Have you ever worked for a company where the business expense policies didn’t really make sense?

If you found that the policies seemed illogical, would you follow them anyway, or would you point out the error in judgement?

In today’s story, one person who works from home needs to submit an expense report for mileage to a location they traveled to for work.

When the expense report is kicked back, they’re surprised at what the company wants them to do.

Let’s read the whole story.

Need to base mileage report on office address instead of my home? Your loss then…

I WFH most of the time. Recently, I had to file an expense report for mileage since I drove my vehicle to a specific location for work.

I had previously calculated my mileage using the location I actually left from to get to the location I’m going to.

This was usually my home to whatever venue I’m going to for work. I assumed this was the way that made the most sense.

The expense report was not approved.

This particular event was less than 20 miles from where I live, so I submitted the mileage from my home address as that’s where I left from.

My expense report was then sent back to me stating it needed to be amended. The message read something like “…per company policy mileage must be calculated as if you were going from the office and not your home address. Please adjust accordingly and resubmit.”

I think to myself, “well that’s dumb,” move on and resubmit as though I’m leaving from my work address.

This is a really dumb policy.

Turns out the office is a little more than double the distance to the location I went to compared to the actual distance I traveled leaving from my house.

So, the “company policy” made what would’ve been a $30 reimbursement a $60 reimbursement.

Sucks for them.

Guess that’s what you get for having a blanket policy that needs to be followed no matter what.

Hey, it’s a win for the employee!

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person’s wife was in a similar situation.

Another person claims it’s an IRS rule.

Here’s another comment about it being an IRS rule.

It may go beyond the IRS.

Whatever the real reason, this really worked out well for the employee!

And we’re all happy about that.

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