Meal Allowances and Taxi policy

Hey,

Doing a little research. With the cutbacks and whatnot, what is everyone's late night meal allowance and what time does it start on weeknights? Weekend policy?

Thanks guys.

Transportation Services & Meal Allowances

Allowances for meals vary from firm to firm. However car service seems to standard across most banks.

  • The average expense for lunch is 10 dollars
  • Average expense for dinner is 25 dollars
  • Car service usually available after 9 on weekdays
  • Car service available anytime on weekend

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$75 dollars for the weekend? Jesus.

I'm at a boutique. We get lunch to $12, dinner to $17. I don't know what the standard times are, I order dinner whenever, as early as 6PM. Our pantry is typically stocked with snacks, microwave meals, fruit, drinks, candy etc... even ice cream sometimes.

Car service is the same... whenever, but I typically dont think its warranted earlier than 9 PM.

 

It depends on the PE shop. Some bigger places (like Kelson) have their own chef who cooks lunch and dinner. Other places (like my shop) don't have anything by way of meal credit or cars. I think it's mostly because 1) you make enough money to afford that stuff and 2) you're not in the office that much on a consistent basis. When I first got here, I was spending a great deal of time in the office on some new projects. I asked about dinner allowance and got laughed at by some of the more senior associates.

We do, however, have a stocked kitchen/cafe area with tons of drinks, snacks, breakfast bars, etc.

 
Kanon:
...Maybe I'm just out of the loop, but I've never heard of Kelson PE shop. Know of Kelso & Co., but not of the former. But their own chef, that's pretty cool. How big is the firm exactly?

@MoneyKingdom - yeah, it did get pushed back to 10pm. I also heard $25 became $20 but I never bothered to get that confirmed.

Kanon, good catch. Mis-typing on my part. I think it's about 20-25 investment professionals.

www.kelso.com

What's interesting about that particular firm (and i've only worked along side them on a few deals) is that the principals invested a significant chunk of their 8th fund. I forget the exact number exactly.

 

BB - NY

Meal Allowance: $25 if delivered after 7pm during the week. On the weekends, we get $20 for a meal before 3pm and then another $20 for a meal after 3pm.

Car Service: During the week it's available after 9pm (after 8pm for some locations). At all times on the weekends.

Pantries: Limited. I just started recently, so I don't really know how much has been cut back, but there really isn't much. There's the obligatory Flavia machine and milk & cream is available. Although, I overheard one of the assistants saying there was talk in the past about charging for use of the machine. Vending machines/shops/drink bars are stocked well, but at a cost.

 

Multiple on-site restaurants Free snacks, juices, smoothies, ice creams, you name it Comprehensive breakfast Xbox, Wii, massages chairs Taxi service

FYI, as far as i know, the taxi service is only to be used as a last resort if you miss the last shuttle. it's not to be used on a regular basis.

 
maxcanada:
Multiple on-site restaurants Free snacks, juices, smoothies, ice creams, you name it Comprehensive breakfast Xbox, Wii, massages chairs Taxi service

... Google

This is just for the Mountain View office right ? Not the Manhattan one ?

 

During the week:

$25 for dinner taxi rule is technically after 8pm but never get questioned if its before

Weekends:

$50 per day taxi whenever

Pantry isn't stocked other than one of those Flavia coffee machines and some packets of soup.

 
drexelalum11:
creative:
Nooe! we have multiculturalism! thats always free at any job here! :P

Since when does Canada have minorities?

That is a mighty good point there.

I was going to say the one thing Canada has that the US doesn't is socialized medicine, but the way the current regime...er, administration is fucking things up, we will be there in no time.

Regards

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
 

Anyone find that people will dick around and stay late, not that there's work that cannot be done in a timely matter, but because they want to milk the car ride and dinner out of it? I know someone who will go in for a couple hours on a weekend, just to get lunch. This isn't necessarily a conscious decision, just the culture. Also to "get ahead" it seems like everyone's into face time. Even if you're not working hard, it looks good if you're the last person left in the office.

 

about 35.

thought about buying dinner/next day lunch together, but i dont because: a) no one else does it, so I dont want to look like the oddman out, and b) a lot of the stuff that is ordered in is pretty expensive, eg, last night mine was about $25 for a decently health thai meal + a soup.

 

£15.

As to how far it goes depends on what I order. For example, I can gorge myself on 4 boxes of gamey sushi and wash it down with 1.5l of Coke, or I can have a nice (somewhat haute cuisine) healthy chicken salad and a can of OJ.

__________ Just my 2c.
 
[Comment removed by mod team]
 

Dude I'm tired of seeing you interns and 1st years and even some 2nd years try to max out the $25 ... are you really that broke?

It just shows a lack of class .... buy what is needed and don't skimp on your own comfort but quit acting like the guy who hangs out in the subways and horde food .... its extremely silly and makes others think wtf is up with you.

Everytime someone has done that in my office, it's made them very disliked

 

^ Depends on the bank and how they do things. Some allow you to hand in receipts, some only do vie urbanbite/seamless web, and others do both. Usually, for receipts the limit is lower than for online orders - discounts I figure.

But the general range of the banks I've heard of was £10-20.

__________ Just my 2c.
 
gekko2:
an SA with a fiancée? so you'll be married once you start FT? congrats and good luck.

Thanks, took a different path to IB than most. Served in the military before undergrad so I am 26 and will be married when I am FT.

"One should recognize reality even when one doesn't like it, indeed, especially when one doesn't like it." - Charlie Munger
 

Typically, 12 am is a good time to take the car service and people are cool with it. But I think in your case it's fine regardless since you live in NJ. Most analysts live in NYC.

--Death, lighter than a feather; duty, heavier than a mountain
 

how does the meal allowance work?

do you charge the meal to a corporate card?

or...do you buy it on your own and get reimbursed later?

Also, aren't you liable for the tax portion of the reimbursement? I've interned at a big 4 and I was taxed on my meal reimbursements because it was considered an employee benefit.

Although it may be just a few dollars, something to think about I guess.

 
WizardofOz:
my first few months on the job i used to max out my allowance to the last cent.

shit gets old real fast. now i'm happy with just a burrito.

Chipotle by GCS? I live there...though I buy 2 (for lunch the next day).

 

I normally don't tip by % of food if its delivery, that seems to me to be a rule for eating in. ie if I order 30 bucks of food, ill give 5 bucks tip, if I order 75 bucks of fool, id give 7 bucks tip. Ill increase it, but not at the same % In dinning generally, the amount of service you receieve and therefore pay for is pretty proportional to sales, but delivery is delivery. I don't think its more work really for more food.

 

Seems like it would make more sense to tip by weight. $1 for every pound over 5. Or make people tip more for things that are not square. Or really hot. Or so delicious that it is torture to not eat it in the car on the way over.

 

NYC over here. Ate at the desk half the time, other half ate with full times when I was a summer. We would just take over the conference room/ recently moved md's office and eat together for 20 min or so.

Luke77, no one frowns on that. If they do go tell them to suck it. Although, I am not sure you will have much food for the next day. I know I ate my leftovers 3-4 hrs after dinner.

Some co's have subsidized cafe where you can get a quick sandwich for $4 that is actually decent. That's what I did for lunch each day.

If you get a chance, use someones seamless if you know they aren't eating. Stock up on Voss water baby...j/k. Seriously grab some water/snacks with someone's unused seamless.

 

If it were me, I'd eat everything I could possibly get my hands on. I would order out everyday and eat a ton of gummy bears with whatever left over money I have.

 
ChickOnDeck:
If it were me, I'd eat everything I could possibly get my hands on. I would order out everyday and eat a ton of gummy bears with whatever left over money I have.

Do this everyday. Become a fat fuck. No guys/girls want to fuck you anymore. Life sucks. Eat a salad.

 
Oconnor:
Would you actually want to waste your time in the morning packing a lunchbox or doing something more important, like sleeping an extra 15 minutes?

wow.

why take a shit in the morning? if you don't, you can get an extra 2 mins of sleep.

 

Yeah most of the time the allowance is too generous in terms of just dinner since people buy other stuff for the following day (drinks and sometimes something I can eat for breakfast since I'm a cheapskate). I can't imagine them cutting down on stuff like that too much though since it really doesn't affect the bottom line in comparison to md's taking private jets whereas it will piss off a lot of vp's and downwards.

 
Oconnor:
Yeah most of the time the allowance is too generous in terms of just dinner since people buy other stuff for the following day (drinks and sometimes something I can eat for breakfast since I'm a cheapskate). I can't imagine them cutting down on stuff like that too much though since it really doesn't affect the bottom line in comparison to md's taking private jets whereas it will piss off a lot of vp's and downwards.

I can't think of one instance in which an MD took a jet, other than for roadshows, which are paid for by the client.

 

I've got $25 for dinner, plus $25 for breakfast/lunch on weekends.

  • Capt K
- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 
x35109:
120 per diem? do you mean while you're on the road? we have 100 per day when we are on the road. i think people are referring to how much they get to spend per night on seamless. 25 here

don't think that's exclusively for on the road.

i was at a boutique consulting firm and we had a very generous limit (more than twice as much as the numbers being bandied about here) for dinner every day, even at the office or client site.

i think on the road we could expense lunch and breakfast as well.

 

"120 per diem? do you mean while you're on the road? we have 100 per day when we are on the road."

Yeh on the road and after 7 pm in the home office. Since there isn't work on Fridays, its pretty much just Mon-Thursday evening. But I think you can pretend its after 7 when you leave and still expense.

 

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