Nothing exposes a tightwad executive faster than a tiny expense involving an employee’s basic comfort.

After weeks of exhausting overseas work, one consulting engineer requested an $80 ride home instead of driving severely sleep-deprived.

The CEO rejected it because contractors were supposedly second-class workers, prompting the engineer to reconsider an extremely generous billing decision.

Watch those savings add up.

Consulting engineers are second class here

Years ago, I worked as a consulting engineer at this company with a very tightwad CEO with multiple sticks up his butt (everyone else was super nice).

I engineered a machine that shipped to the Far East and was asked to go onsite to startup the system. This was in the Northeast in February.

And the worker was thoughtful about all of the client’s expenses.

I parked on an offsite parking lot to save my client the expense of parking at the airport and flew out on a cold, clear day and landed at my destination many, many hours later.

I spent 2+ weeks working long, long hours to start up this machine. So many hours that I felt bad for my client and decided that I would not charge OT since it was a fixed price contract.

But when they arrived back at the airport — they needed help getting home.

Fast forward to my departure — I asked for limo service home because the car was frozen solid, and I’d flown some 20+ hours and was severely sleep deprived.

“Nope” — only full-time employees get limo service. Consulting engineers have to drive themselves decreed the CEO (even though I had been on their staff as an engineer for a long time — just not employed)

So, gone was the OP’s good deed!

I decided to charge full OT to the letter for every hour over 8, especially the all-nighter I pulled while there.

It was the most expensive $80 limo ride he never paid for…

Did the worker take it too far or is this completely fair? Let’s see what Redditors are saying in the comments below.

One person could relate.

Another had to make a joke.

One said the parking was a major red flag.

And finally, one Redditor pondered if you could monetize kindness.

After the CEO refused an $80 limo, the engineer billed every overtime hour previously intended as a favor to the company.

That included numerous long days and an all-nighter during more than two grueling weeks overseas.

The CEO successfully saved the price of one airport ride by purchasing the deluxe international overtime package instead.