What are some possible consequences of contacting the CEO of my company?

[polarmystery]

Do it.

Chains of command are stupid if you ask me.

 

[Linux23]

Are we being punked here?

 

[MixMasterTang]

Are we being punked here?

I believe so, but as a serious reply for the OP: Does this change have anything to do with your day to day responsibilities or that under your manager/regional managers control? If not, no need to go to them, if it is something similar to switching coffee brands find out who is in charge of ordering them and let them know of your idea. If this falls into the latter of what I mentioned are you even sure it will save money since this isn't something you are directly involved with?

 

[AdamK47]

Don't millennialise a situation.

Your idea may not be as important as you've built it up to be inside yourself. Learn to go through the proper channels to reduce any possible negativity. It's best for you in the long run.

 

[TwiceOver]

 

[Legios]

My companies $6 million dollar monthly FedEx bill could easily be pared down if they would stop using Next day air. The many times ive brought this up has been ignored. Now I chuckle every time I need to send out something out.

 

[Puppies04]

Wait until Christmas/annual company party, speak to regional manager then in an off the cuff "oh I was just thinking about this" way.

 

[Rakehellion]

Thousands of dollars is well below CEO level unless it's a tiny company, thus the email would likely just get deleted.

This. They could easily save thousands of dollars a year by firing your ass.

 

[edro]

$16k/year is absolutely nothing.
You might as well suggest he turn the thermostat down 1°F in winter.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

in 2012, average CEO compensation was 14million

if they work 8hrs/day x 5 days/week x 52 weeks = 2080 work hours.

That comes out to ~6.7k per hour. So your idea would save less than 3 hours worth of the average CEO's salary. To put it in perspective...

 

[Rakehellion]

I would contact the regional manager, but I've already been banned from that.

Why, might I ask?

 

[Zenmervolt]

I think you're right...$16000 might be a little short to merit the CEO's attention. I would contact the regional manager, but I've already been banned from that. Maybe I'll just continue to do excellent work and keep my mouth shut as has been suggested. But my wife worked so hard on this presentation! ...I gotta send it to somebody...maybe a regional manager of a different region.

Why the hell can't you just talk with your current boss about it?

I can't get past how strange your refusal to show the idea to your actual boss is. If you don't feel comfortable showing the presentation to him that doesn't mesh with your contention that you're currently doing "excellent work" since, in my experience, most supervisors are more than happy to hear ideas from employees who are truly doing "excellent work."

Between that and the fact that you've already been disciplined once for bucking the chain of command and I'm left with the inescapable impression that there's a pretty substantial "other side" to this story and that your supervisor's side of things would be markedly different than your own.

ZV

 

[Fern]

email bomb the board of directors with your idea

LOL :biggrin:

Fern

 

[Papa Hogan]

Why, might I ask?

I suggested to the district manager that the company spend $675,000 on headlamps for all the technicians who have to work at night outside. When he didn't respond, I emailed the regional mgr. They're nice lamps, too!...Petzl. All I really wanted was one for myself, but figured it would sound better if I included the other techs in my petition. He bought me a $12 lamp instead of one costing $150.

Why the hell can't you just talk with your current boss about it?

I can't get past how strange your refusal to show the idea to your actual boss is. If you don't feel comfortable showing the presentation to him that doesn't mesh with your contention that you're currently doing "excellent work" since, in my experience, most supervisors are more than happy to hear ideas from employees who are truly doing "excellent work."

Between that and the fact that you've already been disciplined once for bucking the chain of command and I'm left with the inescapable impression that there's a pretty substantial "other side" to this story and that your supervisor's side of things would be markedly different than your own.

ZV

I brought up the idea to my supervisor some time ago, but now, based on advice here, I think I will send the new presentation to him and the district manager who hired me. From there, I'll ask them if they want me to send it to the IT manager just to save them the effort of forwarding it. IT is closer to the department that can make a decision on cameras. Does that sound like a better plan?

Also, I sense you doubt my excellent work. I have a job that if I do not do excellent work, people's lives are put at risk.


I was not trying to abuse anybody here. It was my instant reaction to being called a "lowly employee". Not something Jesus would do, that's for sure. I sincerely hope no feelings were hurt.

 

[Yossarian]

I suggested to the district manager that the company spend $675,000 on headlamps for all the technicians who have to work at night outside. When he didn't respond, I emailed the regional mgr. They're nice lamps, too!...Petzl. All I really wanted was one for myself, but figured it would sound better if I included the other techs in my petition. He bought me a $12 lamp instead of one costing $150.

So you have a history of going over your boss's head with retarded self-serving money-wasting ideas. Go on....

 

[PenguinPower]

So you have a history of going over your boss's head with retarded self-serving money-wasting ideas. Go on....

You do realize that everything he has said in this thread is a troll/lie....right?

 

[Papa Hogan]

You do realize that everything he has said in this thread is a troll/lie....right?

Now I'm a liar? I was promised a headlamp by my district manager, but he never set a cap on the price, so I figured I might as well pick one that I wanted and see if the company would buy it for me. Turns out the price was too high and everyone had a good laugh. He promised ME one. That was a self-serving, money-wasting idea that was promised to me. I included all the other techs in my request because it would look good for all of us to have the brightest lights around. Other companies have nice, bright headlamps, so why not us? Yes, the initial cost is high, but the one I picked out has a built-in rechargeable battery. We wouldn't save much on battery replacement, but it's something.

Honestly, I came here for advice on whether I should contact anyone higher than my immediate managers about an idea. I received said advice and I do thank you for not letting me get carried away with my disregard for the corporate chain of command. I asked my supervisor today if I should contact the IT manager about my idea and he basically told me that I should abide by the rules of the corporate structure. I plan to do some editing on the presentation and send it to my supervisor and district manager--the 2 local managers I know personally--and let them take it from there.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were merry, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire...

 

[Born2bwire]

Now I'm a liar? I was promised a headlamp by my district manager, but he never set a cap on the price, so I figured I might as well pick one that I wanted and see if the company would buy it for me. Turns out the price was too high and everyone had a good laugh. He promised ME one. That was a self-serving, money-wasting idea that was promised to me. I included all the other techs in my request because it would look good for all of us to have the brightest lights around. Other companies have nice, bright headlamps, so why not us? Yes, the initial cost is high, but the one I picked out has a built-in rechargeable battery. We wouldn't save much on battery replacement, but it's something.

Honestly, I came here for advice on whether I should contact anyone higher than my immediate managers about an idea. I received said advice and I do thank you for not letting me get carried away with my disregard for the corporate chain of command. I asked my supervisor today if I should contact the IT manager about my idea and he basically told me that I should abide by the rules of the corporate structure. I plan to do some editing on the presentation and send it to my supervisor and district manager--the 2 local managers I know personally--and let them take it from there.

Wait, you're getting your panties in such a twist over the fact that not only did you not get a $150 Gad damned headlight but also the fact that your manager did not think it was a good idea to spend $621,000 more than necessary to get everyone a Gad damned $150 headlight?

Are you mental?

 

[Thegonagle]

42

 

[zanejohnson]

a horrible idea..

if i was your ceo, i would think.. wow what a sniveling pos... 1600??? i spent that on beer last night.


and then me and your immediate superiors would do blow off your g/f, thinking of how small minded you were to not consider the umpteen things that makes this company worthwhile in which your 1600 a year has no comparison, and which makes you a weak link in our organization, because, you just went over my safety net's head, in a ridiculous attempt to understand where we are trying to go as a corporation and basically that you juust totally suck..

sixteen hundred!!!

go to bed.

 

[Zenmervolt]

I suggested to the district manager that the company spend $675,000 on headlamps for all the technicians who have to work at night outside. When he didn't respond, I emailed the regional mgr. They're nice lamps, too!...Petzl. All I really wanted was one for myself, but figured it would sound better if I included the other techs in my petition. He bought me a $12 lamp instead of one costing $150.

So, rather than talk with the district manager to see why he didn't respond, you instead immediately went over his head. And you recommended something that was more than 10x more expensive than what was necessary to do the job.

I think that part of the reason they don't want you going around the chain of command is because they don't want you making yourself look like a moron to upper management. Regardless of your work product you're now forever going to be "that crazy guy who recommended $150 headlamps when $12 lamps worked just fine" in the mind of the high-level managers. That's not how you want to be known.

I'm thinking that the restrictions they're putting on you regarding the chain of command are mostly for your own good.

Also, I sense you doubt my excellent work. I have a job that if I do not do excellent work, people's lives are put at risk.

There's more to being a good employee than simply performing your job. If part of your job is doing something well enough that people aren't at risk, then you're not doing "excellently" just because you're not putting people at risk. It's like saying that a pilot is doing an "excellent" job just because he's never crashed. That's just a basic requirement of his job. If he flies well but never files reports on time with the FAA then he's doing a crap job, even if his flying is excellent.

ZV

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Sometimes it works very well. I had a concern about my commission pay out on two deals. There is a rule that the margin used to calculate a pay out on part of the deal cannot exceed the overall margin of the entire deal (percentage wise). So the portion of the deal that I put together, which was absolutely crucial for closing the deal, cost relatively little and thus with this rule the applied margin was small, and my payout was pathetic.

So I drafted an email to some of the managers, they agreed that the situation was jacked considering my contribution but the general consensus was that I didn't have much hope of getting anything and that I should have negotiated before the deal closed.

So I tweaked the email and sent it off to the VPs of my company and the President. An hour later I got a raise and a small bonus added to my next check.

 

[Maximilian]

You know your company and the people in it better than anyone here... If you think you will benefit then go wild, if theres a good chance you will get nothing and it will just "save the company money" then fuck it don't bother, the company likely wouldn't go out of its way to save you money or time or sanity etc. But like i said, only you know the specifics OP.

 

[Codewiz]

I am all about rocking the boat in my job because I don't deal well with politics and bullshit getting in the way of me getting my job done.

However, you are fucking mental. First, you get pissed because they didn't want to buy you the most expensive headlamp so you go over your boss's head. Now, you want to go to the CEO because you have an idea on how to save 16K? You state this is a huge company.

Since you thought 600K for headlamps made sense, why do you think the CEO would give two shits about a 16K savings?