To have claimed this as an expense?

[Wealthabd]

Something happened at work and I was very upset, manager told me to go home and would I like the company to book a taxi for me. It’s a long journey home and it could be anywhere from 1.5-2 hours drive and probably cost around £100.

I felt uncomfortable at the cost (even though the company were paying) and so I got the train, they know I’m struggling financially and the extra £20 I had to pay (my original ticket was for a set time) is actually a big cost to me. I’ve raised the ticket as an expense, fully open about what it was when raising it.

Now the company have acted like I’ve tried to steal from them. I really didn’t think I’d done anything wrong (ans it was 80% cheaper than the taxi) and I feel it could have been resolved with one conversation but they’ve now got senior management involved.

The problem with this logic is that really it is you who should have had the conversation first, before you submitted anything.

You raised it formally, so it now has to be dealt with formally.

I'm on the fence about the duty of care argument. You might have relieved them of their duty of care by being well enough to take the train. You should have just taken the taxi.

They offered you a taxi in case you weren't able for the train. They didn't offer you a train fair.

I agree with this. You absolved them of the duty of care so they may not pays

I used to book taxis for my place of work for colleagues travelling or sick. We didn’t pay the standard rate as we had a deal with the taxi company. Also, if this had happened with me - and you said no taxi and you submitted an expense for the train, it would go to someone else who probably wouldn’t have a a clue!

If you’re sick enough to need a taxi home, work should pay. If you’re well enough to get a train home, and it’s a usual route, then it’s your cost to pay.

This was def wrong. They offered to pay for a taxi. They weren’t giving you a travel expense to get home by your usual journey.

whether it’s better or worse value is irrelevant because expenses are always policy led. Your policy won’t allow this.

I’m a workplace first-aider. If someone has been ill in the office I have an account I can use to cab them home. If they decline then however they get there is on them, I wouldn’t pay for it.

I think people are being quite harsh on this thread.

The OP is clearly quite money conscious because she doesn't have much of it herself and felt uncomfortable about costing the company a £100 taxi home, so she took a cheaper mode of transport.

Obviously next time she'll know just to take whatever is on offer and not quibble, but it's pretty shitty of the company to effectively penalise her for trying to save them money.

Her manager should sort this out.

How would you have normally got home that day ?

I voted yanbu but after reading this i actually I agree with this comment you took the responsibility from them and showed you where ok

But if she knew they were paying, then it shouldn't have been a concern. As others have said, many companies have regular bookings with taxi firms and get a preferential rate.
Also as she made her own way home by train, this negates the need for being offered a form of transport. If they knew she was going to do this, surely they would simply have said to go home early. To me the reason they offered the taxi was out of concern, so by refusing this suggests she was fine to arrange her own transport and no longer a welfare concern.

I don’t think people are being harsh more just explaining.
So in my workplace the taxi would have gone through on an account like someone said above was for sickness/travel/emergency. It would pass through sign off no problem.

Someone submitting a train ticket for their usual journey home would flag to our finance as they wouldn’t know any background, it wasn’t work travel etc. So questions would be asked. It would most likely be allowed as a one off and the policy explained. Or worst case denied. It would never be classed as stealing.

Them saying "would you like us to book you a taxi" sounds like they just wanted to make sure you had a way of getting home safely.

if they thought you would pay for it, they should have made it very clear at the time. That's a lot for you to have to pay for.

otherwise they're absolute cheapskates and I'd think differently about them as an employer after that,

I don't think she gets this though.

I get it. It's a mindset that is difficult to break out of. Like, you're feeling ill enough to need to go home but you know you can make it on the train and taking a taxi at someone else's expense seems like you're abusing their goodwill somehow.

Obviously the corporate world just doesn't work like that at all, and you need to get into the mindset of complying with policy rather than worrying about saving some faceless entity money. But it doesn't come naturally to all of us.

It's not unreasonable of the OP to think, "If I can save the company money by taking the train, I should do that."

Yes but it seems that none of that was clear to the OP. She should talk to her manager and her manager should authorise the expense. She shouldn't find herself short by £20 because she tried to do what she thought was the right thing and save the company £80.

I’m wondering how it’s stealing if you submitted a receipt for a refund? They can say no and give a reason. Maybe that would be wrong if they offered to pay, but to say stealing is quite scandalous

They won’t authorise the expense. It was not a business expense so won’t be in policy. If you have someone willing to risk that, maybe. But not likely.

as others have said taxis will be paid by invoice against a purchases order. The Journeys will not be subject to the same scrutiny, scrutiny that would’ve fallen on the OPs manager anyway.

Now OP has taken responsibility for the expense and it’s outside of policy.

the best thing to do is apologise, say you misunderstood and move on. And next time- take the taxi!

Company expense policies are often very process driven so it's not the cost but the pricess that matters the most.

I got told not to approve again an expense which was basically one of the owners of the company paying an extra £5 on top of a £25 ticket instead of taking a £200/300 taxi. I should have made him pay the £5 personally even though his journey was £200 cheaper than the other option he was allowed to take.

But if someone submitted an expense that wasnt allowed, I would just reject it and say pay personally, there wouldn't be a big drama

I think it’s dependent on why you were going home. If it’s illness then refusing a cab you were saying you were ok to make your own way. If it was something else, that was their doing and meant they wanted you to leave early because you were upset, then it’s fair enough to pay the train as your other option was to wait a few hours for your normal train. I think it’s just a misunderstanding. Explain and try not to worry.

That’s just OPs interpretation of the conversation. She’s probably embarrassed and upset and took it in a way it was very unlikely to be intended

They offered the taxi and to pay for it because you were very upset - but you decided to go back using the train, which is your usual method of transport. So you were not upset enough to require immediate taxi transfer, therefore there was no need for them to pay your train fare because this was how you usually traveled. The fact that you could not use your normal ticket means that you should have agreed in advance that they would cover the cost of the ticket. Clearly, it would have been better for you to have taken the taxi if you were so upset that you needed to leave immediately. Hopefully they will now pay the 20 but you do need to understand their logic in order to get your own point across.

They’re just doing due diligence and this wasn’t an approved expense; just say you now realise you should have asked permission. Let it go as surely you’d have needed to get home anyway and that’s usually at your own cost?
If they let you leave early they’ve given you time - you wouldn’t normally expect to benefit financially due to sickness / upset.

Surely they just reject the expense rather than jumping to accuse you of stealing? I'd have expensed it too, but then I expense everything the second I leave the house for work

I had someone expense their tampons once 😂 do you mean that sort of expense everytime you leave the door?!

can you clarify a few things

firstly if this incident didn’t happen at work, how would you have got home and what would the cost have been?

secondly did your expenses claim go to the same manager who offered the taxi home? Was there a discussion at the time about cost and you saying it would be more cost effective to get a train? In my company expenses need to be explicitly approved in advance.

Surely this can easily be resolved by your line manager (or whoever offered the expensed taxi) authorising the expense claim.

I'm sorry you're going through this, I can imagine this is additional stress that you don't need.

Good luck x