| Title | : | Jim Fosse's Expense Claim |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| ISBN-10 | : | B0093NPM0I |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 38 |
| Publication | : | First published August 28, 2012 |
A darkly humorous short story of obsession from John Dolan, author of 'Everyone Burns'.
WARNING: Contains sexual references and some really terrible grammar.
Jim Fosse's Expense Claim Reviews
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A short but amusing tale relating to the exchange of work related emails. These exchanges become ever more abusive in tone and lead to a surprising end. Very good.
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10 minute read, darkly funny
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This is a very humorous short story of a man's tribulations as he tries to get his company to pay for a very questionable expense account. John Dolan's humor is aptly displayed in this book. However, for those of us who have dealt with expense accounts, there is more than a kernel of truth in the tale. Five stars to John for this one.
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My husband traveled for different companies so I have little sympathy for those adminstrators who Approve or Deny claims. One company, which is scarely in business anymore (cough ) would wait months to reimburse travel which was basically an interest-free loan from their employees...and they kept the free miles for themselves!
A quick read I got for free for Kindle from Amazon. -
Most enjoyable! I read this while waiting for a flight and it passed the time nicely. A lot of fun.
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An Entertaining Snapshot of Corporate Wheels
This was hilarious. It's a cleverly constructed story told through written media (email, letter, articles). A maligned dealmaker cares nothing for the legalities of life when conducting business in cities where corporate rules of business simply don't apply, so long as he gets paid his expenses. I felt for the poor expenses manager, but had this crazy sense of Jim's increasing frustration. However, there is a slight twist in the tale: Jim seems determined to have the last word. A good, quick read!
This review was provided in exchange for a free copy. -
Jim Fosse just wants to get his expenses paid in full. He's new and doesn't know the procedures yet. What ensues is a humorous look at how the expense claim is handled by his company. To be specific, how Ramon Ortiz, the Expense Claims Manager handles it.
You will laugh out loud at this short story! A typical situation becomes one you'll be sharing with all your friends. John Dolan did a fantastic job with this short story. I recommend you read it and then share with everyone!
I found no issues.
I gave this one 5 cheers out of 5 because it made me laugh from beginning to end. -
Once again - I say Kindle when I mean Kobo.
This was a quirky 'novella' and I enjoyed its meanderings. We were taught NEVER to read someone else's letters (unless invited). There is something about reading someone else's mail that gives you a delicious feeling of doing something naughty. That's how I felt reading this book.
What fun. It made me download John's first 'proper' (to quote his words) book. -
Ha Ha. Very silly, but very funny. If you work for a large company or have ever felt like banging your head against a wall when dealing with bureaucracy - I guarantee you'll love this short story. Having read this short I've added one of the writer's full length novels
Everyone Burnsto my BTR list. -
John Dolan's Jim Fosse's Expense Claim is a laugh out loud farce (I hope) that had me as the fly on the wall reading private emails. Ease dropping is one of my favorite pastimes so this was a pleasure, however how brief.
A bit off the cuff and that's what I like about it. The author doesn't necessarily play by anyone's rules, and thank goodness for that. He is an original and has an unusual way of telling a story. -
It wouldn't be easy to write a lengthy review for this piece, because it was very short and sweet. That said, it was hilariously funny and I loved it. I like how Mr Dolan writes, his great wit and how his mind works. I'd recommend Jim Fosse's Expense Claim to anyone because it will make you laugh unless you're sociopathically challenged. And the end is a peach. Good job :-)
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Got to laugh!
For a free read, this little story was a bit of a surprise. It is a very short tale, but in no time I found myself laughing out loud. OK, maybe there are certain things that some might think push the boundaries these days, however, it is a bit of fun that certainly brightened up my day. Enjoy... -
John Dolan’s ‘Jim Fosse’s Expense Claim’ is a short sharp introduction to the writing of this author. Needless to say that this short story is a taster of his skill with the pen, together with an insight into his own sense of humour - his slightly twisted sense of humour. What can you do with an expense claim? Well, John does it in a most unexpected way.
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Oh so wrong. Oh so ever so slightly warped. But oh so completely genius, witty and sharp. Loved this short story - definitely left wanting more.
The perfect taster to John Dolans first novel 'Everyone Burns' - which is brilliance in a book. -
Aren't all offices like this?
I wish! -
A wonderfully crafted short story with a fine twist in the end. Enjoyed it!
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Corporate red tape and bureaucracy are always fertile subjects for fiction writers, and John Dolan cleverly exploits the corporate mindset in "Jim Fosse's Expense Claim," a darkly comic tale of how one most unusual employee's method of doing business clashes with a very typical corporate culture.
The story is written in the form of a series of e-mails, most of them between the eponymous Jim Fosse, an employee of a fictional power company, and Ramon Ortiz, the pencil pusher in HR responsible for approving travel expenses. Fosse is the company's business development manager, who has just returned from a trip to southeast Asia, where he was successful in landing some new agreements. However, as Ortiz presses Fosse for receipts and other documentation of his expenses, Fosse becomes increasingly hostile. And, when Ortiz learns that Fosse’s methods of landing the contracts involve some, ahem, unusual methods of persuasion for the local officials, he can’t quite square those methods with the corporate manual.
There’s not a lot of plot to “Jim Fosse’s Expense Claim,” but the story does have a clever twist at the end (one that is, however, considerably diminished by a glaring factual error by the author that was not caught in editing). The story is enjoyable because the author has managed to perfectly tap into the corporate mindset, creating a series of e-mails in which corporate flaks try, with increasingly diminished levels of success, to cope with an employee who gleefully sees nothing wrong with some highly unethical practices. Along the way, the story manages to elicit quite a few chuckles, especially from those who have ever struggled with jumping through corporate hoops themselves.
Although the story takes place at the turn of the century and was written in 2012, those who read it for the first time in 2018, in the post-Harvey Weinstein corporate era, will do so from a somewhat different perspective. Actually, this altered perspective makes the story even more fascinating. To say much more would give away some of the best plot developments, but let’s just say that Jim Fosse’s antics would be even less welcome and more darkly entertaining today.
Apparently, Jim Fosse is a character in some of Dolan’s longer, more serious works, but “Jim Fosse’s Expense Claim” is completely self-contained, and currently, completely free on Amazon. It’s quite a short work, and an even shorter read because the author inserts the to and from lines on each e-mail, resulting in headings that are often longer than the single-sentence e-mails themselves. But it’s a fun read that almost everyone in the corporate world can easily relate to. “Jim Fosse’s Expense Claim” should definitely be approved by readers. -
This was a short, clever, quirky, and highly enjoyable short story by John Dolan. Last year I finished one of Dolan's novels and loved it. As soon as time permits, I'm going to read more. In the meantime, I read this short story, which only served to remind me how much I enjoy this author. The presentation/structure in this short work is perfection.
If you're wondering how you might like this author, give this story a read. It's superb! -
This book literally had me laughing out loud. Even as I write this review, I am laughing. Jim Fosse is crazy, lol. The banter between Jim and the Expense Claims Manager is nothing short of hilarious. Things get a little dark at the end but my sense of humor is a little warped as well. This is just what the doctor ordered!
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Wow. Just wow. Funny at times dark at others. However, if you have ever had the opportunity to experience the red tape, scrutiny and bureaucracy of filing an expense report..... Let's just say that you can understand the frustration all around.
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When a few e-mails can say so much, and sharply.
I love John Dolan’s Time, Blood and Karma series. It wasn’t until I recently read A Poison Tree that I remembered I had a copy of Jim Fosse’s Expense Claim and after getting to know Jim Fosse in the third volume of the series I had to read it.
Short, sharp, full to the brim with black (the blackest) humour, its structure is very simple. A few e-mails are exchanged between Jim and an HR employee dealing with the company’s claims. But it’s amazing how much you get to know about the character in these few exchanges. And it made me laugh out loud at a time when things aren’t really that funny.
I recommend this very brief read to anybody with a few minutes spare and a taste for the macabre and dark humour. Be sure to check the Time, Blood and Karma series. And beware of red tape! -
I had no concept of what to expect from this (very) short story but that made it all the more fun. Told in a series of email exchanges, a letter and a newspaper report, things start innocuously enough with new employee Jim Fosse requesting money to cover his expenses for his recent business trips.
Ramon Ortiz, the hapless HR employee who responds tries to get Fosse to fill in the correct form, provide receipts and follow procedures. Fosse is reluctant to do this and as the emails from Fosse become more and more aggressive and personal it becomes very clear just what he is trying to claim for.
Eventually the situation resolves in a shocking manner which is still very funny.
Once I'd read this book I had to let others at work read it. Terrific.
Rated: Strong and insulting language and sexual references -
This book is a very short read at just under 40 pages - more like an ongoing email banter, back and forth between Jim Fosse and the person responsible for HR in his fictional power company he works for, as Fosse demands to be paid back for 'odd' travel expenses for his recent trip to South Asia.
Jim is trying to recoup his business expenses from what seems like a tawdry trip - sans expense receipts. The emails become snippy and politically incorrect by Fosse with each response from Ortiz of HR and his refusal to compensate for Fosse's outlandish claims for compensation. Such requests include, and are not limited to - hookers and massages required to lure in potential clients.
A fun and humorous dark read listening to Fosse's struggle to win his argument, with a twisted and vengeful ending. -
This is a very short story told through emails/letter/newspaper article about one man's anguish of trying to get his company to pay for his "expenses".
If you've read the Time, Blood and Karma series of books, then you will be familiar with this character, who appears in the 3rd book, and the type of person he is. You will also be thinking (rightfully) that it's not going to end well!
The dark humour appealed to me and I managed to download it for free from Amazon - not sure if it's permanently free but due to the length of it (I read it in about 20 minutes) I wouldn't have paid for it, however it is another great read from Dolan.
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Witty and throroughly entertaining - definitely recommend
‘Jim Fosse’s Expense Claim’ is a hugely funny short story that will strike a chord with anyone who has worked for a large company. The author, John Dolan, has taken a ‘common’ situation and ramped-up the ridiculous to produce what could easily be a Monty Python sketch. There’s also a nice twist at the end that will leave you with another smile. A thoroughly entertaining read; well recommended. -
This was an amusing short. Possible only 500 words or less, all written as correspondence. Jim Fosse, a less that ideal employee, tries to be reimbursed for what he considers legitimate business expenses. To say much more on this story would give it away, but John Dolan hit on several human resource nightmares.
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What a charming little book!
Jim Fosse's Expense Claim is written as a series of intra-company memoranda which start very innocently and finish with a lovely and amusing twist.
Having spent very many years in the corporate culture, I could really appreciate the subtlety of the unwritten words and feelings behind the memos. This book is a joy. -
Jim Fosse's Expense Claim carries you through the email exchange between Jim Fosse and the expense claim manager for the company in which he is employed. Jim is claiming some outrageous expenses for his last business trip and the journey for reimbursement will keep you laughing.
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A short, sharp and entertaining story that made me laugh out loud.
What it didn't have in quantity it made up for in quality.
I highly recommend this if you are looking for an amusing read and are short on time.
