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 Lifesum's Workplace Well-being Director, Wesleigh is dedicated to expanding partnerships and scaling Lifesum's corporate wellbeing solution, Lifesum for Work.
Wesleigh brings extensive experience from the health and wellbeing industry. She has contributed to Amazon Alexa's Health and Wellness team, led customer success and channel sales for a workplace mental wellbeing solution, spent many years focused on fitness-industry advertising sales, and scaled Twitter's internal wellbeing program.
Passionate about increasing access to wellbeing practices for underserved younger generations, she serves as Board Chair for the Los Angeles chapter of Girls on the Run, a US-based nonprofit organization.
Mykhailo Iakovenko is the CEO and co-founder of Canonical Labs. He has extensive experience leading fraud prevention and mitigation strategies at leading financial technology companies. With a deep understanding of the evolving landscape of financial fraud, Mykhailo is dedicated to developing innovative solutions to protect the financial ecosystem.
Charlie Sidoti, Executive Director, InnSure
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:
