Stupid Company Tricks 101

[BRoyal]

In an attempt to boost morale after a year that saw stock prices fall from $48 to less than $9, and staff reductions from 4,200 to a little under 2,000, and with rumors of at least 800 more layoffs in mid-April, the management of my company decided to hold random drawings to pass out such gifts as:

$25 gift certificate to a local grocery store;
boom boxes purchased three years ago for a failed promotions effort (possible warranty issues here); and
a few $200 gift certificates to Wal-Mart.

The results were interesting.

Several of the "winners" were laid off in January and, thus, no longer work for the company.

One of the winners died a couple of months ago.

No word yet on how they intend to handle this, but I will keep you posted.

The point being????

Originally posted by Al Dyer
The point being????

The real winners are the ones who still have jobs?

[Marc]

Excellent Thread Topic! I hope we see some good posts on this topic. I'll second by posting this from the Common Sense thread http://www.business2.com/dumbest/

[Atul Khandekar]

Sounds Dilbertian !

[Marc]

I look at it as a way to learn what to watch out for... And as a way of highlighting some 'failure modes'.

The problem with Dilbert cartoons is... Well, there isn't one as far as I can tell. If anything they highlight many realities we have become desensitized to in real life.

Several of my favourites are:

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and



and, having worked many contract jobs, there is this...

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BRoyal,

Can't seem to win one today! Is your post, as indicated by the title, a condemnation (of sorts) of your company's attempt to try a stupid trick on it's employees, or just a comical look at company stupidity? Then we can go from there.

[Marc]

Well, energy, I guess if you're going to dissect everything there's a 'logical' reason for everything. I didn't think this was started as a serious thread per se. Maybe I was wrong.

So get on with it. Logically explain the cartoons above and then you can start on the 101 examples of business stupidity in the link above.