https://cruciallearning.com/blog/how-to-tell-your-employee-their-expense-wont-be-covered/ VitalSmarts is now Crucial Learning Wed, 14 Dec 2022 07:51:27 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 https://cruciallearning.com/blog/how-to-tell-your-employee-their-expense-wont-be-covered/#comment-10419 Thu, 08 Dec 2022 14:17:40 +0000 https://cruciallearning.com/?p=17221#comment-10419 Had a previous boss who totally and completely botched almost this exact conversation. We asked for approval for 3 choices of restaurants to celebrate a gentleman who had contributed a lot to our department and was moving on and being promoted to another department within the company. My boss said to just go to any of them, enjoy, and send him the receipt when you are done. We went out to a nice steakhouse (approved by my boss) and between the 5 of us, spent (excluding tip) $275. We encouraged the gentleman who was leaving our department to get whatever he wanted – $100+ plate – and the remainder of us stuck to the lunch menu < $50 / plate. My boss never set clear expectations and when I turned in the receipt, he called me "wildly irresponsible" and refused to reimburse me. It was the straw that broke the camels back and I turned in my resignation shortly thereafter.

]]> https://cruciallearning.com/blog/how-to-tell-your-employee-their-expense-wont-be-covered/#comment-10418 Wed, 07 Dec 2022 17:57:15 +0000 https://cruciallearning.com/?p=17221#comment-10418 I also wanted to chime in to say that on some particular days, hotel room rates are incredibly inflated! One time, my work travel partially overlapped with a music festival in that particular city, and that hotel night was >$600! Very average hotel experience, but 3x the price! Do make sure to give the employee the benefit of the doubt, and maybe you’ll find that reimbursing the $700 is actually very much appropriate by anyone’s standards, with the added information in mind.

]]> https://cruciallearning.com/blog/how-to-tell-your-employee-their-expense-wont-be-covered/#comment-10417 Wed, 07 Dec 2022 16:00:25 +0000 https://cruciallearning.com/?p=17221#comment-10417 This is a great reminder to reflect on the question – which conversation do I need to hold? It’s easy to focus on how to have the conversation, but that’s no use if we’re not holding the right conversation in the first place. So wise, as always, thank you Emily!

]]> https://cruciallearning.com/blog/how-to-tell-your-employee-their-expense-wont-be-covered/#comment-10416 Wed, 07 Dec 2022 15:47:40 +0000 https://cruciallearning.com/?p=17221#comment-10416 One element that may be missing here is adding a level of curiosity and asking what made the bill total reach $700.00. There might be legitimate reasons for it.

]]> https://cruciallearning.com/blog/how-to-tell-your-employee-their-expense-wont-be-covered/#comment-10415 Wed, 07 Dec 2022 15:21:50 +0000 https://cruciallearning.com/?p=17221#comment-10415 Love the accountability placement here… many times we resort into holding accountable the wrong person. Yes, we all expect common sense used when booking travels, but setting the expectation is always on the manager. What if the employee comes from another organization that was more deliberate in spending their money on luxury because that is what their culture was? This is not on the associate if we don’t clarify what is our policy.

]]> https://cruciallearning.com/blog/how-to-tell-your-employee-their-expense-wont-be-covered/#comment-10414 Wed, 07 Dec 2022 15:16:54 +0000 https://cruciallearning.com/?p=17221#comment-10414 As someone who books travel for my company, it’s also worth checking the market the employee was staying in. There are many places with very high room rates. Hotels in the same market with lower rates may have poor (and possibly unsafe) conditions.

]]> https://cruciallearning.com/blog/how-to-tell-your-employee-their-expense-wont-be-covered/#comment-10413 Wed, 07 Dec 2022 15:16:22 +0000 https://cruciallearning.com/?p=17221#comment-10413 I understand your response to the high spender, however, I think I would begin the conversation in a different way. I would attempt to understand their behavior by asking them what they assume or think about when traveling on an expense account. In other words, understand more about the reasoning of the spender before the rest of the conversation takes place.

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