Principals (at firms I worked for) were notorious for pulling every last perk out of the company, legitimate or not. I admit, this was sparked by reading Strawbeary's post about the car expense and timing site visits.
These will KILL you: Add your experience with principal abuses of the system as you wish.
I worked for one firm as the CAD and production manager and was responsible for all equipment procurement. At Christmas one year, one principal told me to order a full system ($5,000) and have it sent to his house for his son's Christmas present. He said to be sure to schedule it along with our regular in-house computer assets. I told him that was not right and he said to shut up and keep my job.
Same guy used to do his personal grocery shopping at the local Henry's Market ($$$ gourmet) then give the office manager all the receipts to be reimbursed for buying "office snacks" which amounted to a few hundred dollars each week as he was into gourmet cooking. The only snacks in the office were the big gallon jug of stale Chex party mix and some nasty black licorice.
SAME GUY ordered an $8,000 dining room set for his home and expensed it as a conference table. We had a $150 set from Ikea that was constantly falling part, especially when a big contractor sat down and tried to slid his flimsy wire chair in.
SAME GUY AGAIN took a full weekend BMW race car driving class at some road coarse and wrote if off as automobile maintenance expense.
Each fiscal year end we would get a petty profit sharing bonus as he made sure there was NEVER much profit to split up or if the year was closing in and we had too money left over, he bought stuff for his home and added it to our "expenses" to lower potential profit for the rest of us.
I could go on and on with more of the same.
THEN one day the office manager/book keeper who had been reluctantly pulling this off for him, got him back as he was also an asshole besides a tax cheat. She had authority to sign on all his bank accounts. So she kept sliding some extra aside in the accounts and one day after some big deposits but before he spent it, she took it all and moved across the country. She left the state with a fat 6 figures. The "internal books" proved she took it but also showed his total abuse of the system and tax fraud. So he could do nothing. Never could report it to any authorities.
our pres got a new sports car right around the time I asked for the company to help me with a $100 construction estimating class. they just don't have the money to spare...
seriously, some people's mouses don't work, our computers are 4 - 5 years old, our scanner takes so long you literally leave the stuff there and come back a half hour later to get the scanned image. our color printer has been broken for two years now so we have to get all color prints done outside, not everyone has all the software they need - so we do a lot of file shuffling ("can you do this for me?" "no, I can't I'm busy." "but you have the software and I don't and I need it..." "you're going to have to wait till tomorrow.")
But the principals have some of the nicest, biggest offices in the city!
when I was with a small firm, I actually had to take care of organizing the checks, reciepts, etc. The firm was paying the leases on the two principals' cars, and there was a guy who had been there for five years only making $2/hr more than I was. I was making good money for an intern, but someone who was out of school and working there that long should have been making a lot more. I wanted to tell him he was getting screwed, but I never got up the guts to, since I wasn't supposed to mention anything about how much anyone else made.
oh yeah, tax fraud... what about when firms call you an independent contractor, thereby lightening their tax load and greatly increasing yours? has anyone else experienced this?
Our firm has lots of those...independent contractors, that is. For us it makes sense though, because we have a lot of field work that comes and goes with different projects, and it's not stuff that myself or the other interns are suited for. Some of these guys I've never even met. Mainly you just need to see an accountant and have money diverted into an account every time you get a paycheck. Like real taxes.
Ah, but there's $8000 dining sets....and then there's this:
here's an interesting article on business ethics and trends in recent years that's somewhat pertinent to this. this sort of stuff is happening in all fields, not just architecture. (written by a former harvard professor in an op-ed to the Harvard Crimson)
Yeah, my last boss tried to hire me as an "independent contractor" despite my repeated protests. Luckily, he hired someone to set up his Quickbooks program for him, and when they found out, they said, "Dude, you CAN'T DO THAT!" I would have been fine, I was withholding and filing the right forms w/the IRS, but if he'd ever been audited, he would have had a difficult time explaining himself.
I know there are firms run by people of high integrity. I am now one of them. But when I was paying my dues, more often than not, the principals I encountered worked the system BIG TIME.
And no, a bit of positive principal feedback didn't "ruin" my thread, even if I didn't ask for it. LOL
This is a stupid principal trick so bad I don't know if I can write it here. I caught them with their pants down.
I will simplify. Basically the principal gave a group lecture on a company policy and quoted several statistics (percentage increase of a phenomena from year to year etc). He was reading off a cheat sheet. When he left, he left the cheat sheet laying on the table. I was sitting next to him and cleaned up that among other things (like his damn dirty dishes, it was lunch). I took the cheat sheet back to the office and saw that several employee's names on the list had been circled and there were several statistics hand written/calculated from some data on the sheet. I took the sheet to two other employees and we looked at the statistics that had been drawn and presented to us and found them to be entirely misleading and incorrectly drawn - with no doubt about it. In other words, they were skewing statistics and then lecturing us on it! Several people were super paranoid after the whole thing all afternoon.
I have kinda dumbed it down, there is actually more to it than that, but I think that is enough to show that I work for an idiot who is an ass and I have drafted a 3 month plan to move 1000 miles away and never look back. Something I have been wanting to do for a long time. Wish me luck.
I wish I could anonomously correct the statistics (in red of course) and lay them on his chair. I don't wish to burn bridges, but I do like to stir things up and make people think a little bit...
If you thought you left bullies behind on the schoolyard, think again. That boss who dogs your trail, criticizing your every move despite your good performance record, is a bully. And the co-worker who works to humiliate you, to demean you in front of others — nothing more than a bully.
"Bullying is a silent epidemic that affects one in six workers," says Gary Namie, a psychology professor at Western Washington University. "It is witnessed by nearly 80% of workers, who don't do anything about it. It's a dirty little secret."
Namie heads up the Campaign against Workplace Bullying. He says studies show that some 41% of those who are bullied are diagnosed with depression; more than 80% said it keeps them from being productive because of severe anxiety, lost concentration and sleeplessness; and 31% of women and 21% of men suffer post-traumatic stress disorder.
"The targets of bullies are often people who are strong and independent and talented and believe that they can tough it out," Namie says. "But once the bullying starts, most can only stay 16.5 months because it costs them their health."
Namie says bullies often target the most talented in the workplace because "the dolts don't threaten anybody." That means if companies fail to stop bullying, they will be faced with a talent drain, decreased productivity and increased healthcare costs.
"Bullying in the workplace is increasing," he says. "Half of the bullies are women. Bullies are often otherwise good people — church deacons or soccer moms — who have gotten cues in the workplace that they need to be aggressive. As long as we are investor-driven at work, then people are being told by top executives they don't care how they get the job done, just as long as they get it done."
Namie says once someone is the target of a bully, he or she may become a victim again and again. That's why it's important to know a few steps you can take if you become the target:
Stop listening to the bully's lies and verbal assaults. You did nothing wrong and don't need to feel ashamed.
Break through your fears for one week at least. Procrastination ensures an outcome worse than the most feared.
Assert your right to be treated with respect regardless of who you are and where you rank.
Demand it directly from the bully whenever you interact. You owe it to yourself.
Document the bully's misconduct. Report him/her to anyone who will listen. Break the silence.
Rally witnesses and co-workers to help defend you, to shame the cowardly bully-tyrant.
Namie says the third week in October is being declared "Freedom from Bullies Week" and anyone who witnesses bullying can take steps to celebrate it by:
Supporting whoever is being targeted.
Preparing and signing a statement telling about the intolerable actions committed by the bully.
Testify at a hearing or meeting on behalf of the person being bullied.
Force the group to talk about what they all see and know to be unacceptable conduct by the bully.
Plan how the group can informally confront and shame the bully, to hold him/her accountable.
Refuse to cooperate with the bully's attempts to turn the group again the target. Don't be a snitch or turncoat. Resist "divide and conquer" tactics.
Break through the fear that you will be the next target. Stop the poisoning now or everyone will suffer.
hahaha... i can name a non-firm but a shop that tends to nickle and dime everything but yet drives a nice suv has a house and is a baller a little.... but yet complains when i use the wrong colored masking tape cause the cost is different or cut a 24" section from a 2x4........ for me...its in one ear and out my ass.....
I had a boss that basicly abused the company at every turn. He was the owner so on most accounts he had the right but...
When he had a partner he would drive hin crazy with the several hundred dollars of expenses for "BBQ" that actually turned out to be topless bar bills.
He wouldn't pay vendors but would buy new cars and houses and golf club memberships.
I gave up when the financial advisor on our 401k plan showed up for his quarterly review of our plans and I found out my boss had not payed in the money that was taken out of my check. This wasn't the matching funds, this was directly from my earnings. He also hadn't payed the health insurance premiums and a couple people got caught out on it. This was all during a time when he was spending big on himself. All his car and house payments as well as club dues came out of the company account. He could have gone to jail for the 401k thing but I forced him to pay that money back.
gosh, i thought this thread was about school principal abusing students. but then i remember i'm on archinect, when abusive principal can only mean one thing: ZAHA HADID. or lise-ann/rashid. depending where you work.
overheard principal asking accountant to set up firm-sponsored scholarships that only his kids could get to pay their private school tuition.
4 day vacation to California, $300 concert tickets, meals, hotels, the works...expensed because they stopped by a project that was finished years ago for 1 hour.
paid his kid almost as much as I make to scan family photos.
sent the IT contractor to his house to fix his wireless on the company dime.
and let's not even count the number of times they royally screwed up, but got off by blaming the contractor.
Nov 21, 07 10:57 pm ·
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PRINCIPAL ABUSE STORIES
No, not beating the draftsmen into submission...
Principals (at firms I worked for) were notorious for pulling every last perk out of the company, legitimate or not. I admit, this was sparked by reading Strawbeary's post about the car expense and timing site visits.
These will KILL you: Add your experience with principal abuses of the system as you wish.
I worked for one firm as the CAD and production manager and was responsible for all equipment procurement. At Christmas one year, one principal told me to order a full system ($5,000) and have it sent to his house for his son's Christmas present. He said to be sure to schedule it along with our regular in-house computer assets. I told him that was not right and he said to shut up and keep my job.
Same guy used to do his personal grocery shopping at the local Henry's Market ($$$ gourmet) then give the office manager all the receipts to be reimbursed for buying "office snacks" which amounted to a few hundred dollars each week as he was into gourmet cooking. The only snacks in the office were the big gallon jug of stale Chex party mix and some nasty black licorice.
SAME GUY ordered an $8,000 dining room set for his home and expensed it as a conference table. We had a $150 set from Ikea that was constantly falling part, especially when a big contractor sat down and tried to slid his flimsy wire chair in.
SAME GUY AGAIN took a full weekend BMW race car driving class at some road coarse and wrote if off as automobile maintenance expense.
Each fiscal year end we would get a petty profit sharing bonus as he made sure there was NEVER much profit to split up or if the year was closing in and we had too money left over, he bought stuff for his home and added it to our "expenses" to lower potential profit for the rest of us.
I could go on and on with more of the same.
THEN one day the office manager/book keeper who had been reluctantly pulling this off for him, got him back as he was also an asshole besides a tax cheat. She had authority to sign on all his bank accounts. So she kept sliding some extra aside in the accounts and one day after some big deposits but before he spent it, she took it all and moved across the country. She left the state with a fat 6 figures. The "internal books" proved she took it but also showed his total abuse of the system and tax fraud. So he could do nothing. Never could report it to any authorities.
Karma man.
I wonder how this firm managed to stay in business!
Wow, and I thought it was bad when our year end bonuses were weak the same time the president had a brand new Lexus 430.
barbaric, and they ARE still in business.
And he still makes lots of money. He regularly charges 40 extra hours on a customer's hourly project over the weekend for work he did. LOL
our pres got a new sports car right around the time I asked for the company to help me with a $100 construction estimating class. they just don't have the money to spare...
seriously, some people's mouses don't work, our computers are 4 - 5 years old, our scanner takes so long you literally leave the stuff there and come back a half hour later to get the scanned image. our color printer has been broken for two years now so we have to get all color prints done outside, not everyone has all the software they need - so we do a lot of file shuffling ("can you do this for me?" "no, I can't I'm busy." "but you have the software and I don't and I need it..." "you're going to have to wait till tomorrow.")
But the principals have some of the nicest, biggest offices in the city!
when I was with a small firm, I actually had to take care of organizing the checks, reciepts, etc. The firm was paying the leases on the two principals' cars, and there was a guy who had been there for five years only making $2/hr more than I was. I was making good money for an intern, but someone who was out of school and working there that long should have been making a lot more. I wanted to tell him he was getting screwed, but I never got up the guts to, since I wasn't supposed to mention anything about how much anyone else made.
form64, that stuff is unbelievable. The part about the book keeper who left town was even crazier.....
Do you still work there?
I don't have much else to add as my old boss was an incompetent, arrogant, son-of-a-bitch but he wasn't smart enough to bilk the firm.
maybe i should go into book keeping
oh yeah, tax fraud... what about when firms call you an independent contractor, thereby lightening their tax load and greatly increasing yours? has anyone else experienced this?
Our firm has lots of those...independent contractors, that is. For us it makes sense though, because we have a lot of field work that comes and goes with different projects, and it's not stuff that myself or the other interns are suited for. Some of these guys I've never even met. Mainly you just need to see an accountant and have money diverted into an account every time you get a paycheck. Like real taxes.
Ah, but there's $8000 dining sets....and then there's this:
rotten developers
This family stole $34 million from home buyers. Maybe this will make people think twice before buying another tract home....
here's an interesting article on business ethics and trends in recent years that's somewhat pertinent to this. this sort of stuff is happening in all fields, not just architecture. (written by a former harvard professor in an op-ed to the Harvard Crimson)
Yeah, my last boss tried to hire me as an "independent contractor" despite my repeated protests. Luckily, he hired someone to set up his Quickbooks program for him, and when they found out, they said, "Dude, you CAN'T DO THAT!" I would have been fine, I was withholding and filing the right forms w/the IRS, but if he'd ever been audited, he would have had a difficult time explaining himself.
Shalak:
I know there are firms run by people of high integrity. I am now one of them. But when I was paying my dues, more often than not, the principals I encountered worked the system BIG TIME.
And no, a bit of positive principal feedback didn't "ruin" my thread, even if I didn't ask for it. LOL
This is a stupid principal trick so bad I don't know if I can write it here. I caught them with their pants down.
I will simplify. Basically the principal gave a group lecture on a company policy and quoted several statistics (percentage increase of a phenomena from year to year etc). He was reading off a cheat sheet. When he left, he left the cheat sheet laying on the table. I was sitting next to him and cleaned up that among other things (like his damn dirty dishes, it was lunch). I took the cheat sheet back to the office and saw that several employee's names on the list had been circled and there were several statistics hand written/calculated from some data on the sheet. I took the sheet to two other employees and we looked at the statistics that had been drawn and presented to us and found them to be entirely misleading and incorrectly drawn - with no doubt about it. In other words, they were skewing statistics and then lecturing us on it! Several people were super paranoid after the whole thing all afternoon.
I have kinda dumbed it down, there is actually more to it than that, but I think that is enough to show that I work for an idiot who is an ass and I have drafted a 3 month plan to move 1000 miles away and never look back. Something I have been wanting to do for a long time. Wish me luck.
I wish I could anonomously correct the statistics (in red of course) and lay them on his chair. I don't wish to burn bridges, but I do like to stir things up and make people think a little bit...
Get rid of bullies in the workplace
By Anita Bruzzese, Gannett News Service
If you thought you left bullies behind on the schoolyard, think again. That boss who dogs your trail, criticizing your every move despite your good performance record, is a bully. And the co-worker who works to humiliate you, to demean you in front of others — nothing more than a bully.
"Bullying is a silent epidemic that affects one in six workers," says Gary Namie, a psychology professor at Western Washington University. "It is witnessed by nearly 80% of workers, who don't do anything about it. It's a dirty little secret."
Namie heads up the Campaign against Workplace Bullying. He says studies show that some 41% of those who are bullied are diagnosed with depression; more than 80% said it keeps them from being productive because of severe anxiety, lost concentration and sleeplessness; and 31% of women and 21% of men suffer post-traumatic stress disorder.
"The targets of bullies are often people who are strong and independent and talented and believe that they can tough it out," Namie says. "But once the bullying starts, most can only stay 16.5 months because it costs them their health."
Namie says bullies often target the most talented in the workplace because "the dolts don't threaten anybody." That means if companies fail to stop bullying, they will be faced with a talent drain, decreased productivity and increased healthcare costs.
"Bullying in the workplace is increasing," he says. "Half of the bullies are women. Bullies are often otherwise good people — church deacons or soccer moms — who have gotten cues in the workplace that they need to be aggressive. As long as we are investor-driven at work, then people are being told by top executives they don't care how they get the job done, just as long as they get it done."
Namie says once someone is the target of a bully, he or she may become a victim again and again. That's why it's important to know a few steps you can take if you become the target:
Stop listening to the bully's lies and verbal assaults. You did nothing wrong and don't need to feel ashamed.
Break through your fears for one week at least. Procrastination ensures an outcome worse than the most feared.
Assert your right to be treated with respect regardless of who you are and where you rank.
Demand it directly from the bully whenever you interact. You owe it to yourself.
Document the bully's misconduct. Report him/her to anyone who will listen. Break the silence.
Rally witnesses and co-workers to help defend you, to shame the cowardly bully-tyrant.
Namie says the third week in October is being declared "Freedom from Bullies Week" and anyone who witnesses bullying can take steps to celebrate it by:
Supporting whoever is being targeted.
Preparing and signing a statement telling about the intolerable actions committed by the bully.
Testify at a hearing or meeting on behalf of the person being bullied.
Force the group to talk about what they all see and know to be unacceptable conduct by the bully.
Plan how the group can informally confront and shame the bully, to hold him/her accountable.
Refuse to cooperate with the bully's attempts to turn the group again the target. Don't be a snitch or turncoat. Resist "divide and conquer" tactics.
Break through the fear that you will be the next target. Stop the poisoning now or everyone will suffer.
shalak,
what about said presidente tells you they are taking a hit, when the whole office knows it's bull and he's pulling down more than ever?
hahaha... i can name a non-firm but a shop that tends to nickle and dime everything but yet drives a nice suv has a house and is a baller a little.... but yet complains when i use the wrong colored masking tape cause the cost is different or cut a 24" section from a 2x4........ for me...its in one ear and out my ass.....
Maybe we should start an EMPLOYEE ABUSE STORIES thread ... ?
Such as:
a. calling in sick 'cause you've got an errand to run 'cause you just couldn't get out of bed on Saturday to do it then;
b. spending half the damn day surfing the net and posting on Archinect;
c. dicking around half the day, then having to work overtime, at premium pay, to get the job done;
d. going through the day about half asleep, plugged into headphones and oblivious to what's going on;
e. stealing the firm blind on office supplies;
f. generally fucking up the drawing 'cause you simply didn't want to observe the firm's drawing standards;
g. should I go on ?
as steven ward pointed out on the other ALL CAPS thread, this thread is over two years old.
fair enough ... ok rktkt3 -- what's got you so pissed off that you dredge up these ancient threads?
I had a boss that basicly abused the company at every turn. He was the owner so on most accounts he had the right but...
When he had a partner he would drive hin crazy with the several hundred dollars of expenses for "BBQ" that actually turned out to be topless bar bills.
He wouldn't pay vendors but would buy new cars and houses and golf club memberships.
I gave up when the financial advisor on our 401k plan showed up for his quarterly review of our plans and I found out my boss had not payed in the money that was taken out of my check. This wasn't the matching funds, this was directly from my earnings. He also hadn't payed the health insurance premiums and a couple people got caught out on it. This was all during a time when he was spending big on himself. All his car and house payments as well as club dues came out of the company account. He could have gone to jail for the 401k thing but I forced him to pay that money back.
gosh, i thought this thread was about school principal abusing students. but then i remember i'm on archinect, when abusive principal can only mean one thing: ZAHA HADID. or lise-ann/rashid. depending where you work.
wait, after fully reading the entries, i realized zaha & rashid are like saints compared to this guy. pls ignore the above comment.
*majorly embarrassed
Where I work now:
overheard principal asking accountant to set up firm-sponsored scholarships that only his kids could get to pay their private school tuition.
4 day vacation to California, $300 concert tickets, meals, hotels, the works...expensed because they stopped by a project that was finished years ago for 1 hour.
paid his kid almost as much as I make to scan family photos.
sent the IT contractor to his house to fix his wireless on the company dime.
and let's not even count the number of times they royally screwed up, but got off by blaming the contractor.
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