A little idea, given an optimistic number so as, like flora and fauna of roads I may continue it beyond #1.
Short Range Accounting - Where huge costs and inconvenience are incurred for short term savings.
An example of this comes from when my work was more clerical based. Our department clearly had too few staff for the volume of work. Sometimes this was covered by Temps and sometimes by Overtime. However how this happened was absurd. So we'd be working a few OT shifts here and there and the call would come from on high "Your overtime bill is too High, all OT is banned" very well, says my boss, how does the work get done "Hire a Temp" replies boss. A few months down the line "Our temps costs are too high, dismiss all temps" comes from on high, once again my boss asks how work will be done, "Overtime" replies boss. A few months pass and once again "Your overtime bill is too high...."
There is an obvious solution to this problem that was mooted by my boss of the time, Hire more full time staff. This was dismissed on grounds of cost.
Short range accountancy is practiced by poor managers and over-zealous accountants who are too focused on the costs of their specific sphere of influence or costs over the short term to worry about such things as long term costs, other people's budgets or practicality. Its a practice that people should be stamping out, but in the world of performance statistics and "Goals" these figures mean more than actual useful work. In short by people who have no interest in the Big picture unless it means they can sack someone or not hire someone by referring to "The Big Picture"
This can also extend to equipment. Most companies will use the cheapest kit available, because it looks good. "Why yes, we are paying 80 pence less per widget using these new ones." Of course these new widgets are 3 times less effective and wear out 4 times as fast, meaning your yearly widget costs are higher and costs of widget installation and failure are increased as well, but it can't be the cheap widgets. I'd penalise the staff, they're doing something wrong.
:squee:
16 years ago
I definitely know what you mean about this. The never-ending cycle of temp-hiring is something that tends to concern me. Especially when in key administrative areas.
ReplyDeleteThe time wasted on constantly training the new temps strikes me as a big efficiency wastage.
At the end of the day, like so many things, it comes down to money. And the baseline cost tends to be seen as the dominant factor in decision-making with everything else going out the window. So called "stream-lining" is something that tends to make me a bit concerned.
Baseline costs, dumping things on other budgets etc. I usually get worried when I hear of departments being stream lined, or made more efficiant. It usually means we're getting a new manager and loosing 4 useful people.
ReplyDeleteIf anything, I wonder if recent events have highlighted a need for more awareness about what's going on at a managerial level.
ReplyDeleteIts been a common complaint for years about management types pulling in silly amounts of money in bonuses etc.
Maybe the recent banking woes are indicating that a higher level of monitoring of managers, how much they earn, and what they're doing to earn it is required?
I'm not sure whether or not I'm saying Government should have the right to dictate payroll/bonuses to private companies or not (I'm not going to pretend this is something I've thought through in the slightest), but the idea that the current culture is unsustainable is food for thought at least.
Slightly off-topic I think, but it just got me pondering.
Its actually been said that, at least in teh financial sector, their regulators have been completely useless, massive bonuses were awarded for short term gains encouraging a very limited outlook which has unltimately lead us here, as an example, selling mortgages is good in the short term, the bigger the mortgage the better, and the higher the bonus, but that bonus was the main focus and so considering if the person coudl actually pay it back was secondary. That is the problem with so many management targets, tehre is no big, long range picture.
ReplyDeleteOne possible reason for hiring temps is that it's very difficult to sack permanent employees nowadays, even if they're obviously incompetent at their jobs. Hiring someone on a temporary basis means you can simply choose not to renew the contract once it expires, with no justification required.
ReplyDeleteArguably this means that measures designed to protect employees with regard to warnings and dismissal have gone too far. Jobs are now so secure that employers don't want to offer them at all.
True, but all its done is create the ground for employers to offer no job security at all, which is arguably worse. Plus agency staff cost double whjat full time staff cost.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't seem to be as much of a problem in my work simply because there is usually some pretty clear evidence of error.