Following on the high point thread, who has had a great time on the company nickel? It doesn’t seem to happen as often anymore. Sure, there is the occasional fancy lunch or dinner but drinking is sort of discouraged these days, I member turning in receipts from bar entry cover charges at 2:30am and nobody flinched. I also recall legendary Christmas parties that went all night.
23 replies (most recent on top)
That rule was not because of cost but because the CEO didn’t like anyone flying faster than he could in the G5. First world problems.
The old rules specified CEO approval for travel on the Concorde, but I knew a guy who had a scheme for getting around that. Under 3 hours to London!
Been using cash at Twin Peaks in Midland...haven't had any issues with expense approvals
Chevron really went downhill when they started reporting rental car crashes as MVC. Thanks bald DP..
$700 at Spirmint Rhino in Dallas on a Saturday just after a Houston training boondoggle. Expense response sailed right thru like the Santa Maria
One lady in our group lost her Corp card for several years after some irregularities on her hotel bills. She was something else.
I had a colleague who always rented a Cadillac when on biz travel. Shameless. He even smashed a couple.
I used to have a standing offer for a weekly steak and martini lunch with a vendor in Houston. I finally had to cut him loose. It was over the top!
Most of the exorbitant travel spending came when the consultants "wined and dined" us CVX'ers. The locations of the conferences (where they wanted us on their panels on their dime) were wonderful (Miami, Barbados, London, Palo Alto). Might include excursions (Everglades), NBA games tickets or late night bar discussions. None of the expense had to be reported on my TEA.
A quick story.....
Went to dinner (while on the road) w/ our local attorney and my consultant attorney. I let the consultant pick the bottle of wine (not much of a wine drinker myself). He chose an $85 bottle for the 3 of us. Our local attorney spouts off "that's almost a $100 bottle" (the consultant then chose a cheaper bottle). Of course, consultant billed at $600/hour and his "massaging" his hours billed would have likely offset the savings on the wine choice. Bottom line.... be reasonable and never have problem with your expense account.
There used to be some wild times on the company cards. Too many stories to tell but if that happened today we would all be fired
Lots of "extravagant" (and enhanced?) stories here. We're all aware that the higher you are in the organization (or who your "friends" are), the more you get away with on your expense account. There are legions of accountants in Chevron whose sole job is to "massage" these expenses into IRS-acceptable language.
I thought it was interesting that US tax laws say that "extravagant" expenditures may not be justifiable. Only, nobody could define that. If the client/partner/govt person liked Michelin star dining, that's what we had to have. If they were wine connoisseurs, then this needed to be accomodated. I had a boss who wouldn't approve us buying a new staple puller for the office, but a $1000/head wine dinner was no big deal. "Team building" and "planning" events often included multi-day stays at 5-star resorts in amazing locations abroad.
This is layoffs related? I guess if you abused your privileges then you'll be first to get cut, so maybe it is, lol.
I got a fairly expensive sit-stand desk, ergo chair and a 32" curved wide screen per ergo rules. Somehow it all went through the expense system, and then I retired!
I still have an active gasoline card that works. Since retiring in late 2020, I’ve been filling up my personal F-150 with it. The best part is it has another 16 months before it expires. Happy motoring is in my lucky cards.
I lady I knew sometimes traveled as part of the EVP entourage. She said it was over the top. They would normally book at least one entire floor of a major hotel "for security purposes". Butler service was required 24/7. Spouses flitted about. Black limos, etc.
Back in the day we always had three margarita lunches if a vendor visited. We would get back to the office at like 2:45! Chat on the phone until quitting time.
The ABU Christmas party the year they had the belly dancers, snake charmer and the camels (was it "Arabian Nights"?), was epic. HR was very busy the next week with complaints, haha.
I post all my thoughts and questions on the layoff's board because I just learnt about the interwebs, derp derp....
I was able to put quite a dent on the old corp card during a posting which required frequent trips to London to wine and dine potential business partners. Amazing food in that city, I must say. We had some fabulous ports on occasion as well.
Three buddies and I took the Gulfstream overseas unsupervised. The crew said we were the first to completely wipe out the li---r on board, haha.
- drinks/dinner with clients/other BUs at least 2 - 3 times/week, 1 big dinner event every qtr with at least 20 over pax
- booked a party bus once for global meeting when other regional offices fly in
- golf events
- countless drinking/singing sessions that last through the night
when covid hit, used it to buy home office furniture.
busted the budget by $300 and it still went through... sweet times...