Awhile ago I wrote about how excited I was about the free fitness classes that Western Union offers. I wrote all about my fitness goals, how much these classes are helping, how I've lost weight and shaped up, etc. Not to mention the wonderful benefit of their kind of mid-day stress relief! I guess I should have mentioned that in September we were going to be rolling over to a new CEO. I didn't know that would prove to be relevant information, but it is. You see, he is currently reevaluating the benefit of the classes and debating cutting that expense for 2011.
I am all for evaluating costs and being efficient. I'm all for keeping up with where money is going and why. But excuse me for being irritated that a $50,000/year expense is being reviewed after we spent over $300,000 on a farewell lunch for our outgoing CEO. I apologize for not finding the necessity in the banners that were waving up and down every street entering/exiting our campus with the outgoing CEO's name printed all over it. I'm sorry that I rolled my eyes when I saw the expenses come through for the new employees from Costa Rica when they were visiting Denver. You see, we aren't hurting for money. We are a cash cow and the current economy is almost helping our revenue streams as international customers are migrating between countries to find work and need to send money back home to their families even more so than normal. So I'm struggling to see why this expense is being looked at through a microscope and picked through with a fine tooth comb.
A couple of months ago the instructors were asked to keep a head count in all of their classes because "the new ceo" (as they were told) is curious as to how many people are using the classes. I didn't see a problem with this. If anything I thought it could help them see the demand for various classes and maybe balance it out (for instance maybe we don't need 3 yoga classes when the attendance is never above 3 people) But apparently the head count wasn't enough because last week the instructors were asked to start taking actual attendance. This time they were told that the CEO is wanting to know if there are 200 people taking a few classes a week or 50 people taking a class every day. The overall cost does not change, but the marginal cost per employee changes. If there are 200 employees using the resources they are spending $250 per person annually, but if there are only 50 people then they are spending $1000 per person. I see the difference, but I am having trouble seeing why it matters. You either have 200 people who are moderately fit or 50 people who are very fit. Problem is, I think it's more like 50. But still!
That's 50 people who are most likely healthier than they were before. 50 people who are more productive throughout the day than they were before. 50 people who may have debated walking out of work last week never to return, but kept trying to remind themselves of the benefit of the awesome fitness classes. Ok, so there was probably only one employee in that situation last week. But it could have been 50, that's the point.
However, marginal cost seems to be king here. Well, don't let me get in the way. I'll just be Dana Anderson today, Paula Tichy tomorrow, Kathy Thiemes on Thursday, and maybe on Mondays and Fridays I'll be Amanda Wallis just so she looks like she cares more than one day a week. If all 50 of us did that, think of how much better we'd look? I'll see if I can get word out. Just can't let it get back to that new CEO of ours or he may reevaluate my salary........
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