mykrocosm

Recently work offered all employees the opportunity to buy polo shirts at 4 for $10. The shirts have a small company logo on them, so it’s a win-win situation. Employees get good quality clothing cheap, and the company gets a few more uniforms into in the workplace. So we all trooped on down to try on the samples and place our orders. They all seemed a bit smaller than the usual size, for example the L size was more like a M. I thought the large size felt ok, but I wanted to be sure. So I ordered 2 L and 2 XL. No problem, right?

Well, I got an email today saying that my order was invalid, and all of my shirts had to be the same size. How inconvenient! I had to ask around until I found someone else in a similar predicament and we agreed to split our orders. So I submitted my order again. No problem, right?

Then one of our contractors got an email saying his order was invalid because the cost of these shirts was going to be deducted from our pay and he wasn’t an employee. So I said I’d order for him, and put in an order for 8 shirts. No problem right?

Well, I got an email back with the admonition that each person was only allowed a single order of 4 shirts. It also included the helpful suggestion that the contractor go and find an employee who didn’t already have an order. I think he finally did find someone else in the end.

You know, what’s wrong with having someone come around with a bunch of shirts and pick up the cash? Instead we have a bunch of rules that employees have to waste time working around, and a payroll department having to manually deduct $10 from hundreds of pay slips. Seems all too typical of large companies…

Congratulations to Adrian and Bronwen on the birth of their daughter, Chloe Isabel!

They are officially the first of my friends to have a baby. I guess we’re coming to the end of the “everybody gets married” stage and entering the “madness and mayhem” stage