| HN Mirror

These aren't expense reports. They are digital vouchers.

Imagine if your boss has a stack of gift cards on their desk in case people need a taxi home, and some employees start using it as their personal expense fund.

If I was looking to fire someone, the thieves would be at the top of the list.

Huh, I've never seen a digital voucher before. How do they work? And how can the employer detect what the employee uses it for?

I guess the net result is the same? It seems accepting the digital voucher comes with a huge risk--what if they decide to object to the establishment or your food choice? So just.. bring a sandwich for lunch instead or pay with your own money...

EDIT: the important thing to remember as a U.S. employee is that--just like every interaction with the police is grounds for arrest--every interaction with your employer is grounds for dismissal. So minimize those interactions.

ANOTHER EDIT: which restaurants or food trucks accept these "digital vouchers"? Are these some kind of apple wallet type thing on your phone? So it only works at places with certain payment equipment? Many places I like to eat only take cash..

> EDIT: the important thing to remember as a U.S. employee is that--just like every interaction with the police is grounds for arrest--every interaction with your employer is grounds for dismissal. So minimize those interactions.

What a sad and scared worldview. Interactions with your employer are also grounds for promotion, recognition, and advancement. Instead of hiding from life, you can engage with it. There are risks, but competent humans can asses those risks and proceed in a thoughtful way to achieve their goals.

>ANOTHER EDIT: which restaurants or food trucks accept these "digital vouchers"? Are these some kind of apple wallet type thing on your phone? So it only works at places with certain payment equipment? Many places I like to eat only take cash..

Per the article, they are codes you put in to apps like grubhub and ubereats. Yes, there are practical limitations on the perk. If you want to eat at a cash only place, you probably arent in the office working, and you can pay it out of your own pocket with your 400k Meta salary.

> but competent humans can asses those risks and proceed in a thoughtful way to achieve their goals.

As a competent human, here's how I approach these risks. There's simply nothing an employer can possibly do to me that matters significantly. Firing is an opportunity--I can collect unemployment and apply to better jobs and probably get a raise. Failing that, I'm confident in my skills to survive and thrive in any north american climate and--with a small amount of luck and some learning curve--by extension just about anywhere else on the planet. So I'm not actually super worried about the worst case scenario. But I'm not super confident it won't happen, because to be so i'd have to trust employers which is a known mistake.

> grubhub and ubereats

Ah ok, i've never used apps like that. I'm probably not the demographic who'd be caught in this sting.

So firing is an opportunity, but you categorically avoid engaging with your employer out of fear of giving them pretense to fire you. something isn't adding up for me.

Less is always more when it comes to work. The faster I can coast towards retirement the better, but if they want a fight fuck it let's go.

I dont know how they are distributed at Meta.

Some companies will have a app or web page where you can click to submit a request certifying that you are working late and request a meal voucher code. Sometimes there is an "I self certify I qualify and am following the rules.." checkbox

Using the code in the app sends the food bill and receipt to your company account, presumably with an identifier of who made the purchase.

>It seems accepting the digital voucher comes with a huge risk--what if they decide to object to the establishment or your food choice?

Seems like no risk to me, provided you are following the clear rules and aren't willfully scamming the system. I have never heard of a company objecting to a good faith food choice or establishment, and that doesnt seem to be the case here either.

> provided you are following the clear rules and aren't willfully scamming the system

That's genuinely interesting. I'd probably be so much happier in general if I was ever able to trust an employer's intentions that much. Experience has (repeatedly) taught me otherwise, though, so I fear that's not possible barring major changes in U.S. employment laws.

What is your bad experience with expenses?

There are lots of areas where I dont trust employers, but following published expense policies is not one I lose sleep over.

I have never once had a problem, or heard of anyone else having a problem in real life. I have used corporate expenses for decades, and know tons of people doing the same across dozens of companies.

That said, I don't overtly steal from the company. I'm smart enough to realize people are touchy about that.

I have never had a bad experience with expenses! That's part of what stands out so strongly about this incident. In a culture of blameless postmortems--where an operator can screw up a command causing millions of dollars of damage and the question is "how did this process fail", not "who should we pin it on"--to see my employer suddenly fire a bunch of people for something their process should have detected and corrected would be shocking. It would make me question their motives. I would probably conclude they're looking for even the smallest excuse to fire literally anyone they can get their claws into.

We've had broadly the same experience but drawn very different conclusions here. This is very interesting and I'll definitely think long and hard about it.

EDIT: I have had (accidentally) improperly reported expenses rejected before. That's normal procedure. It would be quite shocking if my employer instead just fired me... Albeit given U.S. employment law it would not be surprising