--Now, I never took any business classes in college, save one, Personal Finance.* With that in mind, I may be wrong about some of the assertions I'm about to make. Those of you with knowledge and experience, feel free to correct or explain my errors.--
We've been begging for tools at every chance. Well, I have, I worry about my job security much less than my co-worker, therefore he goes with the flow a little more often than I do. Anyway, since I've been there, we've acquired a mortiser, two screw guns, a freestanding drill press, a jointer, a planer, and myriad other small things here and there such as the $150 I spent on some pipe clamps the other day. I don't take all the credit for all of these things, but I've definitely been mouthing my opinion more than others have.
On the list of desirable tools is a new bandsaw and a new miter saw. Our bandsaw is a home model and in fact, there is a nicer model of the same brand in the garage of my mom's house. Ours is old, is beat up, is rickety, and it needs to go away. Me personally, I'd like to get a nice big 24" bandsaw with a massive resaw capacity, but I know that's out of bounds, so I'm pushing for something like a 18" or 19" which will do what we need but not fulfill my dreams of greatness, no worries.
The miter saw, well, we've got a nice 10" but, it sometimes gets co-opted by other members of our work force to cut things like aluminum extrusions such as studs or window screen frame material. Fine, fine, except they neither change our blade out nor clean up all the little bits of aluminum strewn about the bench. Aagh! So, we'd like to buy a nice sliding 12" and "donate" our old one to the fine fellows intent on breaking all the carbide teeth off our saw blades (and they can continue to destroy blades to their little hearts' content).**
Well, it looks as if this next budget year (starting in May), we'll get our wish. But here's the frustrating part. Through reliable firsthand sources (secondhand to me), we apparently have $65k in our budget with not two months left in the year. Why are we waiting?!
Does my supervisor think that by not spending his budget on necessary items, that the higher-ups will reward him with a bigger budget next year? Here's what I would do if I was on whatever committee or group or oversight command, "Hmm, an extra $65k in the budget eh? Well, let's just shift that over into this guy who overspent his budget this year and he can have it next year."
And those tools I want, they won't cost more than $2,000 total. That's 3% of the money we have leftover. I think it'll be ok. If this keeps up, I'm going to usurp his position and go over his head.***
*In this course, I learned how to balance my checkbook, buy a car from a dealer, and invest in stocks, none of which I've done.
**To this day, if I ever am asked by my supervisor to replace a window screen frame, I break out the trusty hacksaw and do it by hand. He goes apeshit. "Why don't you use the miter saw, just zip and you're done," as he makes that wash-your-hands-of-it motion. Good times.
***If you need illustration of his logic, continue reading below Stop the presses!.
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12 comments:
It is good that somebody else gets just as frustrated with co-workers and budgets as I do. Thanks Adam.
im glad you use myriad without using of after it. that is a pet peeve of mine.
i think it's the depression era mentality. that is, he may think of the budgetted money as something that is in the bank, and if you don't spend it, it'll be there in case you need it on a rainy day. others, like myself, tend to think of a budget as a spending guideline. so, i'd spend the money.
now, i don't know if the school actually has the money in the bank.
now, other groups, like many school districts, want you to spend the money in your budget. if you don't spend it, they reduce it under the assumption that you didn't need it, since you didn't spend it. so, teachers in such situations spend every cent.
Sara, it was also a pet peeve of mine until I went and looked at this:
Usage Note: Throughout most of its history in English myriad was used as a noun, as in a myriad of men. In the 19th century it began to be used in poetry as an adjective, as in myriad men. Both usages in English are acceptable, as in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's “Myriad myriads of lives.” This poetic, adjectival use became so well entrenched generally that many people came to consider it as the only correct use. In fact, both uses in English are parallel with those of the original ancient Greek.
Apparently, both usages are correct. Lame.
Thanks Ed. From what I've been told by other people, this money is there. It's no imaginary sum.
i agree with ed on the fact that there is a good chance they will reduce your budget because you never spent it. and from my own personal experiance with FPU, budgets are weak. you may be given a budget and told you have the money, but they will decide to take your money and use it on something else w/o telling you about it. so i say spend spend spend, hell, buy that new table saw while your at it, and a new company car for yourself.
There is a chance that your boss has been told not to spend his entire budget because even though the money is there they may need to rebudget it next year. In other words, times might be fine at this moment but in the future it is not looking so well.
Well, that's a tough one because our supervisor generally wanders around with a sky-is-falling kind of attitude for the majority of the time. His philosophy (and he's said this to me) is that he doesn't like spending money, even money that isn't his. Well, great, we need things. We're not looking to paint the walls or buy tools we don't need. Our bandsaw is near useless and it's an important tool for us.
is the budget for materials or for equipment? that could be another consideration.
as an example, when i wanted to purchase some new sound equipment @ my former place of employment, i tried to put that amount in the budget. but, the people that i worked with, who were in charge of the budget, informed me that this wasn't the way to look @ it. since this would be a one time expenditure, it would be a nonbudgeted expense. that is, it didn't go in the yearly budget. it was funded differently. am i making sense here or do i need to clarify?
No, we have a supply budget and a capital renewel budget that are separate, but seeing as how they're separate pretty much in name only this year, I see no reason to distinguish them.
Hi there,
Just want to let you know someone from Kuala Lumpur read your blog.
cheers,
:)
Thanks for swinging by, glad to have you.
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