Back in the 1980s I worked for an engineering firm in the nuclear industry.
100% of our time HAD to be charged to a client project number. The rumor was that anyone who ever charged an overhead number would be the first on the chopping block when the next layoff arrived because then they would be "unproductive".
During slow times, engineers would wander from office to office trying to scam a project number to charge.
Just one of the reasons I've always been suspicious of hourly rate contracts...
Manage rule No. 1 for large Engineering Firms " where three are more are gathered, invoices shall be prepared."
I could name a few firms, but I will not
lmbrls, post: 352778, member: 6823 wrote: Manage rule No. 1 for large Engineering Firms " where three are more are gathered, invoices shall be prepared."
Rule Number 1 for the survey department....just charge it to an engineering number.
I've know of similar activity, like a company that may work two or three days out of a week that billed for the entire week.....
That was one of my biggest complaints when I worked for a Large Corporation (TM). Obviously, I would bill my time to the jobs on which I was working as appropriate. However, since I was the Department Head for my department, I had a fair amount of time doing "general management" tasks. Getting the people on my team directed to various tasks, returning phone calls, meeting with the project managers, etc. I wasn't going to track my "5 minutes here, 10 minutes there" time like that, so I just put it on "General Overhead", which was normal. However, the Corporate Bean Counters would report the ratio of billable time to unbillable time as our "Utilization Rate" and that would come through to the high mucky-mucks in the monthly reports. The problem was that if I didn't meet or exceed my "Target Utilization" then I'd have a little yellow star next to my name. And if it was well below the target, the start would be red. And this was used (against me) in my yearly Performance Evaluations.
So I was more or less "forced" to bill my time to job numbers, even if that meant that we went over budget, just so my utilization didn't drop. And in an amazing display of Corporate Politics, it turned out that it was less problematic to write off billable time than it was to have a utilization below target. Go figure.
That's reason number 137 of why I'm happier not working for a large corporation.
If Management wants to evaluate my performance primarily on any element but Department profit, they do not want me. I find this to happen when companies get to more than 100 employees. I lay this out during the interview process and try to talk them out of hiring me. I have been with three companies that went from being small to over 100 employees. At that point, I had to move to another startup.
The one big company where I have worked fit that mold. Office politics was the major stumbling block there. Kiss every higherup's feet and offer to share your spouse's attributes with whomever admired them and you were a keeper. Peyton Place was Dullsville compared to that setting. The first ex-Mrs. Stout kept an eye on the second ex-Mrs. Stout and the current Mrs. Stout and the occasional lover of Mr. Stout because they all worked within 200 feet of one another, including Mr. Stout. One fellow was fired for finding a flaw in a design at the last minute in a way that brought it to the attention of the client. The company kingpins had deliberately placed that hidden flaw because it would result in the client dumping another million dollars to the company to correct the flaw. Honesty and integrity were not viewed as assets. Keep your head low, make no noises, do not outshine your superiors, give all credit due to your work to your bosses and you might be rewarded with continued employment.
