O/T Kickback

[Mike Mattera - TFM]

Be Careful, But get as much documentation as possible. This guy might be the owners 2nd cousin and that makes him bullet proof. But these days you have to TRY to do what's in the best interest of the company you work for. Your right with sky rocketing cost, the work may end up overseas. This guy wants his money now before he ruins the American manufacturing community.

 

Remember who signs your paycheck. Thats who you work for.

 

Mike Mattera

[beav700]

I'm positive that the guy is not related to anyone or even know any of the managers. Our company has 28,000 employees. He use to sweep the floors and change coolants some twenty years ago and now is in charge of tooling purchasing. I know that the money is not mine, but it kills me to see so much of it wasted and mine honest quality shops working three days a week and his shops working Sundays.

[P_Scott]

beav700,

 

gcode, James, bobk, and others have outlined what appears to be the best course of action. Document the quoting of all the jobs, consider quality of molds, and approach the Pres. with clear factual information. DO NOT accuse anyone, especially the purchaser, of any wrongdoing. If what you say of his previous employment with the company is true, he may merely be sending the jobs to the two vendors because he hadn't tried any of the others and simply likes their names or something else completely innocent. Or he could've tried the others at one time and found there to be too many issues with dealing with so many vendors that he couldn't handle it all and randomly decided to just send the work to two instead of all. Either way, accusing him of "kickbacks" or something else will make him appear bad in his mind so he'll never be your ally. If he's been with the company for many years, he definitely knows how to cover his xxxx if he needs to.

 

This issue cannot be ignored however. "Biting your tongue" goes against the very reason you were hired, to cut costs by 10% in the next three years. This could be a way to accomplish what you're intended to do for this company. Perhaps the President already suspects something is not right because they are only dealing with two vendors and he may remember when they used to deal with more. In any case, this has to be handled correctly. The best way is to just bring your documented data to the attention of your boss and suggest using some other vendors for the cost reduction. Try one or two out to see if there is a difference in what is quoted and what is delivered. Maybe the quality is there, maybe not. Maybe the quality is great but the lead times are too long. There are many variables to consider. My thoughts are, you have a challenge placed before you. Clearly you will be busy in the next few weeks or months. Job security is a good thing. Getting through this challenge and coming out on top will not only give you the personal satisfaction of a job well done, but will probably also be a deciding factor in your future employment, with this company or any others. Good luck. Do your best. HTH

[Mark Lovelace]

Gcode, Jack, and others have the right idea. Document things thoroughly, then present your boss with facts only and let him draw the conclusions. If he wants you to connect the dots for him, he will ask. Even then, I would tread very carefully.

 

There is one other thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet: Protect Yourself!!! You have already tipped the other guy that you are, at minimum, second-guessing him and, at worst, trying to take him down. He may now have an incentive to undermine your position by any means possible. If there is, in fact, collusion going on and it goes up into management, then you have to be very cautious of your behaviour. I would suggest that you do nothing else to draw attention to yourself while you do your research. Be on time, work hard, keep your head down. And document your own performance (time in/time out, etc) just in case.

 

This sounds paranoid, I know, but I've been in a somewhat similar situation. I used to work a warehouse job where I knew my supervisor was doing coke on the job. I never said anything about it, but he knew that I had seen him, so he trumped up a bunch of charges to try to get me fired. I ended up telling the manager what I knew and was able to keep my job, though the supervisor never got any reprimanded.

 

Ultimately, you're the only one who knows what your work environment is like. Good luck!

[herbert west]

In my opinion, go with your moral compass on this one. If you tell the chief he might look like a fool but he pays you get results. You don't tell the chief and he wonders why not when he finds out later. If you're wrong, duck and cover. Either way it looks like a mess. Document and tell the truth. Use the documentation to tell the story and allow the questions to formulate in the chief's head. If you're canned, go to the labor board.