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.
Kevin J. Armstrong is the General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer of Docupace.
Martin Cheek is a vice president and SmartSearch.
Ma. Contesa Pagulayan is a Program Specialist, Social Impact at Atlassian focusing on Remote Teams Engagement (prior to the pandemic!) and Engagement Data. Tesa is currently based in Manila. Outside of Atlassian, she is currently pursuing her graduate studies in Indigenous Psychology, focusing on Philippine Psychology at the University of the Philippines. She's been with Atlassian for four years now, spending two years within the Recruitment and People teams before moving to her current role.
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:
