I thought I would make posting a message here a somewhat daily thing, but the Toledo hotel Im staying at nixed those plans when their wireless Internet service went down Friday evening, and only came back online sometime over the last few hours. At least this gave me a chance to wander the streets of Toledo on Saturday, instead of cooping myself up in a hotel room to do work.
My walkabout yesterday left me feeling a bit better about this city than it did during my dinner here with clients on Friday night.
Most of my friends know that the work I do provides me with some discretionary funds for meals and such that can be expensed, but they also know Im extremely careful about this expense account because Im always thinking about the big picture.
The only advantage I take of my expense account is when Im having dinner with a casual acquaintance who I have mistakenly invited out to a restaurant that might be a little beyond their current means lets say they just lost their job and I had no clue! and I see them revolt in horror at the menu prices and find them checking out the salads and other lower priced offerings.
During a faux pas like this, I will utter the only white lie I ever tell - Dont worry. I can expense this. if I feel that my paying the bill would make them even more uncomfortable (because they are a casual acquaintance after all), and so that this dining situation doesnt become awkward if Im having sushi and theyre having a seaweed salad.
But in reality, Im picking up the bill out of my own pocket because I dont like seeing expense accounts get abused (and because I invited this person out, but thats a whole other story for another time).
The executives and senior staff, that took me out Friday, work for a company that recently let go of about 50 of their co-workers to streamline the business. These 50 people were told they would have to find new jobs because times were tough, business was slow, and the company couldnt afford them.
Yet, these executives and staffers that escaped a similar fate decided to use my presence as an excuse to party hearty on Friday, and spend the companys coin a little too carelessly in my humble opinion.
The restaurant they picked was Mancys - a fancy five-star Toledo steakhouse where the smaller steaks start at $20!
And aside from feeding off high-priced sirloin, these company men (and a company woman) indulged in bottle after bottle of red wine that brought the final bill up to well past $800 for five people excluding myself.
With excesses like this, no wonder the company is laying people off! The cost of that ONE meal alone would have been enough to give one of the people who was let go a few weeks earlier an extension on their job for maybe a week or two more. Thats just wrong!
So, I did the honorable thing and ordered a salad.
My walkabout yesterday left me feeling a bit better about this city than it did during my dinner here with clients on Friday night.
Most of my friends know that the work I do provides me with some discretionary funds for meals and such that can be expensed, but they also know Im extremely careful about this expense account because Im always thinking about the big picture.
The only advantage I take of my expense account is when Im having dinner with a casual acquaintance who I have mistakenly invited out to a restaurant that might be a little beyond their current means lets say they just lost their job and I had no clue! and I see them revolt in horror at the menu prices and find them checking out the salads and other lower priced offerings.
During a faux pas like this, I will utter the only white lie I ever tell - Dont worry. I can expense this. if I feel that my paying the bill would make them even more uncomfortable (because they are a casual acquaintance after all), and so that this dining situation doesnt become awkward if Im having sushi and theyre having a seaweed salad.
But in reality, Im picking up the bill out of my own pocket because I dont like seeing expense accounts get abused (and because I invited this person out, but thats a whole other story for another time).
The executives and senior staff, that took me out Friday, work for a company that recently let go of about 50 of their co-workers to streamline the business. These 50 people were told they would have to find new jobs because times were tough, business was slow, and the company couldnt afford them.
Yet, these executives and staffers that escaped a similar fate decided to use my presence as an excuse to party hearty on Friday, and spend the companys coin a little too carelessly in my humble opinion.
The restaurant they picked was Mancys - a fancy five-star Toledo steakhouse where the smaller steaks start at $20!
And aside from feeding off high-priced sirloin, these company men (and a company woman) indulged in bottle after bottle of red wine that brought the final bill up to well past $800 for five people excluding myself.
With excesses like this, no wonder the company is laying people off! The cost of that ONE meal alone would have been enough to give one of the people who was let go a few weeks earlier an extension on their job for maybe a week or two more. Thats just wrong!
So, I did the honorable thing and ordered a salad.
variety:
I'll do my best to remember to put up proposed vs actual tattoo, but right now, no access to it.