Often1

As I said, some countries (or jurisdictions) just don't permit it. There may be a dozen workarounds, but if it's not permitted, it's not permitted.

Bottom line, even if there is a workaround, the entire purpose of a per diem is to make the process easy for both employee and employer. What you suggest requires dual bookeeping. That is harder for both.

HomerJay

My colleague Tom Schell was out on the golf course when he got a phone call from the news desk that a Russian satellite had fallen back to earth and landed somewhere in Canada's Northwest Territories, or some other part of the GWN. He was wearing shorts and a golf shirt, but was told to head at once to an airport to catch a waiting jet to take him from LA to Churchill or some other outpost up there."What about clothing?" he asked. He was told to meet the crew at the airport ASAP and worry about clothing when he got to Canada.

He arrived, they headed to a Hudson's Bay or some other store, bought a couple hundred bucks worth of winter clothing, worked a couple of days until the satellite was found, the radiation contained, or somehow the story went away.

Upon his return to LA, he submitted his expense account form for all his trip expenses, including receipts for the winter clothing. It was denied by accounting.

"We don't pay for clothing," he was told. "That's policy."

"Well, what to you want me to do? Freeze to death?" Tom asked.

He was told to resubmit the expense form without any mention of clothing.

He resubmitted the form - for the exact same total amount - but line items were adjusted upwards, and there was no line item for winter clothing. Except, at the very bottom of the page, where he wrote, "there's a winter suit hidden in here. See if you can find it."

It was paid. In full. No further questions asked.

invisible

Was this happening 40 years ago in 1977?

Proudelitist

I once arrived in LHR to find that my bags did not make it. BA said my bags would be delivered to me at my hotel in 3 days.

I was wearing my travel clothes..jeans, sweater...not proper clothes for a business meeting in the UK.

So I went to Marks and Spencer and purchased everything. Shirts, undies, socks, pants and a belt. Used the corp. card to pay. The whole thing only came to about 120 pounds, which was about 150 USD at the time.

I was told clothes were not permitted as an expense. I suppose I could have shown up at the meeting in jeans and a sweater smelly from 2 days of travel and blown the deal. But in the interest of the company I thought it worth while to invest in showing up in proper clothes.

I ended up having to file a claim with BA and get them to pay for it..which they did after 2 months, which then went back into the expense report.

HomerJay

Yep.

I didn't begin working with him until a year later. He was a helluva general assignment reporter with great sources in law enforcement and public safety.
Tom's adventures with execs and bean counters became the stuff of legend, and he was one of the most wonderful story tellers I've ever known. A simply marvelous blue collar guy who never took himself too seriously, but lived by a code of hard work, family, loyalty, don't put on any airs, and no bull****. Schell was the best.

There's another cold weather story that's among my favorites, and that involved Linda Ellerbee, when she was working at NBC's NY O&O in the wake of a huge snowstorm. The city came to a halt and assignment editors were desperately looking for fresh angles. One wanted to know what the hookers were doing, since they couldn't hang out on street corners in a foot of snow.

Linda was sent to a bar in a sketchy neighborhood, and asked to interview ladies of the evening. One agreed to be interviewed, but only on the condition that she be paid. "I'm working," she told Linda. "And my time is money." Linda paid her $25, and the working girl's face was obscured on the teevee.

Linda submitted the $25 for the interview and it was turned down.

"We don't pay for interviews. Ever," was the reason.

"But you pay to wine and dine, don't you?" she asked.

"Yes," was the reply.

Linda resubmitted her expense form with a now-legendary item.

"Dinner with whore. $25," it read.

It was also paid, without question. And Linda later wrote about it in one of her books.

Those days are, indeed, long gone. Now you need approval before asking somebody to work an hour of overtime.

Badenoch

My clothing adventure was during a business trip to Africa when a co-worker and I had a last minute industrial site tour added. Not being prepared for an industrial visit we scrambled to buy the necessary safety gear.

The desk dweeb insisted that we couldn't keep the equipment if we were reimbursed. We brought in a clear plastic bag that included two pairs of safety boots covered in red African mud, dropped it on his desk and casually suggested caution when opening the bag as something might have crawled into the boots.

The guy went pale, told us to get the bag out of the office and the check arrived on my desk later that day.

DeweyCheathem

Why do I think that if I had submitted the exact same line item on MY expense report during one of my Asia trips back in the day, it not only would not have been approved, but I would have been fired on the spot.

chrisl137

San Francisco is a whole different animal- I stay with family in Berkeley when I have anything in the city. But down in the valley on Orbitz right now you can get a motel 6 or similar in the $120 range in Mountain View or Sunnyvale, with the next step up at $220-250. San Jose is even less - the Motel 6 is $85, and you can get nicer places in the $120-160 range. I think last time I stayed in San Jose I used ~20K pts/night for a TownPlace Suites, but I don't think the cash price was outrageous (they'd have charged more points if it was).

darthbimmer

My next-door neighbor growing up had a different solution to the "You can't expense clothing" issue. He was part of an advanced team for the President. When the President was going somewhere overseas, he and his colleagues would get there (ideally) 1-2 days ahead to set up communications, security, etc. Very frequently his orders would come last minute, as in his C.O. instructing him, "Leave for the airport now and pick up your ticket at the front desk." He'd phone home to his wife asking her to meet him there with a suitcase of clothes. His destination was generally classified but he did get permission to tell her either, "Grab the cold-weather suitcase" or "Grab the warm-weather suitcase." He kept both prepacked near the front door.

HomerJay

That's what the folks in the White House Press Pool were told when the President headed out on an unannounced trip. "Be at Andrews in two hours. Bring warm clothing." They didn't know where they were going until they got on AF-1, and might end up spending Thanksgiving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

invisible

Story is good. As far as working on overtime - depends on industries and countries. In my industry no overtime is paid for employees.

Before probably it is a difference between having dinner with whore when you are in blizzard in Canada vs having such event in Phuket or Pattaya?

invisible

What did you answer on question 'did you come into contact with soil' at Customs application form when going back to Canada?

Badenoch

There is no such question on the Canadian customs declaration card.

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publicati...s/e311-eng.pdf

txflyer77

Are you traveling for Dreamforce or something? I fly to SF once a quarter and as long as I keep an eye on the conference schedule I can generally get either of the Union Square Hiltons or the Westin St. Francis for ~$200.

invisible

'Something' - major event of one big technology company... But I need to to be within 30 min drive from Palo Alto/Mt View area and and the only way I can do it during that time - stay at someone's home.


You did not tell us what was inside therese boots...