Like a Scene From Office Space
A friend of mine works in the charitable industry; a private company that accepts government grants and private donations to help people. They have budgets and projections and targets just like any other business. And just like Peter Gibbons, he has around eight different bosses that point out all of his “mistakes”.
In the current economic climate he has had to cut back on employee hours, eliminate overtime, etc. Just like any business. Due to the fact that he has to meet certain targets for “production” he gets monthly updates on the budget for his site. He recently exceeded his sales goal – even in this downturn which has people holding onto their stuff and not donating household goods – and was given a modest bonus for the sales figure. He was then sent an email chastising him for exceeding his payroll for the month – by the amount of the bonus. As Peter Gibbons would say,
“when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That’s my only real motivation, is not to be hassled…”
Unlike Peter Gibbons, though, my friend works his tail off. And for that they should ignore the bonus when looking at exceeding payroll.
