What if your boss owed you money?

ASmallWonder · May 2011

Ok so I have a small problem. My boss has asked me a few times to grab her some lunch from the cafeteria if she's going to be tied up and she says "Just let me know how much it is and I'll pay you back." The problem is that when I hand her the food she never asks how much it was or offers up the money and I feel uncomfortable handing it to her and basically being like "That'll be $7.50."

I don't think she intentionally avoids paying me back but she's very busy and I think it just doesn't occur to her. Sure, $7.50 isn't a ton of money but I can't afford to feed my VP boss all the time. WWYD?

gingerfamily · May 2011

Next time she/he asks I would just say "since I bought last week, do you mind buying this week?" or something to the effect.

yankeebaby2 · May 2011

I doubt it's inadvertant. When people owe money they know it. Did she think lunch started falling out of the sky?

You cannot afford to keep subsidizing her lunches so next time she asks say you have no cash on you and wait for her to give you the money.

first-time-mama · May 2011

We are pretty laid back here. But it has happened..we were just chatting and I said Oh I just remembered...do you have that $7.50? I am sure she just wasnt thinking.

NELCORP · May 2011

This time I would let it go. Next time I would hand her the food and receipt. But first glance at the receipt in front of her and say it was $7.50.

MrsPatterson · May 2011

You have to say something. If she's anything like my boss, she honestly does not even think about it or remember. If it were me, I would say something stupid and obvious but non-confrontational like, "Wow, they've raised the prices in the cafeteria. That grilled chicken salad used to be $6.50 but now it's $7.50." That will remind her that it actually cost money. If she doesn't immediately say, "Oh, that's right, how much do I owe you?" then she is doing it on purpose. If she's doing it on purpose, I agree with PP about saying something like, "Oh I don't have any cash on me today, would you mind buying this week since I bought last week?"

Que*Syrah · May 2011

i would set the food down and then hand her the receipt. in the future, stop picking food up for her.

ASmallWonder · May 2011

Thanks all. Unfortunately, the caf takes debit cards haha Also, it's part of my job to get her stuff if she needs it so I can't say no. I mean, I CAN since she's asking me to front the money but it wouldn't look good for me. I like the idea of putting the receipt with the food. It's a little passive but obviously I'm not doing well with being direct. And honestly, I believe it truly doesn't cross her mind. I've had to call her on weekends to make sure she remembers she has a nail appointment

superaunt · May 2011

from this point forward, i would give her the lunch and either have the $ owed on a post-it or email the $ owed.

ChicNotGeek · May 2011

Can you submit a receipt for reimbursement?

Mrs.S-S · May 2011

ChicNotGeek:
Can you submit a receipt for reimbursement?

This. Are you in a larger company? If my boss didn't pay me back directly - then I would submit my receipt to be reimbursed by the company and let them deal with the boss. Or, if you are in a smaller company and would submit stuff like that to your boss, keep all receipts together and do it monthly or something and just hand her a stack of receipts and say - I figured I would just do this all together - here are the receipts from lunch from May.

ASmallWonder · May 2011

Holy moly this got worse haha I went and got her lunch and put it in her office with the receipt tucked at the corner. She then left me a message that she decided not to come back from her offsite meeting today. So I have to toss the lunch, thus eliminating my clever "receipt under the plate" trick. Cripes :-p And don't get me wrong, I love my boss so this isn't a matter of me feeling angry about it, just unsure of how to correct it.

Mrs.S-S · May 2011

elmoali:
Holy moly this got worse haha I went and got her lunch and put it in her office with the receipt tucked at the corner. She then left me a message that she decided not to come back from her offsite meeting today. So I have to toss the lunch, thus eliminating my clever "receipt under the plate" trick. Cripes :-p And don't get me wrong, I love my boss so this isn't a matter of me feeling angry about it, just unsure of how to correct it.

In this case - I would absolutely keep all the receipts and instead of asking her each time - I would give them all to her at the end of the month and say "I wasn't really sure how to handle this - but these are all of the lunch receipts for May. Should I give them to you or is there someone else at the company (HR, perhaps?) to whom I should submit these for reimbursement."

kayteatrudeau · May 2011

I would prepare a spreasheet for him/her with the date, name of the restaurant and total. I would photocopy of the bills. I would then write a very nice email something like this.

Name,

As per your request please find attached a breakdown the all receipt for the priod of _______ to _____ as you requested. I will leave a copy of the attachement in you inbox for review.

I look forward to your response.

Name

Scan the items you copied and attach them to the email.

Then put a print out of the entire email and photocopies in his/her inbox.

That way it's all business (no personal emoting) and is exactly what they requested.

ak1234 · May 2011

She is taking advantange of you. I call BS on her not remembering. Lunch doesn't fall out of the sky. It starts to add up, and fast. And if the cafeteria takes debit cards, she can certainly give you hers to swipe for her sandwich.

FloF9 · May 2011

She is taking advantange of you. I call BS on her not remembering. Lunch doesn't fall out of the sky. It starts to add up, and fast. And if the cafeteria takes debit cards, she can certainly give you hers to swipe for her sandwich.

I would mention the receipt - what a waste. To make you pay for it but then not eat it? Jerk!

Jessys_Girl · May 2011

elmoali:
Holy moly this got worse haha I went and got her lunch and put it in her office with the receipt tucked at the corner. She then left me a message that she decided not to come back from her offsite meeting today. So I have to toss the lunch, thus eliminating my clever "receipt under the plate" trick. Cripes :-p And don't get me wrong, I love my boss so this isn't a matter of me feeling angry about it, just unsure of how to correct it.

I would write a small (handwritten) note at the bottom of the reciept "This is from Friday's lunch Smile " and then I would tape it to her computer monitory or phone or somewhere where she'll see it Monday morning.

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