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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Former-Chemistry-123 on 2025-06-01 16:08:09+00:00.
Long time lurker, first time poster, so apologies for any spelling/formatting. I recently read a post about overly officious colleagues refusing an expense claim for a petty reason and it reminded me of a similar incident I experienced some years ago which I still chuckle about and thought I would share.
I worked for a company in the UK for many years and had to travel around Europe fairly often. I was always careful spending company money on expenses despite seeing many colleagues milking the system. I always treated company money as my own.
Around 20 years ago the company was sold and after a short while the new owners came out with guidance that we needed to be ‘cost aware’, and amongst the examples given of this behaviour was that we should not use the minibars when staying in hotels. This was fine for me as I had never used one in all my years travelling.
Despite the ‘cost aware’ requirement the company expenses policy allowed you to travel in company time, get taxis to and from the airport and between the hotel & office, claim all meals up to a daily limit including the night you return if getting home after 20.00.
A short while after this announcement I had to make a business trip to one of our factories in mainland Europe. My home office was close to Heathrow airport and the meeting I was attending was starting at 08.00 on a Tuesday morning. Rather than getting a flight during working hours on the Monday I booked a late afternoon flight which would get me to my destination around 21.00 that evening. The meeting was an all day one, but I booked the last flight back on the Tuesday to avoid spending a second night in a hotel, which meant travelling on my own time (unpaid). I could have travelled back on Wednesday and not come into the office that day.
On the Monday of the trip I got public transport into the office at my own cost, worked pretty much the whole day and then got the free courtesy bus from our office to the tube station and then paid £1.50 for the underground to Heathrow Terminal 5 station where I was flying from. For context a taxi would have been £25-£30 from the office or £40-£50 from my home. Very ‘cost aware’ again I thought.
Unfortunately my flight out was delayed so I only arrived at my hotel around 22.00 at which point all of the nearby restaurants were shut (typical for that place at that time of year). I should add at this point that I am diabetic (type 2) so I needed to eat something. As there was no food available in the hotel I ‘indulged’ in a small packet of peanuts from the hotel mini bar which cost €2 and then went to bed. The next morning (after a hearty breakfast!), I walked to the factory rather than take a taxi and after a long day in the meeting a colleague gave me a lift back to the Airport. I flew back to Heathrow and got public transport home. As I arrived home so late I could have ordered a takeaway up to the daily allowance for dinner but I knew my wife was making something so I had asked her to put some aside for me to heat up.
Next day I filled out my expense claim including the €2 packet of peanuts which was on my hotel invoice. Roll on a week and I get an email from the expenses clerk rejecting my whole expense claim and attaching the ‘cost aware’ policy from the CEO and she specifically called out the €2€ ‘minibar’ expense and stated that I was not ‘cost aware’.
I wrote back re-attaching my expense claim copying in the CEO and my line manager listing all the ‘cost aware’ actions I had taken - travelling in my own time, using the free courtesy bus, public transport, not claiming for lunch or dinner on the Monday, avoiding a second night in the hotel, taking public transport home and not claiming dinner when I arrived home late. I said that I felt insulted by their comment.
Needless to say, my claim got paid, however there was no apology so after that I stuck to policy; taxis for every leg of the trip, only travelling in paid time, fully utilising meal allowances (even if I was not particularly hungry). I dread to think how much that €2 packet of peanuts cost them, but must have been thousands 🤣
Thanks for reading!