> 1. Spend company money like it is your own money. No, really.
The author’s commentary:
> Instead of crafting the perfect policy to fit humans into, hire adults and expect them to act like it. If someone can't reign in expenses and stays at the Ritz-Carlton every night, the answer isn't to have a policy that prevents it, the answer is that person shouldn't work for your company. They aren't a good fit.
My take:
If I’d spend my own money to stay at the Ritz-Carlton (I like nice places, I have the money to pay for it, etc.), then why does this make me a bad fit for GitLab? If the company doesn’t want the Ritz-Carlton expensed then make a policy for it.
Either GitLab has “shadow” policies in place (annoying unwritten rules) or the author doesn’t understand the policy that GitLab has. I wondered if their Core Values had something about thriftiness which might disqualify the Ritz:
> GitLab's six core values are Collaboration, Results, Efficiency, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging, Iteration, and Transparency, and together they spell the CREDIT we give each other by assuming good intent.
They go on to say:
> Every dollar we spend will have to be earned back. Be as frugal with company money as you are with your own. In saying this, we ask team members to weigh the cost of purchases against the value that they will bring to the company.
So they’re not really asking people to be as frugal with company money as they are their own. They’re asking people to be as cheap as GitLab wants them to be — without being specific about it.