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Expenses while away on business.

@LecsonQuad

About five miles to the nearest (not cheap) pub that does food, with no path.
We are away for three nights this time, will eat in the hotel bar for one night, local town the other two.

I suppose the point is that it’s possible, but if they do put us in a place that doesn’t include breakfast, I’ll be considering raising a grievance. On the last trip in December, we were left waiting on a bleak airfield from about 11am til 6pm, and didn’t eat until about 8.30pm. That was down to bad luck with the aircraft and a break down in communications, but all the same, if we’d had a sub-£5 McD breakfast, there could’ve been problems on the job.

Obviously, nobody from our HR would be expected to put up with that.
 
Thankfully for us, company vehicle (with tracker and dash cam) and company fuel card. I’ll be taking my time, really really taking my time.
 
I suppose the point is that it’s possible, but if they do put us in a place that doesn’t include breakfast, I’ll be considering raising a grievance. On the last trip in December, we were left waiting on a bleak airfield from about 11am til 6pm, and didn’t eat until about 8.30pm. That was down to bad luck with the aircraft and a break down in communications, but all the same, if we’d had a sub-£5 McD breakfast, there could’ve been problems on the job.

Obviously, nobody from our HR would be expected to put up with that.
You could probably argue a safety case, too. In a situation such as you describe, a hungry engineer is more likely to lack concentration, or make mistakes. No brekkie, no worky.
 
You could probably argue a safety case, too. In a situation such as you describe, a hungry engineer is more likely to lack concentration, or make mistakes. No brekkie, no worky.

Don’t worry, ‘Human Factors’ are preached and quoted frequently in our industry. It’s for us to predict possible issues and avoid them.

I’ll be taking energy bars this time, maybe a few other bits and bobs.

We are all being friendly about this, because it’s a good trip with the joy of working with the RAF for a refreshing change.

 
Tony, if it's MoD, and you're on an RAF base, can't you use the mess? When I was an HEO I got to use the officers mess when I visited units. Otherwise I got paid actuals on my subsistence claims when I ate off base. I even took the piss a few times and hit a Michelin starred place. I used to convince central booking to let me choose my own accommodation rather than the usual chain hotel, it always used to work out better value for better quality.

TBH, those allowances don't look ridiculous, we went out for a meal in a nice pub last night, 2 courses plus drinkies (a spanish prawn thingy and a 10oz ribeye steak for me) worked out at about £27 each.
 
Tony, if it's MoD, and you're on an RAF base, can't you use the mess? When I was an HEO I got to use the officers mess when I visited units. Otherwise I got paid actuals on my subsistence claims when I ate off base. I even took the piss a few times and hit a Michelin starred place. I used to convince central booking to let me choose my own accommodation rather than the usual chain hotel, it always used to work out better value for better quality.

TBH, those allowances don't look ridiculous, we went out for a meal in a nice pub last night, 2 courses plus drinkies (a spanish prawn thingy and a 10oz ribeye steak for me) worked out at about £27 each.

Not an MoD employee.

As I’ve said already, it’s not a problem if they put us in a typical hotel with breakfast but, at least once last year due to late notice, the breakfast had to be bought elsewhere, and that had to come from the £30. That makes it unacceptable.
 
Not an MoD employee.

As I’ve said already, it’s not a problem if they put us in a typical hotel with breakfast but, at least once last year due to late notice, the breakfast had to be bought elsewhere, and that had to come from the £30. That makes it unacceptable.

Ah yes that would eat in to it. Do you have a choice of accommodation or do you have to take what's booked?

Alternatively, do you still fit in your old uniform...
 
I used to work for a large multinational corporation, where they had page after page of guidelines about what you could and couldn't claim. When I left to join my current employer (20 or so employees in 2 countries) I asked my new, American, boss what the expense guidelines were. He look puzzled for a minute then his brow cleared - "No hookers, Dude!".
 
what about claiming bribes on expenses?

Some years ago, during his retirement speech, one of our project manager told the story of a team member who was on three months secondment and who tried to claim expenses for condoms, citing long absence from home, wife staying in the UK, lack of nookie etc, etc. There was nothing in the expenses manual forbidding this particular item (or in his case items).

After some consideration, the manager emailed back saying that he would allow the claim provided that the employee produced a “permission to claim for condoms” signed by his wife.

And that was the end of that expenses claim........
 
I work for a US company with a few hundred UK employees. We get:

£10 for Breakfast
£15 for lunch
£30 for dinner

The trick with breakfast is to get a hotel rate with it included. Hotel will charge £15+ for breakfast as a separate item.

As mentioned £30 for dinner is fine, don't have the hotel breakfast if you have to pay for it individually. Pub meals and a couple of pints should come in under £30.
 
Ah yes that would eat in to it. Do you have a choice of accommodation or do you have to take what's booked?

Alternatively, do you still fit in your old uniform...

It’s whatever's booked by our HR, and they have to seek approval for the choice from head office.
 
Used to work with a bloke and I signed off expenses. Questioned what I thought was excessive breakfast/lunch receipts and had the breakdown. "Is that what you would normally do for breakfast/lunch then?" "Well, no of course not". "Don't take the piss then!"
My view was if you ordinarily bought a sandwich for lunch and I asked you to work away and that same sandwich was twice the price, that is a fair expense to be claimed. Go to the pub for lunch and a drink and then tell me your lunch is more expensive than normal well don't be surprised if I don't agree.
Obviously, we're not talking about pub being the only available option.....
 


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