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.
Jennifer Nuckles is EVP + Group Business Unit Leader at SoFi, which serves as a loyal partner to a fast-growing community of 900+ employer partners through SoFi at Work. SoFi at Work is a holistic and data-driven financial well-being benefits platform that offers a full suite of services, tools, insights, and educational resources tailored to address the unique and evolving needs of each workforce through a dynamic dashboard experience.
Valerie Hoffman, Chief Research Officer at Meru Health, is a psychiatric epidemiologist by training (MPH from Yale University and PhD from Johns Hopkins University). She holds an adjunct faculty position at the University of Iowa, where she was an Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine and Epidemiology prior to working at Lockheed Martin and Research Triangle Institute. She has nearly 100 publications from work primarily funded by the National Institutes of Health, Veteran’s Administration, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
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:
