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.
Laura Keller is senior director of customer experiences for NTT DATA Services with more than 15 years of experience dedicated to customer experience and people-centered design, Keller is an advocate for designing intuitive and meaningful, end-to-end experiences with business impact in the financial services and insurance sector. Keller has presented at UxPA, IxDA, Service Design Network (SDN) Conferences and has written for UX Matters, Communication Arts and SDN’s Touchpoint Journal.
Joelle Kaufman is the chief marketing officer of Dynamic Signal, an employee communication and engagement platform. With more than 20 years of executive level business development, strategy, marketing, product management, sales and communications experience, Joelle has led teams in media, enterprise technology and consumer internet companies.
Marc R. Lieberman is Chair of the Institutional Investments Group of Kutak Rock LLP.
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:
