Employee Barely Uses Her Daily Expenses Paid With Company Money, Gets Told Off For One Time Going $1.50 Over The Limit, Decides To Maliciously Comply
There are all kinds of jobs that require different levels of expertise as well as being able to travel when needed. Usually, such workplaces make sure to provide their employees with certain benefits that would allow them to be fully concentrated on their work duties and not think about things such as food and accommodation expenses. But sometimes even perks such as these can lead to confusion. This is why one Reddit user, @CinnamonBunBun, decided to share her work-related story with other people online. The woman revealed that she has to travel a lot because of her job. Having in mind how busy she is and how hard it is sometimes for her to find a place and time to eat, she admitted that sometimes she skips her meals or just gets a cup of coffee. The narrator also shared that in situations where employees have to travel, they are given $30 a day to spend on food, which sounds like a good thing that the employee tend to use.
More Info: Reddit
A woman online shared how her workplace made her change her money-spending habits by rejecting her expenses when she went $1.50 over her daily budget
Image credits: Moresheth (not the actual photo)
The woman continued her story, stating that despite this sum being just fine for most of the time, sometimes it’s hard to fit in $30. For quite some time, there were no problems, because it wasn’t every day that the woman would use the whole amount, so the company had no trouble balancing out the expenses. However, everything changed when the company made some changes, and now someone else was responsible for checking and taking care of these daily expenses.
The story started with the woman stating that she travels a lot for her work and that because of this, she’s allowed to spend $30 per day on food
Image credits: CinnamonBunBun
Everything started with the employee spending a little bit over the settled amount and providing her expenses to the company with the amount of $31.50. Previously she’d had no problem with this, but now the newly assigned team didn’t approve of this and rejected her report as it was “over the daily limit.”
The employee knew that sometimes she can go a little bit over that amount because the team back at the company was able to balance it out
However, the newly assigned team decided that she couldn’t do this anymore and rejected her expenses
Image credits: CinnamonBunBun
The woman tried to explain how the previous system worked and that they should be able to balance it out with times she didn’t use her daily allowance. However, she was shut down and this left her upset. This is when the woman decided that she would make sure to spend the given $30 every day, no matter if she was hungry or not. The author of the post revealed that she would buy some food that she would bring home to her husband, or simply take something for the sake of spending the money.
This situation left woman upset so she decided that now she will make sure to spend the whole amount no matter what
Image credits: CinnamonBunBun
The employee who used to provide the company with expenses that were as low as $100 a month would now come back with bills that were 2-3 times higher. The woman also shared that she used to work all day without any breaks, but this situation made her realize that she shouldn’t do this for them, and so she now always makes sure to take her 30-minute break.
Image credits: CinnamonBunBun
People online were quick to share their own experiences of spending work allowance. Some of them would buy restaurant gift cards or spend this money on other people’s orders. Some users revealed their company’s policy that would sometimes also put them in an uncomfortable position. Other people online noticed that $30 a day isn’t a lot and that their companies usually offer something between $75-$100. In the comments, the woman revealed that she’s been looking for a new job as she’s no longer happy with the way she’s been treated in the current company.
Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? Don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments down below!
People online started providing the employee with tips and tricks for using the money to help others who need food if she doesn’t feel like spending it on herself
Some users online also shared their own experience while having to travel for work and use the company’s money for food and other needs
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This may be off topic but not taking breaks or eating is so unhealthy for you. Even if a diner/restaurant didn't have healthy choices, you could go to a super market and maybe get a ready made salad. Even the hotels have food you can order. Plus tossing food to be spiteful is such a waste.
A few things: One - wasting food just to stick it to some HR pricks that won't even notice (it's probably computerized and only notifies them when it is over) Two: Does she have some sort of eating issue, bc she talks about not "eating at all" quite often and then when she does eat, its a few nibbles. That just makes me think.
Most often I see this when the employee takes the hotel's 'complimentary' breakfast. Fill up there and you may not need lunch, so dinner is the only expense you'll report. Or perhaps she's like me and just doesn't need much through the day.
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The one commenter who gets gift cards on his company dime needs to be careful. That is technically embezzlement so as long as they don't ask for receipts, he will be fine. It's a clever method but gotta be careful. Losing your job or the legal headache is worth a free dinners
Yeaaaaah, I've been in my industry for 20+ years and I can't even tell you how many people I've seen fired for doing s**t like that. It's like stepping over a dollar to pick up a nickel.
Load More Replies... I've been in her same position before, used to travel for up to 3 months on a single trip and had an anally ignorant expense reviewer. So...funny stories. 1) They (often) wondered why I had two 'dinners' in a single evening, ignoring that the second 'dinner' (with scanned receipt) was a list of groceries from a supermarket, and that there would be no dinner expenses for the following two-three days. 2) Each report went through 3-different manager-level jobs plus the 7-figure VP for approval, so a total waste of resources when they were rejected/revised. So I could only laugh when they argued about a $1.50 bag of peanuts from the mini bar which I ultimately had to pay for. 3) My lunch beverage was rejected and my manager was alerted when I was discovered to be drinking alcohol. As it turns out, most Americans don't know what ginger beer is. I had to formally respond with links including Wikipedia.
4) Our hotel had a practice of putting all food/drink charges to a single line on the room bill, marked 'DINNER'. Our company forced them to start separating drink charges after one employee was consistently having $100+ "dinners" at the rooftop bar. 5) Another company who used my hotel for travel started to ask why it was getting 'additional guest' charges when they had 1 person staying in a 2-person room. The hotel revealed their employees were bringing back single-night visitors, which are not entitled to the same benefits as a registered hotel guest. The company actually argued against the hotel's policy and made them change it, so prostitutes were no longer an extra cost or a noticeable appearance to your company. For security reasons, the hotel did keep logs of all visitors and the rooms they were going to, with a separate list for prostitutes which was based entirely on 'you just know who is and isn't'.
Load More Replies...
BurgerKing has a "2 for $4" deal on their croissant sandwiches. Price of just one is $4.09. I regularly had a sandwich to share.
Load More Replies...
I agree with everything except throwing good food away. In the average city, there's almost certainly going to be someone within 100 yards that's hungry and can't afford to buy what you're throwing out.
If she wants to spend up to $30 A-day but doesn't need it for herself then she really should be buying food and toiletries and socks for homeless people. This is a free resource for her and would be greatly appreciated by them.
Tbh this sounds a little like pettiness on both sides. However I get the company - especially if they've moved over to digital accounting, it means there's little wriggle room for human interventions like evening out expenses over a longer period. However the op sounds as she's putting a lot of thought and energy into ensuring she uses every single $ of her expenses and this is when she's made the point that she has often hardly had time to grab a coffee previously
Penny wise; pound foolish. Never wise to pull this kind of power move on an employee; fastest way to make dedicated employees be no longer dedicated.
I haven't seen the actual data but I heard that companies that put a limit on the daily amount usually end up paying out more than if they just gave suggested amounts per meal. Also, if you have to eat in an airport, it could use up that entire amount easily.
I didn't eat until i got home from work u til at least my mid 30s. Coffee and a banana or yogurt in am, work 8-12 hours n have supper at home. We don't all have the same eating needs, it dies not sound like a disorder to me. Plus if you drink fancy coffee that can be more calories than a meal.
I have to admit, my husband is very lucky when it comes to this at his work. He does have a company credit card to use as necessary, however the per diem he got for meals was done differently. His work would look at average food prices for the area he travelled to. He usually stayed in the hotel he was working at, near so many restaurants. they paid him whatever amount for that area, usually a bit higher than the average prices. Sometimes he took dry goods with him, or would walk to get some groceries if he was close enough. Once they gave him $500 for about 5 days, high cost area. He still came home with over $200 bcuz he's frugal, took dry goods, got groceries and ate out less. He always made out from the per diem and the company did not care. It was nice.
Lady, it cost you 1.50 the lesson!!! It took me years to learn that for me, I use to do it the same! I have 30 dlls per meal when traveling, and use to go and just take a coffee or sometimes nothing to continue working... and they make you feel dumb for "Save" some money to the company, when they treat you like that.... lesson learned!!!
Oh I do this all the time when I was employed by this bean counting company. So I'll just bring a person or two from the client's office along and get a decent sized meal. They did question me about this but since all my projects closed with minimal hiccups, the bossman overruled them haha.
years ago, we moved to a new town and while waiting to get into our new home we stayed at a motel. We went shopping and bought groceries and did all of our own cooking. When it came time to fill in the expense report we were able to just put in the Per Diem and actually got a check back which enabled us to buy a new washer, dryer and living room set.
Why not buy food and give to the homeless? Wasting it to f**k them over is F***ing over People who could use the food.
While working at a Chevron Gasoline station, A certain customer would always request the highest possible price for his fuel. He was driving a fleet vehicle. I never asked, but I imagine there is more to his story.
Dude... you're an asshole for wasting food. Why not give it to a homeless person? You could have legit helped tons of hungry people by spending $30 at McDonald's and getting hella burgers and passing them out wherever you were. Instead you're going to just waste food to waste it.. I get wanted to get back at your company... good for you. But you're also being a wasteful asshole and throwing away food when there's so many people out there who can't even afford to buy a $1 burger... let alone spend $30 a day on food. So you're both assholes.
Or you could have even went to the grocery store and picked up some non perishables and have them to homeless ppl and/or local shelters.
Load More Replies...
Bringing food home for your s/o isn't wasting it. Also if it's a "1 coffee only" day tip the staff 28 dollars. Or pay 25 to buy food for someone who can't easily afford it. Maybe treat homeless people if they are around where you travel, just buy something to go and give it to them
I'd like to work for an employee-owned company where the success of the company directly trickles down to more compensation for the employees. It would be nice if that was the case for this person, who could feel like a team player instead of wanting to waste her company's resources.
Buy gift cards at restaurants for the $30 each day, amass them, use them for your family and friends, or be an utter douche and sell them on. Screw these people.
Hmm, get over it. Policy is policy regardless. It's very difficult for any HR team to keep track of individuals habits, and why should they. Do the right thing and we, this article, need not write.
Lol. I don't think HR is wrong here. It's easier for them not having to rebalance the expenses all the time. Imagine tens or hundreds of employees doing the same thing and they have to spend extra time to make sure the expenses stay within budget. Those extra effort also cost the company money, probably more than if everyone spend the max $30
This may be off topic but not taking breaks or eating is so unhealthy for you. Even if a diner/restaurant didn't have healthy choices, you could go to a super market and maybe get a ready made salad. Even the hotels have food you can order. Plus tossing food to be spiteful is such a waste.
A few things: One - wasting food just to stick it to some HR pricks that won't even notice (it's probably computerized and only notifies them when it is over) Two: Does she have some sort of eating issue, bc she talks about not "eating at all" quite often and then when she does eat, its a few nibbles. That just makes me think.
Most often I see this when the employee takes the hotel's 'complimentary' breakfast. Fill up there and you may not need lunch, so dinner is the only expense you'll report. Or perhaps she's like me and just doesn't need much through the day.
Load More Replies... The one commenter who gets gift cards on his company dime needs to be careful. That is technically embezzlement so as long as they don't ask for receipts, he will be fine. It's a clever method but gotta be careful. Losing your job or the legal headache is worth a free dinners
Yeaaaaah, I've been in my industry for 20+ years and I can't even tell you how many people I've seen fired for doing s**t like that. It's like stepping over a dollar to pick up a nickel.
Load More Replies... I've been in her same position before, used to travel for up to 3 months on a single trip and had an anally ignorant expense reviewer. So...funny stories. 1) They (often) wondered why I had two 'dinners' in a single evening, ignoring that the second 'dinner' (with scanned receipt) was a list of groceries from a supermarket, and that there would be no dinner expenses for the following two-three days. 2) Each report went through 3-different manager-level jobs plus the 7-figure VP for approval, so a total waste of resources when they were rejected/revised. So I could only laugh when they argued about a $1.50 bag of peanuts from the mini bar which I ultimately had to pay for. 3) My lunch beverage was rejected and my manager was alerted when I was discovered to be drinking alcohol. As it turns out, most Americans don't know what ginger beer is. I had to formally respond with links including Wikipedia.
4) Our hotel had a practice of putting all food/drink charges to a single line on the room bill, marked 'DINNER'. Our company forced them to start separating drink charges after one employee was consistently having $100+ "dinners" at the rooftop bar. 5) Another company who used my hotel for travel started to ask why it was getting 'additional guest' charges when they had 1 person staying in a 2-person room. The hotel revealed their employees were bringing back single-night visitors, which are not entitled to the same benefits as a registered hotel guest. The company actually argued against the hotel's policy and made them change it, so prostitutes were no longer an extra cost or a noticeable appearance to your company. For security reasons, the hotel did keep logs of all visitors and the rooms they were going to, with a separate list for prostitutes which was based entirely on 'you just know who is and isn't'.
Load More Replies... BurgerKing has a "2 for $4" deal on their croissant sandwiches. Price of just one is $4.09. I regularly had a sandwich to share.
Load More Replies... I agree with everything except throwing good food away. In the average city, there's almost certainly going to be someone within 100 yards that's hungry and can't afford to buy what you're throwing out.
If she wants to spend up to $30 A-day but doesn't need it for herself then she really should be buying food and toiletries and socks for homeless people. This is a free resource for her and would be greatly appreciated by them.
Tbh this sounds a little like pettiness on both sides. However I get the company - especially if they've moved over to digital accounting, it means there's little wriggle room for human interventions like evening out expenses over a longer period. However the op sounds as she's putting a lot of thought and energy into ensuring she uses every single $ of her expenses and this is when she's made the point that she has often hardly had time to grab a coffee previously
Penny wise; pound foolish. Never wise to pull this kind of power move on an employee; fastest way to make dedicated employees be no longer dedicated.
I haven't seen the actual data but I heard that companies that put a limit on the daily amount usually end up paying out more than if they just gave suggested amounts per meal. Also, if you have to eat in an airport, it could use up that entire amount easily.
I didn't eat until i got home from work u til at least my mid 30s. Coffee and a banana or yogurt in am, work 8-12 hours n have supper at home. We don't all have the same eating needs, it dies not sound like a disorder to me. Plus if you drink fancy coffee that can be more calories than a meal.
I have to admit, my husband is very lucky when it comes to this at his work. He does have a company credit card to use as necessary, however the per diem he got for meals was done differently. His work would look at average food prices for the area he travelled to. He usually stayed in the hotel he was working at, near so many restaurants. they paid him whatever amount for that area, usually a bit higher than the average prices. Sometimes he took dry goods with him, or would walk to get some groceries if he was close enough. Once they gave him $500 for about 5 days, high cost area. He still came home with over $200 bcuz he's frugal, took dry goods, got groceries and ate out less. He always made out from the per diem and the company did not care. It was nice.
Lady, it cost you 1.50 the lesson!!! It took me years to learn that for me, I use to do it the same! I have 30 dlls per meal when traveling, and use to go and just take a coffee or sometimes nothing to continue working... and they make you feel dumb for "Save" some money to the company, when they treat you like that.... lesson learned!!!
Oh I do this all the time when I was employed by this bean counting company. So I'll just bring a person or two from the client's office along and get a decent sized meal. They did question me about this but since all my projects closed with minimal hiccups, the bossman overruled them haha.
years ago, we moved to a new town and while waiting to get into our new home we stayed at a motel. We went shopping and bought groceries and did all of our own cooking. When it came time to fill in the expense report we were able to just put in the Per Diem and actually got a check back which enabled us to buy a new washer, dryer and living room set.
Why not buy food and give to the homeless? Wasting it to f**k them over is F***ing over People who could use the food.
While working at a Chevron Gasoline station, A certain customer would always request the highest possible price for his fuel. He was driving a fleet vehicle. I never asked, but I imagine there is more to his story.
Dude... you're an asshole for wasting food. Why not give it to a homeless person? You could have legit helped tons of hungry people by spending $30 at McDonald's and getting hella burgers and passing them out wherever you were. Instead you're going to just waste food to waste it.. I get wanted to get back at your company... good for you. But you're also being a wasteful asshole and throwing away food when there's so many people out there who can't even afford to buy a $1 burger... let alone spend $30 a day on food. So you're both assholes.
Or you could have even went to the grocery store and picked up some non perishables and have them to homeless ppl and/or local shelters.
Load More Replies... Bringing food home for your s/o isn't wasting it. Also if it's a "1 coffee only" day tip the staff 28 dollars. Or pay 25 to buy food for someone who can't easily afford it. Maybe treat homeless people if they are around where you travel, just buy something to go and give it to them
I'd like to work for an employee-owned company where the success of the company directly trickles down to more compensation for the employees. It would be nice if that was the case for this person, who could feel like a team player instead of wanting to waste her company's resources.
Buy gift cards at restaurants for the $30 each day, amass them, use them for your family and friends, or be an utter douche and sell them on. Screw these people.
Hmm, get over it. Policy is policy regardless. It's very difficult for any HR team to keep track of individuals habits, and why should they. Do the right thing and we, this article, need not write.
Lol. I don't think HR is wrong here. It's easier for them not having to rebalance the expenses all the time. Imagine tens or hundreds of employees doing the same thing and they have to spend extra time to make sure the expenses stay within budget. Those extra effort also cost the company money, probably more than if everyone spend the max $30
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