Beancounters Foolishly Refuse to Pay an Employee's $15/Annual Dues, End Up Getting Charged $100 for Required Training As a Result

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Jan 15, 2024 6:00 PM EST

In some fields, continued education is a requirement. As we all know, knowledge is a powerful thing, so to remain updated and educated in the specificities of your career is to remain at the top of your game in the workplace. With education also being a 'luxurious' expense, this kind of cerebral maintenance isn't something that's prioritized by the beancounters in the backroom.

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  • There are many reasons that the employee populous gives the accounting department a bad rep. Typically, the bean counters are the bearers of bad news– you're not getting that raise you deserve, 'we can't afford to hire anyone to alleviate your workload', and sometimes they even openly admit that the company is drowning in debt –so when we're faced with a financial predicament in the workplace, they're usually the first to be a naysayer.

  • However, in our next story, these particular bean counters earned their defamed title by being utterly ludicrous. Their entire department is dedicated to penny-pinching and cutting costs, but some costs have backlash when clipped. Scroll onward to read how one man's accounting department failed to do simple math, cutting a $15/annual fee to maintain OP's continued education in lieu of a $100 required training program. 

    Now THAT doesn't quite add up…

  • 01
    Won't pay my dues? Pay double for my training
    via u/canva
  • 02
    r/r/Malicious Compliance Posted by u/Automatic-Move-5976 Won't pay my dues- Pay double for my training. SOC Several years ago I was employed by a government agency. I'm a professional and I have mandatory continuing education requirements to keep my license. The agency (reluctantly) was paying the bare minimum for my annual license renewal, and would pay for the cheapest annual training.
    via u/Automatic-Move-5976
  • 03
    A sub group of the licensing entity exists for professionals who work in the same niche as me, during the relevant time frame the dues for the sub group were $15 annually. The subgroup offered a package of all the required training (one hour each of 2 mandatory subjects areas and a total of 12.5 hours) most commercial trading is
    via u/Automatic-Move-5976
  • 04
    around $150-200/hr. Although there are some freebies here and there used by companies as advertising but not usually very relevant to my job. The very relevant subgroup training was $50 to members - so membership and training could be paid in one check for $65 a bargain!
    via u/Automatic-Move-5976
  • 05
    Agency bean counter said they could not pay the $15. So for a number of years, I refused to join the group, and the bean counter paid $100 for my training. After a number of years I transferred to a different agency, new bean counter had no issue with paying the membership to save money.
    via u/Automatic-Move-5976
  • 06
    JGCii "It comes from a different budget." I know a defunct multi-national that had that attitude. Paid more for a part than it cost them to have someone produce it...but since the difference came from shipping, they
    via u/JGCii
  • 07
    called the purchased part a financial gain for the company... instead of an actual loss (albeit 5 cents per part, based on approximately 10 cents per to ship...). They're not defunct because of financial idiocy, though... they were bought-out by another company in a near identical industry.
    via u/JGCii
  • 08
    Think-Ocelot-4025 What's the phrase? "We can lose money on every unit, but make it up on VOLUME!" LOL
    via u/Think-Ocelot-4025
  • 09
    anomalous_cowherd That's what I loved about working for a really small company. Go to the boss, explain why it makes financial sense, here's the money for it. That's how we went from one 19" monitor to two 24" monitors for developers some years back. IBM released a helpful study saying it made devs 15% more productive, it doesn't take long for dual monitors to pay for themselves at 15% of a devs salary.
    via u/anomalous_cowherd
  • 10
    Alexis_J_M Unfortunately, the bean counters may be working with regulations that ban paying for certain things. Fun fact: there was a time period when government employees were prohibited from expensing a cellphone with a camera, as they were seen as a frivolous add on, so certain manufacturers would produce special government models without the camera, often at higher cost due to (lack of) economies of scale.
    via u/Alexis_J_M
  • 11
    Newbosterone I worked for a company that did not reimburse professional organization dues. However they'd pay to attend a professional conference which included training. (Training was a different budget!). Most of the technical conferences we interested in were sponsored by the professional organization. You showed up to the conference two days early and could take courses for 16 hours of continuing education credits. The organizations were not dummys. Member Price $800; Non- Member Price: $100
    via u/Newbostrone
  • 12
    HouseNumb3rs In their minds, you're trying to "game" the system. So go by the books and not worry about it. Nickel and diming to get savings for the company will net you zero accolades and only grief. The way they want it is to "submit" a money saving idea if the company "reward" properly for it. I've seen ideas that save millions annually for the company be rewarded with a $200 gift card. Worse is it gets shot down as "unworkable" only to become some VP's "new idea" the next year and he gets a
    via u/HouseNumb3rs
  • 13
    Zenon_Czosnek. I worked for a company working on telecom towers in Britain. Approx 40% of the towers I was dealing with required off road access. I spent ages hiriging 4x4 vehicles for my teams, sorting the insurance, and planning for them to go and pick vehicles from the hiring place, driving in two vehicles across then moving stuff from their van to the 4x4 and so on.
    via u/Zenon_Czosnek
  • 14
    When there was a fleet replacement program, I approached management and proposed that since every single of my teams need 4x4 on two days per week on average, they would give half of them 4x4 sprinters and I will keep those in the countryside, and keep guys driving standard sprinters in the cities.
    via u/Zenon_Czosnek
  • 15
    They told me initially it's a great idea, but top management killed this, as 4x4 sprinter would cost 38 pounds per week more to lease than a standard sprinter. The cheapest 4x4 was about 50 quid per day...
    via u/Zenon_Czosnek
  • 16
    beren12 That's why you need to do the math for them, "Yeah, 38 pounds a week more, or 100-1000 pounds a week more to pay for a normal sprinter plus rentals, depending on price and need.
    via u/beren12
  • 17
    Zenon_Czosnek That's what I did. They told me "but those 38 pounds goes from different budget than the hire vans". I left soon after :-)
    via u/Zenon_Czosnek
  • 18
    beren12 That's when you go even higher and ask someone who cares why the company prefers to make less money And point out in the end it's all the same budget
    via u/beren12
  • 19
    Zenon_Czosnek Or that's when you say "I have enough of this corporate " and quit to start working in a meaningful job in a small, friendly, family company that pays better than your position of "project administrator" in a big name. Because if the guys who make 10 times more than me for their "management" skills don't care, why should I?
    via u/Zenon_Czosnek
  • 20
    JustMeOutThere. Financial people who don't know money is fungible.
    via u/JustMeOutThere

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boss worker accounting department employee manager job work coworkers working accounting accountants ceo employees pay supervisor workplace training beancounters Reddit company payback coworker business fee
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