I would like to know about these companies that require coworkers to sleep together in order to save money:
- Do they only pay for food up to $3.79 because that is the price of a mcdonald's value meal?
- Do they require you to hitchhike to your customer site instead of renting a car?
- Do they require you to sit on stacks of phonebooks so they dont have to buy office furniture?
Actually, yes, they do only pay $3 for breakfast! I used to work for a community college in Florida, and ALL state employees were allowed only $.29 per mile and got meals reimbursed at the following schedule: $3 (B), $6 (L), $12 (D). There were time frames allowed for each meal. For example, if you left before 6:00 am you could expense breakfast, but not if you left at 6:15. Likewise, if you got home after 8:00 pm you could expense dinner, but not if you got home at 7:30 pm. I left that job 2 years ago, and believe that the numbers have increased somewhat since then (thank goodness!). It was tough to eat on those numbers when in high expense cities.
As for hotel rooms... yes, we had to share. It was a local decision, not something required of all state employees. We had to get all travel approved by the VP of Admin. and his sec'y kept a big calendar of who was travelling where for the entire 400+ staff. If you were staying in the same city as someone of the same gender you were expected to share a room. One time I had 3 different roommates in 3 days!
My boss and a colleague used to travel quite a bit together (2x per month for 2-3 days at a time). My colleague was a religious fanatic and was accustomed to rising at 3:30 am to say her prayers for the day. So as not to disturb the boss, she would go into the bathroom and sit in the bathtub to do her praying! Talk about your need for space and privacy!
I don't mind sharing a rental car if we're all at the same hotel and going to dinner together anyway. The only time it backfired on me is when a colleague had already made plans to visit his brother in the city we were in and asked if he could take the car. So, I too made plans with a friend I knew there, but she had to cancel so I was stuck in a hotel without any transportation and no viable options for a non-pizza/chinese food dinner.