More Unintended Consequences

In order to save money here at Amercian Amalgamated Corrugated Conglomerates of America, management has been working hard to find ways to save money. With shrinking revenues, costs must be cut.

Many of the cost-saving efforts are admirable. For example, all of the printers have been set to have the default printing to double-sided printing rather than single-sided. That makes sense to me. This will save a lot of money on paper. I don't mind the double-sided printing and normally I wouldn't even think of it until I got to the printer. "Oh, I could have printed this double-sided." Now the printer does it for me.

Some of the cost-cutting measures I don't really like. We now have less expensive cutlery in the kitchenette. Now when I heat up food for breakfast or lunch, by the time I walk back to my desk the fork or spoon that I had stuck in the Tupperwear is now melted or severely deformed.

Last week I found an unintended consequence of another cost-cutting measure. Management had determined that we were using too much soap in the bathrooms. I may agree with that. Some people bang the dispenser several times and fill up their hands with the softsoap. Most of it falls into the sink before they even get to lather it up in their hands. In order to save money because of careless soap users, they installed hand's-free automatic soap dispensers next to the sink. Now all you have to do is hold your hands under it and it spurts out a premeasured quantity into your hand. Sounds great, doesn't it?

How are these soap dispensers powered? With batteries, of course. Last week the batteries on all 3 units were dead. Now, instead of overusing soap, we can use NO soap. So in an effort to reduce money on soap, we now have guys walking around with unwashed hands. Ugh!!!