You Know You Are Old When

   / You Know You Are Old When #2,981  
But covering too many Rears is how you end up buried…

Back in my college days a lot of emphasis was on Thinking Outside the Box and Empowering employees to solve problems.

It seems that much of corporate is about being politically correct and cya…

My strong suit is performance as in getting it done…

Not once has a surgery ever been cancelled on my watch due to a problem with the facility.

During the merger all accounts payable was transferred to corp but corp dropped the ball on ATT Voice and Internet and Waste Management.

In other words these vendors not paid and past due notices sent to corp so clueless here.

Everyone coming to me so I dig deep and find the Hospital is 17k in arrears with ATT and service suspended…

No one in corp could help… it had to go through channels…

Hell with that, I put it on my own personal credit card because the emergency Admin Corp Card has a 10k transaction limit and was declined…

Waste Management similar but was not affecting internal operations as no ATT…
When I was in corporate, I always acted outside of the box as if it was my own company. I insisted that I have my own P&L, office and staff. I got push back from time to time and when I did, I pushed back on them... they always backed off when push came to shove. The big boys and gals would look at my P&L and call off their dogs.
 
   / You Know You Are Old When #2,982  
When I was in corporate, I always acted outside of the box as if it was my own company. I insisted that I have my own P&L, office and staff. I got push back from time to time and when I did, I pushed back on them... they always backed off when push came to shove. The big boys and gals would look at my P&L and call off their dogs.
I've learned you can do anything once... just be clear and concise.

Part of it comes from being a big fish in the fish bowl transitioning to a minnow in the ocean... but still knowing what needs to be done.

Last count organization is 65,000 employees...

Just saw a memo enterprise wide about vendor change for hospital linen and my facility isn't on the list...

Wouldn't be the first time Corp forgot about us... which isn't always a bad thing!

Administrator asked if I had time for lunch yesterday... we went over a lot of the changes coming and she asked if I would commit to one more year...
 
   / You Know You Are Old When #2,983  
Well, you are the smartest man in the room ...
 
   / You Know You Are Old When #2,984  
Well, you are the smartest man in the room ...
No... far from it but when Corp decided to outsource everything it left me as the last one standing.

When things come up I can enlighten why something was done a certain way... does not mean it was the best way but knowing why can be valuable.

Outsourcing is a sure way to loose institutional knowledge which I think is often overlooked and undervalued.

A few engineer friends from PGE and ATT took the offered early retirements too good to pass up...

Several lured back as consultants because when the knowledge left with early retirement companies were left hurting...

Having Institutional knowledge means you know you are old.
 
Last edited:
   / You Know You Are Old When #2,985  
Medical is the last place I would have ever thought I would find myself but a hospital has a lot of things required to be done...
 
   / You Know You Are Old When #2,988  
Several lured back as consultants because when the knowledge left with early retirement companies were left hurting...
I think the same thing is happening at Tesla presently. I read that Musk simply closed the Supercharger (EV charger) division, laid everyone off.

But this ended the banking of the revenue earned at the chargers, for lack of an accounting staff. And halted payment to contractors presently building or installing new facilities, or doing ordinary maintenance, because there were no internal project managers to approve their invoices.

Then the external companies that were planning to market their cars compatible with the Supercharger network - GM, Ford, etc, found they had no contacts inside Tesla to issue Tesla charger credit cards for their own customers so that whole plan evaporated. More revenue loss to Tesla.

Last I read, some of the former employees were hired back.
 
   / You Know You Are Old When #2,989  
I'll be 72 this year. Curious what others experience about this: I can do a lot of things, but I spend most of my time looking for glasses, a part, tools. Then taking something apart no problem...but putting it back together is tough, trying to remember the order. Then I need something, walk into another part of garage wondering what it was. Hopefully that's not the first sign of dementia!
 
   / You Know You Are Old When #2,990  
Looking for tools I just had and figuring out how to get back out and up after crawling under something....
My kid can't figure out why I'll spend time to rig something to lift it rather than just do it down low.
 

Tractor & Equipment Auctions

2012 Chevrolet Tahoe SUV (A39235)
2012 Chevrolet...
John Deere 400 30ft. Rotary Hoe (A39855)
John Deere 400...
Flatbed Trailer (A41853)
Flatbed Trailer...
Fastenal Bolt Bin (A39855)
Fastenal Bolt Bin...
2022 Allmand Night-Lite GR Series Towable Light Tower (A41853)
2022 Allmand...
2016 SKYTRAK 6036 TELESCOPIC FORKLIFT SN:160076726 4x4, powered by diesel engine, equipped with (A40018)
2016 SKYTRAK 6036...
 
Top