• Mizchief (unregistered) in reply to Barnaby
    Barnaby:
    I'm using this mouse pad:

    [image]

    I must have that where did you get it?

  • jDeepBeep (unregistered) in reply to Mark Wilden
    Mark Wilden:
    I was once dinged for using too much water.

    hot water costs money

    captcha -> damnum

  • G Mo' (unregistered) in reply to Mark Wilden
    Mark Wilden:
    I was once dinged for using too much water.

    You mean oxygen.

  • (cs) in reply to green-rage
    green-rage:
    sd:
    Scott:
    I have in my desk and filing cabinet: 5000 forks (from Sams) 5000 spoons (from Sams)

    You insensitive clod! You should have used sporks, and saved 50% office space...

    You're toying with powerful forces here. http://xkcd.com/419/

    captcha: esse

    FOUL!!! Only bobby drop-tables XKCD references are allowed on this site

  • matt lohkamp (unregistered)

    "Pencils (3??)"

    I wonder if the double question mark denotes incredulity or lack of confidence?

  • (cs) in reply to sd
    sd:
    Scott:
    I have in my desk and filing cabinet: 5000 forks (from Sams) 5000 spoons (from Sams)

    You insensitive clod! You should have used sporks, and saved 50% office space...

    For some reason, this reminds me of Weird Al Yankovic's "Spatula City."

    I notice that spatulas aren't on the list. I'll have to head over there on my lunch break.

  • (cs) in reply to Mizchief
    Mizchief:
    Barnaby:
    I'm using this mouse pad: <stupendously huge snip/>

    I must have that where did you get it?

    Just go to Google and type in the words "Barnaby" and "tit", and it'll turn up somewhere on the ten thousandth page or so.

    If that doesn't work, narrow your search down with the words "Spotty" and "Herbert."

    For those wondering why I've snipped the artwork, here's a clue: it's a URL, dummy. And no fair winding back to the original post. Not that you could do that with your pants round your ankles.

  • Jiff jensen (unregistered)

    LOL, we had to start rationing rubber bands 2 weeks ago. very scary indeed.

    Jiff www.anonymize.us.tc

  • (cs) in reply to Scott
    Scott:
    5000 forks (from Sams) 5000 spoons (from Sams) 10 knives
    What if all you needed was 11 knives? That would be ironic. Don't you think?
  • nobody (unregistered) in reply to dysmas

    My office looks like a stationary store. God forbid I should need a blue #37 colored pen and have to settle for blue #35.....lol

  • K&T (unregistered) in reply to akatherder
    akatherder:
    ...I don't think I've ever used a paperclip and I doubt I've used more than a couple dozen staples in my 10 years.

    I've used hundreds of paperclips. First you straighten them into little spears and then you have contests with coworkers to see who could flick the most into the drop tile ceiling. You can do relay races, timed competitions, or whatever. The possibilities are endless.

  • peterb (unregistered) in reply to Zap Brannigan

    Why, you pull it off because you finish.

    captcha inhibeo, how strangely fitting

  • Zap Brannigan (unregistered) in reply to Brompot
    Brompot:
    Zap Brannigan:
    Bobble:
    I take my partially used rubbers into work and hang them on my cube wall to dry. After they've dried I re-roll them and staple them back into the wrappers with my company-supplied stapler.
    I'm not sure I want to know, but here goes: How do you partially use a rubber?

    Rubbers have three uses. The inside, the outside and the third time as chewing gum. Rubbers that have not been used the full three times should be returned to stores to utilize their full economic potential.

    The inside and outside are used at the same time. The third way, not so much into that.

  • Asiago Chow (unregistered)

    Years ago I wored for a smallish software house when they hired a new accounting manager. One of her first acts was to look over the "office supplies" usage. She figured out that everyone was stealing floppy disks. How did she figure that out? The company had only 30 employees and was going through over 100, sometimes as many as 200, floppies per month! She had worked for years using only two floppies (one for her files, and a second as backup), so clearly they were being stolen!

    She implimented a policy where managers (only managers) had to come to her to request diskettes, with a signed form explaining what the disks were for. If a regular employee needed a disk she had to go to her manager, who then had to fill out a form and go to accounting.

    The company developed semi-custom systems (software and hardware, yeah...semi-custom hardware) which were deployed all over the USA. When software updates were made we would generate an update floppy disk to send to the customre (sometimes via next day delivery) and of course we would save off a second copy of the update disk in our archive so we knew exactly what was sent to them and could send another copy if needed. The updates were set up to be run sequentially if there was an issue.. get the hardware running then run all the updates and you would have a working system again.

    Any guess as to where all those "stolen" disks were going?

    The best part: When that was pointed out to her she insisted that the "loss rate" was unacceptable and people must be stealing diskettes. The managers got tired of it in about a week and started handing out blank signed forms. I was back in her office constantly so she could hand me my two disks for an update and grill me about why they were needed. Eventually she started to realize that she was being an ass but she never completely backed down (never admitted error).

    I cited the floppy policy as a reason when I quit.

  • Teh Irish Gril Riot (unregistered) in reply to Franz Kafka
    Franz Kafka:
    I buy my own pens because the ones my work supplies suck and make my wrist cramp.

    LIES!

    And if you don't stop "that", you'll go blind.

  • Dan Neely (unregistered)

    Dear William.

    I've spend the last 45 minutes inventorying my cubical as directed, during which time I identified excess office supplies with an approximate value of $2.13.

    My timesheet for the week reflects that I had to charge the equivalent of $80 (with full overhead accounted) of billable time to the overhead number instead of to a customer.

  • theycallmeloopy (unregistered) in reply to gabba

    LMAO at this. Seriously, I'm dying over here.

  • (cs) in reply to green-rage
    green-rage:
    You're toying with powerful forces here. http://xkcd.com/419/

    Is it just me or is that page broken? I get gibberish starting with BZh91AY&SY3H but other pages on xkcd are working fine. I'll check when I get to work (about to leave) but then we use the same ISP with the same transparent proxy server so I don't know...

  • Steve (unregistered) in reply to Bruce W
    Bruce W:
    At my first job out of college I was given a standard kit of supplies when I started. The kit included a box of staples. After eight years I think I used a grand total of two "bars" of staples. When I started my current job I grabbed a box of staples that will probably be only 1/4 used when I retire in 30 years.
    Same here.

    I've been here 18 years and used maybe three bars.

    And I "inherited" my box of staples from my predecessor.

  • Steve (unregistered) in reply to Zemm
    Zemm:
    green-rage:
    You're toying with powerful forces here. http://xkcd.com/419/

    Is it just me or is that page broken? I get gibberish starting with BZh91AY&SY3H but other pages on xkcd are working fine. I'll check when I get to work (about to leave) but then we use the same ISP with the same transparent proxy server so I don't know...

    It's just you.

  • Stephen Bayer (unregistered) in reply to WarlordShea
    WarlordShea:
    William,

    1 Tipex (I don't know what it's for)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipp-Ex

    I was curious as well. It appears to be some sort of brand of white-out that they use across the pond. I was going to check through the messages to see if anyone else clarified this before my reply post, but this topic seems to have already generated hundreds of comments..

  • (cs) in reply to Asiago Chow
    Asiago Chow:
    She had worked for years using only two floppies (one for her files, and a second as backup), so clearly they were being stolen!

    I call shenanigans! Nobody who isn't in IT makes backups.

  • (cs) in reply to Steve

    Check comment #217553.

    Floppies; staples: it's all the same.

    Personally, I go through a shitload of staples because (unlike most of my peers) I produce documentation.

  • (cs) in reply to Code Dependent
    :
    Man, what are you guys stapling? I write software. I type it on a keyboard, view it on a screen, check it into a source control server where it's accessible to all electronically.

    Okay, here we go:

    DOK-YOU-MEN-TAY-SHEE-ON

    Meeting agendas and previous minutes. Cheat sheets/ quick reference sheets. Maps. Proposals to managers. Instructions to others who usually not have access to the same electronic resources I do.

    The last of those is pretty much the biggest staple consumer.

    The smallest consumer? My resume.

  • acsi (unregistered) in reply to Lucky Guys
    Lucky Guys:
    One of my previous company decided to save on toilet paper where each will be given one per month.
    One? As in "one sheet"?
  • Paper waster (unregistered)

    At the company I work for, any copier/printer/fax paper that has only been printed on one side and doesn't contain confidential info is required to be placed in a box printed side up to be loaded into the fax machine. This makes for some extra time wasting fun deciding which side of the page contains the fax.

    The office manager actually makes a big deal and will try to track the culprit down when he finds paper only printed on one side in the recycle bin.

    I recognize that its important to watch your costs... but c'mon...

  • (cs) in reply to Steve
    Steve:
    Zemm:
    green-rage:
    You're toying with powerful forces here. http://xkcd.com/419/

    Is it just me or is that page broken? I get gibberish starting with BZh91AY&SY3H but other pages on xkcd are working fine. I'll check when I get to work (about to leave) but then we use the same ISP with the same transparent proxy server so I don't know...

    It's just you.

    I'm at work now and it's working. Must have been a glitch in the Matrix.

  • (cs)

    Standard syntax from a command line designates ? as a single wild card right? Which means that when it says:

    Pencils (3??)

    you are able to have 3ZZ pencils. Using basic schooling (Z being the 26th letter) you are allowed 2028 pencols. I sincerly hope you find pencil no. 2029 and return it forthwith.

  • (cs) in reply to rfsmit
    rfsmit:
    :
    Man, what are you guys stapling? I write software. I type it on a keyboard, view it on a screen, check it into a source control server where it's accessible to all electronically.
    Okay, here we go: DOK-YOU-MEN-TAY-SHEE-ON
    Wow... how sad for you. With no derision intended (although there's a massive amount of room for it): we do our documentation in the code. Mostly inline, some headers, and sometimes, when it's warranted, an accompanying text file. Memorize this line: "Code review". Now memorize this one: "Code review not equals team meeting".

    When we go into a team meeting, it's generally whatever our manager has to say (he's a good manager, and takes very little time to update us on current company events) plus whatever each of us has to say about what we're working on now. This originally was supposed to be just a chance for anybody to bring up any issues they were having problems with; but it's evolved into "Oh gawd, everybody else is telling where they are in their projects, so I gotta say something, too" and now we go around the room blabbing for 5+ minutes apiece and not listening to each other, even though our patient manager knows where we all are because of our use of TFS (Team Foundation System).

    Speaking of which... that's where the DOK-YOU-MEN-TAY-SHEE-ON goes. Slow to pick up on that, are you? Or are you just fighting an uphill battle against forces with more power and less vision than you?

    At the end of our team meeting, we pick up our unused notepads and used coffee cups, smile at each other, and file out, still not having punched a single staple.

  • more randomer than you (unregistered) in reply to snoofle
    snoofle:
    hehe:
    Ryan:
    At one of my previous jobs it took me over a year to finally get my own stapler - despite filling out the appropriate request form every month when they bought office supplies.
    You know you can buy one for under $5 and any local store?
    Until the company starts buying stuff for me to use in my personal life at home, I don't see myself buying resources for the company to be used at the office.

    Once again you show yourself to be one of those elitists who feels that the only way to win is to be in direct competition with your own employer. Try working with them, put in some extra effort and see it rewarded.

  • Mr.'; Drop Database -- (unregistered) in reply to Zemm
    Zemm:
    Is it just me or is that page broken? I get gibberish starting with BZh91AY&SY3H but other pages on xkcd are working fine. I'll check when I get to work (about to leave) but then we use the same ISP with the same transparent proxy server so I don't know...
    XKCD uses Content-Encoding: bzip2 if your browser sends Accept-Encoding: bzip2. Most likely, a bug in your browser caused it to forget to decompress it on this occasion.
  • Mr.'; Drop Database -- (unregistered) in reply to Mr.'; Drop Database --
    Mr.'; Drop Database --:
    Zemm:
    Is it just me or is that page broken? I get gibberish starting with BZh91AY&SY3H but other pages on xkcd are working fine. I'll check when I get to work (about to leave) but then we use the same ISP with the same transparent proxy server so I don't know...
    XKCD uses Content-Encoding: bzip2 if your browser sends Accept-Encoding: bzip2. Most likely, a bug in your browser caused it to forget to decompress it on this occasion.
    Oops, I forgot you mentioned a transparent proxy. It's much, much more likely to be a bug in the proxy.
  • invisible (unregistered)

    do the clips count if they are attached to paper? and who the hell actually counts paper clips?

  • Nick (unregistered)

    IMO, this does not seem unreasonable, he has a suggested a quantity of the item listed, which actually seems very fair, the email does not say it will be strictly enforced.

    I think this type of email is directed towards the type of people that have 12 pen boxes of red and blue pens, two bags of rubber bands, four boxes of staples, etc sitting in ther drawers or at home. Is it too much to expect that an employee use office supplies responsibly and not steal them?

  • Barnaby (unregistered) in reply to Mizchief
    Mizchief:
    Barnaby:

    I must have that where did you get it?

    Try Google for "mouse pad defender beauty"

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    At my office we got a mail that we were not allowed to charge our mobile phones at the office. Because it was using to much energy.

    But they didn't mind that the lights couldn't be turned off, and had the be turned on 24/7 even when nobody was in the building.

  • Tobermory (unregistered) in reply to aaawww

    Honestly not being rude here, but I don't understand this comment. I did a quick Google for "enache roi" but it told me it only searched in English. Are you just not in your native language? I don't mean to be rude!

  • Tobermory (unregistered) in reply to aaawww
    aaawww:
    management always come out with curious ways to enanche roi. note that in roi goes only live expenditure, so they happily waste 1 hr of programmer time at week saving 10$ of supplies. of curse 1hr of my time is worth 30$ (gross), but in balance term I'm a fixed expenditure so won't come in play during cash flow balancing.

    I meant to this comment btw

  • VP (unregistered)

    Here the chatter is about one of the projects 6 months over deadline on R1 and somewhere between 20 and 30 million over budget (USD) but I'm kind of glad that's the problem here and not office-supplies. Makes you wonder though when the company I work for have hired 10 consultants to oversight the project which fly up here every week, stay at a suite at a hotell for 3-4 days then fly back down to where they actually work. Oh did I mention it'll last for like 6 months? >_<

  • Procedural (unregistered) in reply to Brompot
    Brompot:
    This one is a bit silly, but remember when floppy disks cost like $5 a piece? (that was in the 5.25" time). $5 was worth a lot more back then.

    We would buy several cases containing 10 boxes of 10 floppies. That's $500 a case, or several $1000 per purchase. They evaporated. We had to amke several purchases a month.

    We placed them in a locked cupboard. All people had to do was ask for them, they would be supplied and the usage written down. Nothing was done with the list. Everybody knew that. Floppy disk consumption dropped by over 90%.

    So micromanaging paperclips and rubber bands may be overdone, but some supplies require some managing. It's too bad some managers don't know where to draw the line.

    On that note, my first job was at a company which asked that I redesign the software I was working on as an intern as it used too many floppies (it kept report data as spreadsheets, for some unknown reason databases weren't part of the palette of choices). $50 worth: 5 floppies for distribution, 5 for a backup of the application (this was before office networks and source control). I had the supply person, the HR girl, and the local veep drop by my office to tell me that my request for floppies was excessive; I wonder how much our time was valued at ?

  • (cs) in reply to halcyon1234
    halcyon1234:
    This should be obvious to you, Employee. You should glue them together to make whole pencils. Note that glue is not part of your standard requisition pack, so you will need to purchase that with your own funds. Don't let us catch you wasting half pencils.
    Now, why does that make me think of this?
  • Amy Nonhouse (unregistered) in reply to Vlad P
    Vlad P:
    Imagine the same kind of hassle in the USSR.
    In Soviet Russia, pencils have limited supplies of you.
  • dag (unregistered) in reply to Tobermory
    Tobermory:
    Honestly not being rude here, but I don't understand this comment. I did a quick Google for "enache roi" but it told me it only searched in English. Are you just not in your native language? I don't mean to be rude!

    Admittedly, the typing error that changes enhance to enanche has involved the h traveling more than the customary single character right-or-left, but to suggest that this indicates that aaawww has a low proficiency in English, does seem a bit rude.

    Anyway, surely you can't have missed all of those "Oxford Study" eimals taht siad taht it olny mtatres taht the frist and lsat ltteers are in the rghit pcale.

  • Mike (unregistered) in reply to WarlordShea

    Look at it this way: if you were required to pay for office supplies out of your salary, I imagine you'd be a hell of a lot more careful. OR, if you were allocated a notional $100/£100 at the start of the year and got to keep the balance less office supply costs at the end of the year, I imagine you'd keep an eye on it too.

    Don't knock people who want to control unnecessary costs - they're the ones arguing that developers shouldn't be cut, and that fixed costs should be squeezed instead.

  • stEvil (unregistered)

    "Pencils (3??)"

    The double question marks are clearly there to prevent a NullPencilException being thrown

  • dolor (unregistered) in reply to dysmas
    dysmas:
    am i the only one thinking that is a huge amount of stationary? i currently have 2 (two) pens and a plain white notepad on my desk .. that is all.
    I have a pencil and some scrap paper.

    Notepad... Waster, just use the back of requirement docs.

  • Rhialto (unregistered) in reply to Brompot
    Brompot:
    Rubbers have three uses. The inside, the outside and the third time as chewing gum.
    How does one use the inside of a bit of rubber (or plastic) made for rubbing out pencil-writing?
  • wisi (unregistered) in reply to shadowman
    shadowman:
    James R. Twine:
    Time to leave...

    Counting pencils is a sure sign of impending DOOM!

    -=- James.

    I think you hit the nail right on the head there.

    But you are only allowed two nails (one for practice) and will have to sign the hammer out.

  • (cs) in reply to darren
    darren:
    ...I do wonder how many of you have ever been high enough up in management to realize what a huge expense basic office supplies (toner, pens, paper, etc.) really are. It is a reasonable thing for management to remind folks of that sometimes, and to encourage people to return unused supplies.

    It is reasonable, to some extend. Being the one who coded the internal app used for office supply requests, including approval cycles, on-time stock and pricing of each item and such, I have a pretty good perception these costs.

    OTOH, you're never too low on the food chain to notice how much cash is wasted on so-called representative and corporate image costs. What's with the CFO, who barely sees a customer, driving a company owned, high powered luxury car, all operating expenses paid? Never mind that said car is mostly used for his commute and private weekend trips. :(

  • (cs) in reply to Tobermory
    Tobermory:
    aaawww:
    management always come out with curious ways to enanche roi. note that in roi goes only live expenditure, so they happily waste 1 hr of programmer time at week saving 10$ of supplies. of curse 1hr of my time is worth 30$ (gross), but in balance term I'm a fixed expenditure so won't come in play during cash flow balancing.

    Honestly not being rude here, but I don't understand this comment. I did a quick Google for "enache roi" but it told me it only searched in English. Are you just not in your native language? I don't mean to be rude!

    You needed to put it through babelfish: enanche roi = enhance Return On Investment

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