I recently left my employment at a small environmental non-profit in my state.
I was driving very far for the job (literally across the entire state). I racked up over 1000$ in mileage during my few months there.
I stopped working there the first week of October.
And I will admit that this is partly my fault as I submitted about 3 months of expense reporting at once before I left. It was my first “real” job where I needed to do my own expense reports and was giving virtually no guidance on how often and what format to do them in. (Literally the employee handbook packet has a paragraph dedicated to expense reports and an empty example spreadsheet). So I procrastinated completing them.
I emphasize this is a VERY small non-profit (9 employees when I started) and the person in charge of accounting/accounts was working part time and transitioning to retirement when I started and was out for about 2 months during my brief time working there so it was difficult to get any communication going with them.
Anyway sent my expense reports into, apologized profusely for how late they were and accepted it was my fault and I had dropped the ball on them.
Was chastised for the lateness but also for the format even though I followed the given format, was given zero instruction besides an excel spreadsheet template and told we were not allowed to submit them as excel files, and to avoid sending digital reports.
Anyway I’ve been asking about the status of my reimbursement since November. When I signed my contract my single offered benefit was mileage reimbursement so I plan to collect. But the NPO has ghosted me. Not answering emails, not returning my phone messages.
$1000 is a lot of money to me and I’m about to move to for a new position and the money would help A LOT with moving expenses and until my new job kicks in.
I recognized I fucked up when I turned the expense reports late but I would like to pursue reimbursement for the hell I was put through during my time at this NPO.
My plan right now is to send a final email to the director and administrator expressing that I am intending to take further action. Then hit up Glassdoor, Indeed and social media. The NPO is so small previously that I was hesitant to by giving an honest review of what working there was like but now I don’t care. Social media wise they are obsessed with PR and public image and their public persona does not match some of their internal convos and attitudes esp the director’s.
I don’t think there’s much else I could do but I do intend to be a thorn in their side. My life was hell for months at this job. It was like working for a cult. And worst of all the director made me hate a field of work I used to love so much I almost changed careers.