HR manager replaces $40 stipend with strict mileage rules to save money, gets buried in paperwork after employee submits 10-page MapQuest receipts for every 3-mile trip: 'Game on'

Author image for Isabella Penn
Isabella Penn
Jun 22, 2025 1:00 PM EDT

Before Siri sweet-talked us through every turn, before Google Maps rerouted us around traffic like a literal fairy godmother, we had… MapQuest. Good ol' MapQuest, where you'd print out 12 pages of driving directions and cling to them the entirety of your trip. Good luck missing one turn. You'd be pulling over, flipping through those sheets like you were decoding a tedious math problem from high school algebra class. And if you were really old school, you used an actual map, like one of those giant, accordion-folded monsters that unfolded to the size of your windshield and nearly guaranteed you'd clip a mailbox.

If you traveled for work back then, your best strategy was to commit every highway exit and side street to memory, just to avoid the full-body stress of navigating unfamiliar roads with nothing but a printed map and a prayer.

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  • So when one company tried to make expense reports harder by eliminating a monthly stipend and demanding documentation, it was only a matter of time before someone got petty. 

  • CONTRACT Your Electricty and Gas B TOTAL NOW DUE
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    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • "You’re going to save money by making it harder to file expense reports? Game on!"

    First time posting a story here so hopefully I don't break any rules. At my previous employer, I had to attend a lot of meetings around town and also go to a few events out-of-county.
    via National_Pension_110
  • When I started, they had a pretty flexible policy where you could accept a monthly allowance of about $40 to cover your mileage, or, if you were taking a lot of trips, you could submit expense reports and get the standard IRS allowable mileage reimbursement. I
    via National_Pension_110
  • hate expense reports, so most of the time just took the $40 and called it even, despite the possibility that I might have made a few extra dollars by doing the longer expense report.
    via National_Pension_110
  • New HR manager is hired and she decided it would save a bunch of money if we cut out the monthly allowance for the sales team and made us file for expenses for every trip. Again, since I hate expense reports, I usually just ate the cost and only
    via National_Pension_110
  • filed for trips where I would receive $20 or more. New HR lady notices that a lot of us are just donating the value of trips under $20-ish, so she figures maybe we' I start donating more if the expense report becomes more arduous.
    via National_Pension_110
  • Her brilliant idea: require extra documentation, like printing a google maps for each trip, and adding extra details to each report. Mind you, this means she needed to hire an extra clerk to manage all this extra paperwork.
    via National_Pension_110
  • But then she thought she'd be even more clever and start rejecting our reports if we didn't print a map for getting to the destination and a separate one for the return trip. Wow-ok, game on!
    via National_Pension_110
  • I started using a very old map website, like Mapquest, and I would create one for every trip even the 3-mile round trip to one of our other offices just up the road. I saved a file for each of the regular visits so
    via National_Pension_110
  • could just pull them up and print one out. But even better-I didn't just print the page with the map but the five or six pages (each way) that were filled with advertisements for gas stations, fast food, hotels, etc. By using these, I
    via National_Pension_110
  • could submit a report for $3 reimbursement in seconds, but it meant printing about 10-15 pages each time. And yes, they ended up averaging more like $60 a month in reimbursement to me after that. And they
    via National_Pension_110
  • added another part-timer to help sort and file all the paperwork. I'd like to say I outlived this idiot at the compan but sad to say she's still there, and still costing them tons of money in wasted time and
    via National_Pension_110
  • resources, meanwhile killing the culture and any morale we ever created. But at least I made her life miserable. My parting gift was to share my Mapquest files with everyone on the sales team so they could bury her in paperwork.
    via National_Pension_110
  • O O O 888 800
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  • kay_good913 Random... but depending on where you are, an allowance is typically taxable at source whereas expenses are not. So more money in your pocket in that way, too e
    via kay_good913
  • desertboots Caution: avalanche area Watch for falling object and productivity.
    via desertboots
  • PositiveAtmosphere 13 Just the cost of a dozen xerox copies was probably more. than the reimbursement.
    via PositiveAtmosphere13
  • Purple Toad 1976 Assuming you are filling out the expense report on the clock, why make it efficient. If it takes and hour to fill out the
    via PurpleToad1976
  • paperwork correctly every time, it is costing the company even more. You are just following instructions.
    via PurpleToad1976
  • Spinnerofyarn Wow. It wasn't just having a file clerk that more money spent on but ink and toner, and probably replacing printers faster.
    via Spinnerofyarn
  • TazzmFyrflaym i mean, she was an utter sh for doing that with the expense reports and stuff. but on the other hand, she apparently
    via TazzmFyrflaym
  • helped create more jobs! which your company apparently actually did hire people for. so i feel on the grand scale of things, she's come out balanced.
    via TazzmFyrflaym
  • shieldtown95 I'm going to play devils advocate here. Is there a chance the HR person just wanted to make sure you guys got reimbursed for what you guys deserved?
    via shieldtown95
  • curtludwig Nothing ruins company morale faster than with expense reports. The company | work at tried that ONC.
    via curtludwig
  • I don't even remember what they did but I remember being really unhappy about it. All of the road dogs banded together and stood up in the company meeting "We
    via curtludwig
  • are here to inform you that none of us will be traveling again as long as this policy stands. There will be no in person sales, no installs, no support." We all marched out.
    via curtludwig
  • The engineering team stood in solidarity with us and all marched out leaving just a few admin folks in the meeting. The expense policy was rescinded the next day.
    via curtludwig

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employee job malicious compliance work coworkers clever finance expense report petty colleague human resources workplace company funny
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