Big Business & Pantry Woes |10:34 PM

Costs savings. The single most powerful and probably most important phrase in the corporate world. I guess, it is even more important these days with such “excellent” global economic outlook.

On businessdictionary.com, it is defined as Decision or action that will result in fulfillment of the objectives of a purchase, at a cost lower than the historical cost or the projected cost.

In practice, every company may have their own internal strategies, be it cutting raw material costs, saving electricity, reducing unnecessary headcount, minimizing asset depreciation effects etc etc.

For mine, the coolest to date has to do with toilet paper. Basically some asshole somewhere along the line came up with the brilliant suggestion of cutting expenditure by providing toilet paper on a quota basis. Basically, every employee has to approach the HR to collect their monthly allocation of ONE bloody roll of toilet paper. Even more shockingly, this allocation has been suspended recently, with the HR acting blur. Once again, failing to perform the already minimal activities they are tasked to do by the “boss”.

So, I guess, our strategy is as such. To make it big in this business, one needs to allocate the time and resources allowable for all employees’ “big businesses”.

Not too long ago, there was even a form where every local Chinese employee has to fill in, stating the number of effective hours they spend working a day and the amount of time they spend on private activities. In the private activities column, in brackets, this was stated (Estimate of private time, including time for filling up and drinking water at the pantry and going to the toilet etc.)

Pantry! According to my dearest friend in the accountancy business it is one of the criteria for picking any firm among the Top 5 in Singapore. If this is true, I guess, perhaps no one in the right mind would ever join my company.

Our pantry includes, pitifully, only 1 water cooler that services more than 200 employees, that provide hot water (that is seldom hot maybe around 50 degrees), lukewarm water (that is usually scalding) and cold water (that is seldom cold, usually around 30 degrees). Every morning when every one comes to work there is a long queue waiting to fill up their tiny bottles. Perhaps this is the latest company strategy in cutting costs and improving interaction between colleagues. OH! Did I forget to mention that there are NO seats or vending machines or sinks? Just a pail for every body to dispose of their tea leaves and a tiny waste paper basket for disposal of empty coffee sachets.

Yet another, humbling lesson on how to make it big in the business.

According to my pseudo superior, you are new in the company and should pick up any lessons available from the seniors and be grateful to the company that you have a job.

Perhaps I really need to learn. Yeah?

Moo.
Music – None (Blogging in the office before a meeting)
Mood - Shitty
moo.
Daneo.

-got milk?-