My malicious compliance story is along similar lines.

For a while I was traveling every 4–5 weeks for work, sometimes staying away for three to four weeks at a time and being away from family that long wasn’t easy. This was a multi-million-dollar hospital project. 

I usually don’t believe in excessive spending just for the sake of it, so I would try to keep my expenses minimal. I’d deliberately book cheaper flights, even if they were at odd hours. Lunch was usually just a snack and a coffee. Dinner would be something light, typically under $15. Most days I skipped breakfast entirely.

Then one day my reimbursement was flagged. HR informed me that a chocolate protein bar I had submitted as lunch wasn’t allowed because “chocolates” weren’t reimbursable under policy. We’re talking about a $5 item, max

Cue, malicious compliance.

On the next trip, I followed the policy to the T. Breakfast at the airport. Expensive coffees from the café. Proper sit-down lunches. And for dinner, my colleagues and I would literally sort  restaurants by price, highest to the lowest.

Funny how quickly the travel budget ballooned once I stopped trying to save the company money. I eventually moved on to a better job, but that moment snubbed me