Cost Cutting in Corporate Offices - A Case Study
Disclaimer: This article is a work of fiction and bears no resemblance to any person or a firm either living or dead. Any resemblance is purely coincidental.
On a humorous note, I had a discussion with a bunch of my friends about the cost-cutting methods and techniques that are now prevalent in many IT companies in India. Due to the down sliding economy, my company had decided on cutting down costs on paper cups which were used by our associates (that’s how a corporate worker is called) for drinking water and coffee.
In order to initiate this process, my company had given away flasks and mugs to all associates as annual gift. Silently, after a day or two, paper cups vanished from their usual location, near the water-vending and coffee-vending machines. Of course, the purpose cited was larger in scope, for saving the planet earth, from where the trees were cut down solely towards making these paper cups.
Hence, from then on, all the associated of our company carried a company stamped mug, a beautiful corporate advertisement strategy. Legend says that there was a controversy in senior management to whether or not provide mugs to contractual employees. If they did, it would be an additional cost to the company. If they did not, it would be a subject matter of partiality and discrimination that cannot be tolerated as per the prevalent company policy. Hence, the senior management decided to axe all the contractual employees and send them home.
I can visualize all the mug-carrying associates as a bunch of villagers carrying a mug of water early in the morning to do their cleanup activity. I met a friend of mine who went out to a tapri outside our office to have a sip of tea. When asked why he did so, he replied, “Yaar, I forgot my coffee mug today”. Many of our corporate friends are natural lazy creatures, always reluctant to clean a mug for a sip of coffee. The senior management had discussed this too as a potential cost cutting measure. Unavailability of paper cups would directly reduce the consumption of coffee, thereby reducing the costs.
Other concurrent positive effects were also discussed, like, cutting down the cost of employing an office boy who used to place the paper cups in all locations and also the garbage collector, who used to collect a large amount of paper cups as garbage. Usage of coffee mugs would significantly reduce the costs in many more unimaginable ways.
My friends had many more stories to add. One said that coffee vending machines were taken away from each floor of his company as a cost-cutting measure. Another one said that her company’s cost cutting measure reflected even in their toilet by limiting the supply of tissue papers through which they made sure that an employee will do his homework before entering the office premises.
These people are really great assets to all corporate managements across the world. I pledged to put this word forward to my manager as my contribution to this cost-cutting initiative. He too can take it forward and impress his managers. With this thought in mind, I went to the office next day. It was when I was doing preparation for the meeting to highlight the points learnt from my friends’ firms, when my email client popped up a new message containing the latest list of axed associates citing various reasons. First on this list was my name, followed by my manager’s.
At PeACe with his job and the world,
Venky
On a humorous note, I had a discussion with a bunch of my friends about the cost-cutting methods and techniques that are now prevalent in many IT companies in India. Due to the down sliding economy, my company had decided on cutting down costs on paper cups which were used by our associates (that’s how a corporate worker is called) for drinking water and coffee.
In order to initiate this process, my company had given away flasks and mugs to all associates as annual gift. Silently, after a day or two, paper cups vanished from their usual location, near the water-vending and coffee-vending machines. Of course, the purpose cited was larger in scope, for saving the planet earth, from where the trees were cut down solely towards making these paper cups.
Hence, from then on, all the associated of our company carried a company stamped mug, a beautiful corporate advertisement strategy. Legend says that there was a controversy in senior management to whether or not provide mugs to contractual employees. If they did, it would be an additional cost to the company. If they did not, it would be a subject matter of partiality and discrimination that cannot be tolerated as per the prevalent company policy. Hence, the senior management decided to axe all the contractual employees and send them home.
I can visualize all the mug-carrying associates as a bunch of villagers carrying a mug of water early in the morning to do their cleanup activity. I met a friend of mine who went out to a tapri outside our office to have a sip of tea. When asked why he did so, he replied, “Yaar, I forgot my coffee mug today”. Many of our corporate friends are natural lazy creatures, always reluctant to clean a mug for a sip of coffee. The senior management had discussed this too as a potential cost cutting measure. Unavailability of paper cups would directly reduce the consumption of coffee, thereby reducing the costs.
Other concurrent positive effects were also discussed, like, cutting down the cost of employing an office boy who used to place the paper cups in all locations and also the garbage collector, who used to collect a large amount of paper cups as garbage. Usage of coffee mugs would significantly reduce the costs in many more unimaginable ways.
My friends had many more stories to add. One said that coffee vending machines were taken away from each floor of his company as a cost-cutting measure. Another one said that her company’s cost cutting measure reflected even in their toilet by limiting the supply of tissue papers through which they made sure that an employee will do his homework before entering the office premises.
These people are really great assets to all corporate managements across the world. I pledged to put this word forward to my manager as my contribution to this cost-cutting initiative. He too can take it forward and impress his managers. With this thought in mind, I went to the office next day. It was when I was doing preparation for the meeting to highlight the points learnt from my friends’ firms, when my email client popped up a new message containing the latest list of axed associates citing various reasons. First on this list was my name, followed by my manager’s.
At PeACe with his job and the world,
Venky
Labels: Cost Cutting in Corporate Offices - A Case Study, venky
posted by bvenkysubbu at 11:19 AM
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