Quote:
Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
I probably should have selected a better example of waste. Business travel is often unnecessary, but it does enrich the traveler in useful ways. A better example of massive waste we can all agree upon would be:
The Giant Steak Dinner With Clients Where Someone Who Doesn't Drink Wine But Thinks He Knows It Conspicuously Orders Lots Of Expensive Wine And All The Appetizers On The Menu This mindless ritual combines a massive carbon footprint (cow methane) with decrease in productivity (next day's hangover) with near incurable damage to worker morale (realizing just what a goddamn bores your boss and clients really are).
I can make a steak as good as any I can buy at home. In fact, I frequently do. Without cheating by putting butter on it. And steaming vegetable sides isn't exactly high cuisine, unless one enjoys rock-hard asparagus thicker than ski poles.
"Ooooh, a football sized baked potato! With a 14 oz bowl of butter on the side! Heaven! And mac and cheese. Decadence defined!" |
When I was a new GP at my last biglaw my Tier 1 auto supplier client was sold to a mega Tier 1. We also successfully settled a big plaintiff’s case. To celebrate I took the 2 in-house attorneys and the business guy who was head of the division, along with my partner to a very swank out there restaurant. It made sense as they each were going elsewhere and controlled millions in potential lawyer fees.
My partner had recently come back to Detroit from a few years working in wine country. During the course of a very liquid dinner I heard him chatting up the Sommelier, “$250 per bottle? That’s a great price for that wine.”
I thought he was just talking shop, but turns out that is what we were drinking. And it’s on my firm card. The bill was like $2000, $1250 for wine.
And I’m thinking do I tip 20%? There is no difference in work from bringing out a $50 bottle or a $250 bottle, right? But in the end I tipped 20%. And like I said, it did make sense to wine and dine those 3.
The next week our passive aggressive CEO sent out a firm wide email:
“Be wise with your firm expenses. Do you really think a client will send you work because you bought a $100 bottle of wine instead of. $50 bottle?”
I went to her office and explained that I had no idea what partner was ordering. She said she wasn’t writing about me. We had another partner that had a standing reservation each month at the most expensive restaurant around here. He’d take random people where he had some plausible reason why the person might be able to send work.
I was in awe of the gall.
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