'She cost the company $300+ for all work trips': Frugal employee turns business trips into lavish vacations after his boss nitpicks his expense reports

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Aug 5, 2023 8:00 PM EDT

Work trips can be a bummer. Not only are you leaving your real life behind and traveling to a random midwestern city, but usually the futility of your visit is palpable, making you think to yourself, 'This meeting probably would have sufficed as a phone call'. So why do businesses insist on making business trips mandatory? Executives will argue that it's because they're maintaining important relationships with their clients, but if you ask me, it's because they just want to get an all-expenses-paid vacation. Whenever I see out-of-towners in a fancy suit roaming around downtown, I'm almost positive that they're getting the prime steak and bottles of champagne on the company's dime, while also getting a lavish, free vacation. "It's for the client"… Mmmhmm, sure buddy.

Just charge the company card, right? 

Well some employees feel guilty about this frivolity, none more than the hero of this story, u/Notsurenotyou, a frugal employee of a Fortune 500 company who traveled for work regularly. He would take public transit, portion his meals, and find the cheapest red eye flights just to save the company some money, but when his boss started nitpicking his expense reports, he decided to make his receipts look exactly like the other executives– town cars, 3-square meals a day, and the nicest hotels that money could buy. Scroll for the full story!

Next, read about this heroic couple that unleashed karma on a litterbug in their neighborhood. 

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  • 01
    Font - Posted by u/Notsurenotyou 13 hours ago Nitpicking Expense Report S OC
    via Notsurenotyou
  • 02
    Font - My Fortune 500 employer didn't have a formal travel policy. But my boss made up her own arbitrary rules.
    via Notsurenotyou
  • 03
    Font - She once told me I didn't "act like an owner" because I bought ice cream at the airport and she knew I wouldn't spend my own money on airport ice cream.
    via Notsurenotyou
  • 04
    Font - I explained that I could have ordered the three meat BBQ plate but instead ordered the two meat plate AND got ice cream.
    via Notsurenotyou
  • 05
    Font - Another time she told me my expense reports "looked different than everybody else's". She was right, I expensed public transit receipts when the company would have paid for town cars.
    via Notsurenotyou
  • 06
    Font - She told me I could never expense breakfast if I started the day at home, even if I took a 5:30 AM flight and wasn't hungry that early.
    via Notsurenotyou
  • 07
    Font - So I started taking town cars and flying out the night before for all trips. I'd sleep in at the hotel. I'd eat great hotel breakfasts. And expense it all. My expense
    via Notsurenotyou
  • 08
    Font - reports looked like everybody else's and she stopped complaining. Her nitpicking cost the company $300+ more for all work trips.
    via Notsurenotyou
  • 09
    Font - dsdvbguutres 13 hr. ago +3. I suggested my boss that I could take the midnight flight out and save the company a night at the hotel if I could work from home that day. Boss threw a fit at the wfh idea.
    via dsdvbguutres
  • 10
    Font - Result: I flew during the day, did no work that day, ate at a restaurant, slept at the hotel. Travel policy was observed in full compliance.
    via dsdvbguutres
  • 11
    Smile - davesy69 +3. 12 hr. ago You and your sensible suggestions.
    via davesy69
  • 12
    Product - wireless1980 - 9 hr. ago I love to read policies. and then go full compliance.
    via wireless1980
  • 13
    Font - +3.8 hr. ago I will never understand people tendency to Arrasor inconvenience, sometimes even trouble, themselves for a company that won't ever appreciate it.
    via Arrasor
  • 14
    Font - GreenElite87 - 6 hr. ago If traveling is necessary for the job, then they should be treated as time spent working. It's not commuting so would fall under various travel laws.
    via GreenElite87
  • 15
    Font - +2.2 hr. ago Flying out at midnight,.means that your company should be paying overtime at a higher rate. Vuirneen Travel for work counts as work, so don't offer to spend your time to save them money. They're supposed to reimburse you for that time.
    via Vuirneen
  • 16
    Font - ndrew452 2 hr. ago Most people that regularly travel for work are salary. If that person is a US worker, that means you get no additional pay for flying at night.
    via ndrew452
  • 17
    Font - This is why when I travel for work, I pick desirable flight times that do not result in me waking up early or staying up late. I don't care if it costs more.
    via ndrew452
  • 18
    Font - dsdvbguutres +32 hr. ago They've been good to me so I wanted to treat them in kind. Lesson learned. No good deed goes unpunished Volume #653245
    via dsdvbguutres
  • 19
    Font - ifyoudontknowlearn · 6 hr. ago Yeah, except OP was trying to save them money. What a moronic boss.
    via ifyoudontknowlearn
  • 20
    Font - LOK 9 hr. ago LOL I once got a complaint from a director that my expenses were out of line. I asked what was wrong, and he said (and I quote) 'You didn't spend enough on food and drinks. You're traveling for work, the company is paying, we're taking you away from your family for a week, at least go and have some fun!'. Bdr1983
    via Bdr1983
  • 21
    Font - I took that to heart, and without overdoing it started to try and enjoy my trips a bit more. Still, I apparently spend way less than most others, but have good dinners (sometimes even with ice cream!) and even indulge on the odd beer or two (or three) in the evenings.
    via Bdr1983
  • 22
    Font - Employers should remember that you're not taking these trips for fun, it's for them to make money of.
    via Bdr1983

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expense-report boss employee malicious-compliance-reddit nitpicking business trip fortune 500 Reddit business company-card vacation
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