Where I used to work, this *would* get noticed. I would occasionally get an inquiry from my boss or someone in accounting that I must have made a mistake, or had missing meals (sometimes if I ate on the plane or something like that, I would have a "hole" in the breakfast/lunch/dinner matrix on the expense report). Especially 10 years ago, some places had older register systems that didn't print the name of the company on it, and they simply didn't believe that I had had a $5.38 dinner - they thought it was a mistake, or that I was trying to hide another expense. After explaining my eating habits, I was once actually told that I should "live it up a bit" while on the road. I wasn't eating cheap to save the company money, it's just that that's what I wanted that night. This was in contrast to some of the travelers that made it a point to live high on the hog while on the company dime.

We had few rules about anything (other than common-sense rules), but there were a couple of things that we set in stone. And once a rule gets set in stone, you can be sure that accounting will enforce it. For example, we were prohibited from expensing in-room movies, although almost anything else for dining/entertainment was permitted. Some people were adamant that they felt the company should pay for their expenses while on the road, and would get bored just sitting in their room at night. So instead of a $9.95 movie, they'd go to the hotel bar and run up a $30 tab, which was expensed.

Speaking of corporate policies, this reminds me of a policy we had regarding new computers. Well into the 90's there was a corporate prohibition against buying a computer with a sound card. It was felt that these were used only to mess around and not for legitimate business reasons, and early on, they were expensive additions. But it got to the point about 10 years ago where they were more or less standard equipment. But purchasing stuck by their rule, and actually had to have Dell do a custom build of machines to not include the sound card (although Dell custom builds every machine to order, they have limits on what combination of things you can get. At some point, they removed the option to order the machines we used without a sound card, so we had to have something special done to make it happen. This was obviously before sound support became integrated into the motherboard). Then, those of us with legitimate need for sound had to buy after-market sound cards, which purchasing allowed if it was manager-approved.

I suppose that with any set of rules, there are going to be situations that weren't envisioned when the rule was made. It's when there's no leeway for this (even with a manager's approval) that it really becomes a problem. Oh, the joys of the corporate world. This is why Dilbert is so funny to anyone that's worked in such an environment. I think that a lot of people that have never done so may laugh at Dilbert, but not get the full impact of just how true it is.

Actually, where I worked was a great place to be, and nonsense like this really was kept to a minimum. There were just a few quirks like I mentioned that stood out. It was interesting to see that stuff like this tended to expand and take on a life of its own as the company got larger. You really need to make a special effort make sure that these rules DON'T become a problem.