'He thought we could increase productivity': Boss asks employee to run overtime math, then completely ignores calculations

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  • 01
    Human - 'I felt like I had been asked a pointless question, my time [was] wasted, and my input ignored.'
  • 02
    Font - My boss used me for MC five years ago and I just figured it out. M OC Edit: MC stands for Malicious Compliance. This has nothing to do with Minecraft. Story starts now: About five years ago I was the office guy for a small lumber mill. My direct supervisor was the general manager, but the owner was also pretty hands on.
  • 03
    Font - The mill wasn't generating as much profit as the owner believed it could (he was probably right, the guy was smart as a whip with 60+ years of experience).
  • 04
    Font - One of the things the owner tried to do was hire an outside consultant to try and find ways we could safely increase productivity or cut expenses. The guy had owned and operated his own mill and also had a ludicrous amount of experience.
  • 05
    Font - One of the things the consultant had been pushing for was running the mill into overtime. He thought we could increase productivity without incurring more expense than we gained.
  • 06
    Font - My boss asked me to run an analysis of how much we would gain/lose if we ran overtime. I did the math and gave him the results, even in the best case every minute of overtime would result in a net loss to the company. This report had taken me several hours as I wanted to be sure I gave him the right answer. My boss took it, nodded, and the next day announced we would be running the mill in overtime.
  • 07
    Font - Two weeks later when I prepared the end of month financial statements it showed a large loss. I was quietly seething, since I felt like I had been asked a pointless question, my time wasted, and my input ignored.
  • 08
    Font - But, looking back on it with significantly more experience, I think I know what happened. I think my boss was bothered by the consultant who had come in to tell him how to do his job and then given him bad advice. The owner wouldn't listen to my boss telling him he didn't need a consultant, so he did exactly what the consultant suggested and let the owner judge for himself.
  • 09
    Font - As far as my report went? I think he just wanted to be sure it wouldn't cost us too much when he pulled the trigger. Tom, if you're reading this, I'm sorry I was resentful about the whole affair for the past five years, my bad.
  • 10
    Font - Edit: Please stop asking me where/who. I'm not do: xing them. TLDR: My boss needed a consultant off his back, so he had me check to see how much it would cost us to just follow his advice. We followed his advice, lost some money and got rid of the consultant.
  • 11
    Font - MIW100 Yup, they got what they asked for in a way. So, did they ever figure out a way to make more money? What changed?
  • 12
    Font - [deleted] We had too many people replicating the same task on the line. We had to space people out more to use them more efficiently. We also had some older equipment that prevented us from being comparable to most modern mills. Unfortunately reshuffling people only fixed part of the problem. Eventually the owner decided that 90 was probably old enough to retire and shut down the mill.
  • 13
    Font - BrobdingnagLilliput +1. There's a serious life lesson here that I learned too late: Your boss has a boss. They have conversations you don't know about.
  • 14
    Font - bilgediver Also I bet he had you present the report as a way to prove the consultant didn't know what he was talking about because you were able to prove on paper something the consultant should have been able to prove as well (instead of suggesting something that didn't work at all)
  • 15
    Font - tuna_tofu I was on a contract where all 20 people were doing about 20 hours overtime every week for months on end. We did the math and figured they could easily hire 5 more people with what they were paying in overtime pay, even factoring in different salary levels. But would they? No better to work those already on staff into the ground to the point they started quitting for other more reasonable jobs. Of
  • 16
    Font - course with fewer people, the same work now required even MORE overtime. Were they making any attempt to replace those who left? OF COURSE NOT! And hire ADDITIONAL employees? FUHGEDABOUDIT!
  • 17
    Font - gumbrilla Potentially, a bright chap but I do take points off for not coaching you. Not explaining apparently nonsensical decisions can badly effect morale. Sometimes, with consultants and other pushers of new it can make sense to let it fail, failure is a very useful learning experience for all concerned. Being the one who always says no can get a bit precarious so if it's not so important, then that's not a hill to die on.
  • 18
    Font - TheGalaxyEater +1. So very true. As a manager I sometimes have to ask my team for things that seem odd or pointless to them but in the bigger picture, it's related to protecting my team and doing what is best for the company. I can't always tell them the background and a lot of times when they do ask and I explain it to them, they just can't grasp the larger picture.
  • 19
    Font - MikeTheAmalgamator. Wow you just made me realize why my boss was having me do "reports" of all the tickets I had done each day. I got fed up and started going into unnecessary detail since they wanted to track my work when there was a literal ticket queue that did all of this anyways. He stopped asking for them shortly after i ramped up my detail. Probably just trying to p off lazy upper management and knew id be the one to go into mad detail.

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