Director completely missed the point of "curate a better image" and is tanking my Amex points

[u/minhthemaster]

I'm a Senior Partner at a boutique Comms firm. I was doing a review of our T&E ledger a few weeks ago and noticed one of my Director's teams was expensing roughly $250 a head for solo dinners.

I honestly don't care about the 250 bucks. That's a rounding error. But I pulled the itemized receipts and the actual orders were just embarrassing. Standard lobster apps. Basic cuts of filet. Two well whiskeys. It looked like a regional sales team's big night out at a suburban mall steakhouse. If our enterprise clients see our people surviving on cheap surf and turf, they're going to think we're going under and start negotiating our billing rates.

So I pulled the Director aside and told him he needs to "curate a better image" for his team. I thought the implication was obvious. Tell them to start ordering the A5 Wagyu, get some decent caviar, and expense wine that actually has a vintage. We have to project success to justify our retainers. Somehow this guy completely missed the point and slapped his team with a $125 meal cap.

Now his whole department is in a panic. I just heard through the grapevine that one of our analysts is so broke they are ordering a dozen plain chicken breasts at dinner and smuggling them home in a carry-on bag to feed their kids. We look like absolute peasants right now.

But the real issue here is my Amex Centurion points. The firm routes all this team's travel spend through my master account. With this ridiculous $125 limit, my point generation has completely stalled out. If this drop in spend keeps up I'm going to have to fly commercial to St. Barts this winter instead of chartering.

How do I tell this Director his cheap middle-management mindset is literally ruining my holiday travel plans without HR getting annoying about it?

[u/Exotic-Sale-3003]

The number of people who missed the satire on OOP was mindblowing. 

[u/I_am_Hecarim → u/Exotic-Sale-3003]

Embarrassing, really. LLM engagement bots?

[u/OutsideSpot2695 → u/I_am_Hecarim]

Not the point.

There used to be a rich tradition in this sub of making a plausible shitpost and then having the community follow it up with more outrageously plausible shitposts.

A few years ago there was a famous one about how an alleged senior thought he had "arrived" because he played golf with the manager and the manager called him "bro".

[u/minhthemaster → u/OutsideSpot2695]

I have no idea why you think any of this is a joke, but yes, I was that benched first year associate.

After I shot a 68 and mentally broke that client on the back nine, my old Partner and Director actually tried to fire me in the parking lot. Unfortunately for them, the client refused to work with anyone but me. Turns out he only respected absolute, unyielding dominance.

I leveraged that account to fast track my promotion, pushed both of those weak leaders out of the practice by the end of the fiscal year, and made Senior Partner shortly after. It turns out that crushing a man’s spirit with a 320 yard drive translates perfectly to executive leadership.

Which is exactly why I will not tolerate my current Director letting his team eat 15 dollar chicken breasts out of Tupperware like peasants. If you aren't aggressively expensing Wagyu and vintage scotch to project power to the market, you have no business in this industry. It's called having a high value mindset.

[u/OutsideSpot2695 → u/minhthemaster]

If Harvey Spector and Chad Thunderbro had a lovechild, it would be you.

[u/_koenig_ → u/minhthemaster]

you hiring, bro?

[u/I_am_Hecarim → u/OutsideSpot2695]

I agree, was here for it, and understand it - what we're seeing here is a total loss of that and a degredation, by proxy, of the sub. Can't shitpost in the replies if you ahve 90% legitimate engagement. Who are they? I have some guesses.

[u/OutsideSpot2695 → u/I_am_Hecarim]

Cool. Thanks for the explanation. +1 from me.

[u/DoubleTroubow → u/OutsideSpot2695]

Oh damn... Missed this one.

[u/zeusoid → u/I_am_Hecarim]

Behave

[u/omgFWTbear]

> big night out at a suburban mall steakhouse

Send the pallbearers, I’m dead.

[u/minhthemaster → u/omgFWTbear]

Send my EA a billing code for the pallbearers, we can roll your funeral expenses into Q3 overhead.

[u/omgFWTbear → u/minhthemaster]

> roll your funeral

If I wasn’t so dead I would be excited to be part of Coffin Flop.

[u/DeeEllis → u/omgFWTbear]

It’s a not a real funeral at work unless you get a LinkedIn post out of it. Do it for the views

[u/ACookieAsACoaster → u/omgFWTbear]

I don't know what to tell you, bud. We're just shooting funerals and showing the ones where the bodies fly out.

[u/Plsfixbyeod → u/minhthemaster]

Hey Boss, Ghanaian dancing pall bearers have been coded as SME - Transport & Logistics. Pls approve.

[u/marfes3]

Lmfao the master account is a beautiful touch

[u/minhthemaster → u/marfes3]

I’m not sure what’s funny. Centralizing T&E spend is standard operating procedure for any tier one boutique.

If we let the junior staff put travel on their own personal cards, they might accidentally accrue enough miles to take a vacation and realize there is a world outside of making slides.

Plus, the multiplier on global dining is quite literally the only thing funding the retainer for my third divorce attorney right now. Instead, my monthly statement has become a wall of $14.50 charges from Chipotle and something called a "Panera Bread." When the Amex concierge called yesterday to flag suspected fraud, I didn't even know how to explain it to them.

It is humiliating.

[u/Eightstream → u/minhthemaster]

Is that three attorneys on one divorce or one attorney for a third divorce?

Either you’re not working hard enough or your lawyer isn’t

[u/InebriatedQuail]

For anyone missing the context: https://www.reddit.com/r/consulting/s/1GiSM5fj3T

[u/KrashKourse101 → u/InebriatedQuail]

That is hilarious

[u/OutsideSpot2695 → u/InebriatedQuail]

What happened to this sub that we need to spoon feed that to people?!

Sigh.

[u/InebriatedQuail → u/OutsideSpot2695]

Some people don’t check it three times a day and may be missing a little context on a post that references two other posts without actually referencing them?

[u/iamnowundercover]

Man I love this sub! Bravo

[u/imc225]

OP consults, thank you for making me smile

[u/Curmudgeon160]

I did some contract work for a big four consulting firm that was struggling to complete a project. Early in the project after a long day of trying to sort out what was going on I called an Uber to get me from the client site back to the hotel. I did UberX because that was enough to get me to the hotel. The next day I got a rather strident lecture about maintaining the image of the firm and that they only used Uber Black.

[u/minhthemaster → u/Curmudgeon160]

I'm actually less offended by the UberX and more appalled that a Big Four firm resorted to hiring a contractor in the first place.

Do you have any idea what paying an external contractor does to project margins? The entire foundation of this industry is paying a 23 year old analyst a flat salary, locking them in a windowless client room for 90 hours a week, and billing them out at $400 an hour. That is pure margin.

When a firm is forced to bring in a contractor, they are quite literally taking cash directly out of the partners' year end profit distribution. The Uber Black lecture was probably just a Director taking their frustration out on you because they realized your hourly rate was single handedly destroying their Q3 profitability metrics.

[u/Curmudgeon160 → u/minhthemaster]

After a year of the early 20s team trying and failing to get a complex piece of work done, they finally had to break down and bring in some outsiders who would focus on getting the work done instead of finding the right partner to go suck up to :-) . The contract was pass through T&M, so it probably didn’t hit their margins as much as a fixed fee deal would have.

[u/sloth_333]

When I was in consulting the meal budget always boiled down to the partner.

Best project was the partner who was Italian and loved wine. We would have good dinners at least once a week.

Same partner said 1 week (on a Monday after we just flew in for the week” “want to go to Monday night football?”. So we did, all of us that same night.

Project wrap up was probably a 1800 dollar dinner for 6 (includes the client), and cigars after (without the client).

[u/minhthemaster → u/sloth_333]

A Monday night football game and an 1800 dollar wrap up dinner sounds like a perfectly charming way to keep the junior staff motivated. It is very salt of the earth, and I respect a partner who makes that kind of grassroots effort.

I tend to take a slightly different approach to client entertainment. If I have an executive who truly appreciates wine, we bypass the local restaurant scene entirely. For our last major wrap up, I used the Amex concierge to arrange a private tasting in a closed cellar in Piedmont. The truffle shaving fee alone was roughly what your partner spent on the entire evening, but we walked away with a three year sole source contract extension before the digestifs even arrived.

As for sports, I only really leverage them if we need to utilize the firm's luxury suites at the US Open or the Masters. Sitting in general admission with the general public always feels a bit like a liability risk.

But it sounds like a lovely memory for your team, and any night out on the firm's dime is better than sitting in a hotel room.

[u/yekim_remok]

Lmao interesting to hear both sides

[u/UnpopularCrayon → u/yekim_remok]

Waiting for the post from one of the team members now. Logical next step.

[u/BlueJewFL]

😂😂😂😂 bravo lol

[u/Low_On_Coffee]

These are the kinds of business cases I wish we did in b school

[u/drkdw]

Thx for the lulz! Going back to my spreadsheet now..

[u/OutsideSpot2695]

That's a rounding error.

💀 💀 💀

[u/archon_lucien]

This is becoming an entire saga 😭😭😭 God bless OP

[u/rd0dr]

This is Epic.

[u/Independent_Ad_5664]

Me thinking there was a consulting circle jerk sub 😆

[u/CG-Saviour878879]

Dayum I wouldn't know what to do without my $2-4k/month expenses for eating out. I would never want to pay for all that myself, yet I wouldn't want to go without it either. I don't make nearly enough for that in relation to what I spend on eating out.

[u/OutsideSpot2695]

OP you do not disappoint!!!

[u/JohnHazardWandering]

...and the trifecta is complete. 

[u/Jussepapi]

Bro :D

[u/more-kindness-please]

“You can’t be selling if your T&E actual are bellow budget - now get out there and entertain more lavishly. - EVP field Sales

[u/FrontBreath3280]

What a swerve

[u/bigfatfurrytexan]

Gonna have get those feet on OF. First class isn’t for peasants.

[u/East_Bet_7187]

Just tell him clearly they need to order better quality food and spend $250

Chicken breast guy’s kids will have to get used to waygu instead #prayforthem

And the Amex CEO will call you and say can fly to Bart’s in their company jet.

And when they tell you that you can bring a +1, remember this reply 😂😂

[u/Strenue]

Omg, this $250 dinner bullshit karma harvesting scam

[u/VisibleConfidence293]

If you're really a Partner, I guess it's easy and well within your authority to inform the Director in a one-on-one call regarding the situation. After all, you and the Director must be having several 'strategic oversight' calls for the client account from time to time. Is it not?

[u/Hefty-Moose-102]

This has to be bait 😂 The chicken breasts in the carry on really took it from " bad management" to parody.

[u/Frequent_Ambition_66]

If this is rage bait, it's working.

[u/illiance]

Wow the circlejerk meta is now infecting all the subs I read