Sometimes companies have a way of trying to cut costs, only to incur even more costs in the long run.

Imagine being sent across the country for a one-day meeting, only to be told you must take the overnight flight home instead of staying in a hotel.

Would you try to explain why it’s a bad idea?

Or would you quietly do what they wanted?

In the following story, one employee finds himself in this exact predicament and chooses the latter.

Here’s how that worked out.

Work forces me to take a red eye home, which prevents me from working.

My work has been tightening the purse strings lately, and I had a one-day meeting on the West Coast, flying in from the East Coast.

So 5-6 hour flights and a 3-hour time difference. They said I could only stay one night in a hotel the night before the meeting and must take a red-eye home the following evening.

I explained that if I stayed overnight a second night and got a good night’s rest not only would I be likely to work that evening in the hotel, but I could work on the 5-6 hour flight the next day during regular business hours using airplane wifi.

They didn’t like his idea.

They blatantly refused, saying they would not allow the expense of the second hotel night.

So I reminded them about the policy that if you take a red eye, you are allowed off work the next day, which they begrudgingly said, “If you must.”

So after the meeting’s end at 5 pm Pacific time, I went to the airport and took the red eye.

When he returned to work, his boss was stressed out.

I didn’t sleep on the plane because I was next to the bathroom, and they could not do anything about the glaringly intrusive light, nor did they have sleep masks.

So I rolled into my house at 6 a.m. Eastern time, having not slept in nearly 24 hours, took a shower, and zonked out hard for the entire work day.

I came back to work the following day to a flurry of emails and tasks that my boss tried to do in my stead. Apparently, her entire day yesterday was a *********** trying to deal with my stuff.

I reminded her that an $80 hotel stay could have avoided a far more costly loss of an entire day’s productivity for her. They agreed not to force me to do the red-eye again.

Yikes! Some company decisions make zero sense.

Let’s see if the folks over at Reddit can relate to this situation.

This reader met a celebrity after a red eye.

According to this person, businesses that are better at planning do better than those that aren’t.

Here’s someone who went to work after a red eye.

According to this reader, their coworkers took red eyes, but they didn’t.

Bet they don’t do that again!

It would’ve been so much easier for everyone if they just covered the $80.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.