Everybody’s doin’ it

Posted on December 2, 2004 No Comments

Today I realized something important about budgeting. Not only do individuals like you and I have to do it. Our employers need to do it, too, so we can stuff more money in the pockets of our CEOs and CFOs. Take my colleague Jack*, for instance, and the saga of his table. Today, he was sitting in his office innocently enough until the office manager swept through. Their exchange went something like this:

Office Manager: Jack, I’m taking your table.

Jack: Why?

O.M.: Because I’m preparing for the merger. There’s a new vice president coming in who’s getting the corner office and he needs a table.

Jack: Isn’t there already a table in that office?

O.M.: Yes, but the boss (who used to occupy the office) is taking that table to her new office, leaving the corner office with no table. I’m taking yours.

Ten minutes later, O.M. and her goon removed the table in question from Jack’s office.

Ten minutes after that, Jack had three lonely chairs sitting in his office, surrounding a giant sheet of paper on his floor reading “INSERT TABLE HERE.”

(In another corner of the world, a small man with a green lampshade says “Cha-ching!”)

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Also today, my boyfriend, Brian, sent me a note that he won a prize for contributing to the required charity at his office. He, thinking it must be a nice gift certificate to a pricey restaurant or a shiney new iPod, spent all day wondering what his raffle prize would be. Later that day his manager handed him, in fact, a shiney new…coffee mug…complete with corporate logo. “Congratulations, Brian!” he said, “Thanks for participating.” Brian promised to poke a blind man and steal his mug on the way home to recoup his losses.

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In the above situtations, a non-budgeting employer might have just ordered a new table or purchased a $50 gift certificate to boost employee morale rather than causing both men to go home feeling crushed and downtrodden for yet another day. But in this crazy, budget-conscious world, we all have to suck it up and take our losses, individuals and employers alike.

*Not his real name

Category: Life
   Tags: Random

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