Impossible W*rk Policies

[pb4uski]

My normal frugal habits also extended to my business travel. Unless I was schlepping a suitcase I would frequently take public transportation, would take the bus from/to the airport rather than a taxi, infrequently used car service, etc.

Later in my career I concluded that nobody (clients included) gave a care and I loosened up some and spent more where it made travel more convenient for me (spending more on a flight to get home at a reasonable hur rather than taking a cheaper flight that got home at midnight, etc).

 

[akck]

I guess I don't understand your complaint. Why would one fly from Philly to DC? Isn't it ~2 hours by train?

Yup, the ticket agent said it would be quicker to drive as she laughed at us while checking us in. Our travel nazi wouldn't allow it or the train unless we paid for it ourselves. This was all because the ticket was cheaper to fly to Detroit (or where ever), and back to Washington D.C. than to do anything direct. At the time, a broken leg trip cost more too, so that nixed the train or driving.

 

[LoneAspen]

I used to do some traveling for a Megacorp years ago before their travel policies got really draconian.

They instituted a policy that everybody doing company travel had to have a company credit card. No more using a personal card for expenses, and no exceptions.

I asked them if the company card was on their credit report and if the bills went directly to them. They said no. The company was just a guarantor of some kind that you'd get the card, but the card went against your own personal credit report, and the bills went to you.

So I told them no. I refused to have a company credit card on my own credit report and still pay the bills. They said unless I agreed to a company card, I couldn't do any more travel and get reimbursed. So I told them fine...no more company travel for me. They didn't know what to say.

And I didn't. I didn't make any more company trips before I quit a few months later.

I firmly believe that if I'm putting my personal life on hold to go on a business trip, some of it is going to be on MY terms, or they can find somebody else.

I will not use a company card that goes against my credit report and I still get the bills. I will use my own card and at least get miles for it.
I will not share hotel rooms with somebody.
I will have a decent dinner every day.
I will have reasonable (not cheap) rental cars and transportation.

If the company is imposing on my personal life to have me go out of town on a trip to benefit their business, they damn well better show some respect and flexibility, or else I don't go.

 

[pb4uski]

The firm I worked for did the same thing (Amex in our case). I think it is fairly common.

The gold card was issued (no fee) in my name with the firm logo, I was personally responsible for the bill but the firm did guarantee it IIRC. It was really no big deal. Not sure if it hit my credit report or not but since I was reimbursed and paid the bill in full every month, if anything it helped my credit rather than detracted from it. Plus I got Amex Membership Reward points for my spending plus airline miles.

WADR, if someone in our employ had the attitude displayed in your post I would be glad they moved on and wish them well.

I used to do some traveling for a Megacorp years ago before their travel policies got really draconian.

They instituted a policy that everybody doing company travel had to have a company credit card. No more using a personal card for expenses, and no exceptions.

I asked them if the company card was on their credit report and if the bills went directly to them. They said no. The company was just a guarantor of some kind that you'd get the card, but the card went against your own personal credit report, and the bills went to you.

So I told them no. I refused to have a company credit card on my own credit report and still pay the bills. They said unless I agreed to a company card, I couldn't do any more travel and get reimbursed. So I told them fine...no more company travel for me. They didn't know what to say.

And I didn't. I didn't make any more company trips before I quit a few months later.

I firmly believe that if I'm putting my personal life on hold to go on a business trip, some of it is going to be on MY terms, or they can find somebody else.

I will not use a company card that goes against my credit report and I still get the bills. I will use my own card and at least get miles for it.
I will not share hotel rooms with somebody.
I will have a decent dinner every day.
I will have reasonable (not cheap) rental cars and transportation.

If the company is imposing on my personal life to have me go out of town on a trip to benefit their business, they damn well better show some respect and flexibility, or else I don't go.

 

[hausfrau]

If the company is imposing on my personal life to have me go out of town on a trip to benefit their business, they damn well better show some respect and flexibility, or else I don't go.

I didn't travel a whole lot, but when I did, I always had the same philosophy. Luckily, my bosses did too. I wonder if it was because I was a female traveling alone?

 

[LoneAspen]

WADR, if someone in our employ had the attitude displayed in your post I would be glad they moved on and wish them well.

Well, I view business travel as an imposition, therefore the company needs to show some respect and give-and-take. Too often companies take, take, and take some more in the form of ridiculous rules, and give too little in the form of flexibility. They forget that the employee is giving up their personal life, time with family, etc, to travel on behalf of (and for the benefit of) their company.

The vast majority of people I've worked with don't enjoy business travel, and they sure don't elect to do it because they find it fun (at least, I never did). Especially in today's world of airline delays, cramped cattle-car airplanes, etc.

For an employer to impose all kinds of restrictions, when I'm the one putting myself out to travel for them, never sat well with me.

In my current job, I haven't had to travel in the 2.5 years I've been there, and I don't expect to over the next 18 months. Which is fine by me.

 

[jollystomper]

The only real "luxury" I would try when I traveled (particularly when my job required travel 50% of the time) was to use the same airlines/hotel chains to build up rewards programs points. Megacorp allowed you to keep those points for personal use. This wasn't always possible since Megacorp was constantly working financial deals and there wasn't consistency in the airlines or hotels that were approved for various destinations.

I did have one streak where I traveled from the east coast of the USA to Asia close to a dozen times in an 18 month period and did it all on the same airline. I built up a nice stash of frequent flyer miles and "premium" travel benefits that has very nice to have for several years.

 

[LoneAspen]

The only real "luxury" I would try when I traveled (particularly when my job required travel 50% of the time) was to use the same airlines/hotel chains to build up rewards programs points. Megacorp allowed you to keep those points for personal use. This wasn't always possible since Megacorp was constantly working financial deals and there wasn't consistency in the airlines or hotels that were approved for various destinations.

I did have one streak where I traveled from the east coast of the USA to Asia close to a dozen times in an 18 month period and did it all on the same airline. I built up a nice stash of frequent flyer miles and "premium" travel benefits that has very nice to have for several years.

And that is exactly the kind of flexibility companies need to show people who travel for them.

One of the reasons my Megacorp gave for requiring company cards was so employees didn't earn miles on their own cards. The company wanted any and all discounts and financial incentives from the card companies, they didn't want the employee to get anything.

That didn't sit well with me at all. If you're going to ask (force?) people to travel, at least let them get the perks of points, miles, frequent flyer programs, etc. To deny that is petty and disrespectful, and one reason I told Megacorp I wouldn't do any more travel for them.

 

[brewer12345]

Well, I view business travel as an imposition, therefore the company needs to show some respect and give-and-take. Too often companies take, take, and take some more in the form of ridiculous rules, and give too little in the form of flexibility. They forget that the employee is giving up their personal life, time with family, etc, to travel on behalf of (and for the benefit of) their company.

The vast majority of people I've worked with don't enjoy business travel, and they sure don't elect to do it because they find it fun (at least, I never did). Especially in today's world of airline delays, cramped cattle-car airplanes, etc.

For an employer to impose all kinds of restrictions, when I'm the one putting myself out to travel for them, never sat well with me.

In my current job, I haven't had to travel in the 2.5 years I've been there, and I don't expect to over the next 18 months. Which is fine by me.

+1000

 

[ronocnikral]

Well, I view business travel as an imposition, therefore the company needs to show some respect and give-and-take. Too often companies take, take, and take some more in the form of ridiculous rules, and give too little in the form of flexibility. They forget that the employee is giving up their personal life, time with family, etc, to travel on behalf of (and for the benefit of) their company.

The vast majority of people I've worked with don't enjoy business travel, and they sure don't elect to do it because they find it fun (at least, I never did). Especially in today's world of airline delays, cramped cattle-car airplanes, etc.

For an employer to impose all kinds of restrictions, when I'm the one putting myself out to travel for them, never sat well with me.

In my current job, I haven't had to travel in the 2.5 years I've been there, and I don't expect to over the next 18 months. Which is fine by me.

I agree as well. Typically when I travel I avg about 4-5 hours of sleep (working the rest of the time), plus then I have to slog through airports on each end which is a whole day even both coming and going. If a bean counter has a problem with me buying myself a nice steak on the company dime at the end of it after being away from my family for a week, working insane hours and eating ramen noodles the rest of the time, s/he can go screw themselves.

 

[JoeWras]

I agree as well. Typically when I travel I avg about 4-5 hours of sleep (working the rest of the time), plus then I have to slog through airports on each end which is a whole day even both coming and going. If a bean counter has a problem with me buying myself a nice steak on the company dime at the end of it after being away from my family for a week, working insane hours and eating ramen noodles the rest of the time, s/he can go screw themselves.

That's all fine and good. But...

Since Megacorp requires you to use the card, and they only reimburse to the card approved expenses, and since the card is in YOUR name, you are screwed.

Break a policy, no reimbursey for you. You have to pay the shortage.

 

[brewer12345]

That's all fine and good. But...

Since Megacorp requires you to use the card, and they only reimburse to the card approved expenses, and since the card is in YOUR name, you are screwed.

Break a policy, no reimbursey for you. You have to pay the shortage.

Hahahahahahaha! I never met the employee who could not figure out ways to skirt such policies, especially if they felt the powers that be had done them a bad turn on this stuff.

 

[LoneAspen]

Hahahahahahaha! I never met the employee who could not figure out ways to skirt such policies, especially if they felt the powers that be had done them a bad turn on this stuff.

Exactly!

Smart people (which are the kind a company SHOULD be hiring) can usually figure out ways around stupid policies.

When the Megacorp I was at first instituted its draconian travel policies, another one of the things they came up with was...you will take the cheapest flight regardless of the airline, or how many connections it was, provided you can still get to your destination on time. So people would search for flights on the Internet before talking to the corporate travel agent, see what was available, then fudge the days/times they could leave with the travel agent so that the only available flight they could make that would still get them there on time was one they wanted.

Hire smart people, and don't nickel and dime them to death when they have to travel on behalf of your business. No, I wouldn't want to see an employee of mine order a $300 bottle of wine with a dinner while on a business trip. But would I throw a fit if they had a nice meal periodically while out of town for me? Hell no. More power to them.

 

[JoeWras]

Well, the whole "use our card or else" thing is what I'm getting at.

We've had some just crazy stuff here. People go on trips, but some auditor questions them for weeks on end in order to approve it. Meanwhile, it goes "late" on Amex, and the person who holds the card now holds the bag. We've had other weird things like payments from Megacorp go in and be short due to supposed currency translation issues. Then the holder is late on the small shortage.

All sorts of incompetent crap. That's over and above the "we won't pay for the steak" kind of thing. It is just a real pain in the butt. A per-diem is really the best way to go to avoid all this nonsense.

I could go on. I could tell you about how a coworker of mine got a $59 dollar motel they would not reimburse because he didn't get the approved $169 room. Just nonsense.

 

[FreeAtLast]

I always was an independent consultant when I had to travel. I just added up the receipts and attached them to an invoice and marked "Due upon receipt of invoice".

Never had a problem.

 

[LoneAspen]

I always was an independent consultant when I had to travel. I just added up the receipts and attached them to an invoice and marked "Due upon receipt of invoice".

Never had a problem.

Get hired on and try that as an employee and see how it goes

 

[pb4uski]

Get hired on and try that as an employee and see how it goes

I can't recall ever getting an expense report questioned or delayed during my 35 year career with 4 different employers. Certainly none in the last 15 years, and I traveled extensively during that time.

If you knew the rules and kept them in mind when traveling it was easy. Perhaps my employers were better than average in that regard.

 

[MichaelB]

This thread is hilarious.

One of my jobs was managing the folks that reviewed expense reimbursement, and another was setting reimbursement policy. That led me to be a big fan of the travel per-diem. Give a fixed amount, let the employee figure it out. The number of people trying to game the system was unbelievable.

A 30 page policy is beyond dumb. One page, maybe two. More rules only lead to greater efforts to get around them. If folks are going to spend time being sneaky, better to redirect that initiative to making the revenue goals or something equally productive.

 

[Chuckanut]

What is the policy for compensating employees who have to fly out on a Sunday to attend a Monday morning meeting? Never mind. I think I know the answer.

 

[Chuckanut]

I am curious as to why you would spend differently then you would if it was your own money? I understand you are not the only one who thinks like this, but I never understood why.

Here are two reasons;

1. Many of us flew on our own time, often giving up weekend days or after already working a nearly full day.

2. When away from home for day after day, many personal things did not get done and we sacrificed time and experiences with family and friends.

 

[MuirWannabe]

This thread is hilarious.

A 30 page policy is beyond dumb. One page, maybe two. More rules only lead to greater efforts to get around them. If folks are going to spend time being sneaky, better to redirect that initiative to making the revenue goals or something equally productive.

+1 That was exactly the point of my OP.

 

[MichaelB]

+1 That was exactly the point of my OP.

I was agreeing with you on that. IRS compliance is also legitimate but at the same time badly abused as an excuse. In my experience it is more about narrow minded control.