This depressed economy has had an affect on most companies and millions of families around the country. I’m very fortantate to work for a company that is still doing relatively well. However, we’re still cutting costs where we can.
Some understandable expenses like our Christmas party, annual “booze cruise,” employee reward programs, and charitable gift matching have been cut.
But then management went crazy.
This month they programmed our air conditioner to turn off at 5:30 p.m. & only cycle on every four hours thereafter. There were two major flaws with this action:
(1) We are located in South Florida & it’s the middle of summer.
(2) We work late. Really, really late. For a few weeks, at least one department was here until 9:30 p.m. every night.
After 15 minutes of no A/C, the bitching began. That cost-saving measure was revised a bit due to the uproar of sweaty, stinky employees.
But that wasn’t the worst idea. This month they also cut our coffee budget. I personally don’t mind that we no longer have powdered creamer & milk, but then I realized the castastrophy – THEY CHANGED TO WOODEN STIRRERS.
I drink hot tea every morning & dorkishly drink it out of a plastic coffee stirrer. As soon as I realized my “straws” were being replaced, I went into hoarding mode. I went to other departments’ kitchens & swiped their plastic coffee stirrer straws. That has tided me over, but soon I will have to find an alternative.
I am losing 7 days of pay. One of them they snuck in as the day after Thanksgiving, which we used to have as a paid holiday.
PS I freeze in my office everyday. I have to use a space heater and my sinuses are constantly aggravated. So I guess it’s Siberia or South Africa, as far as office climates are concerned.
Crap, I feel for you. We are still doing okay, although the peasants revolted when they took away the Kurig coffee maker, and went back to the regular one. I only drink Iced Coffee, so it didn’t bother me at all!
When they let go the team lackey as part of a RIF. Don’t get me wrong, I disliked him and do not mind that he was gone, but it would have been better if he were simply “let go.” That way, we could refill the position, instead of having the position eliminated.
And that is my cold, self-serving comment for the day. Don’t want you to go and think I’m a nice guy or anything.
They took away the coffee machine and instead kept coffee sachets with hot water to fill into your cup and make your own coffee
All of you don’t have to contribute to get coffee? The only thing I’ve ever had for free is the air, and even that’s poor quality.
If only we had a coffee budget!
You should be glad your A/C works at least until 5:30. Ours doesn’t work if it is hot or cold outside. So basically, it only works when you don’t need it!
I’m losing some paid days this year too, but at least we still have the (albeit awful) coffee. What’s the worst is also related to our AC, but opposite of the problem you have. It’s like Antarctica, it’s the middle of summer and everyone comes to work in long sleeves. You’d think they could save a few bucks by making it a little warmer.
I bet you can buy a box of 8,000 at Sams.