventually just said the IT department "don't have lives," so it doesn't matter.

At this point, OP went to his boss, the vice president that supervises the IT department. He promised to "take care" of the situation, but that it'd be after the holiday so u/TheLightningCount1 should "get creative."

This directive gave OP a spark of inspiration, and he asked Bad VP if to make up for calling his team in, they can have an office party. She agrees that would be fine, as long as they still answered any calls that came in. She added that he can use his company card to pay for things, and to "go wild."

"Pro-tip, never tell me go wild," u/TheLightningCount1 wrote.

After confirming everything to Bad VP in an email—creating a paper trail—he had the official go-ahead for the office party, as long as there were no fireworks or alcohol on company property. He informs his team that though they'll still have to come in, he's going to be "making it right," and that they should invite friends and family to the office on Independence Day—and no need to worry about refreshments.

On the day of, u/TheLIghtningCount1 reports that there was no work to be done. Though there were seven calls that day, all of them were from Bad VP making sure that everyone was there. But everyone was truly surprised when it came time to eat.

"People were expecting hot dogs, hamburgers, maybe a bratwurst or two. What they got was a full on BBQ feast with pizza and other foods. There was smoked brisket, spare ribs, smoked sausage, smoked turkey, both kinds of tater salad, cole slaw, green beans with bacon and onion, potatos au gratin, pizza from 2 different places, excellent hamburgers, and bratwurst hot dogs. On the deserts side was cake, very good cookies, 4 different kinds of pies, and about 2 pounds of fudge," he wrote.

In addition to the IT department and their family and friends, the vice president supervising the department was also there, all having a great time. The group ate about half of all the catering, and took the other half home.

"A small group volunteered to stay behind to clean up including my VP. We had a funny conversation about how this will make waves with the bosses. But he said he had my back and asked me how much this cost. I just gave him a sideways look which made him laugh," OP wrote.

The following day, he submitted the expense report for the party—which he says was over $6,000, causing a new policy to limit expenses to $4,000 without prior approval. And, as expected, the CEO was "outraged," but not by the cost of the party; rather that the IT department was the only team required to work. When the CEO was informed that there was no actual work to do, he was even more angry and sent an email to management "about work life balance and the importance of holidays."

Though Bad VP apologized afterward, the story wasn't over. The vice president over the IT department told the CIO and CEO about the "don't have lives" comment—which she confirmed—and that also did not go well for her.

"I have never heard people yelling in an office meeting like that before. The CEO of the company came to our office and YELLED at her," u/TheLightningCount1 wrote. "Not sure if she was fired, but she is not at work today. In Active Directory she does not have the down arrow of death, so not 100 percent what happened to her. I know she lost whatever clout she had at this company with her attitude."

One of the trickiest things about working is when one runs into a toxic executive. As a 2019 article by Forbes puts it, "It's said that most employees don't leave companies, they leave bosses." Other than quitting, however, the magazine offers some suggestions for dealing with a toxic boss. Jennifer Reimert of Workhuman told the magazine she recommends people in the situation "focus on helping, not judging," calling for a more results-based approach.

"If the whole team successfully shifts their mindset, the toxic manager won't have an audience for their drama," Reimert said.

OP ended up following another bit of advice from the article. Charles Ashworth of Copper told Forbes the most important thing was to "Document, Document, Document."

"Always follow up with written communication confirming expectations set by the toxic boss. Leverage data to support your decisions," Ashworth said.

Reddit celebrated u/TheLightningCount1—not just for his outstanding party-planning skills, but for fighting back against an unreasonable request.

"Amazing! I bet your department loves you, and I bet they work their tails off for you," u/manananni wrote.

"This is how to be a manager. Have your teams back. I just wrote in my annual review how much it means to me that my manager takes my physical and mental health seriously," u/i_r_witty wrote. "It genuinely makes me feel okay to say yes to new projects and to keep pushing and expanding my expertise. I love my job and my manager is a huge part of that."

"The funny thing is... For $6K this guy basically created one of the best team-building events that will ever happen. A speaker alone could easily be $5K. A retreat could cost $20-50K. If even one person decides to stay with the company for another year because of this event that's basically a 4X ROI," u/rebeltrillionaire wrote.

Newsweek reached out to u/TheLightningCount1, who declined additional comment.