Society & Culture Is your workplace stingy?

[Poetic Justice]

Recently I had the pleasure of requiring a new keyboard for my computer at work, and when it turned up to my desk the following morning I was a little confused.

I thought that someone might have been playing a joke on me...

This keyboard was from circa 2000. It was white (doesn't match anything else), and looked older than computer technology itself.

"Is this a temporary one while my new one is on order?" I asked.

"No, I had it sitting in my study at home so I thought I would put it to good use" replied the quite assured senior manager.

Needless to say I was a little baffled and have since brought a keyboard of my own from home to use.

I work in a reasonably big business, 100+ employees, and not short of a coin by any stretch.. but this just appears to be the sort of thing that happens around here.

On another note.. I had finished using the notebook that I use to.. write notes on, and needed a new one. The admin department demanded I show them the finished book before I would be allowed to have a new one.

Does your work do anything as tight ass as this?

 

[SugarShane]

Nope. They're mindful of money (have to be in retail these days) but not really stingy by any stretch.

 

[Speck]

Working at one of the big four banks I have to say no. Unlimited supply of laptops, keyboards, notebooks and so forth. Haven't been to a Christmas party yet so I'll see what that's like.

 

[SHAKESPEARE]

haha our boss is tighter than a nuns CLINT

He asked us to wash and reuse Torq paper towel.

 

[The Passenger]

On another note.. I had finished using the notebook that I use to.. write notes on, and needed a new one. The admin department demanded I show them the finished book before I would be allowed to have a new one.

that is just pure hilarity.

my work is pretty sweet. small office. i rarely need anything anyway. i needed a mac to DVI converter so i could hook up a second monitor but i just bought it myself and it will be mine when i leave.

many years ago (1997ish - 2001ish) my dad managed managed a marble factory in sydney. ihe always used to complain about the owner being crazy tight. the only one i can remember off hand is they were instructed to use the rear side of junk letters (such as an advert from a real estate agent) as paper for sending faxes. i will ask him next time i see him and bring a few back.

the really strange thing was the owner was an italian guy (and lived in italy) and was worth about 100 million pounds, owned a few businesses in europe which turned over $10m plus and employed dozens of people, owned or part owned about a dozen property developments in the UK, but would spend about 2 or 3 months a year (every year) out in australia, overseeing this marble factory which turned over about $2-3m a year (at about 25% profit), and had about $1m in assets, and employed roughly six people give or take, including myself for one horrific summer holidays when i was about 15. i knew then and there that i didn't want to be lugging around boxes of marble for the rest of my life. that part aside my old man could never work out why this guy would spend so much of his time in the other side of the world worry about a business which was SFA of his overall portfolio. The logical explanation was that he just liked coming to Australia, but he wasn't coming out here for a holiday at all.

i also remember my old man saying the italian bloke, despite having copious amounts of money, would always rent the absolute cheapest car he could possibly find. serious tight ass.

 

[Colin D'Cops]

Most definitely, have a heap of examples but it may make me easy to identify.

Needless to say, if the bosses actually forked out a little extra (little as a hundred), productivity could certainly improve.

 

[JuddsABlue]

We are very laxxed despite not being the busiest we've been in a while

We put our employees up in decent hotels when we could save a decent amount by knocking a star off the standard and generally always get a larger sized car for comfort when travelling

We tend to take their word on things they need like coffee etc. But we do have a new accountant who is realllllyyyy questioning a lot of things and kind of opening up our eyes to some abuse thats going on (its pretty obvious guys are bulk buying coffee and taking it home)

Since she has arrived though something that was once said to me makes perfect sense

"Always hire a book keeper, not an accountant, an accountant will try and run the business for you"

 

[stmookeyj]

In terms of maintenance on essentials like trucks and machines then certainly yes, just cobble up temporary solutions until that breaks then try the next one. Or just leave it as is for months on end and work around them.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

I once worked somewhere where you had to take the used pencil back with you to prove you needed another one.

 

[edgie]

My workplace temporarily stopped supplying disposable cups and cutlery in the lunch room. Outrage ensured and our knives and forks are back in all their glory. Auctioned off an old pool table for about &200 to staff, then went and replaced it with a "new" one which would have been all of 4 foot long on the long side. Looked like a pool table for little people. I'll stop there as the new 60 inch TV makes up for it

Also the lunch room is only stocked with milo when one is damaged (work in a supermarket). The infrequency of this occurring is alarming, are milo tins made out of the same material as a flight recorder these days?

 

[radiojake]

The medical clinic that I work at (which has a chain of clinics around the country) is so stingy that once nurses get their Div 1, they stop getting shifts because their wages cost too much.....

 

[Footypie32]

My workplace temporarily stopped supplying disposable cups and cutlery in the lunch room. Outrage ensured and our knives and forks are back in all their glory. Auctioned off an old pool table for about &200 to staff, then went and replaced it with a "new" one which would have been all of 4 foot long on the long side. Looked like a pool table for little people. I'll stop there as the new 60 inch TV makes up for it

Also the lunch room is only stocked with milo when one is damaged (work in a supermarket). The infrequency of this occurring is alarming, are milo tins made out of the same material as a flight recorder these days?

Will make sure I always knock a tin of Milo off the shelf whenever I'm at the supermarket from now on.

 

[SugarShane]

I once worked somewhere where you had to take the used pencil back with you to prove you needed another one.

Wouldn't work here. Never had a pen long enough for it to run out because some silly aways bloody nicks it. Pisses me off. Our shop sells pens ffs, so whenever someone needs a pen all they have to do is grab one off the shelf and write it off to the shop. But nope, they still bloody pilfer them from me.

 

[Norwegian Blue]

Recently I had the pleasure of requiring a new keyboard for my computer at work, and when it turned up to my desk the following morning I was a little confused.

I thought that someone might have been playing a joke on me...

This keyboard was from circa 2000. It was white (doesn't match anything else), and looked older than computer technology itself.

"Is this a temporary one while my new one is on order?" I asked.

"No, I had it sitting in my study at home so I thought I would put it to good use" replied the quite assured senior manager.

Needless to say I was a little baffled and have since brought a keyboard of my own from home to use.

What a precious little petal you are. Gosh, work supplied a keyboard that is old, isn't colour co-ordinated with the rest of your setup, and it's stinginess? As the long as it can do the job, quit yer whining and HTFU princess.

 

[Milang_Panthers]

My workplace temporarily stopped supplying disposable cups and cutlery in the lunch room. Outrage ensured and our knives and forks are back in all their glory. Auctioned off an old pool table for about &200 to staff, then went and replaced it with a "new" one which would have been all of 4 foot long on the long side. Looked like a pool table for little people. I'll stop there as the new 60 inch TV makes up for it

Also the lunch room is only stocked with milo when one is damaged (work in a supermarket). The infrequency of this occurring is alarming, are milo tins made out of the same material as a flight recorder these days?

best bit about working at a supermarket is all the "damaged" stock

 

[bkozican]

I used to work in a warehouse as a pick/packer. If we needed a permanent marker, we had to show the boss that the other one had ran out. The same was with pens and packaging tape.

I now work in a office (sales), there is no worries here. Maybe 2 months into my employment I noticed that all the other sales people had head sets.......A quiet word to this boss and the 2 days later a headset arrived.......No worries they say to me.

 

[GPW1]

a bloke here got the third degree off the accounts lady (and owners wife) for the heinous crime of buying CSR sugar for the tea room, rather than homebrand.

 

[SugarShane]

best bit about working at a supermarket is all the "damaged" stock

When i used to work at Woolies the damaged stock shelf was right next to the exit door. We weren't technically allowed to take stuff off the shelf but if i saw something i liked, i claimed it.

Used to love doing the pasta aisle too. There was always at least one broken San Remo bag of pasta a night. They were quite good to munch on.

 

[Scotland]

The worst thing about corporate stinginess is that so often people make 'money-saving' decisions which piss off large numbers of people while not actually doing a whole lot of money-saving.

The big miners employ thousands of highly paid people in roles that add no real value, operate via tedious and inefficient methods which cost millions in productivity etc. yet as soon as someone yells 'cut costs' they revert to removing coffee and biscuits from the office kitchens and getting rid of breakfasts on their early morning flights to the Pilbara.

I've previously experienced a locked stationary cupboard (in an office of a couple of hundred people it's pretty annoying and inefficient for one person to have to unlock the cupboard each time someone wants a pen or some sticky notes) and the cancellation of Friday beers (I'm not talking a long-standing all you can drink corporate booking, I'm talking 2-3 cartons of beer and soft drink spread across the office fridges).

 

[Scotland]

Used to love doing the pasta aisle too. There was always at least one broken San Remo bag of pasta a night. They were quite good to munch on.

You eat dry pasta?

 

[SugarShane]

You eat dry pasta?

Not as a meal. As a snack while stacking shelves it goes alright.

 

[bkozican]

You eat dry pasta?

Have you never eaten dry pasta ??

 

[edgie]

Will make sure I always knock a tin of Milo off the shelf whenever I'm at the supermarket from now on.

nightfill are letting us all down

 

[FootyJunkie]

a bloke here got the third degree off the accounts lady (and owners wife) for the heinous crime of buying CSR sugar for the tea room, rather than homebrand.

Scandalous!

 

[JuddsABlue]

The worst thing about corporate stinginess is that so often people make 'money-saving' decisions which piss off large numbers of people while not actually doing a whole lot of money-saving.

The big miners employ thousands of highly paid people in roles that add no real value, operate via tedious and inefficient methods which cost millions in productivity etc. yet as soon as someone yells 'cut costs' they revert to removing coffee and biscuits from the office kitchens and getting rid of breakfasts on their early morning flights to the Pilbara.

I've previously experienced a locked stationary cupboard (in an office of a couple of hundred people it's pretty annoying and inefficient for one person to have to unlock the cupboard each time someone wants a pen or some sticky notes) and the cancellation of Friday beers (I'm not talking a long-standing all you can drink corporate booking, I'm talking 2-3 cartons of beer and soft drink spread across the office fridges).

So you'd rather people lost their jobs than people lost their biscuits or free friday night beers?

Compare the outcry to cutting kitchen luxuries to cutting jobs and I think you'll be happy with the decision