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apcolleen t1_j57iwoc wrote

Reply to comment by PatrickKieliszek in The Lights Have Been On At a Massachusetts School For Over a Year Because No One Can Turn Them Off by AStartIsBorn

God the things I see people cheap out on in industrial facilities astounds me. My bf installs fire alarms and there are things he shows me from industrial sites he has to inspect is just idiotic. He saved a company thousands a week ago by screwing up a piece of flashing to divert a dripping pipe away from the fire alarm so they stop getting tickets from the fire department for false alarms.

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BoldestKobold t1_j57p2zj wrote

I'm gonna reply to your comment more to highlight a pet peeve of mine. As a (state) government employee at a management level, I always get a bit miffed when people try to single out government for inefficiency or shortsighted decision making. In my experience, the private sector is as bad or worse, in many respects. Reporters don't report on waste, fraud, straight up incompetence, etc inside private companies nearly as often as they do in government, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

"But boldestkobold," you say, "that's because we all pay taxes and are impacted by that waste and incompetence!" To which I respond, "you think you aren't paying for the waste and incompetence at AT&T in your cell phone bill, or at General Mills in your breakfast foods? Or if BP gets fined for an ecological disaster caused by penny pinching stupidity, they don't just roll that cost down to the customer?

(Sorry for using your comment chain to vent)

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SilkwormAbraxas t1_j58js8d wrote

Thanks for highlighting this trend. Ridiculous penny pinching on critical systems so executives can show a minor increase in profits and thus justify massive bonuses will be the death of us.

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atomicxblue t1_j5bqnjt wrote

Your comment was cogent and timely, something we don't see often around these parts.

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Aazadan t1_j5oal5j wrote

The theory as I’m sure you’re aware (but some posters might not be) is that competition should motivate companies to fix stuff like that. While government doesn’t have the same profit incentive.

In the real world things don’t work out that way because governments use those private profit driven services, and don’t have nearly the same level of oversight, while private companies don’t get any competitive advantage for all their mistakes to be looked for and made public.

And so mistakes happen and get ignored all the time.

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Alphamullet t1_j5bgb2y wrote

"Value Engineering"

...fucking hate that term.

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apcolleen t1_j5djiau wrote

Don't hate the term, hate the practice.

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Alphamullet t1_j5dyqd9 wrote

Sound advice there, seriously. I'll try to keep that in mind the next time my budget gets slashed.

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