Kleenex, for Christsakes? From my experience, when you have to start paying for your own coffee, dust off your resume.
So people who use toilet paper are “intellectuals”? … I knew a woman who went through rolls of toilet paper at an amazing speed. I never realized she was such an intellectual.
Hah! “Tubes”.
In my experience most Managers are more interested in the appearance of cost cutting, then actually saving money. When I was a wee Engineer right out of school, the President of the company instituted a “no office supplies” policy to save money. This, in a company whose main products were knowledge-based, so holding back pads of paper and pens would be like refusing to buy tools in a machine shop. So, instead of just going to the storeroom and getting a pen, you had to plead your case to a secretary, and she would decide whether you were worthy or not…
OTOH, my Dad worked for a company whose beancounter once brought up the fact that employees were taking pads of paper and pens home for their kids to use at school. The President said “Are we the kind of company that can’t give our employees some pens for their kids to use at school?” That was the end of that discussion.
I work for an Office Supplies company and we don’t have a supplies closet. When I started, I thought we’d have the world’s coolest supply room - imagine how disappointed I was in that!
Well, Kleenex really isn’t a necessary office item.
Your average computer mouse is surprisingly absorbent.
True story: when I left AT&T about a year ago, one of the sheaf of straws that broke the camel’s back was that they cut the free coffee service, and would not even permit us to band together to institute our own “coffee club”. The result? People weren’t just going to give up coffee, so it now takes 30 minutes to get a cup of coffee (from the Starbucks down the street) instead of the 2 minutes it used to take. Yeah, big productivity coup there, AT&T. :rolleyes:
Your average coworker, too.
One place I worked required a director’s level signature to get scissors or scotch tape September - December - back to school and Christmas time.
We finally got a general manager who had gotten promoted for actually doing something right, and he stopped all this crap and fired the dumbass who was behind most of it, so sometimes there is hope.
Hey - Sarah Palin shops there.
The problem with stupid people in authority is not that you’re expected to trust them but that you have to do what they say. Prayer won’t change that.
Maybe you should pray that the Lord your God will smite them with his righteous anger and a city bus.
That’s just kanicbird’s schtick. I swear, if he responded in a thread entitled “How Do I Keep The Crank Shaft In My 1977 Pacer From Leaking” he’d tell you to “turn to the Lord.” Probably got a chapter and verse handy too.
I was wondering about this in response to the OP. The note he got back from management made it sound to me like their main concern was with making the employees feel like there was some penny pinching going on, rather than with actually saving any money. But I couldn’t see a reason why management should be concerned to do this. Just keeping the employees in a general state of fear and guilt or something?
-FrL-
I suggest you trust my dick.
I was really hoping you’d re-initiate the use of that wonderful, piquant phrase:
Shut the fuck up, you fucking troll.
I once had to sit through an impromptu presentation on cost saving by the boss’s wife (and “silent” partner) that consisted mainly of telling us to reuse paper clips.
In my experience there’s a remarkably strong correlation between a company’s long term prospects and its willingness to give its employees free snacks. It sounds stupid, but it seems to be true.
I get to visit many companies in my job as an ISO 9001 auditor. If the company won’t give its employees coffee, it’s virtually certain the company is shitty in most other ways as well.
My former employer used to provide fresh fruit, gratis, in the lunch room. They also provided free soft drinks. First they accounced they were going to get rid of the fruit to save money. Then the soft drinks. This is a 200-person, multi-tens-of-millions-of-dollars company. However, they maintained a company policy that all directors and above flew first class on all flights, even short little jumps like Toronto to Chicago. The difference in price between a business class and economy class ticket to Toronto would buy maybe a thousand cans of pop.
That company ran out of money about a year after I left and had to be sold off by its parent company.
I was thinking his name might be Michael Scott.
Take a sheet of paper and on it, write down all the cost cutting measures that were suggested by your superiors. Add a note at the bottom about how you believe they will not make a difference in the long run and list your suggestions. Date the note, seal it in an envelope and give it to your superiors. Tell them not to open it until you tell them too. Once your prediction has come to pass, tell them to open it and read it.