Cheapskate manager destroys $4,000 worth of product after ignoring the advice of a wise warehouse guy: ‘You told me to use the old pallets... [so] I did'

Author image for Jesse Kessenheimer
Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
May 22, 2024 8:00 PM EDT

There's a difference between being cheap and being frugal. 

When it comes to ancient equipment supporting the weight of thousands of pounds (and thousands of dollars) of product, surely a wise manager would opt to spend a little extra dough to ensure the safety of all of the warehouse guys. Right? Well, one numb skull of a manager recently decided to cut corners on some very vital warehouse equipment, which ultimately cost him dearly…

After assessing the decaying wood of a few pallets in the warehouse, this manager decided he wasn't prepared to replace them yet. Ignoring the timeless wisdom of a warehouse employee, he told the team to load up the pallets with over 26 feet of heavy brick and blocks. It's too bad the manager wouldn't cave in to his employee's advice as fast as those bricks caved in on the rotting wooden pallets…

Scroll for the entire tale of an employee who maliciously complied with his boss's orders, knowing there was no way their product would survive such a tumble, teaching a valuable lesson to a penny-pinching, hot-headed manager. Trust your guys.

Advertisement
  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 9925535744
    via canva
  • 02
    Want me to use old pallets? Alright then. S OC
    via chev974
  • 03
    So a few years back I worked for a brick/block making firm. I was using the cuber (A machine that would push the bricks and blocks on to a wooden pallet) I was tasked with stacking newly
    via chev974
  • 04
    made bricks on pallets and stacking said pallets in the shed to keep them out of the weather. I was using the new pallets like we normally do for the bricks as they would be stacked 4 pallets high. (About 8
    via chev974
  • 05
    meters tall or about 26 feet) My boss yelled at me saying "Just use the old pallets" I replied with "The old pallets are not strong enough for that weight" Well he was always right and demanded to do as he said.
    via chev974
  • 06
    Skip to a few hours later and I hear my boss yelling and swearing up a storm, one of the old pallets at the bottom collapsed destroying about 4k worth of product. He starts yelling at me putting the blame on me. (Now this was a long
    via chev974
  • 07
    time coming and I was done being blamed for his screw ups.) I stood over him and started yelling back "You told me to use the old pallets I did as you said so don't you dare
    via chev974
  • 08
    blame me for your screw up" I then turned around and left. Now he didn't like to admit he was wrong, But when I got to my station the next Monday there was a new toolkit sitting there for me.
    via chev974
  • 09
    RealUltimatePapo · 6 hr. ago "Thanks for the new tools, boss. You gonna apologise for yelling at me now?" Might be pushing it a bit, but oh man it would be funny
    via RealUltimatePapo
  • 10
    AppropriateRip9996 · 7 hr. ago So few sincere apologies come back after people are shown to be wrong. Magic. It's like a real bunny came out of a hat. Doves flew out of the new tool set.
    via AppropriateRip9996
  • 11
    Biomax315 6 hr. ago A verbal apology would have been nice, but the toolkit was an apology and acknowledgment (and more than most people get when their bosses screw up) so I'm happy with that :)
    via Biomax315
  • 12
    Potatoes Pancakes .5 hr. ago This one turned out well, but always get things in writing when you know you're right and they are wrong. If it was the days before email, have them sign a piece of paper.
    via Potatoes Pancakes
  • 13
    Living-Resident-1806 6 hr. ago One of the reasons why people are cheapskates, is that they make wrong decisions where it really matters.
    via Living-Resident-1806
  • 14
    Beastdevr 5 hr. ago Now in my head you see the toolkit on Monday, walk over to your boss and say "Thanks for the tools" And he replies stoically "No problem"
    via Beastdevr
  • 15
    Then you say "Hey... its OK to make a mistake" Then he breaks down crying and you both embrace. Vote Reply Share Upbeat Eye6188 · 4 hr. ago Or you're fired on the spot for acting witty, if not picked up as an act of kindness
    via Beastdevr
  • 16
    Ludwigofthepotatoppl. 4 hr. ago I used to do shipping in a warehouse. All the UPS and Fedex. I was super picky about the UPS pallets. They could both be loaded up with 1,000+ pounds of material by the time they came to pick up, sometimes over a ton on one and rarely both.
    via Ludwigofthepotatoppl
  • 17
    If the pallets didn't come back the next day (I had four in rotation, two go out as yesterday's two come back) I'd head over to the inbound side of the warehouse and hunt down a couple good big pallets. Reason being, pallets would break when you pick them up to put them on the wrapper/scale.
    via Ludwigofthepotatoppl
  • 18
    Sometimes they'd get up in transit, in loading or unloading, or they'd have to switch trailers, and the old ones were left in a different one. There was one week my pallets weren't coming back at all. Asked the UPS guy to remind his unloaders that we needed them back every day.
    via Ludwigofthepotatoppl
  • 19
    NeoHummel 3 hr. ago I worked for a grocery store affiliated with a big chain. On every delivery sheet, it included an item line for the pallets themselves, with a cost for each, and since we rarely
    via NeoHummel
  • 20
    had things to ship back we saved them up and shipped a pallet of pallets, with the number of pallets outgoing on a similar sheet, so we got money back for them.
    via NeoHummel
  • 21
    trnaovn53n 9 min. ago As someone who has built and sold pallets to a block making company, the new pallets are engineered to have boards in the right spot to catch the corners of everything being placed on it, if
    via trnaovn53n
  • 22
    by old you meant recycled pallets those are just 48x40 whatever layout you get that we sold for bagged goods. I'm surprised it didn't collapse as soon as you stacked it
    via trnaovn53n

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

penny pinching boss worker working man employee manager collapse job product malicious compliance labor work coworkers working ceo employees wise supervisor workplace warehouse trust pallet Reddit company blue collar coworker business
Scroll Down For The Next Article