Manager Quits After Her Boss Demands She Split The Cost Of Their Employees' Bar Tab At Company Gathering

When it comes to bosses, the difference between good and bad management is often so thin it couldn't be easier for them to do the right thing. And yet, some bosses just seem addicted to unforced errors.

Case in point: a woman whose boss demanded she dig into her own pockets for something so petty that it ended with her chucking the job entirely.

A manager quit when her boss demanded she pay half the bar tab for a company outing.

The woman sent her story to management coach and social media creator Chris Donnelly, whose content focuses on what to do and what to absolutely not, under any circumstances, ever do in order to be an effective manager. Suffice it to say that this story falls firmly in the latter category.

In her message to Donnelly, the manager, named Katherine, shared screenshots of chats between her and her boss, Mark, discussing the outing she'd taken their team on to a local watering hole.

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Both were "flying high" after the successful event, with Mark saying the day after was "one of those mornings where I'm very proud of what I have built." But oh, how quickly that goodwill evaporated when Katherine submitted her expense reports for the rounds of drinks the team had after Mark had left for the evening, which came to just shy of $500.

Mark immediately chided her for "unacceptable" expenditures. "Buying multiple drinks after everyone is already drunk does not count as a company expense," he told Katherine. 

"The company will not cover this. You and your friends will have to pay for these yourself." You and your friends? Is he her dad or something? But the inappropriate way of speaking was the least of the grievances here.

The boss had authorized the spending ahead of time, but then denied ever having given his permission. 

"I'm confused," Katherine replied. "Yesterday, when you were leaving, you mentioned to everyone something like 'drink whatever you want and put the drinks on the company card to celebrate our record month.' I just followed what you said."

Mark immediately denied ever having said this despite others having heard it, and despite Katherine having documentation, he had said it to a colleague. "This is ridiculous," she wrote. "Alex forwarded me your message yesterday, saying, 'put the drinks on the company card and make sure everyone has fun tonight.'"

Alex had forgotten her company card, so Katherine fronted the cost with her personal one, she explained. But Mark was unmoved — even after she provided him the documentation of his authorization, he changed tacks, telling Katherine he authorized Alex to buy the drinks, not her.

Mark then offered Katherine a compromise. "I propose that we split it," he wrote. And Katherine had precisely the reaction any reasonable person would expect: "Are you joking? You want me to split the company drinks with the company?"

This is precisely why experts argue employees should never put business expenses on a personal card and later submit expenses. Doing so opens the door to problems for both the business and the employee, including delayed payments or, worse, no reimbursement at all.

Considering that 29% of Americans have no access to emergency savings whatsoever, it's beyond egregious for a company to demand business expenses be covered in advance.

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The boss then accused her of being combative because she was hungover, despite knowing she doesn't drink because she's undergoing fertility treatments.

Mark simply would not back down, and when his lies failed him, he moved on to accusations, snidely telling Katherine if she was too hungover to handle things reasonably, she could wait until tomorrow. And that was the last straw.

"I don't drink, you inconsiderate idiot," Katherine wrote. "You know this, as we have discussed this a dozen times. I'm doing IVF, which is why I need leave, and why I can't drink." Mark then reprimanded her for "causing confrontation" and demanded she submit the expense reports with a full list of attendees.

She quit instead. "I want to tender my resignation with immediate effect," she wrote back. "I will be using my holiday days to bring down the notice period. I have told my team and I told them drinks are on me."

Mark, of course, immediately panicked. "Katherine, is this a joke?" he wrote in response. You cannot leave; without you, this team will fall apart. Of course, I'll pick up the drinks. It's not a problem at all." He even insisted he was just kidding about the whole thing, but this time, Katherine, quite rightly, was unmoved. 

In a note she wrote to Donnelly, she described just how galling this situation was, detailing how she'd helped Mark build the company from the bottom up, including training the whole staff. "He was manipulative, self-obsessed, full god complex" the entire time, she wrote, and "picking up a few rounds of espresso martinis and my Diet Coke tipped me over the edge."

She closed by offering a word of advice to those listening to her story: "If you are somewhere where your manager doesn't value you and support you, it's time to look elsewhere." 

Hard to argue with that. It is so, so easy to be a good boss. Being a jerk is a choice, and we should all remember that.

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John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.