5 ms·

Expecting your employees to provide you monthly loans to cover recurring expenses is a pretty poor policy.

by tssva 4y ago

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 4y ago
Conversely, ignoring that your employees purchase on their own a tool which helps them with their job is a pretty poor policy. One might even think someone who doesn't ignore such a situation and instead says, "Hey, I'll reimburse you for that!" is being kind.
- tssva 4y ago
  Why purchase a tool for the benefit of your job which your employer will not pay for? If I am less efficient at my job because they won't purchase it, then that is their decision. Less efficient it is.
  - lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 4y ago
    > Why purchase a tool for the benefit of your job which your employer will not pay for? This is shifting the goalposts. Your initial comment assumed[0] that the employer had an expectation that the employee would pay for these things and I was intending to provide an alternate perspective. You can make your own decisions but it doesn't make sense to act like other employees have no agency. To answer the question, some people have a hobby that is also their job. Purchasing the tool for the hobby means they can use it for the job and an employer is being kind when they notice this situation and choose to reimburse the employee for their purchase. The point is, there's more room for understanding that one likely doesn't have the full picture. It is worth checking assumptions from time to time. [0] > Expecting your employees to provide you monthly loans ...
icelancer 4y ago
What do you think is more likely? American software developers are put out by needing to buy up to $XXX/month in services which are reimbursed in their next paycheck, creating a short-term loan, OR The same developers are not at all cash flow sensitive to $XXX/month and rather enjoy the credit card rewards they get to harvest from these reimbursements? If you work at a large corporation who forces the use of company cards over personal cards + timely reimbursements, the opinion is one-sided for the rewards alone. Much less the bureaucracy that usually accompanies the approval of using a company card. This is especially true when it comes to airline travel. Individuals far, far more prefer to book travel on their own rewards cards - often travel-based ones, netting significant benefits like Delta's AMEX MQD waiver. By the way, if it really matters to you, we will put Copilot and/or any other expenses on our own company rewards card if the cashflow is actually impactful. As I am sure most businesses would. It's just that employees vastly prefer the reimbursement methods for obvious reasons in today's rewards credit card environment.
- number6 4y ago
  Employer gives them a credit card they can use for their software tooling
- TeMPOraL 4y ago
  The only time I got a corporate card, the company used a third option: a corporate AMEX that you had to pay off on your own + timely reimbursements + rule against plugging your own travel reward cards to collect miles and bonuses. From employee point of view, this setup had all the drawbacks of using your own card, with none of the benefits. Well, OK - it saved you a tiny bit of time when doing expense reports, by automatically pre-filling the expense sheet with transactions pulled from AMEX statement. So there's that. As for software licensing, that same company had a system through which you could request software, and appropriate costs would be deducted automatically from somewhere (e.g. team budget, or more likely, your paycheck). So again, a third option.
Larrikin 4y ago
Most people when given the option prefer to "take the loan" out for the company, since most employees will have rewards credit cards. You get the full cost you paid in your next pay check plus the bonus points on your card, that will be at a minimum 1 percent of the cost and possibly up to 5+ percent if you're lucky and your expense is in a good category.

Expecting your employees to provide you monthly loans to cover recurring expenses is a pretty poor policy.

by tssva 4y ago

Expecting your employees to provide you monthly loans to cover recurring expenses is a pretty poor policy.

Conversely, ignoring that your employees purchase on their own a tool which helps them with their job is a pretty poor policy. One might even think someone who doesn't ignore such a situation and instead says, "Hey, I'll reimburse you for that!" is being kind.

tssva 4y ago
Why purchase a tool for the benefit of your job which your employer will not pay for? If I am less efficient at my job because they won't purchase it, then that is their decision. Less efficient it is.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 4y ago
  > Why purchase a tool for the benefit of your job which your employer will not pay for? This is shifting the goalposts. Your initial comment assumed[0] that the employer had an expectation that the employee would pay for these things and I was intending to provide an alternate perspective. You can make your own decisions but it doesn't make sense to act like other employees have no agency. To answer the question, some people have a hobby that is also their job. Purchasing the tool for the hobby means they can use it for the job and an employer is being kind when they notice this situation and choose to reimburse the employee for their purchase. The point is, there's more room for understanding that one likely doesn't have the full picture. It is worth checking assumptions from time to time. [0] > Expecting your employees to provide you monthly loans ...

icelancer 4y ago

What do you think is more likely? American software developers are put out by needing to buy up to $XXX/month in services which are reimbursed in their next paycheck, creating a short-term loan, OR The same developers are not at all cash flow sensitive to $XXX/month and rather enjoy the credit card rewards they get to harvest from these reimbursements? If you work at a large corporation who forces the use of company cards over personal cards + timely reimbursements, the opinion is one-sided for the rewards alone. Much less the bureaucracy that usually accompanies the approval of using a company card. This is especially true when it comes to airline travel. Individuals far, far more prefer to book travel on their own rewards cards - often travel-based ones, netting significant benefits like Delta's AMEX MQD waiver. By the way, if it really matters to you, we will put Copilot and/or any other expenses on our own company rewards card if the cashflow is actually impactful. As I am sure most businesses would. It's just that employees vastly prefer the reimbursement methods for obvious reasons in today's rewards credit card environment.

number6 4y ago
Employer gives them a credit card they can use for their software tooling
TeMPOraL 4y ago
The only time I got a corporate card, the company used a third option: a corporate AMEX that you had to pay off on your own + timely reimbursements + rule against plugging your own travel reward cards to collect miles and bonuses. From employee point of view, this setup had all the drawbacks of using your own card, with none of the benefits. Well, OK - it saved you a tiny bit of time when doing expense reports, by automatically pre-filling the expense sheet with transactions pulled from AMEX statement. So there's that. As for software licensing, that same company had a system through which you could request software, and appropriate costs would be deducted automatically from somewhere (e.g. team budget, or more likely, your paycheck). So again, a third option.

Larrikin 4y ago

Most people when given the option prefer to "take the loan" out for the company, since most employees will have rewards credit cards. You get the full cost you paid in your next pay check plus the bonus points on your card, that will be at a minimum 1 percent of the cost and possibly up to 5+ percent if you're lucky and your expense is in a good category.