We’ve probably all dreamt of sticking it to the man at some point or another. In this story, one older woman does exactly that. Let’s see how this retiree exacts her revenge. The leave loophole Back in the mid 90s I worked for a bank that was in the process of being taken over. The bank used to have both sick time and vacation accruals, but the new orders laughed at that and told everyone they’d be migrated to a new “time bank” system that would give 75% of vacation time, and 25% of sick time. Also, only 40 hours of your PTO was going to carry over to the next year – period. Sounds like a raw deal. How did people react? This irked a lot of the long-term workers who had been with the company since the 1970s. Loads of workers lost literal months of accrued time off because of corporate penny-pinching. Up until the takeover, sick time would carry over indefinitely – so if you had a surgery, or needed some other form of long-term care, you could take the time off you needed. Yeah, that would make me mad. But this title tells me maybe there was a loophole? My coworker, Mary, had been with the company since the new corporate building was opened in 1971. Mary was well past retirement age, but kept working because she liked her job, and it got her out of the house. She wasn’t hurting for money either – her husband had retired from his union job all the way back in the 80s and his pension had them both well taken care of. But Mary also didn’t like being jerked around by inane corporate BS. Preach, Mary! When the change in time off was announced, Mary noticed two things about the announcement. First: The policy would go in effect the next quarter, so there were still two months left before the changeover. Second: they would honor sick time for any medical leave that was approved prior to the changeover date – provided the worker had enough sick time/vacation available. OK, smart. She’s going to use that to her advantage I bet. The next Monday, Mary filed for medical leave with HR. Her husband had fallen and broken his ankle – and the doctor required that he be in a cast for 8 weeks, with an additional 4 weeks of physical therapy. As Mary was the sole caretaker for her husband, she qualified for medical leave to provide aid for him. Coincidentally, Mary had just enough sick time and vacation time to cover the leave. Gotta love a good coincidence. But how is Mary gonna twist this medical knife? Funny thing is, more than a few of the ladies Mary worked with knew both Mary and her husband – who was built like a workhorse and just as stubborn. The idea that Mary needed to care for her husband was preposterous – let alone the idea that her husband would want Mary to take care of him. Hm, the plot thickens… Three months pass by and Mary returns to the office – to pack her belongings. It turns out that after confirming her medical leave was going to be paid out, she timed her retirement to coincide with the end of the leave. Happy retirement, Mary! What does the comment section have to say about this? One person says the gov’t makes mistakes. Another person says, this is as it should be. Another poster suspects (and supports) foul play… Somebody says Mary should be proud. An Australian is like, you say malicious compliance, we say… standard procedure? Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your retirement go? Lovely, thank you. If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.