Howdy folks. My company is planning a trip for all employees where all expenses will be reimbursed (airfare, food, gas, rental car, airport parking) but also there are expenses that are not transparent to employees (hotel, wine tasting, food, etc). But they don’t provide health benefits. Just by adding up the expenses I know, there is no issue with them spending over $1000 for employees and their significant other. A friend of mine also brought up the fact that the costs that are not transparent could be going to friends of the CEO who run businesses that provide those good or services so they can write those off on their taxes as business expenses.
What makes all of this worse is that the company I work for does HR Research and brands themselves as the company to use to create an employee experience that job-seekers can’t resist. The CEO and Founder is aging and is starting to seem out of touch with reality. The whole industry of HR research just seems like a circle jerk of CEO’s paying millions to have articles written about how amazing they are. The CEO often talks about the new million dollar deals they land with X Fortune 500 company. Their excuse for not being able to provide health benefits is they they’re only a startup… however dude has been working in this industry and for a HUGE name in HR research for DECADES.
I am RSVPing as a no because I don’t want to participate, have no interest in meeting my coworkers in person, and am not a wine drinker.
How can I bring this up to my boss and address it in a way that might actually bring about some change but not affect my standing as an employee who has been with the company for less than a year? The “theme” communicated to the company is a “thank you for all the hard work you do”. I would prefer employee provided health benefits over an unnecessary trip out of state as that thank you (not to mention a raise that matches inflation since I was hired…)
Extra info that may be relevant: I was hired as a full time employee to replace two freelancers and have been tracking the amount of money I have saved the company (I received the formula the freelancers use to determine their price). I have not had a review yet but have been employed by the company for a quarter of a year and have only received praise.