chrisl137

All our reports are audited before being paid, but they've relaxed on a lot of things over the past several years. We get per diem (varies with city, GSA rates) rather than having to itemize everything, and no longer have to provide receipts for things less than about $70, though it's so easy with cell phones now that I often include pics of the receipts. Transport to/from the airport is based on your location and a relatively expensive and inconvenient option as an upper limit - if you keep the round trip plus parking below that, it goes right through. It's high enough that I've never run into a problem with it.

matrixwalker2012

Work travel may be all fun and games when one is single, but now I'm married, I'd be horrified if I had to travel to some other city and leaving my wife at home, who is still learning to drive and we live in a suburban neighborhood that requires driving to go anywhere.

Luckily we have friends nearby who can help in a pinch, but with a family at home now, I am no longer interested in the single life of running around the world and getting paid to do it.

yyznomad

jrl767

lost_perspicacity

I am on the east coast and had an interview with a company on the west coast. They booked my travel for the interview, which involved long layovers each way. I asked why and pointed out there were several direct flights per day between our cities. Was told that travel policy was lowest cost option and even a few dollars difference required director approval.

This job would have involved semi-frequent travel. I politely asked to be removed from consideration for the position.

Proudelitist

I once was a candidate for a job in another city. They got my airfare to the city in question..but my ground transportation once there was apparently on me....and the office was in a suburb 20 miles away. So, they would only cover a part of the trip. Big red flag.

Unfortuately I ignored it at the time and yes..turned out it was a total nightmare working there.

bergamini

I had a company in Portland that wanted to fly me out and was offering full relocation. I was certified in several technologies they were on-boarding and looking to move for personal reasons. They wanted to interview me on Friday by flying me out late Thursday and then I'd take a red-eye back on Friday. I hate red-eyes. I also wanted to visit the city and look at some neighborhoods for housing. I offered to pay for the 2nd night of hotel but the recruiter refused because the Saturday afternoon non-redeye was $200 more than the Friday late night red-eye. I passed on the interview. They then offered to reverse course and I was like no thanks. Fortunately I didn't ignore the warning sign.

pbiflyer

Okay, I have to post a non dumb one.

We are having a sales kick off in Europe. It is middle of the week. The Saturday night stay over is still a thing to/from some European destinations, including the site of our SKO. (I found that out and pointed out to our travel folks)
Airline tickets are north of $2k if you book a Monday-Friday ticket, but sink to under $1k if you book a Saturday night stay. Our company volunteered to pick up the extra 2 nights of hotel if you extend the trip and show you can save more than a $1k in airfare.

Wouldn't you know it, PBI And FLL and MIA) is one of the cities where it doesn't apply. Going M-F is the same as a Saturday night stay. I don't get two free nights on the company dime.

OldVines

I worked for a small company which one of my colleagues described as being an organisation which would "not only cut off its' nose to spite its' face , it would gouge it eyes out as well".

Example - we were told that we had to reduce the "cash burn" on expenses. Trains leaving London for Manchester in the early evening vary wildly in price. I saved the company 100 pounds by waiting for an hour at Euston to get a cheaper train - I tried to claim miscellaneous expenses for a coffee while waiting - disallowed. I never tried to go for a cheaper train again.

Proudelitist

In my early 20s I worked for an investigative firm. One of the clients was a donut shop chain. My job was two drive between two cities over 5 days, stopping at each of their shops and ordering an item that the cashiers were more likely to fail to register and more likely to pocket the cash, then to review the register journals and look for my purchase. If it was missing, review video, confirm theft, interview the employee, and have the manager terminate their employment. I asked what the per diem was...I was told "Nothing..you will be eating all those donuts". Good grief.

daloosh

That's hilarious! I suppose you are no longer in your 20s and this was some time ago. Today, eating all those donuts sounds like employee abuse or maybe torture. I hope they were good donuts!

COSPILOT

Friend of mine travels for his company with some goofy things, at least I think so. If he completes his report on location he is paid for his time, but if he leaves the jobsite and completes the report at the hotel, he isn't paid... They do GPS vehicle tracking and your only paid when they think the vehicle is at the jobsite, and nothing else. That to me is beyond silly, and the same company will not cover the cost to even wash the company vehicle.

Proudelitist

I had to stop by the side of the road at one point to you know....deal with the consequences of 4 days of nothing but donuts. Yes, this was back in the early 90's and I was young an inexperienced.

Nowadays my attitude is much, much different and there is no way in hell I would have tolerated that excuse.

Proudelitist

Then the company vehilcle gets filthy. And when they complain, say "Not my job".

I have been accused of having an attitude problem when I confront stupidity like this in the corporate world. I remember a company where some exec got it into his head to make it a policy that each employee get the company license plate frame and put it on their personal car. It was not a voluntary policy. This immediately blew up in their face when someone (not me) went to the labor board about it, and rightly so. The company exceeded it's jurisdiction in dictating the use of the personal property of employees. No different from demanding they erect billboards on the lawns of their houses. Anyhow, when told to put it on my car I demanded to be paid, and stated that advertising on my personal property will require a new contract and a standard marketing fee.

If only they made it voluntary and encouraged it, they could have avoided all the trouble and liability

The policy was revoked in a sheepish company wide email.

Qwkynuf

That's pretty funny. Not travel related, but my first "real" job out of high school was delivering pizza for Domino's back in the early 1980s. Back in those days, drivers were paid minimum wage + tips + "commision", which was 6% of the price of every pizza delivered - to cover wear/tear/maintenance on your car.

Like most of the successful drivers, I made out pretty well on tips + comm (which were paid in cash at the end of each shift), and my little $3.35/hour paycheck just went into savings.

Our store manager was really cheap, and she would regularly schedule more people than were needed on a shift, and would only bring us onto the clock if the store got busy - so sometimes we would come in, hang around for a couple of hours, and get sent home. She also wouldn't issue us uniform shirts - she kept a stock in the store and you had to change into one before you could make a delivery.

So anyway, one day I was hanging out waiting (hoping) to be on the clock, and I went into her office and asked if she had something I could read to pass the time. She was busy with something and sort of absently handed me some pamphlets that were on her desk. One of them was a brochure describing the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Five minutes later I was back in front of her desk explaining that either I was going to get the pay I was due, or I was going to get her job - and THEN get the pay I was due. She offered to give me back pay, more hours and a better shift if I didn't tell the other drivers.

Umm, sure....

(For the benefit of non-US readers, two of the requirements of the FLSA is that if an hourly worker is placed on the schedule for a shift and required to come in and wait to see if they will work (can't leave), they have to be paid for the time they are on site, even if they don't work. Also, there is a rule that if you are required to wear a specific uniform for work which will only be worn on the premises, you have to be paid for the time to change into/out of it)