[Lazarus Short]

Quote:

Originally Posted by F107plus5 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nothing to add from where I worked either. The US Defense industry, regardless what we may be fed from movies, TV, and the popular press, is a remarkably honest group of industries having to work within a rather unstable atmosphere created by a whimsical Congress capable of changing materials requirements at the droppings of an Elephant or a Donkey. Or is it Mule...I dunno. Ya know who demanded $200 hammers? Congress! How about $400 coffee pots? Yup; Congress again! There are more! Name just one Government function other than the Military that has always given the US citizen his/her moneys worth? Everyone is protected equally regardless of class or level in society. Maybe that's the problem; the super-wealthy may just feel they deserve to be protected "more" than the poor folks that they are creating....I wonder.

What are you trying to say here? Are there no dirty little secrets in all the huge military-industrial complex? Cost over runs? No-bid contracts? Fat contracts going to companies with which administration officials have a connection? War is a racket, but then so is over-readiness for war. We should adopt the Swiss style of self-defense.

Laz

 

[soundboy]

I guess my contribution to this thread isn't anything shocking....

I work as an analyst for the State government on one of its low income subsidy programs for telephone service. We have a 30 day deadline to process claims submitted each month by various phone companies. I am the only person doing the processing (in the entire state of California) and my work needed to be checked and signed off by the "liaison". Well, the "liaison" just doesn't care because he would forget about claims that we received from 2 years ago (resulting in unnecessary interest payments to a phone company for over $120K) or delaying in signing off my work so that more interest payments need to be paid. Given that I am the only person doing the job, you may wonder what the heck he's doing at work? This "liaison" does a 9/80 schedule (but comes in at 10am and leaves at 4pm) and telecommute once every week (who knows where he is when he's supposed to be working from home). Whenever this "liaison" is actually at the office, he is trading stocks online even though it could be a case of "conflict of interest". My supervisor is his college buddy, so he looks the other way. On top of that, my supervisor refuses to give me a performance evaluation because it may make his buddy look bad (the "liaison" also threatened me not to ask for a performance evaluation from the supervisor). What really angered me is that $120K could help many low income families in need of the subsidy for their phone service and management doesn't care if the money was pissed away by sheer laziness on the part of the "liaison".

BTW, the "liaison" just received a promotion and a pay raise of over 15% because he's an engineer despite the fact that he's not working as one nor is his job title include the word "engineer". He will retire soon and we California residents will be paying for his pension based on that increased salary.

Ohhh....the water for our coffeemaker at the office comes from the warm water in the men's restroom.

 

[F107plus5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazarus Short /img/forum/go_quote.gif What are you trying to say here? Are there no dirty little secrets in all the huge military-industrial complex? Cost over runs? No-bid contracts? Fat contracts going to companies with which administration officials have a connection? War is a racket, but then so is over-readiness for war. We should adopt the Swiss style of self-defense. Laz

Darn; I looked for the term "Pork Barrel" in the Constitution, and just couldn't find it. Must be hiding in one of the Amendments along with "greed" and "Campaign Contributions"and a few other bad habits a few of our species have developed. A self defense posture would be a great idea for everyone if it weren't for the before-mentioned Human weaknesses. Yes; war certainly IS a racket, a racket developed to gain certain politicians and industrialists an inordinate amount of wealth, but "most" Defense contractors are legitement businesses operating within the sometimes flawed system which often brings about delays in deployment or reduced numbers of devices, which causes over-runs in and of itself.

Over-readiness for war sometimes pays off. For instance the Cruise Missile was originally developed as a Nuclear deterrent to war during the Cold War. It was developed and deployed simply to be a device stored away in bunkers or under the wings of B52s until which time it would be quietly replaced with something better when the time was right. But suddenly it was actually needed as a police-style of ordnance where even the news media seemed to have felt that the "Tomahawk" was a good idea!

 

[inthused]

This is starting to get my head spinning in a serious way.

I'm ready for more work stories that make you want to say HMMMMMMMMMM, I didn't know that but now that your said it, I'm glad I know it now.

Please post more.

 

[inthused]

Quote:

soundboy: I guess my contribution to this thread isn't anything shocking....

quite the opposite soundboy. I am still shocked and P'Od everytime I am reminded of the blatant waste we all see and have to live with, not only in our jobs but government as a whole. Your experience has to be difficult to live with so for what it is worth, should you be there when the pric* finally exits your department, you will hopefully have someone replace him that wants to do a good job. You and the taxpayers deserve better.

 

[mikeliao]

Lawyers?! Don't get me started.

There's a lot of lawyers with honor out there, but how come I always run into the shady ones? Like the guys who overbills me by "mistake". When called on it, writes an apology letter, and bill me $300 for the apology letter.

I live in China. The messages regarding food prepartion don't phase me at all. You haven't seen dirty till you've been to a third-world country's local restraunt. The issues with food prep here isn't if its dirty or tastes weird; its with if its going to kill you. Last year, 50 some people in Shanghai alone died from bad shellfish, and that's just the official version. Food poisoning is common and over-the-counter anti-worm pills should tell you something.

BTW, if you look through the local papers, there's ads for guaranteed cures to cancer, AIDS, SARS, pretty much everything. The truth-in-advertising people would have a lot of fun here.

Anyway, about my work....secret is in venture capital, most companies are not value add. They just have a lot of other peoples cash and are more financial types than operating types. The older (pre internet bubble) companies are pretty good. The newer ones...don't really care as long as they're personally profitable.

 

[Hajime]

Don't eat the cookies or drink the coffee that is set out for customers. I have never cleaned the coffee pot - there's simply no sink to do it in other than the bathroom sink. I do try to rinse it out when I am the one putting coffee out for the customers. The water for the coffee comes from the bathroom faucet.

We stopped putting cookies out because the homeless would come in, ruffle through them, and eat as many as they could. They would touch many cookies with rather dirty hands and leave them. They would also leave a mess of crumbs. The dog treats were more sanitary.

We will not go out of our way to advertise a new account type to a customer if it saves them fees. We'll send out one advertisement mailing for the better account with a statement. The expectation is that the customer will toss it out. Always ask if there is a newer account that has reduced or no fees attached.

Advertised rates for products such as CDs are not the best rates. Always ask for a better rate.

Generally, the bank I work at is very, very good to their customers. The customer just has to be savvy at times.

 

[granodemostasa]

I've had many jobs.....

You may think that teachers with graduate degrees from schools like Stanford and Berkeley know what they are doing in the classroom. In reality, most of them are just as clueless about teaching small children as high school drop outs.

Students are far worse... we don't know what we are doing. The school where I teach at spent an absurd amount of resources trying to get Berkeley to send student-tutors... and it was a wasted effort.

My other job: you know those people who are always taking notes, going to chamber of commerce meetings, talking to the "powerful" people to get information on the community? you know how they are always telling you how it will help? well, not really. All of that information goes into a database at the University of California and never sees the light of day again.

I worked at this place that made dog food and pet supplies. Seriously, most dog food sits in storage for ages before it is sent out. Worse, dog collars are not very sturdy because the machines used to make them date from WWII.

Walmart: all those pictures that didn't come out are not your fault... they are human mistakes and we are too scared to admit it to you... or our supervisors. Also, there are like 10 laws about how to dispose and manage the chemicals in a photo lab... on any given day I saw all ten broken on one shift by various workers.

Dental supplies: nothing is wrong really, but 6K for braces is really a rip off. I regularly handled little boxes with parts that were manufactured in Mexico for about $100 that would have a price tag of 10K-250K on the market.

McDonald's: you know already. In 4 months there, I was the only worker that actually regularly washed his hands.

 

[wanderman]

at my lab we are running molecule simulations using this program called moe, and to get the proper dynamics at 100 degrees we ran the simulation at 200 degrees, and just used the data from that.

 

[humanflyz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by F107plus5 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nothing to add from where I worked either. The US Defense industry, regardless what we may be fed from movies, TV, and the popular press, is a remarkably honest group of industries having to work within a rather unstable atmosphere created by a whimsical Congress capable of changing materials requirements at the droppings of an Elephant or a Donkey. Or is it Mule...I dunno. Ya know who demanded $200 hammers? Congress! How about $400 coffee pots? Yup; Congress again! There are more! Name just one Government function other than the Military that has always given the US citizen his/her moneys worth? Everyone is protected equally regardless of class or level in society. Maybe that's the problem; the super-wealthy may just feel they deserve to be protected "more" than the poor folks that they are creating....I wonder.

I agree that most misconducts that happen in the defense-contract business is probably without malice, but that doesn't change the fact that they cost the taxpayers a lot of money a year. I'm not saying there is a cabal of greedy backroom dealers hatching up schemes behind every defense contract, but a lot of stuff does slip through due to ignorance, lack of proper oversight training/protocol, and human error in general. While a couple of hundred thousand dollars here and there are really just drops in the bucket in the defense industry, they do add up for the tax-payers in the end.

There is a difference between malice and just carelessness, but the result is the same: a lot of taxpayer's money is unnecessarily wasted annually, and you are right, the blame also lies with Congress.

I just want to add that I feel I'm qualified to speak about this because my current job is with a watchdog group that works with Congress on exposing contracting misconducts. While I can't talk about my work in details, I can say that a lot of the stuff that my organization uncovers is simply a result of people in civil service and the defense industry having no experience in how to properly conduct audits and oversights.

 

[dan1son]

I don't really have the option or need to shortcut or do anything to specifically hurt a customer at my current job... I write software for a small startup company.

But I worked at Best Buy for 7.5 years back through high school and college. I was lucky enough to work at a store with honest managers and employees. Sure we had some employees stealing things, but we wouldn't reseal anything that was open and sell it as new. We were pushed to sell the service plans, but since we weren't on commission the push wasn't very big... After selling things for a while you get pretty damn good at deciding who is going to buy it within the first minute or so and push those who aren't less than those you think might.

The warehouse could get a bit rough... it wasn't very common for employees to throw digital cameras and other small expensive electronics 30 feet across the store to the department they go in, but it happened on occasion. Now small UN-expensive items would get launched all over the place. Memory cards, cables, tapes, cds, dvds, remote controls, etc. were all thrown about 20 feet into carts to be sorted every time we unloaded a truck. Lets say the utmost care was never put into the products... but they weren't abused for the most part either.

I finished my work there as the lead of the tech department (changed name to Geek Squad about 6 months before I quit). There were times when customers would get considerably worse help if they were yelling, mean, or anything like that. One of my employees would regularly reformat computers for customers he didn't like... but he'd go well out of our way for customers he did like. Most employees in a service department would get immune to being yelled at, but when alone with your stuff you better believe they're thinking about how they were treated. My managers would ask what I thought we should do, ask if the customer was nice, and usually do what I recommended. If the customer was a prick, I'd tell the manager we should do nothing... which usually resulted in the customer yelling and screaming, but it was expected and didn't bother us.

Be kind to customer service people and they'll really do everything they can to help you. The long time customer service people have been doing it so long they know everything they can get away with, and will go beyond the boundaries for certain customers.

 

[Tuberoller]

These are not really "dirty secrets" but advice and suggestions that I can offer should you ever find yourself in these situations. Most of this learned from seeing some really, really terrible things happen to people.

If you ever find yourself in an ambulance:

Don't ever, ever allow an Paramedic or EMT(especially an emt) to start an I-V on you if you don't absolutely need it. Wait until you get to the Hospital. The reasons why would scare you to death. Besides, it will save you hundreds of dollars.

If you can walk to an ambulance instead of being carried, do so. It will save you money and typically gets you best treatment. Medics hate to carry people who can walk.

If you want to go to a certain hospital (not the closest) clearly state that you are of sound mind, understand the risks and/or you wish to go to hospital of your same religion. Unless you are suffering from serious trauma, they'll take you. You can also state that your insurance might not cover an out-of-network hospital.

Ask if you need Oxygen, monitoring or telepathy before the Medic gives it to you. None of this stuff is typically covered by insurance and it all costs extra, sometimes thousands extra and most patients don't require it.

If you are in large cities like Chicago and NYC where they have Advanced Life Support and Basic Life Support ambulances, you should ALWAYS request an ALS ambulance. Basic ambulances are staffed with EMTs and in Chicago and NYC, EMTs are Firefighters who hate being on ambulances and are trained 100% on-the-job. EMT training last only three weeks, they can't give you any drugs and they aren't trained to recognize most dangerous symptoms. Basic ambulances don't have Defribs, EKGs or Telapathy devices.

If you need an ambulance and the cops show up first, never allow them to make the call for you. This creates two layers of reports and it also makes your entire incident public record ( I mean everything). If you don't need the police, clearly state that. It also allows people to hear all your info over police radio frequencies. The reason reporters beat the ambulances to the hospital in the Chris Farley fatality is because the cops were involved first. DO NOT allow this to happen to you.

If you ever have a fire at your dwelling or place of business: (after you get yourself and loved ones out)

Right after you call the fire department, Call your insurance company. They will almost always send out an emergency adjuster/claims expert. This is not to expediate your claim, it's to strongly discourage firefighters from destroying your property by needlessly dumping thousands of gallons of water on a fire or breaking out all your windows and doors. When Firefighters look around and see that the insurance company is on-site, they are far, far more careful about how they extinguish fires. Otherwise, your home might be used to train some rookie whom might just want to see your furniture float. That's not a joke and I hate to admit it.

Insist that the location and cause of your fire not be printed in the media. I have a looooong list of horror stories about this kinda thing. Also insist that your name not be printed if possible. If you have a claims expert on-site, he will advise you of this.

Speaking of the claims expert and insurance companies, do not discuss with him/them the cause of your fire, even if you know how it started. Let the fire investigator determine that and allow him to discuss it with the insurance company.

DO NOT EVER ask a firefighter to save or retrieve anything for you from a burning buidling. That does nothing but insure that this item will be destroyed. Firefighters hate it when people ask them to save anything other than a person or pet.

Don't ever tell anyone about valuables in your home. Especially not the firefighters. There is a long standing joke that the reason Firefighter bunker coats have deep pockets is so they can steal your crap. I hate to admit that one too but it happens, often.

Most firefighters are honest and hardworking but there are a large number of them who got on the job by nepotism and rigged exams. Most of these guys feel like the public owes them something and hate dealing with people. The guys you see on TV reviving pets in front of the cameras are typically the worst of the bunch. While they're busy doing that stuff, the real fighters are busy extinguishing the fire.

Firefighters truly, deeply hate it when Cops "save" people from burning buildings and get called "heroes". I've witnessed police officers do this just as firefighters are pulling up to a burning building. They typically do it because they know they'll get on TV and get a Meritous(sp?) Citation. That just makes me sick and if a Firefighter or medic attempted to detain or arrest someone ( they are sworn) cops get all riled up about it.

 

[mcsamms]

I used to work at A&W. Some things I can tell you about the place. NEVER order a veggie burger, chances are it has been sitting there for about 2-3 hours or more as so few of them are actually sold, the swiss cheese on them usually gets dried out as well, and the "buttermilk" sauce gets curdley and really sickening. NEVER order a hot dog at the end of the night. Apparently these things have the half life of plutonium according to A&W as they hold them for like 4 hour a hot dog I think, and at the end of the night its probably been sitting there for a while. Also my advice is to not ask for "extra this" or "extra that" because it seemed like the people loading the buns got pissed off when someone would make a complicated order and extra mustard means drenched in mustard.

I can't say they are all like this. The first summer I worked there it was fine, but new management brings a different style and I assume that most A&W's are more like the one I worked for the second time, from what I hear at least.

 

[M0T0XGUY]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tuberoller /img/forum/go_quote.gif These are not really "dirty secrets" but advice and suggestions that I can offer should you ever find yourself in these situations. Most of this learned from seeing some really, really terrible things happen to people. If you ever find yourself in an ambulance: Don't ever, ever allow an Paramedic or EMT(especially an emt) to start an I-V on you if you don't absolutely need it. Wait until you get to the Hospital. The reasons why would scare you to death. Besides, it will save you hundreds of dollars. If you can walk to an ambulance instead of being carried, do so. It will save you money and typically gets you best treatment. Medics hate to carry people who can walk. If you want to go to a certain hospital (not the closest) clearly state that you are of sound mind, understand the risks and/or you wish to go to hospital of your same religion. Unless you are suffering from serious trauma, they'll take you. You can also state that your insurance might not cover an out-of-network hospital. Ask if you need Oxygen, monitoring or telepathy before the Medic gives it to you. None of this stuff is typically covered by insurance and it all costs extra, sometimes thousands extra and most patients don't require it. If you are in large cities like Chicago and NYC where they have Advanced Life Support and Basic Life Support ambulances, you should ALWAYS request an ALS ambulance. Basic ambulances are staffed with EMTs and in Chicago and NYC, EMTs are Firefighters who hate being on ambulances and are trained 100% on-the-job. EMT training last only three weeks, they can't give you any drugs and they aren't trained to recognize most dangerous symptoms. Basic ambulances don't have Defribs, EKGs or Telapathy devices. If you need an ambulance and the cops show up first, never allow them to make the call for you. This creates two layers of reports and it also makes your entire incident public record ( I mean everything). If you don't need the police, clearly state that. It also allows people to hear all your info over police radio frequencies. The reason reporters beat the ambulances to the hospital in the Chris Farley fatality is because the cops were involved first. DO NOT allow this to happen to you. If you ever have a fire at your dwelling or place of business: (after you get yourself and loved ones out) Right after you call the fire department, Call your insurance company. They will almost always send out an emergency adjuster/claims expert. This is not to expediate your claim, it's to strongly discourage firefighters from destroying your property by needlessly dumping thousands of gallons of water on a fire or breaking out all your windows and doors. When Firefighters look around and see that the insurance company is on-site, they are far, far more careful about how they extinguish fires. Otherwise, your home might be used to train some rookie whom might just want to see your furniture float. That's not a joke and I hate to admit it. Insist that the location and cause of your fire not be printed in the media. I have a looooong list of horror stories about this kinda thing. Also insist that your name not be printed if possible. If you have a claims expert on-site, he will advise you of this. Speaking of the claims expert and insurance companies, do not discuss with him/them the cause of your fire, even if you know how it started. Let the fire investigator determine that and allow him to discuss it with the insurance company. DO NOT EVER ask a firefighter to save or retrieve anything for you from a burning buidling. That does nothing but insure that this item will be destroyed. Firefighters hate it when people ask them to save anything other than a person or pet. Don't ever tell anyone about valuables in your home. Especially not the firefighters. There is a long standing joke that the reason Firefighter bunker coats have deep pockets is so they can steal your crap. I hate to admit that one too but it happens, often. Most firefighters are honest and hardworking but there are a large number of them who got on the job by nepotism and rigged exams. Most of these guys feel like the public owes them something and hate dealing with people. The guys you see on TV reviving pets in front of the cameras are typically the worst of the bunch. While they're busy doing that stuff, the real fighters are busy extinguishing the fire. Firefighters truly, deeply hate it when Cops "save" people from burning buildings and get called "heroes". I've witnessed police officers do this just as firefighters are pulling up to a burning building. They typically do it because they know they'll get on TV and get a Meritous(sp?) Citation. That just makes me sick and if a Firefighter or medic attempted to detain or arrest someone ( they are sworn) cops get all riled up about it.

That's just sick. There's really nothing else I can say.

 

[Tuberoller]

I now work for another department within the City Of Chicago and I can honestly say that I now understand why Government agencies get overcharged for things. Some things I've noticed:

1. Typically it takes a long time for vendors to be paid. Sometimes as long as 2 years. Try running your business with 2 years worth of outstanding accounts from your biggest customer. I've heard vendors say that the extra cost is built-in "Interest". I buy welding supplies for my own business from one of the vendors and he charges me exactly 28% of what he charges the City of Chicago. I really can't blame him for this as he told me the City has owed him $194,000 for nearly 9 months and still orders more supplies daily. I know of at least two businesses that have gone under waiting for payment, one was paid three days after going belly up.

2. Vendors are often required to meet a "bid" or "specification" request. This is usually a highly detailed written statement of the service or items provided. These are often thousands of pages of inane details required to submit a bid and provide this service. One vendor who sells my department electrical supplies swears he had to double the price he typically charges due to this requirement. Vendors are also required to provide all material safety data forms and displays, even if they don't manufacture these products.

3. Set-asides and affirmative action requirements also add huge costs. I have no intention of going into the political side of this and if you know me, you'd understand the irony here and get an idea of the conflict I might have with this. Every single one of the minority or women vendors my department deals with are simply middle men. One female vendor has no office, no inventory and no staff. She simply quadruples the cost of any rebuilt radiator, hydraulic cylinder or steering gear we send out. She never even handles this stuff and doesn't even know what most of it is. Her take on this has to be millions of dollars.

4. Vendors are often required to submit multiple bids as well as detailed data about the company, its officers and all holdings. This data then becomes public record. This drastically reduces the pool of vendors willing to do business with governments and almost always insures that taxpayers will pay a higher price.


I guess my point here is, we should examine the cost of vendors doing business with government before we complain about how our money is spent.