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.
Jeff Miller is the VP, U.S. at nudge.
Alex is the Principal Industry Strategist at Hi Marley. He drives innovative use cases for omnichannel customer conversations across the insurance lifecycle. Before Hi Marley, Alex spent a decade with Liberty Mutual, where he was VP of Customer Experience. There, he led experience design, retention tactics, and omnichannel service strategy for the company's direct and independent agent channels. Alex also spent six years in Management Consulting, where he worked with companies across the globe on customer loyalty and growth strategy.
Ingo Weinem leads EPAM's European insurance vertical, partnering with top clients to enhance and expand their businesses.
With more than 35 years of experience in the financial services sector and the insurance industry, Mr. Weinem's expertise spans software engineering, financial planning, omnichannel digitalization and transformation strategies, innovation and organizational change management.
Throughout his professional career, he has held various management positions in the banking, financial markets and insurance industry for software solution providers, including Luxoft, Pactera, Capgemini, Cognizant and IBM.
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:
