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30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings

Throughout your career, work may spill out of the regular hours and seep into your personal time. There's the emergency 10 PM email that needs a response ASAP, the stressed-out client who thinks you're being lazy if you're not working on their project during the weekend, the list goes on.

A few days ago, Reddit user BrushProfessional350 submitted a post to the popular 'Antiwork' community, drawing attention to another way people sometimes have to "be there for the team." Company dinners. Yes, it has food, yes it has drinks, but you know you're expected to show up even if you don't feel like it.

However, in the example presented by BrushProfessional350, the situation was even worse. The workers had to pay for themselves!

Turns out, this appalling practice is quite common. As the post was going viral, other Reddit users flooded the comment section, sharing similar stories of their own.

This post may include affiliate links.

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings About 7 years ago we passed our audit so we were told to all meet at this fancy steakhouse to celebrate it. We were all pumped for some good eats on the company dime.

When we all got there and got seated the 5 of us staff were told by a higher up manager we couldn’t order any apps, no steaks, too pricey. (This was a Fortune 500 company btw) so we were all bummed. Ordering drinks…no alcohol, only allowed to get soda or water cause the lemonade wasn’t free refills. Okay whatever.

So we order our chicken dishes, fish dishes. salads, whatever that wasn’t steak. It was still good.

While eating our meals the VP head of our division shows up. She sits down and orders 2 appetizers, a filet with 2 lobster tails, 3 sides, and a bottle wine for herself.

A few of us politely excused ourselves after eating and just walked out. I left the company a month later.

CherryManhattan , ROMAN ODINTSOV Report

Final score:

150points

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fu yu 2 years ago

I would've ordered to go if I observed that nonsense. It's a slap on the face.

100points

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30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings I had something like this happen when I was working for my tribal college in the Capitol around 2008. The project we were working on wrapped up and the museum's project director invited everyone (over 15 of us) to a private room in a fancy-ass tapas restaurant in Washington DC for dinner. In the email invite he bragged about how his connections can get him in anywhere on short notice.

It was an expensive multi-course dinner of tiny food (it was just small expensive food not good or impressive in anyway) and all the while pitchers of margaritas were flowing like water. When the bill came he stopped everyone from leaving the private room, announced what their share was, and since he was generous that he'd pay the tip. Each share was $195, I know the usual gratuity was included because of how big the party was, cheap f**k.

I was pissed and told him how f**ked up and tacky it was to invite people to an expensive place like that and not pay, because over half of the project's workers were already struggling interns; some of them unpaid. My interns were paid and had per diem, but its was a lot less than I got. The asshole could have picked a cheaper place like buffalo wild wings or any sports bar to celebrate if we were to pay for ourselves.

The meal itself was $80, and I had 1 $10 bottle of mexican-bottled Coca-cola. I had been sober for a couple years at that point and didn't partake in all the margaritas. I handed him $300 of my own money and told him it was enough for me and the 2 interns that I worked with; as they were also sober non-drinkers. He tried to say it wasn't enough and called me cheap. I just told my interns to wait for me outside. I told him take it or leave it, the reservation and bill came in your name. I then walked out and never worked that guy again.

DaddyNinjaWolf , Ron Lach Report

Final score:

139points

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Evil Little Thing 2 years ago

Solid to cover the interns.

205points

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30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings That's sort of like the downhill progression that holiday parties took at my former employer:

• 1st Year, big catered dinner at a fancy restaurant for employees, family and in some cases even friends, bonus checks handed out

• 2nd year, catered dinner at a restaurant for employees and family, no bonus checks but they did have gift cards for everyone

• 3rd year, catered dinner at a restaurant for employees and family, gift card raffle

• 4th year, catered dinner at a restaurant, no gifts or anything

• 5th year, catered dinner in the break room at work, a single +1, 3 junky prizes were raffled off

• 6th year, catered lunch in the break room at work, no guests, a few more junky prizes raffled off (always seemed to go to the same people too, hmm)

• 7th year, catered breakfast in the break room, no guests, no raffles, and you had to clock out for it

• 8th year, "pot luck" lunch in the break room, everyone was expected to bring something on their own dime, you had to clock out for it, and HR set up a table where you could set up a recurring donation to United Way straight from your paycheck

So glad I don't work there anymore. Also fun to mention that my 1st year, it was a $40M/yr company and it was a $700M/yr company when I quit. You'd think they'd have money to take care of employees...

temp__erson , fauxels Report

Final score:

121points

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Amanita Virosa 2 years ago

When I was young and foolish a thousand years ago and making minimum wage. The boss called each of in and badgered us until we made a recurring donation to United Way from our paycheck.

54points

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30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings Had a boss that pulled something similar; this was a pretty nice spot (maybe $30-$50 a plate) and she tried to pull this s**t, even though it was a “mandatory team building dinner”.

Pretty much everybody left before the check came. Her (and the store’s) name was on the tab so she was stuck with it and was furious.

TBH I think maybe one of us ordered a beer, the rest of us had standard soft drinks, and we all just ordered off of the regular menu— nothing cute.

Sorry don’t make it a work thing if work ain’t gonna foot the bill. You are not my friend and I’m not beholden to spend my off time with you to help “build a team”.

cherenkov_light , Miroshnichenko Report

Final score:

118points

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Felice Coles 2 years ago

Maybe she learned something? Your employees are not your friends, and they don't want to spend their down time with you.

69points

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30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings This happened at the first law firm I worked at (at the height of the property bubble so the owner was minted). I should add they paid a pittance.

They took us out for Christmas dinner, seriously hit the wine and asked for the bill to be split 48 ways at the end of the night. Seemed surprised when most people walked out without paying.

adrichardson81 , Terje Sollie Report

Final score:

104points

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Felice Coles 2 years ago

That's not all the bosses should have been surprised at. How about a b***h slap for every one of them?

58points

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30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings I had a manager do something like that to me. He said that we (four of us in the "team") had to go out to lunch together to welcome the new person. Manager decided where we were going, and since this was mandatory, I assumed the company or the manager was paying for the lunch. When the bill came, he started to split it up – – but then he said the new person shouldn't pay because he was new, and that since I was the only one of the four that did not have kids to support, I should pick up the tab. No one objected, or seemed to think it was unfair. After sitting there with a totally stunned blank look on my face, and everyone looking at me and putting their wallets away, I ended up paying for it. I was so shocked I couldn't react otherwise, and I kick myself to this day.

kadje , Lukas Report

Final score:

101points

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ThE MaN 2 years ago

I would never do such a thing

72points

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30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings I had a boss that would “take us out to celebrate some company accomplishment”, tell us we would all have to pay for our lunches, collect the money from each of us, then go pay the bill with the company credit card. Did it for years.

Whayne_Kerr , Ivan Samkov Report

Final score:

97points

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Stephanie A Mutti 2 years ago

So we can all agree, this guy was stealing.

199points

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30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings Had a group meal with some execs (of Atari, this was a while back). We all knew we had to pay for our own food, that's the way the Tramiel organization was.

VP sitting next to me orders a huge meal with drinks. Towards the end of the meal, he plops down five dollars, says, "I've got to go," and bails.

We paid for his meal. And that VP (of sales, I think) got absolutely no help from engineering ever again, f**k him.

kabdib , Karolina Grabowska Report

Final score:

97points

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Felice Coles 2 years ago

Oh, karma bit him good. Hope his $5 meal turned to ashes in his gut.

56points

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30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings I worked part time at a place that sold things I love to collect in their warehouse dept. small business, about 12 employees. During the shutdown, the shipping manager and all of us asked for hazard pay. They denied it, so since the shipping manager had all the company’s credit card info, he made it a point to make sure we’d get lunch paid for by the company. This was ok’d for two weeks, and the owners even joined us a couple of times. One of them made a big deal about how generous they were for buying lunch.

When the two weeks of free lunch were over, we had a staff meeting, and I asked about overtime pay, hazard pay, and PPE, because we were working through a f**king pandemic. They claimed there wasn’t enough money for it. Well, the shipping supervisor was having none of it. He continued to buy us lunch for months, up until the day the company closed down because they had (shocking, I know) been ripping off investors. I later found out they even had applied for and gotten PPE loans from the government but used them to invest in themselves and a side company rather than ensuring that their “essential workers” were ok during a f**king pandemic. When the company shut down, I helped myself to some of those things that I like as severance pay.

BrushProfessional350 , Sander Dalhuisen Report

Final score:

96points

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fu yu 2 years ago

good

42points

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#10

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings I also had a similar experience. The whole team was invited to a pizza party after hours, then once we said yes, we were asked to put in for the expected cost.

Thankfully covid restrictions came in and it was cancelled.

Having to hang out with my co-workers, after hours, and pay for it myself, f**k off.

CityofCaseyIssues , Anna Shvets Report

Final score:

91points

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Id row 2 years ago

I always HATED that forced after hours socialization. I spend 9 hours a day with these people and just want to go home.

8points

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#11

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings I had a s**tty boss that did this to us once. She scheduled a team dinner at a fancy restaurant downtown. The bill came, and she said she was covering the first $200 of like a $500+ check, the rest was on us. After much other f**kery, we eventually went to HR and got her removed from management back to an "individual contributor" role, somewhere else in the company.

quietIntensity , Helena Lopes Report

Final score:

89points

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Randy Kitchens 2 years ago

Hallelujah !!!

5points

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#12

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings My husband was invited to go to a team happy hour during work hours. He didn’t want to go because he didn’t like his team, but he would have been the only one not going and his boss would start to notice. He went knowing this wasn’t a free meal, so he only ordered a burger, and had water. Everyone else ordered several alcoholic drinks and appetizers. When the bill came, he expected roughly $20 for his part. Nope- the manager “suggested” splitting the bill. My husband ended up paying $60 for his burger and cup of water.

veggiemeatballz , Valeria Boltneva Report

Final score:

75points

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Crazy Dog Lady 2 years ago

He should have spoken up

117points

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#13

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings Reminds me of my last boss.

He was a new 'manager'. I didn't like the guy before he got the role but I didn't let it affect how i did my job.

One day he sends out a message via email that he is inviting the whole team to lunch at a local favorite.
I had a lot of work to do and the local favorite was actually one of my least favorite, so I didn't bother to respond to the email. A few minutes later an MS teams message basically the same. Still ignored. Then a direct text from him. FML.
Decided if he was trying this hard to buy me lunch I'd go even though the place he wanted was a full 30 minutes from the job i was working on. I get there and the boss is already seated and eating. This was a pizza buffet place that you pay first then get whatever you want. He clearly had no intention of buying. What an asshat.

I'm ashamed to say I bought my food and ate there with the team thinking surely there must be a topic to discuss. Nope. This moron just didn't want to eat alone and bullied everyone into coming to lunch with him.

I don't work there anymore.

Twisted7ech , Mikhail Nilov Report

Final score:

71points

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Gay_Forg 2 years ago

A*****e

41points

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#14

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings Don’t feel bad, I’m in trouble at work because I didn’t go to a unpaid meeting in a day off that would have spent 30$ for getting an Uber because I was working at another job.

akaMONSTARS , Christina Morillo Report

Final score:

70points

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Jill Bussey 2 years ago

I was informed that I would be working the weekend (outside normal working week) for stock take in the warehouse. I asked what was the overtime rate, or would it be time off in lieu? No. No pay, no OT, no time off. So, see you all on Monday then. They fired me. I took them to the industrial tribunal and won. I don't work for nothing for anyone.

122points

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#15

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings Same happened to me at a job. I'm a new employee, boss says we're going out to celebrate coworkers birthday. Get to the restaurant, and order food, and they paid for the birthday person's meal, but no one else's. If I had known, I would have declined. Nice that the birthday person's meal got paid for, but don't say "we're celebrating", invite everyone out, then not pay for them.

dominus087 , Fábio Alves Report

Final score:

67points

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Na Schi 2 years ago

I'm biased... celebrating someone's birthday normally not includes a free meal until said person all invites you for it.

23points

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#16

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings My husband's company posted a billion in net profit this year. He PAID for 2 mouses for his employees. Yeah, $24 for wireless mouses because they wanted them to use ones that don't work. He also bought the fridge for their break room. This is at their corporate headquarters in the ONLY department that worked on site through the pandemic. They have a Children's Hospital Wing named after that company, but their employees can't keep their food cold working 12p to 7a while they eat WHILE WORKING.

Genredenouement03 , Carrie Allen Report

Final score:

65points

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Jenn Jenn 2 years ago

Damn. I just started a new job and was used to the type of shenanigans you speak of from my previous employer. I asked to order ear buds and he said it was fine. I ordered the cheapest ones available. Afterwards, he asked me what kind of ear buds I ordered and it was very clear in that moment, I could have ordered the crazy expensive Apple wireless ones and no one would have batted an eyelash. It's weird being conditioned to expect less than what you deserve.

4points

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#17

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings Years ago, when I decided I'd had enough of 'working for the man' I left the company and the industry entirely. To be frank, I didn't work for the monsters I hear about here so often but I also knew they could do a lot better taking care of employees than they did - and that it was going to get way worse.

The owners had done the unthinkable thing and sold the company and in my first conversation with my boss after the internal announcement I made him aware we needed to plan for my replacement. He was a fantastic guy, had literally brought me in as HIS succession plan. I was already doing about 80% of his job. I had no worries about getting shoved out the door. I gave 6 months notice; worked with them to get my replacement up to speed and had three goodbye parties thrown for me.

I saw the bill at the 3rd which was the most intimate event. There were only a fozen or so of us. My regional manager picked up a $15k tab that evening. It was the company dime.

When I think back on that and compare what my company spent just to see me off (when I didn't even want to work there any more) and I compare that to the fact your company won't even spend on you to celebrate a good year, all I can think of is how s**tty your company is.

TboneXXIV , Clay Banks Report

Final score:

64points

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Qibli of the SandWings 2 years ago (edited)

American here, what is a fozen? Or is that a typo for dozen (edit: why was I downvoted? It’s an honest question. I don’t know if it comes from another language! Geez)

49points

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#18

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings My partner works for a Fortune 500 (136 to be specific) company and they give every employee $10 Walmart gift cards for Christmas. The company is worth $21 BILLION and gave out freaking $10 gift cards.

White_Petal534 , LOLfamily45 Report

Final score:

63points

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Genevieve 2 years ago

All right, I looked it up: #136 is CarMax

79points

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#19

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings Yeah I was peeved when my work forced us to participate in "secret santa" in which we had to spend minimum £15 (2 hours of work for me) on a gift for one of our co-workers. I don't even like them and you're forcing me to spend 2 hours of my life of a s**tty little gift otherwise I'll be fired for not being "part of the family" (Obviously the bosses didn't do nothing for us, no Christmas bonus no free food... we got 1 free drink and that was it) just nasty. Either give me a Christmas bonus or don't but why would you force me to LOSE money for Christmas!!!

spicysnakelover , Any Lane Report

Final score:

52points

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GirlFriday 2 years ago

We did Secret Santa where I worked and had a limit of $5 for the entire week. We had a ball hiding gifts and leaving clues for our coworkers so they could go on a scavenger hunt and find a candy cane or a scratch off ticket.

46points

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#20

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings First day at a new job, I was given a welcome dinner. Good thing I had my wallet on me, because I got stuck with the bill.

real_mcflipper , Emil Kalibradov Report

Final score:

52points

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Stephen Steve Stephenson III 2 years ago

Are you a rookie on a professional sports team? Otherwise, this is weak sauce

28points

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#21

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings Oh yeah, I’ve been there. Was at a national sales meeting and got invited by a department VP (outside my own) to an escape room and dinner and drinks afterwards with his team. End of the night, “OK, everyone, VENMO me your share for the night!! I was like…..W…….T…….F??!!? Totes should have stayed at hotel for free dinner and drinks.

itzbetter , Polina Zimmerman Report

Final score:

52points

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Daniel Marsh 2 years ago

I wouldn't've paid. Not your department. Name's not on the bill. He invited you to dinner and drinks, not to pay for dinner and drinks.

48points

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#22

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings Interesting story in this at my company. There was a dinner that got out of hand. It was like 20 people in Norway (very expensive to eat out) but the bill came to $10K the VP had just got back from some big trip and his credit card was maxed out.

One of the new college grads put it on her American Express. It was a whole big thing and she ended up having to go to the CEO of a fortune 500 company and explain. It was really the VP that should have been doing that.

thebeastjake , ELEVATE Report

Final score:

48points

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Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago

No company card? WTF?

32points

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#23

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings My manager did this twice. Throughout the company there was a culture of managers taking out their teams for lunch, once every quarter. However my team's manager left the company and our director had to fill in that spot for about 9 months before they could find someone suitable. Our team had about 40 people, technically two teams run by leads and a manager overseeing those leads. This new manager lied about promoting me twice as well, before he left the company. Throughout his 3 years within the company, this guy took us out to lunch twice. He didn't do it for a long time and one of the leads let him know "hey you know it's good for team morale to go out for lunch and celebrate milestones" so this guy took us out to cpk, and again about 6 months later to cheesecake factory. Both times he left early from lunch and paid only for his meal and expected the team to pay for their expensive-ish meals. I mean I ordered the steak thinking it's a company paid event. I've had other managers invite us out to lunch and drinks after work for helping out their team and cover the bill. Some complained about this around, so the man decides it's better to have pot lucks instead of having everyone go out to team lunches. I'm glad he's gone.

baranisgreat34 , Askar Abayev Report

Final score:

44points

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Felice Coles 2 years ago

Did he have enough self-awareness to know that everyone else was glad he was gone, too?

28points

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#24

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings Had one where they tied it to some charity so we were ok with paying. But the next one they said “hey everybody’s invited to come to this chain restaurant down the road”. Didn’t tell us we were buying our own food and drink until we got handed the menus. Half of us, including me, couldn’t afford to be eating out on the wages they were paying us.

tangcameo , Ekrulila Report

Final score:

43points

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Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago (edited)

That’s just cruel. F*****g Scrooges.

32points

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#25

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings My boss did this too, but for a company lunch. He invited everyone to lunch, which in my experience, suggests he is paying! Then at the end of lunch he asked everyone to pay their share. Wtf

whitesapphire93 , August de Richelieu Report

Final score:

39points

POST

Daniel Marsh 2 years ago

"Company lunch" means company is paying.

37points

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#26

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings It reminds me of a story I was told by a friend. He and a group of co-workers were away together and eating out every night. Each night a different person would pay (they had company cards). After one particularly expensive meal, they noticed that their boss hadn't paid once so they challenged him!

He explained that he had to approve their expenses, but that his boss had to approve his expenses.

The penny dropped at that point.

Cyberprog , Priscilla Du Preez Report

Final score:

38points

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Claire 2 years ago

So he was actually a good boss.

57points

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#27

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings I used to work for a boomer who’d pull similar s**t. He’d saunter out of his office, announce that he was generously buying lunch for the team, tell one of us to go pick it up, pay for it, and he’d approve the expense. There were 8 of us so whoever ended up going was out of pocket $300 until whenever he decided to do approvals.

RadioMill , Sharon McCutcheon Report

Final score:

37points

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WilvanderHeijden 2 years ago

Sorry, you're a fool if you already know what stupid games the jerk is playing and you play along.

40points

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#28

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings My former boss had drinks and appies to celebrate two people getting their property manager licenses. One of them was his daughter. The other one couldn't get there until later. So by the time the second property manager arrived to celebrate, all the food had been eaten, so she had to order her own. And pay for her own dinner and drinks.

That was my ex boss's way of celebrating and encouraging his employees.

BitOCrumpet , Andrea Piacquadio Report

Final score:

36points

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Felice Coles 2 years ago

The important part is EX-boss.

35points

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#29

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings I had the same experience as OP once. Actually had a guy on the team do what you said and skipped out on paying his part of the bill. The rest of us were like "we're not covering for him." I think the manager had to pay his share because we all left.

ObtuseAndKneeless , Kampus Production Report

Final score:

33points

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Kathryn Baylis 2 years ago

Good for you.

26points

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#30

30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings This reminds me of the time I worked physical labor for 12-16 hours a day and the boss would take us out to eat. He paid, but when I was absolutely famished and ordered a TON of food to get my caloric intake my body needed, he would b**ch.

I finally told him if he's going to b**ch then stop paying for my meals. I need this food and if it bothers you then I'll just buy it myself.

I seriously needed a LOT of food, like near athlete olympic level food. It was really hard work in the heat. He continued to pay for my meals, begrudgingly. I wasn't being disrespectful, I needed that food to perform my job adequately. And I was more than willing to front the bill myself rather than hear him complain. Why pay for my meal if you're going to limit what I can eat? These bosses are seriously stupid.

Beginning_Piano_5668 , Jasmin Schreiber Report

Final score:

24points

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WilvanderHeijden 2 years ago

The employee should have let the employer decide how much he was allowed to eat and adjust his physical labor to the amount of food he was offered.

34points

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People think bosses who do this need a reality check

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

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Austėja is a Photo Editor at Bored Panda with a BA in Photography.

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What do you think ?

POST

NobodyInParticular 2 years ago

Here's one for you...Early in my career, I worked for a manufacturing company as an engineering tech, and a company whose software we used was having an instructional seminar a couple of states away and my boss thought I should attend. So, I asked them, "How's all of this getting paid for? Is it on the company or what?" The boss says "Oh, you can just put it on your credit card, file an expense report, and we'll reimburse you." I fell out laughing, and said "Credit card?! I don't have a credit card. Can't afford it on what you pay me, and I'm not sure I trust you guys to reimburse me ..." They ended up having to book the hotel room in advance with an executive's company card, pay for train tickets ahead of time, and send me there with about $500 cash in my pocket to cover any unforeseen expenses, with the agreement that when I returned I would hand over the remaining cash along with receipts for any of their cash that I had spent.

21points

Fat Harry 2 years ago

I have a similar, but opposite experience. A co-worker was leaving to emigrate to the US with his American wife and he suggested that on his last day we all go out for lunch. We had a good team rapport and so we took an extended lunch and went to a nice restaurant, all expecting to pay our share. When the bill comes the co-worker says "I've got this" and pays the £200+ bill out of his own pocket. Really nice guy.

14points

Naesil 2 years ago

If its mandatory company event, company pays... no exceptions. You can have events with coworkers that you pay yourself but then those are voluntary

13points

K Witmer 2 years ago

My daughters first job at a pet store pulled this stuff on her a high school student. They'd make them clock out to go to these seminars that they had to drive 30 mins to get to and then make them pay for the coffee and donuts. She made 75$ a week if she was "lucky". I had to call her manager bc missing school for that s**t was insane. The entitlement of the owners was so gross. Millionaires trying to scare a 16 yr old into missing school. I called the labor board they were fined for keeping the kids that worked for them pass 7pm. Told her to quit.

9points

Vicky Zar 2 years ago

The best company I ever worked for took ALL their employees (from several branches) AND their spouses + kids on a weekend trip EVERY YEAR! All costs payed, including transport, Hotel, food and alcohol.

7points

The Starsong Princess 2 years ago

When I went out with the team, I was always clear - this is a company sponsored event, meaning it was expensed, it was my treat, meaning I was paying out of my own pocket or it was pay your own way. None were mandatory. I did have the expectation that if I or the company were paying, they ordered modestly. And by modestly, you don’t order steak and lobster or a second to go dinner for you to take home to your husband. And yes, people did try that.

6points

Tarryn Louise 2 years ago

Not work related, but school. My son and all his classmates were told at the start of the school year that the students who behaved well enough in class and did all their homework all year would be entitled to attend a end of year class pizza party. This teacher hyped them up all year long. My son done so well in school that year he was made student counsellor for the next year at the awards ceremony. When he asked the teacher about the pizza party for the class after the ceremony, asking to know what day it will happen... she said "what pizza party" and walked off. I sent her an email and told her how disgusted I was that she blatantly lied to the kids all year and cc'd the principal in the email. Nothing came of it, I have no clue if anything was said to the teacher. Lying to kids is just s**t.

5points

David Martin 2 years ago

Admittedly not the same, because the owner did pay, but this was a sign of cheapness at my job. Once a month, the owner Paul would reward each shift with two large pizzas. The thing was, he never asked what we wanted, it was always one pepperoni, one Hawaiian. Literally NONE of the employees liked Hawaiian pizza, and it was widely known every shift had asked at least once to just get two pepperoni. Nope. Because Paul himself loved Hawaiian, so the next morning he'd come in, find three untouched pizzas, and decide to take them home, "Since nobody wants them." Eventually it became standard for me to take both graveyard shift pizzas with me in the morning (my coworkers weren't pizza people, they didn't eat any and let me have it all), and to throw out an entire, untouched, pineapple pizza in a dumpster a half a block away. Because screw that, Paul

5points

James016 2 years ago

Yesterday I made the trip to the office as our CIO was coming in for the first time to our new office. She has been dealing with cancer so she was finally well enough to come in. The co-CEO was also in, he gave her his company card and said to get the department lunch as a thank you for all the work we have done. It was a nice gesture.

4points

Nijlenna Rusty 2 years ago

I've got one too... Sometimes when the whole team needs to work overtime to make sure a crisis at work is averted, the boss give us a 'pizzanight'. It basically means we work a 4 hours extra that day as a team and the boss makes sure we get dinner, like pizza or Chinese food or something like that cheap kind of meals. After about a week of making those overtime hours (yes, big crisis) the boss gave us a bill of all the food we ate that week and asked us to pay up. Worst thing ever was the overtime (that week about 20 hours) was unpaid! Safe to say, I left that company afterwards.

3points

Darcy Marie 2 years ago

There was a really busy time at an old job and everyone was pulling long hours. A lot of us doing double shifts for days in a row. When it finally settled my boss wanted to thank us by buying us a pizza. She got two medium pizzas and that's it we had to cut their slices in half for everyone to have one slice. After that any time someone spoke up about being tired or over worked or any complaints my boss would snap "don't forget I bought you guys that pizza all on my own." She would constantly try to hold it over our heads that she bought two $10 pizzas for us. I left the company shortly after but rumor has it she's still talking about that d@mn pizza.

2points

BWC 2 years ago

My old department decided to create and expand a Project Manager group which always hired people with not IT experience. Basically, they arranged meetings (usually not including the necessary tech staff), answered emails and phone calls, and every single project ended up a clusterflack. Meaning that we tech staff wound up doing things 2 to 3 times before the end users were happy. Every month or so the PMs would have a catered lunch where they would congratulate each other's "accomplishments" and leave the leftovers out on a table in the kitchen area for us plebes that actually did all of the work.

2points

Mad Mar 2 years ago

My last Xmas party at old job. Boss usually got some shitty catered food an we (14) had to stand squished in a break room that held 4. Food was gross. We all usually got our Xmas checks and thanked him after we ate. I didn't want it because I was going to a party after work. Turns out he didn't even buy it that it was a money gift from the web designer he hired but ordered the cheapest food an kept the rest of the cash.

2points

Pat Bond 2 years ago

The golden rule is the most senior person at the table picks up the bill. Thats it.

2points

William Travis 2 years ago

I work at a multinational company that is extremely busy in December, as such we have a party after the beginning of the year, but it's employee funded. My first year I read the invite notice about how I'd need to pay to attend and confirmed it was for real. Screw that, we just spent 6 weeks busting our asses so the company can make a fortune, the least that we deserve is a company paid party. I have never once attended these events in over 20 years.

1point

Sebastián Alvarez 2 years ago

A former boss of mine, CEO and owner of the company gave us a bonus for team performance (small btw but was ok). The tricky part?, you cannot use it as another thing than "celebrate" and even asked for proofs like having dinner with that money or whatever. In that time I've needed any extra Monet to afford one debt I've had and asked him to use the bonus for whatever I needed to, response was: "That's not the spirit for this money". Declined the bonus, two months later quit.

1point

Jerry Mathers 2 years ago

My take on company dinners, regardless of whether they pay, is if isn't paid (as in salary hours ((and they never are))), it's a hard no. I spend enough of my life at work. The last thing I want to spend my free time doing is hanging out with work people.

1point

Cuppa tea? 2 years ago

I used to work for fairly big company, had many contracts across country in some reputable businesses. Our lot was in major pharma campus in country. End of the year came around and word that we are invited to Christmas party, please put down our name in case interested as it was in hotel and we had to get shuttle bus service organized. Coll, lots of people put down names. Few day later "official" invitation came around with details like menu, drinks and - price. We had to pay 60€ per single person for shitty company's Christmas party. To put this in perspective - you could get a dinner for two in good restaurant in city centre. Not poxy roast dinner in hotel on outskirts of town.

1point

Vanessa Lee Troy 2 years ago

Worked at Walgreens in 1983. Mgmt a nounced they were giving a Christmas party to celebrate this profitable year with us. At the bottom it said tickets were $5 and could be bought from and manager. The food was chips and dips sold inv the store . They made a profit off us. I did not go and everybody acted like I was a poor sport

0points

Kyle Logan 2 years ago

Had a team building holiday party. People were to vote on location. I have a deadly allergy to shellfish. Red Lobster was one of the choices. I made it known of my allergy. Was like a call to arms for managers to choose red lobster. I asked if I could attend and not order. Nope. I HAD to order food if I went. Finally said screw it and declined. Was then “talked to” about how disappointing it was I wasn’t a team player. Was having none of it and told them what I thought of them and their choices and idiocy. Coworkers banded with me and we threw an in-office team building pizza party instead. Pizza party wound up having more participants than red lobster. I let management know later how disappointing it was they weren’t interested in team building with their employees. I no longer work there lol.

0points

Dustin Kunz 2 years ago

I worked for a department inside a university in a small city that was basically a small nonprofit.. We would travel and front the bill for all expenses, and they would reimburse us for our meals, but only up to $35 per day. We were AmeriCorps VISTA members, so we got paid 110% of the poverty line – about $800 a month at the time. Instead of eating out, we would go to the grocery store at lunch and buy cereal, milk, and sandwich meat or some thing similar so that we could also actually go out to dinner and minimize how much we went over the $35. Occasionally we would travel somewhere much further and more expensive. Try eating on $35 a day in Washington DC. We later found out that this wasn’t even a University policy, but rather a department budget, and we had to submit receipts for everything, itemized. It could take two months to get reimbursed. Anyway, we worked on hunger and poverty.

0points

alloutbikes@yahoo.com 2 years ago

Worked for a family, who loved taking us out for lunch and big Christmas parties. But one complained that we got paid and she didn't. She got truck payment and insurance, lunch and gym, never had to open the office or stay late for clients. And her husband had great pay and Insurance. I skipped the Christmas party couldn't get out of the lunches. Got a call demanding I come to the restaurant because it made them look bad. I said it was costly for them to buy a dinner and I had plans so I wouldn't be there.

0points

Debbie 2 years ago

Illusions of importance. I had a colleague who was given a prize at work and invited us all to a celebration. Everyone who went was expected to pay for themselves.! Your celebration and you invited, so why should we pay?!

0points

TheSmartast!! 2 years ago

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POST

NobodyInParticular 2 years ago

21points

Fat Harry 2 years ago

14points

Naesil 2 years ago

If its mandatory company event, company pays... no exceptions. You can have events with coworkers that you pay yourself but then those are voluntary

13points

K Witmer 2 years ago

9points

Vicky Zar 2 years ago

7points

The Starsong Princess 2 years ago

6points

Tarryn Louise 2 years ago

5points

David Martin 2 years ago

5points

James016 2 years ago

4points

Nijlenna Rusty 2 years ago

3points

Darcy Marie 2 years ago

2points

BWC 2 years ago

2points

Mad Mar 2 years ago

2points

Pat Bond 2 years ago

The golden rule is the most senior person at the table picks up the bill. Thats it.

2points

William Travis 2 years ago

1point

Sebastián Alvarez 2 years ago

1point

Jerry Mathers 2 years ago

1point

Cuppa tea? 2 years ago

1point

Vanessa Lee Troy 2 years ago

0points

Kyle Logan 2 years ago

0points

Dustin Kunz 2 years ago

0points

alloutbikes@yahoo.com 2 years ago

0points

Debbie 2 years ago

0points

TheSmartast!! 2 years ago

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30 Times Greedy Bosses Expected Employees To Pay At Company Gatherings

People think bosses who do this need a reality check

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Rokas Laurinavičius

Rokas Laurinavičius

Austėja Akavickaitė

Austėja Akavickaitė