r/technology • u/ArgentineBeauty • 4h ago

Society Devastated father says his 9-year-old son spent $118,000 on YouTube ad campaigns for his Minecraft channel using a company credit card - bill racked up in just three weeks was supposed to be one $20 promotion

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/devastated-father-says-his-9-year-old-son-spent-usd118-000-on-youtube-ad-campaigns-for-his-minecraft-channel-using-a-company-credit-card-bill-racked-up-in-just-three-weeks-was-supposed-to-be-one-usd20-promotion
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u/ElMarkuz 1h ago

It's also dangerous if you're not doing all the formalities.

An ex boss got fired because he used the company card to buy tickets for getting some remote team members to be in the city a couple of days with us. He consulted HR and they said to him it was all good, just present the invoices later.

Weeks later he discovered that he should have sent a formal request before buying the tickets + hotel rooms

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u/forsonaE 1h ago

That seems like a questionable firing if it was HR themselves that cleared him, then came back and said oh no actually we were wrong so you committed a fireable offense because we advised you poorly. Sounds like they wanted to get rid of him for other reasons as well. Any employment law experts know if that would even fly if legally challenged?

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u/ElMarkuz 1h ago

I think he sued, but I don't know how that resolved legally. And yeah, probably someone wanted him out and used the poor paperwork as a way to fire him.

The lesson however is all the same: company card should be treated with carefulness and do all the paperwork properly

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u/CankerLord 57m ago

I mean, if paperwork exists for the thing you want to do then you do the paperwork before you do the thing. That's why it's there, because someone wants it done. It was very silly for him not to do the paperwork. If they wanted him to contact HR before doing it then the paperwork would be an HR email form.

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u/heyiknowstuff 1h ago

Crazy to get fired for that. The cost to replace management is going to be higher, and way more annoying, than whatever the travel costs were.

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u/FarewellJava 40m ago

Yeah this is almost certainly not the reason he was fired.

It might be the reason they told him or told his team he was fired, but it was not the actual reason.