Just how cheap is your boss?

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: CPA
Yes. I'm cheap. But I'm under budget constraints. And making budget is one of my annual goals. Damned if I'm going to get my bonus reduced, just for a department lunch.

All accountants are cheap. It's a worldwide fact.

 

[Radiation]

Suck it up and work with the lights off, that is what we do here.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Originally posted by: kranky
Let me share some examples from a boss I had at a previous job. Not only was he cheap, he was insane, too.

If you needed a pen, you had to turn in your old pen to prove it no longer would write. If you needed a tablet, you had to bring back the cardboard stiffener from the one you used up. This was designed to keep people from taking office supplies home.

No paper clips. He said that all the paper clips we would ever need have already been bought and they just move around from department to department. Just get some from someone else who had some.

Most phones could not dial out. Even fewer could dial long-distance.

For the company Christmas party, he would extort "gifts" from his suppliers in order to give them away as door prizes to the employees. One person won a case of toilet paper. Gee, wouldn't that make you feel special!

At the same time he had the maintenance staff working on his vacation home on company time, he would tell them to pull out nails from scrap lumber so they could be reused. Bent nail? Pound it back out straight with a hammer.

One day he had the maintenance guys remove a railing from a stairway for some reason. An employee carrying a 3-foot high stack of boxes fell down the steps. Not seriously injured, but he missed a day of work. When the employee asked to be paid for the missed day, the boss told him he'd like to pay him, but he can't because it would set a bad precedent.

My favorite: He contacted the Boy Scouts and offered them the chance to tour the facility on a Saturday. When they came in, he tried to get them to perform work by using the explanation that he was giving them a great opportunity to have hands-on experience with how to operate shrink-wrap and packaging machines. Never gave a thought to how illegal it was for people under 18 to operate that machinery - he was slapping himself on the back for thinking of a way to get work done for free without having to pay the regular people overtime for working on a Saturday.

Oddly enough that sounds almost exactly like 50% of a story a coworker told me. What company was this?

 

[Linux23]

woah, these are some insane stories.:Q

 

[PanzerIV]

I assure you if the owners of the company I work for could get away with turning off the lights they would. No doubt. Their favorite word in the English language is "cheap." Get it cheap. I want it cheap. Make sure it's cheap. Can we get it cheaper?? The headquarters buildings were built in the early 70s and it still looks like it could fit right in.

This cheap ass philosophy has actually cost them more money when it comes to technology because of several factors but they don't see it. I go with the flow as best I can.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Oddly enough that sounds almost exactly like 50% of a story a coworker told me. What company was this?

Which incident were you referring to? It was in Pittsburgh.