Perils of expense accounts

In my days as the service manager, I travelled pretty much the Midwest the East Coast and all of Canada. I would take care of customer problems with our product and teach service schools and help with their trade shows. I met a lot of people, and as I have referred to in previous blogs, I have a psychological failing in remembering names. I remember voices and accents. You can call me on the phone and i will remember who you are, and many things about your personal life, but I won’t have the foggiest notion what your name is.

I also travelled with our three Sales Managers and helped them with customer service issues. One of my first trips to the East Coast to help Don out. We visited customers and solved problems and generally had a great time. We ate at some nice restaurants and stayed at reasonable motels.

The week following this trip, Jim the manager of Marketing Sales, and Service stopped by my desk. He asked about the trip and where we went and how I did. I went over the trip as best I could remember. He then asked me “How is Elwood Weaver?”. I scratched my head and replied that I didn’t know the man. Jim replied, “That’s funny you had dinner with him Saturday night.”

I called Don and ask what the heck was going on. He said that we in the Midwest didn’t understand how expensive things are on the East Coast, so he always added another person in on his expense account. I told him to never do that again.

Turns out that we in the Midwest did know how expensive the East Coast is.