3 ms·

In the government, and large organizations as well, there is often a large pot of money that is 'use it or lose it'. In fact, overspending can often justify nee

In the government, and large organizations as well, there is often a large pot of money that is 'use it or lose it'. In fact, overspending can often justify need for larger budgets next year around and underspending can make you look bad as someone who doesn't know how to forecast their requirements better. It is diametrically opposite to how thoughtful people budget for themselves or their homes and leads to things that make no sense at a logical level 'save resources, etc' but makes perfect sense at another level, 'grow my empire'.

steveBK123 3y ago
I've seen this even in relatively small private orgs (1000ish) - if you don't spend your budget, then next years +/- across the board spending change will be applied to the lower number you spent rather than what you forecast originally. Org bloat & empire building is highly incentivized, and insulates you from the bad times. If you can get all your work done with 60% of the staff, then when you are forced to kick out your bottom performers annually.. it's easy to find some. If you are basically operating lean or at the redline, you need to fight the fight hard every time the axeman comes.
Damogran6 3y ago
I don't think the system CAN accept a refund. We were virtualizing 150 computers into a VM environment and I asked what was going to happen to the hardware replacement budget for the machines that were virtualized. I got a lot of Hem and Hawing and they said something like 'we can throw it at workstations or training or something.'
- distant_hat 3y ago
  I remember talking to someone who had done a postdoc in Japan and he said that their labs had computers that had been budgeted as a consumable. At the end of a year some admin guy came with a small hammer and smashed the machines to make sure they were 'consumed'.
citrusybread 3y ago
a part of it is also trying to avoid decision-makers cheaping out; eg you've been given a budget for social programs, it's your duty to use all of it and provide the impact that was expected. you can apply that logic to a lot of things - why are you building a 2 billion dollar metro when we budgeted for a 3 billion one? what corners are you cutting?

steveBK123 3y ago

I've seen this even in relatively small private orgs (1000ish) - if you don't spend your budget, then next years +/- across the board spending change will be applied to the lower number you spent rather than what you forecast originally. Org bloat & empire building is highly incentivized, and insulates you from the bad times. If you can get all your work done with 60% of the staff, then when you are forced to kick out your bottom performers annually.. it's easy to find some. If you are basically operating lean or at the redline, you need to fight the fight hard every time the axeman comes.

Damogran6 3y ago

I don't think the system CAN accept a refund. We were virtualizing 150 computers into a VM environment and I asked what was going to happen to the hardware replacement budget for the machines that were virtualized. I got a lot of Hem and Hawing and they said something like 'we can throw it at workstations or training or something.'

distant_hat 3y ago
I remember talking to someone who had done a postdoc in Japan and he said that their labs had computers that had been budgeted as a consumable. At the end of a year some admin guy came with a small hammer and smashed the machines to make sure they were 'consumed'.

citrusybread 3y ago

a part of it is also trying to avoid decision-makers cheaping out; eg you've been given a budget for social programs, it's your duty to use all of it and provide the impact that was expected. you can apply that logic to a lot of things - why are you building a 2 billion dollar metro when we budgeted for a 3 billion one? what corners are you cutting?