gift card scam, misleading company about cost to break lease — unethical
pocketing roommate rent while living in company paid apartment, renting a Tesla — Not unethical, and perhaps even ethical...
The problem is with the company’s policies. I actually feel that it’s my responsibility to point out problems in policies, since this kind of open ended self-regulated policy results in very disparate treatment between employees that come from a priveledged standing (higher socio-economic background, white, straight, male, Ivy League education, etc.) vs. a less priveledged standing. If you have grown up with priveledged, then when a company says rent a car and doesn’t specify the class or daily price limit, more often you rent a more expensive car than the employee who hasn’t. Same with the apartment, if you live in a big house, you rent a place at the upper limit of what is designated without batting an eye, whereas someone who lives with roommates or in a tiny place feels guilty if they rent anything near the top end of the rental allowance. I know there will be some people who take offense at me pointing this out, but look at the statistics: a big part of the reason for the wage gap between male and female and between whites and minorities is due to not feeling like they can negotiate when getting a job offer, and not feeling like they deserve to ask for a promotion. Companies that have non-negotiable job offers and have promotions tied to seniority or other objective quantitative measures don’t have the same wage gap problems as companies that don’t.
So I like when company policies are written with specificity and apply the same monetary benefit to employees regardless of what they feel they deserve. Company meal benefits while traveling should be a fixed per diem, regardless of what the employee actually spends. Housing allowance should be a fixed amount per month regardless of what the employee actually spends. Same with rental cars. This would also have the unintended benefit of rewarding frugality, as opposed to rewarding the feeling of entitlement.
So rent a Tesla and pressure your company to change their policies!