With my years in corporations both as an employee and as a contractor, I have often had trouble with policy. Usually, I wondered who set the policy and did that person have any common sense.
Here is a perfect example. I was working out of the Los Angeles office of a major bank in the 1980s. There was one five day course that was offered for the employees of the San Francisco data center that only I could teach. The bank required that you go through corporate travel to make your reservations. Now this is the same group who paid full coach fare no matter when you traveled. I learned very early on that if you flew the red-eye, full coach translated to first class. Guess who never traveled during the day especially when going to the East Coast. You would think that corporate travel would be looking for the best deals and that is why you went through them. Oh, so not so!
I called travel and tell them the days I want to fly and that I need a hotel for those nights. I get a call back with my itinerary. The flights are perfect. Then my agent says that I am booked at a hotel at the San Francisco Airport and a car has been rented for me. Wait a minute; that makes no sense as my class is in downtown San Francisco. Why am I staying 15 miles away when I could stay just a few blocks from the training site?
Her answer was – it’s policy! The only hotel she could find for those dates that did not exceed the per diem price was at the airport. It appeared to be on about $5 per night over, but policy was policy. Think about this — for $5 over policy, I was going to rent a car for $30 a day excluding tax and to pay for gas and parking which is San Francisco I can tell you is more than $5 per day. Where is the common sense?
Needless to say, she did not have the authority to waive the policy. Up the chain of command I went to the Executive Vice President of the Division. When all was said and done, I got my hotel in downtown and was informed that this was an exception to policy that would not be repeated.
Answer me a question: if the rationale for the policy is to ensure that I don’t spend greater than an established maximum for the day, doesn’t it make good common senses to look at the overall picture rather than each of its parts? In this case, to save $5 per night I was to spend over $20 per day. What would you do in this situation — follow policy or take the risk and propose a saner way of managing expenses?
Something else I have learned as a business woman is to ask for what you want. If you loved what you just read, this content is not for free. As a form of payment, I am asking you simply to comment or share this on Facebook or tweet about it on Twitter.
Linda Patten, MBA, BSN, RN has over 30 years of experience leading women to success in building and achieving their dreams. She turns networking marketing women from product sellers to leaders of highly functioning teams. To learn more about her innovative programs, click on Contact Us.