Employees working from home during the coronavirus pandemic claimed some outlandish expenses this year, including pricey exercise bikes, facelifts and private jets.
Emburse, an expense management software company, released a compilation Wednesday of some of the craziest expenses it has seen claimed this year, some of which were actually approved. That included $1,895, which was approved as a contribution for an employee's Peloton Bike under the explanation of “for health and wellness.” On the other hand, a $7,600 expense claim for a facelift was submitted under the category of “repairs and maintenance” but was rejected, despite the pressing need to look one’s best during a Zoom meeting.
Michael Heinrich is founder and CEO ofOh My Green, a concierge-style provider of healthy food and wellness services for corporations of all sizes. Following several demanding jobs where he spent afternoons sluggish and tired after sugar-crashing on M&Ms and soda, he was inspired to create a business focused on making workplace food offerings more nutritious, healthy and delicious.
Jennifer Curry is senior vice president of global cloud services at INAP. She is an operational and technology leader with over 17 years of experience in the IT industry, including seven years in the hosting/cloud market.
Russel Davis is chief technology officer and chief operating officer at Vcinity. He has over 25 years of experience in management, operational and technical leadership roles ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Prior to joining Vcinity, he was COO and CTO of Bay Microsystems, the co-founder and COO of a well-funded venture developing telecommunications hardware and the service platform managing NFC devices and transactions for transportation and payment systems. He also served as CTO and VP of Product Development for CIC (public company), Director of Services for Everex Systems (acquired by FPG), Field Services Engineering Management at Centel Information Systems (acquired by Sprint) and supervised onboard Electronic Warfare operations in the US Navy.
Some expenses weren’t for working from home, but more about getting out of the house safely. An expense claim for a private jet charter costing over $20,000 was submitted and approved under the explanation of “required to limit COVID exposure for international shoots.” Another travel-related expense claim was $2,500 for a helicopter ride, which was not approved.
The $79 expense claim for a dog crate could perhaps be used for travel at some point when that's safer, but in these times it was more plausibly to provide "crate training [for] a new COVID puppy to not run into Zoom meetings."
Below is an infographic produced by Emburse showing this and several other head-scratching claims:
