It's too expensive



  • I now work for a company with numerous offices, each about 30 minutes away. We frequently need to have lengthy conference calls, so I requested a headset. After 2 months of waiting, it was finally denied because it was too expensive ($60) and there was no money in the budget for such purchases. I explained that I couldn't hold a phone to my ear for two hours and still be able to type so they suggested that I physically travel to the other location - so I wouldn't have to use the phone.

    I'm a consultant. They're paying the consulting company more than $100/hr. It's an hour round trip plus the two hours at the other location. Three times a week. So far, that's 9 weeks * 3 days * 3 hours/day = $8100+ worth of lost productivity. Plus reimbursed travel expenses for using the car. And counting.

    But they saved $60.

     



    1. Buy the headset yourself
    2. Pad your invoice by the amount of the headset
    3. Claim the cost of the headset as a business expense on your tax
    4. Profit!!!


  • @OzPeter said:

    1. Buy the headset yourself
    2. Pad your invoice by the amount of the headset
    3. Claim the cost of the headset as a business expense on your tax
    4. Keep it a secret and drive there anyway.
    5. MOAR Profit!3

     

    FTFY



  • @OzPeter said:

    1. Buy the headset yourself
    2. Pad your invoice by the amount of the headset
    3. Claim the cost of the headset as a business expense on your tax
    4. Profit!!!
    Actually, I offered to bring in my own headset but they won't allow personal equipment. At least I get paid to take a nice drive 6 times a week.


  • WTF kind of consulting do you do there?
    I mean, aren't consultants supposed to advice clients on how to do shit the best way possible?
    Did you point out the WTF of their stupidity?



  • @fatdog said:

    I mean, aren't consultants supposed to advice clients on how to do shit the best way possible?

    HA HA HA HA HA!!

     

    Oh God, you crack me up.



  • The headset would come out of a different budget than the consulting charge. Therefore they can afford the extra consultancy fee, but can't afford the headset. 

    Simples!


  • Garbage Person

     TRWTF is that they probably have one lying around somewhere 



  • @Weng said:

     TRWTF is that they probably have one lying around somewhere 

     

    They probably have an entire mound of them, it's what holds up one corner of the building.  When it was first build it was wobbly so they used a shit load of headsets to fix it.



  • @Mole said:

    The headset would come out of a different budget than the consulting charge. Therefore they can afford the extra consultancy fee, but can't afford the headset. 

    Simples!


    Praise the process!



    Why is it that the companies that seem to have the most rediculous process become the largest? Logically the overhead of moronic "solutions" would be a handicap, yet they continue.



  • @Lingerance said:



    Why is it that the companies that seem to have the most rediculous process become the largest? Logically the overhead of moronic "solutions" would be a handicap, yet they continue.
     

    Good companies turn to shit when they grow.  Even a small company growing more than a small amount runs a terrible risk.

    I've been at 3 small companies that were totally utterly obliterated by growing too fast.  Each one was an outstanding place to work beforehand.



  • @arty said:

    @Lingerance said:



    Why is it that the companies that seem to have the most rediculous process become the largest? Logically the overhead of moronic "solutions" would be a handicap, yet they continue.
     

    Good companies turn to shit when they grow.  Even a small company growing more than a small amount runs a terrible risk.

    I've been at 3 small companies that were totally utterly obliterated by growing too fast.  Each one was an outstanding place to work beforehand.

    Bingo.  Managing any group of people effectively becomes quite difficult as the size of the group increases.  This is why large businesses tend to become bureacratic hellholes that crumble under their own weight.  It's also one of the two reasons why the wheels so rapidly come off of centrally-managed government "solutions" (the other being a lack of alternatives to maintain competitive pressure).  It shouldn't come as a surprise to techies that humans don't scale well, when we know the effort it takes to make computers do the same.


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