A friend and I accidentally caused a change in policy at work.
We used to have "Tech lunches" where our team leader would take us out for a lunch meeting and we'd talk about our projects and statuses.
A friend and I would often go to Applebees for lunch, and they had a steak fillet and salad lunch for $7.99. It was pretty good and cheap.
We went to this fancy place we never heard of for the meeting, and we both said "do you have a fillet and salad lunch?"
"The waitress said "Sure! We can do that!"
We ate our lunches, and then got the bill: we had filet mignons and Caesar salads, at $55/each! Our leader was afraid to turn in the expense report
A week after that, we all got a memo that lunch expenses will cover $12 max, and we'll have to pay the difference out of pocket. Whomp whomp.
At least they let you have team lunches. I was hired to run software dev at this one public company in the pharma space. The team was utterly screwed up and demoralized and the current CEO encouraged me to take them out to lunch once a week and do exactly what you guys were doing. About four weeks into my stint the board canned him. The interim CEO didn't pay any attention and I continue the practice. They finally hired this dickweed to take the job and right after I submit the first expense report for a team lunch I get an email from him with one line: "Cut this shit out." As a VP and exec. committee member I was invited to the board dinners. We had one later that week for something like 15 people at one of the priciest places in town. Bill well over two grand.
I clashed with this guy over and over, and a few months later he demoted me, triggering a vesting clause in a retention agreement the idiot didn't even know existed, and I walked with six figures in stock right before they tanked. Last laugh -> me.