If you work for a company where things like travel and reimbursement are a thing, you know they can get complicated and rather annoying.
You have to check all of the boxes and cross all your t’s, and sometimes, the bean counters still tell you you’re doing it wrong.
OP traveled for a long-term assignment overseas, and after a couple of months, he and the others on his team were informed they had to pay the tax on the hotel once they’ve been there more than 30 days.
So I work for a defense contractor, it’s one of the big 3. We are based in Guam, but in Florida for Training until the summer.
We are all in hotels and here we are a few months into out trip and all the sudden the person doing our expense reports keeps kicking them back.
Now we are incurring late fees which we all refuse to pay.
That added up to $400 a month.
She is saying that after 30 days we are responsible for the tax on the rooms which is $13 a day, almost $400 a month.
So, OP and his team started taking advantage of another policy that stated they would be allowed to travel home on the company’s dime once a month. This cost them more than paying the taxes themselves.
In our contract the company has stated they will pay for a trip to our home of record once a month, which none of us have been doing because we have been so busy…here comes the MC….
Now we are all scheduling trips home each month to break up the 30 days so we don’t pay the tax on the hotel, while the company is now paying for flights to our homes of record.
One guy is from Guam and his tickets are almost $2,000 for round trip.
So now it’s costing them another $700-2000 for flights each month.
When they tried to deny OP’s flight because it was $200 more, he charged them for the travel time.
The 8 hours of OT were a lot more than the price difference.
In another instance years ago coming home from Japan, my flight had an 8hr layover in Tokyo. I found a flight that was shorter but cost $200 more. They rejected it because it wasn’t the lowest fare available.
I’m paid doorstep to doorstep when I travel, meaning I’m on the clock from when I leave my house until I get to my hotel at my final destination. Many of these travel days end up being around 23hrs .
I thought the company would be cool with me saving them 8hrs of me on the clock, but nope.
Ok then…13 hours of double time at $100 an hr, so $1300 over a $200 price difference.
I’ll take all that money.
The people who write these contracts really don’t think things through.
Make it make sense!
The top comment says you have to know your worth.
They say you shouldn’t worry about trying to save the corporation money.
Some can’t even do a quick conversion in their heads.
It’s policy, not a favor.
I’ve never traveled for work.
I think I’m ready now if I ever have to, though.
If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.