I had an interesting experience over the weekend.  I went to a
warehouse to pick up a new washer and dryer where I heard the following
exchange:  “I can’t get the washer down,” the employee said to the
woman who was, apparently, the supervisor.   “Why not?” she asked. 
“The forklift is broken.  Remember?  The washer’s on the second level,”
he reminded her.  “We’ll just have to get it down by hand.  Get some
help,” she instructed him.

At this point I had visions of my washer being dashed to pieces on
the concrete floor of the warehouse.  “Wow,” I said to the manager.  
“This is a big warehouse to try and run without a forklift.  How can
your boss expect you to do that?”  She looked at me like I was the man
from Mars.  “We have a forklift,” she explained to me like I was a
first-grader.  “It’s just broken.”  When I asked how long it had been
broken, she told me they’d been without it for about three weeks.  “Why
haven’t you gotten it fixed?” I asked.  “Oh, cash is tight right now,
so we’re not spending money on things we don’t need.”

When I asked how much it would have been to repair the forklift, the
answer was less than $500 initially, but now that they’d used it
without getting it fixed, it would be a lot more.

Can you imagine trying to run a 10,000 sq. ft. warehouse with a 20
foot high ceiling without a forklift?  I can’t believe any manager
would agree that a forklift repair is an unnecessary expense in a
warehouse that size.

I have a different theory on how it probably went.  The boss came in
and told the warehouse supervisor things were tight, and she should cut
costs wherever possible.  The forklift went down, and (because of the
boss’s instructions) she decided not to spend money to repair it.  They
used it, even though it was leaking hydraulic fluid all over the floor
— creating an incredibly unsafe environment — until it dropped, now
they had nothing.

This is so wrong on several levels.  First, if you don’t have $500
to repair it this week, why would you think you’ll have several times
that amount to repair it next week?  Using the forklift while it was
damaged may have done irreparable damage, meaning the whole thing may
need to be replaced.  That could cost thousands.  That’s certainly not
a good use of money.

Second, why would you try and get things down from upper shelves by
hand.  A washer weighs around 200 pounds, and it’s bulky.  If you drop
that (and the likelihood is high you’re going to,) the damage to the
appliance could exceed the cost of fixing the forklift.

Third, this isn’t about the forklift, really.  It’s about managing
cash.  The boss should have told the warehouse manager, “Cash is
getting tight.  Before you spend any money, call me.  Then the boss
could have been in control of the cash, and not a supervisor. 
Following that thought, there’s nothing wrong with letting the
supervisor make that decision if you provide enough information /
training for her to make a sound, business decision.

So the root cause of the problem is the boss.  He probably walked
away from his conversation with the warehouse supervisor (and
presumably the other supervisors in the company,) thinking, “Okay. 
Problem solved.  We’re all watching out for cash.”  But the reality was
quite different.  His supervisors were costing him money, not saving
him money.

When you make sweeping statements, with little or no training, you
can easily cost yourself much more than you save yourself.  The buck
stops with you.  Make sure you’re not your own worst enemy.