Sometimes employees who have to travel for work would rather kick back in their hotel with a simple meal they prepare with food from the grocery store instead of eating at a restaurant. Unfortunately for these employees, sometimes the company they work for is a real stickler for the daily per diem maximum even when they don’t spend any money most days of the week.

In today’s story, one businessman shares how he got back at his annoying company’s rules when they refuses to refund him for an $80 grocery store bill.

Let’s see what happened.

Finance Dept at Work held firm on Max/Day for meals while traveling. They messed with and denied me reimbursement for $30. Ended up costing them $750.

Many years ago, during a corporate merger, I was responsible for transitioning a portion of business operations to a distant city.

I was there for four weeks in an extended stay suite hotel with fridge and microwave.

I had a meal allowance of $50/day and was required to submit a weekly expense report with receipts for reimbursement.

This employee chose to grocery shop instead of eat at restaurants.

After a long day, all I wanted was to get comfy, chill out and fix something in the room to eat. On day one, I shopped at the local market spending $80 and day four $20.

I submitted my weekly receipts for total of $100 and was told I had exceeded the daily limit and my reimbursement would be $70 vs $100.

Finance insisted that $50/ day in receipts is max they would pay, even as I pointed out that the total was less than a third of what I could have submitted.

They stood firm and refused to budge from the daily max.

Time to splurge on something he really wants!

At the time, my most favorite coffee beans were only available for purchase in coffee shops located in select areas of the country.

As luck would have it, there was one close by; the name included cafe as they also sold sandwiches etc, and the receipt was not itemized.

Yep, you guessed it, the last three weeks, I bought bags of coffee beans every single day.

In their effort to short me $30, it ending costing them $750. Classic example of a company being “penny wise and pound foolish” and jerking employees around.

He moved on to a job he liked a lot more.

In spite of incredibly attractive financial offers to relocate and remain with the company, I resigned once the transition was complete.

Shortly thereafter, I ended up in my dream job for the next twenty five years.

My position was a new one and just beginning to emerge within the industry. As such, I had tremendous leeway in defining the role and budget.

I was respected, my work was valued and my professionalism and judgement were trusted.

He works hard when he’s treated fairly.

I’ve always been that way…… You want question, and nickel and dime me over nonsense, I will respond likewise.

If I receive respect and trust, I will have your back and will bend over backwards delivering the best I have to offer. I’ll adjust my schedule, burn the midnight oil…….whatever it takes.

All because I know that once we get through it, I’ll take some time for myself and no one will question my schedule or work ethic.

The total for the week really should be taken into consideration with a per diem where spending more on one day and spending less on another day averages out.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This sounds like the way a per diem should really work.

The chef really helped this business traveler out!

Wow! I’d love to get a per diem for working from home!

It seems that a lot of companies frown on a per diem being used at a grocery store.

I wonder how long it took him to get through all those bags of coffee beans!

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.