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.
As a solution architect at Atos North America, Jonas Bull leads pre-sales efforts, solution design and customer engagement, and manages cloud and hybrid engineering projects involving high performance computing, artificial intelligence and analytics. Bull helps industries across market verticals recognize value from technology investments, as well as identifies and prioritizes their goals for growth, design and implementation.
Bull has more than 20 years of business, leadership and technology experience, including Forrest Health Systems of Mississippi, CSpire Telecom and the US Navy. Bull is a mentor for students at University of Texas at Dallas, a volunteer mentor with Score.org, and is an active member of Tech Titans of North Dallas. He holds a bachelor's degree in Anthropology from the University of Southern Mississippi, and is pursuing an MBA with the Smartly Institute of Washington, D.C.
Anil Somani is chief transformation officer at Altimetrik.
Michael Kanellos, IoT Analyst at OSIsoft, tracks how innovation and IoT will impact energy, people and business. He’s written for over 20 years for CNET, Greentech Media, Forbes, Wired, Computer Reseller News, the New York Times and other publications and appeared as a guest on outlets like NPR, 60 Minutes, Fox News, CNN, the Today Show and Al Jazeera. Prior to technology, he also worked as an attorney, a Census Bureau enumerator and a busboy in a pancake house.
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:
