Different companies have different rules when it comes to business travel expense reimbursement for their employees.  Sometimes these policies actually encourage employees to waste money, but other times the policies encourage their employees to be frugal with their spending.

In today’s story, one person who used to travel for work a lot explains what happened when a new boss changed the per diem rules and how he convinced the boss to change the rules back.

Let’s find out what happened.

No keeping per diem money, no receipts = no reimbursement

A couple decades ago, I traveled a lot for business, between 30 and 35 weeks a year.

Initially I looked forward to the romance of travel, only to discover it was endless awakenings feeling like the Rohypnol had just started to wear off. But I digress.

I had a really great boss who gave us a standard meals per diem. I think it was $30 per day.

That doesn’t seem like a lot of money, but he made it work.

This worked great for me.

I’d grab the complimentary continental breakfast in the lobby, typically be too busy to eat lunch, and grab something from Subway on the way back to the hotel.

Not the healthiest way to live, but it added up to an extra $100+ per week.

But all good things must end…

Eventually he sells the company to a new boss.

I return from a trip and submit my per diem request.

He denies it.

And since I didn’t keep the receipts, I had to pay for all my own meals on that trip.

The boss set new rules.

I explained the previous arrangement and ask if we could do it that way.

He tells me, “No, if you don’t have a receipt, you don’t get reimbursed.”

He drafted and printed the policy. Three meals a day, no more than a 15% tip, no room service, no snacks, no desserts, no alcohol.

OK, have it your way.

This is about to get a lot more expensive than $30 a day.

My next trip was to the bay area of California, which was insanely overpriced then too.

I decided I would follow the new policy to the letter.

We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so Steak and Eggs is the smart way to start the day in the nearby four-star Hotel.

Realizing I wasn’t getting enough steak and lobster in my diet, I went for the “Surf and Turf” special for dinner.

Oh, but it gets even more expensive…

And since I wouldn’t have time for lunch the next day, another to go please, kind sir!

It was a glorious week of finding the most expensive things I could both (a) pronounce and (b) eat.

I return to the office and submitted my expenses, with receipts of course! Instead of $150 that week, the company wrote me a check for over $700.

The new boss quickly rescinded that policy, allowing me my $30 per diem again, and I could keep what I didn’t use.

Sometimes you have to abide by the new ridiculous policy to show the boss just how good the old policy was.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Companies really don’t understand the employee thought process.

This person shares their former company’s per diem policy.

Another person shares the policy at a beer distributor.

This person shares their expense reimbursement limits.

Nobody is going to spend frugally if it doesn’t benefit them.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.