That is always a good strategy. Eventually some people realise what a fool they're making of themselves. Others get even angrier the nicer you get, sometimes to the point where they can't function properly.
So I once made the mistake permitting a client to store some (say a dozen) boxes of financial records in my home for a couple of weeks. By ‘permit’, I mean they just dumped them there, and I didn’t physically restrain them from leaving.
Haha...yeah. I'm an academic at heart and my first few years at running a business were a complete disaster. I've since graduated into being a mediocre businessperson, which is probably about as far as I intend to get.
Maybe someday, but it's exhausting. I would probably be much happier if I just closed shop and went to do a PhD. I might even be able to afford to, in a couple of years.
Then maybe teach engineering in some unknown university in the countryside. Or run a machine shop that helps artists make things. Or just build alarmingly large robots for no reason at all.
I always say "they're stepping over dollars to pick up pennies." Similar, but I like to point out that they're exerting extra energy and reducing profits in one fell swoop.
'Dime' is American, I'd say penny is more international. There's a saying in the UK: "penny wise, pound foolish", I'm sure there's plenty or regional variations of this in different countries.
I thought the HR director was being especially ridiculous, because I wasn't paid by the hour. Also I had to rush to complete stuff after the meeting anyway, so there was zero chance I could have slacked off in those two days.
Love the way you worked this against HR. I had a situation kind of like yours once where we got a per diem daily for a hotel and one meal. The company let us keep the leftover money from the per diem until they hired a new manager that insisted we turn in the extra (it wasn't much maybe $5-25). Fine, we all started getting more expensive hotel rooms and spending the rest on food using every cent they gave us. . After about 2 years the guy who made us turn in the leftover money left and we went back to being able to keep the extra money.
I had a P card and would expense food on the road, so no per diem to worry about. I didn't travel super often, so I would use this opportunity to treat myself on the company dime, choosing food and drink that often went beyond the limits of what we were allowed to get. So I would just pick whatever the fuck I wanted and tell my server/bartender that I was gonna be splitting my solo check: $X on company card, everything else including tip on my personal card. I'd get whiskey or beer or wine and steak or lamb or something like that. I would wind up with excellent meals for like $10 out of pocket. But because I rarely traveled, my company mileage and fuel costs were like 5% of everybody else's in my district, so my monthly expense reports were almost always under $1k (usually more like $300) while everybody else was routinely $5-10k. So thankfully, nobody was dumb enough to give me a slam dunk malicious compliance story haha.
I did when I went back in the next day to pick up my stuff. The younger ones were shocked while the older ones thought I exaggerated by quitting. They agreed with the fact that I was cheating saying that I was raising the standard to a point where they couldn’t compete. I still remember our accountant “if everybody did what you did, then the older ones like me wouldn’t have a place to work because you younger people and your computers took away our chance to work”. I do get being afraid for your future and having a resistance to change and low adaptability, so for ones over 50 I really do understand where they were coming from. They were barely learning how to use Facebook at that point…
Yeah I can understand where the older folks are coming from. I'm just a bit disappointed in your coworker "C" that got mad at you after you guys worked together so well/efficiently. Maybe it was a heat of the moment anger thing. Regardless, a bittersweet story!
Oh boy, this is such an awesome story. Thank you for sticking it up to the abusive manager and entertaining us with the result.
Unfortunately I didn't have the guts to do this. I used to work at a place where everything was fine until a new line manager was installed who moved me to a different desk in another building. That desk was right next to the server room, which was noisy with a constant low-pitched grumbling. I was not able to think or concentrate in that environment, so I would frequently take my laptop to another floor and do my work there. The manager was not happy about that and demanded that I should return to my assigned desk and stay there. I told him it would mean I wouldn't be able to accomplish any work and he said something on the lines of “I don't care”. I should have taken him up on that; I should have stopped working entirely and just browsed the web all day until he gets wind of it and finally admits that he does care. But I was too cowardly to dare. I continued to defy him by spending most of my time at the “wrong” desk though.
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