Plus: People Lie More in E-mail than Face-to-Face and an Intricate Engineering Device for a Simple Task.

10 Odd Expense Report Claims

Pet food, lottery tickets, hot tub supplies, cosmetic surgery — if you’ve ever filled out an expense report, you know these generally won’t fly as “business transactions.” Yet these were among the more questionable expense report claims submitted to chief financial officers (CFOs), according to a recent survey by Robert Half Management Resources.

Based on responses from 1,600 U.S. and Canadian CFOs surveyed, other unexpected items ending up on expense reports were:

• A video game console;
• A trailer rental for a family reunion;
• A $12,000 family trip;
• A birthday party for the employee’s son;
• A golf trip for the employee and his friends;
• A day at the spa;
• A wedding anniversary dinner;
• A hotel charge for viewing adult movies;
• A fine for crashing into a toll booth; and
• A teepee.

“While these examples may seem incredible and in some cases humorous, they highlight a serious matter which can negatively impact a company’s bottom line,” Paul McDonald, senior executive director of Robert Half Management Resources, said in a statement. “Companies can help the [expense reporting] process by writing clear policies, making them easy to find and keeping workers informed of any changes.”

Rube Goldberg Would Be Proud

Wait for it…

People Lie More in E-mail than Face-to-Face

People lie in e-mail more than they do face-to-face, according to new research.

Based on a study of 110 same-sex pairs of college students who engaged in 15-minute conversations — either face-to-face, using e-mail or using instant messaging — University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers found that those using e-mail had five times more lies per word communicated than those speaking face-to-face. The researchers concluded that communication using computers for e-mail and instant messaging increases deception, with e-mail messages the most likely of the three forms to contain lies.

Underlying this was the concept of de-individualization, in which people grow psychologically and physically further from the person they are in communication with, increasing the likelihood of lying, according to the findings, published in the October issue of the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.

“Ultimately, the findings show how easy it is to lie when online, and that we are more likely to be the recipient of deceptive statements in online communication than when interacting with others face-to-face,” one of the study’s authors said in an announcement of the findings.

Meanwhile, the sky is blue, grass is green and water is wet.

Cheers.