Back in the day, as a teenager, I went with a friend to collect his car insurance cover note from an insurance agent who worked from a small office. When we went in, we saw him sitting behind a huge desk with pile upon pile of documents on it. But he was able to find the certificate after just a few seconds of rummaging around amongst all the papers.
^ I've seen similar. Additionally, and it's anecdotal, but back when I was a process server, most small attorney's offices looked like hoarders had taken over.
Reminds me of my own experience back when I was a newly hired engineer.
I had piles of reference materials, sketches, and calculations on my desktop, which was polar opposite to how my lead engineer wanted things. He walked up to my desk, reached to the other side, and pulled the whole pile off the desk and into the aisle where he stood. He looked at me and proudly stated, "A cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind!"
After a brief pause, I looked over at his desk, which was as clean and clear as a bank teller's desktop. I looked back at him and asked, "What's an empty desk the sign of?" Didn't see him the rest of the day. Unfortunately, I missed the next round of raises. Somehow, I figure it was worth it. 😉
Ha! Yeah... My boss at TI once asked me, "don't you think you're playing too much hockey?" Now, keep in mind that my 4-5 games/week were all in the evenings or on the weekends and didn't interfere with work, so I had to fight the urge to tell him to F off. I thought about it for a second and responded, "would you rather that I take my aggression out at work?" Somehow the topic never came up again.
Tom
Tom
I have one engineer buddy who has been at the company longer than I have. Probably the only original one left, aside from one or two “directors” who don’t directly manage people (they do useful things instead). His desk always looked worse that a hoarder’s house. And he did purge periodically, all the way to bank teller status. It wouldn’t stay that way long.
I think it's time to lose weight.
While trying to get out of bed, I actually rocked myself back to sleep.
While trying to get out of bed, I actually rocked myself back to sleep.
I knew an ME when I worked at TI in the late 70s whose desk was an abysmal mess. Funny thing is you could ask him for a drawing and he would produce it in less than an minute. He was good at what he did, and management left him alone.
I turned 65 today. Then I remembered that's only 18 in Celsius.
I turned 65 nearly a month ago. We gotta put that on a T-shirt. 🤣
Bob Pease was that way. I was at National at the same time, but in a different location so I never met him in person. But my coworkers had stories. Bob had two cubicles because he had so much paper stacked up that the fire department deemed it a fire hazard. But you could ask him for a paper on some subject and he'd think for a bit then go and split one of the tall stacks of paper. He'd usually be within an inch of the paper he was after. Pretty wild...
Tom
I hear you on that one but keep in mind, MSRP does not reflect dealer prep, perhaps some add ons and whatever they can call administration these days.
So while you have them by the short and curlies, there are a lot of add ons that do just that. To add 10k seems a tad ridiculous.
Was this during Covid?
Is so, that might explain it.
So while you have them by the short and curlies, there are a lot of add ons that do just that. To add 10k seems a tad ridiculous.
Was this during Covid?
Is so, that might explain it.
Last edited:
That was yesterday, and no added items, it is all 'market adjustment' for a Ford Maverick that they have 18 of. The manufacture pays them to prep or "PDI" the vehicle, and while it isn't a lot it is at least something for their time. And, I believe the Doc and prep fees get added in F&I so those would be added to this price.
While I realize that, percentage wise, the profit on cars is tiny and even dollar wise places like furniture and jewelry stores tend to make more on a sale (not counting all the crud they try to add in F&I and the percentage of the interest they get to keep), the absurd thing to me was the market adjustment of 10K and then putting a 'discount' on that to make it look like it was $7,500 off rather than just marked up $2,500.
On the plus side it saves me a lot of money because I'm not even going to visit the dealership or contact them if that is they way they play. We've had salespeople save us so much money by making us want to leave in the past. Had one, we were all set, completely in love with the car and they slid the price over and it was $4,000 over MSRP. I got up and left, my wife was outside looking at the car and smiling ear to ear, when I told her their price she snapped out of it and we left. They could have easily gotten full MSRP but instead their price snapped me out of the 'we need this car' mode we were in. When we later looked at the same model at another dealer it was brand new and had several things malfunctioning so we likely dodged a bullet by avoiding that one.
While I realize that, percentage wise, the profit on cars is tiny and even dollar wise places like furniture and jewelry stores tend to make more on a sale (not counting all the crud they try to add in F&I and the percentage of the interest they get to keep), the absurd thing to me was the market adjustment of 10K and then putting a 'discount' on that to make it look like it was $7,500 off rather than just marked up $2,500.
On the plus side it saves me a lot of money because I'm not even going to visit the dealership or contact them if that is they way they play. We've had salespeople save us so much money by making us want to leave in the past. Had one, we were all set, completely in love with the car and they slid the price over and it was $4,000 over MSRP. I got up and left, my wife was outside looking at the car and smiling ear to ear, when I told her their price she snapped out of it and we left. They could have easily gotten full MSRP but instead their price snapped me out of the 'we need this car' mode we were in. When we later looked at the same model at another dealer it was brand new and had several things malfunctioning so we likely dodged a bullet by avoiding that one.
Last edited: